Chow's Pastry Shop

Bakery: Patisserie Chow's Pastry Shop
Address: 16 Rue de la Gauchetière Est, Montreal QC
Website: facebook 
Style: Chinese 
Price: $ 

I have to confess that I've been going to and eating in Chinatown for as long as I've been going to Montreal and yet for the longest time I didn't even notice the existence of this small Chinese bakery tucked into a nook east of Saint Laurent, just off the major pedestrian zones; I can hardly believe it.

Nevertheless, Chow's Pastry Shop is perhaps the bakery for a Chinese bakery skeptic. Those that have noticed that most bakeries sell cookie-cutter clones of the same Westernized baked goods; you know the ones. So while there are no coconut cream buns here (some may breathe a sigh of relief), there's a selection of pretty traditional pastries that you're not likely to find anywhere else. It's as old-school as it gets, with goodies like sweet jellies, moon cakes, bean-stuffed flaky pastries and sesame balls, and wintermelon "wife cakes".

While staring at the shelves of sweets and wondering what to take, the owner drew my attention to the front counter, to the tray of Chinese doughnuts that were only available on weekends. It's like he read my mind (because, yes, I had spotted them from outside and was wondering what they were). I couldn't resist! Now that my favourite place for Chinese doughnuts in Chinatown closed down, I did have a bit of a craving.... So, though Chinese doughnuts it was!

These doughnuts ($0.75 each with tax) were unlike any I'd seen; I've seen/tried the traditional "oil strip" (the long ones) and "ox tongue" (the diamond shaped ones) varieties, as well as the sweeter sesame topped ones (resembling a big puffy pancake), but I'd never encountered a hole-in-the-middle doughnut. Despite its doughnut shape, it resembled more the ones I mentioned above; they weren't sweet, perhaps a little and also with a hint of saltiness, and were pretty much dough rings fried to a nice golden brown. The highlight was definitely the middle where the thinner flaps of dough turned nice and crispy. Mmm... I would have liked the rest of the doughnut to have had a more crispy outside, but I wasn't bad. One of the best and most interesting Chinese bakeries I've visited.

Rating: ***