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When chef Anita Feng started making her red oil—a common ingredient in Chinese cuisine that's not too spicy, but intensely flavoured—in the comfort of her home to stay active during the pandemic, she never dreamed that it would lead her to open her own Chinese grocer and snack bar.
Located at the site of the now defunct Monsieur Crémeux, Anita's Chinese cuisine offerings cover a lot of bases. Is it a grocery store? A snack bar? A restaurant?
This new project by the former chef of Café Denise only has 4 seats at the bar, so it's far from a restaurant. "I might do one or two hot dishes a day... Something very simple, like noodles in an aromatic broth," says the chef.
With a fridge at the end of the room, she will still have the pleasure of concocting a few other take-out dishes, including some of her classics like a tiger salad, a tofu salad or her recipe for chicken. Another section of the fridge will be dedicated to some sausages and marinated meats, the result of a collaboration with the Boucherie dans la Côte, a butcher located at the Jean-Talon Market.
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On the grocery side, there'll be the famous red oil Feng makes along with many other Chinese products that may go misunderstood by average Quebecker.
"My wish is to democratize Chinese cuisine. Each product will have a small descriptive card that will make it easy to understand how to use it at home," the chef explains.
Other products on offer will include a spicy fermented bean paste—a necessary ingredient to make a good mapo tofu, a "twice-cooked pork" or a fish stew—as well as a yellow chili sauce made with yellow peppers and pumpkin, a green Sichuan peppercorn oil and dried red and green Sichuan peppercorns.
Scheduled to open in mid-November, J'ai Feng will open just in time to warm up Montreal for winter.
J'ai Feng is located at 43 Beaubien Street East; follow the shop on Instagram for more info.