Montreal City Weblog

Kate 21:20 on 2021-02-27 Permalink Reply  

• Roman 21:23 on 2021-02-27 Permalink

  Portuguese chicken in Montreal can’t compare to a real Portuguese chicken.

  It’s like saying sushi is an icon, just because we have 100 mediocre sushi shops that don’t taste like anything you’d get in Japan.

• Kate 23:20 on 2021-02-27 Permalink

  What makes the real Portuguese chicken different, Roman?

• Azrhey 02:13 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  Romados chicken is a pale comparison to what it used to be, there was a change in admin in the early 2000 and since ithen it’s been super industrialised and the son is an ar$e (their best cooks had a row with him and left to open the Piri-piri chain , which is better).
  There is superior quality chicken in Montreal, but if you want to pay fastfood prices , you get fastfood quality.
  Portugália still does it well (opinion from fall 2019, thanks covid) , although I usually go there for the bifanas .
  Then again these days even maxi sells authentic Piri-piri sauce, so spread it out, lather with sauce and some herbs, drizzle with lemon juice, let it rest overnight, and you’re good to go. The major factor is quality of the chicken itself, and a lot of it is cheap factory farm quality so… *¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Kate 09:56 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  One thing I do know about Portuguese chicken in town is that the owners of the Monteiro chain (the website lists four locations) are not Portuguese or anything close. Was told this by a restaurant owner of the same ethnicity as Monteiro’s owners.

  Of course they may have seen an opportunity and hired Portuguese cooks – who knows?

• Roman 10:14 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  Kate: probably the chicken itself to begin with. North American chickens taste like nothing at best. European and Asian chickens raised traditionally are delicious even without any seasoning.

  Then the seasoning itself is made from fresh ingredients, while in Montreal it’s just a mystery powder from a can.

• GC 10:39 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  But does it actually need to be good or authentic to become “iconic” of a city? Sushi can be found all over every major city in Canada, so it’s hard to say it’s iconic of Montreal. I can decide I don’t like smoked meat, but it’s still going to be iconic of Montreal

• Azrhey 12:19 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  @roman let’s not exoticise Portuguese , or other, cuisine like that. Most rotisserie chicken in Portugal comes from industrial sources and most seasoning comes from a mystery box. We’re like everybody else. Yeah sure in small places you get traditionally raised animals and fresh ingredients, and some fancy restaurants give you their best for a lot of money, but day in and day out? Your average José will just get half a frango assado from the cantina next door, and it will taste exactly the same as Monteiro, Piri-piri, and Nandos is around the world.

• Chris 12:46 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  >Of course they may have seen an opportunity and hired Portuguese cooks – who knows?

  Otherwise everyone eating at these restos are guilty of cultural appropriation I suppose? 🙂

• DeWolf 13:53 on 2021-02-28 Permalink

  Roman has a point that chicken just tastes different in Europe and Asia, whether it’s factory farmed or not. For example, in Hong Kong the chickens are much smaller, with a more concentrated taste – kind of similar to how Cornish hens taste here. By contrast, North American chickens are enormous, with tons of breast meat, and they taste like nothing much at all.

• Kate 12:00 on 2021-03-01 Permalink

  I suppose it could be different chicken breeds that dominate in some places. Like those awful tomato cultivars that were chosen mostly because they shipped well, we’ve probably ended up with chickens bred more for toleration of overcrowding and for fast growth, than for flavour.