Growing up, I envied my friends for all the fun and tasty meals and snacks they always brought to school. Mashed potatoes, ground meat patties with brown sauce, grilled cheese sandwiches, french fries, etc, were all exotic and exciting foods for me. My parents made exclusively Vietnamese meals and I could not stand eating them anymore. Not Pho again!? If not pho, it’d be some other soup with noodles (sometimes with duck, fish, pork…). My parents made lots of soup meals because they could make huge batches ahead of time and simply take 5 minutes to boil the noodles at supper time. When we didn’t have noodle soup meals, we’d eat meat with rice, generally braised pork in caramel sauce or braised fish (which would stink up the whole apartment building!), lots of homemade spring rolls (rice paper wrapped around noodles, meats, vegetables, dipped in fish sauce) and when ever we’d go to our uncle’s house, we would always be served the same thing, which is Banh xeo, a type of crispy crepe with pork and shrimp inside. Bottom line is, I ate strictly Vietnamese meals growing up and I quickly grew tired of them as I went to a predominantly white school and discovered a bunch of “new” stuff to eat. Even our desserts quickly became uninteresting to me. We only had che, which consists of several variations of a sweet soup or pudding, some with mung beans, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, tapioca, jelly, fruit , and coconut cream. I often wondered why I couldn’t have what my friends had, like Jos Louis or any other artificial packed cake.
But now, as a grown up, I hate myself for having looked down on my childhood meals and for having taken them for granted. I cannot tell you how much I miss their smell, their taste, their texture, their freshness. And I hate myself for having never learned how to prepare those meals. I have gone to some Vietnamese restaurants and though everything tastes great, nothing tastes quite like what I had as a child. Nowadays, I would often crave my mother’s braised fish, my father’s pho, my uncle’s banh xeo, our old neighbor’s nem nuong, and every hot summer night, I would kill for a refreshing bowl of che. Age makes you nostalgic, I guess.
Two years ago, I went to this great restaurant that finally did the trick and managed to trigger this wave of nostalgia in me: Le Red Tiger, in the Village. And for the last two years, it’s my place of choice to celebrate my birthday with my sister. We’d order more food than we should and reminisce about our childhood.
Le Red Tiger
1201 rue de Maisonneuve Est, Montreal, QC H2X 2A1
Owned by Dan Pham, Thach Phong and Émilie Nguyen, all three of vietnamese descent, Le Red Tiger is a fun, welcoming and unassuming restaurant that serves traditional Vietnamese street food. The decor is simple but warm, and the staff is super efficient.
Everything in their menu is pretty awesome but I have a few favorites! Of course, I never go to Le Red Tiger and not order the Banh Xeo. Banh Xeo are usually pretty big, as big as a whole large plate, so you’re full after eating a single one, but here, at Le Red Tiger, they had the brilliant idea of making them bite size! That way, you get to order other stuff without feeling like glutton! Each mini pancake has a little portion of pork and shrimp, topped with a little bit of coconut milk.
Look at how cute they are! Of course, they come with a salad, an assortment of herbs and fish sauce
The papaya salad is probably my all-time favorite salad. Crunchy, full of flavor and so, so refreshing! It’s awesome and I order it every chance I get. Then, I’d go for the Nem Nuong, which consists of a sweet, sour, salty and spicy fermented pork or beef sausage, wrapped in rice rolls with herbs and lettuce, and of course, you dip the whole thing in fish sauce. This nem doesn’t exactly taste like the one I so often enjoyed as a child (not sour enough!) but it’s pretty delicious! My sister, on the other hand, would order the clams cooked in coconut milk and turmeric. They’re fine, but since I’ve never been a huge fan of clams, this dish leaves me a bit disinterested. What stole my heart, however, is the Bo La Lot : minced beef wrapped in betel leaves, grilled over hot charcoal. They’re the ultimate best. Smoky, crunchy, fatty, flavorful, they’re everything. People often think of soup noodle dishes when it comes to typical Vietnamese cuisine, but in my opinion, Bo La Lot should be there as well. It is considerably underrated and more people should discover it.
If you’re looking for a proper Vietnamese culinary experience, the snails are a must. They are not pictured here but you really should go for it, at least once! We ordered them the first time we ate at Le Red Tiger. They are delicious but a bit time consuming, although it is super fun to pick them out of their shells!
Another great thing about Le Red Tiger is that they serve alcohol. Of course, there’s beer and wine, but they also offer amazing cocktails! And what’s a fun night out without cocktails?
Look how pretty they are!
I love Le Red Tiger. I hope it stays around for a long time. It’s only a shame they don’t serve braised fish. It is the dish I miss the most from my childhood and I can’t find it anywhere in Montreal. But that’s ok because the rest of Le Red Tiger’s menu allows me to travel back in time and revisit key moments of my childhood, good or bad.
If you’re looking for a terrific Vietnamese culinary experience, I strongly recommend this place. Reserve a table in advance, though, because that place is always full!
Other great Vietnamese restaurants in Montreal include the following:
Enjoy!