Kim Hand and les Puces

This past Saturday some friends and I decided to trek to the north of Montreal, up to the St. Michel flea market. In my brain, I imagined little old ladies sitting next to their piles of WW2 era jewelry, old hats and scarves. I imagined finding a usable typewriter for five bucks, or maybe even a whole liquor set with fifties style insignia. Instead I got this guy following me around...

Notice what looks like an injection needle in his hand, ready to pounce and incapacitate me in this maze of dusty old cell phones and curling irons.

My prediction about the little old ladies huddled around their wares was accurate, but everything was way too expensive or just plain useless (Do I really need a maroon cell phone from 1996, sans charger? Will that ever accrue value? Ever?)

Luckily just across the street was the Kim Hand restaurant and market, two separate businesses that serve up tasty vietnamese food and other asian delicacies.

Some of us weren't into a really rich meal as we had made obscene amounts of pancakes earlier in the morning, but Kim Hand gave us what we needed. 

Amanda and Zakir went for the lighter fare and shared some shrimp dumplings. According to them, they were awesome.

Vince had a lemongrass beef stirfry. Poor Vince was so sick that he went temporarily catatonic at times during the meal, but this dish seemed to revive him.

Luke and I went wild and got appies and mains. We shared some imperial rolls. They were ok, not as good as NEW YORK PHO in chinatown, in montreal (this just got confusing). Then I had the Vietnamese Beef Ragout! The guy serving us was awesome and described all the meals we ordered with pinache and in great detail. Mine, he said, was inspired by a french beef stew he learned to cook overseas. It was pretty banging. Unlike regular Pho, the steak was not raw but more of a brisket, clearly having stewed for several hours until it got super tender. Looks like the French and the Vietnamese should get together more often...

Match made in heaven, AMIRITE?