Cartel Street Food Bar (101 Avenue Fairmount West), the famous taqueria offering original savory tacos deeply rooted in Mexican tradition, alongside rare specialties from the streets of Peru, China, Japan and Southeast Asia, is breaking new restaurant ground with the introduction of chifa.
Cartel Street Food Bar, the famous taqueria offering original savory tacos deeply rooted in Mexican tradition, alongside rare specialties from the streets of Peru, China, Japan and Southeast Asia, is breaking new restaurant ground with the introduction of chifa.
What is chifa, and why is it special, you ask? Chifa is the name given to the 160-year-old Chinese cuisine of Peru and to the restaurants that serve it. Hailed as one of the original fusion cuisines, chifa was created when Chinese immigrant cooks began introducing local Peruvian ingredients and techniques into their repertoire of Cantonese dishes. The result was a who’s who of recipes that have become an integral part of the cultural identity of Peru, a country with the largest Chinese population in South America and close to 5,000 chifa restaurants in Lima alone.
Many of Cartel’s dishes in Montreal have included traces of chifa, from the use of crispy sweet potato with Cantonese roast duck to pork belly baos with traditional salsa criolla. “We see chifa as an opportunity to be creative and introduce our guests to a whole new world of flavors,” says Fede Sanchez, one of Cartel’s co-founders.
Cartel’s chifa menu showcases spins on favorite dishes including chaufa rice, filet mignon lomo saltado with yuca fries, kam lu wonton in tamarind sauce, spicy seafood noodles, ceviche à la Wong, aji panca BBQ octopus, and special daily creations.
While the chifa menu will be the talk of the foodie town for now, Cartel still continues to evolve its famous taco menu to become the first taqueria chifa in the country.
Bring on the chifa, baby!
