Maque

Máquè

909 Dorchester Ave

204-284-3385

info@maque.ca

https://maque.ca/

February, 2022

Many restaurants have jumped on the Spanish tapas concept of shareable dishes; unfortunately, that's not how it works in Spain. In Spain, the tapas offerings are small dishes which are greatly varied. You don't share the dishes among your party; you order a variety of them for yourself because the volume of each is small. It's like the Chinese concept of dim sum where you select a number of small items.

Here in Canada, restaurants call them tapas but they're just normal dishes that you see on every restaurant menu. Menus also add the idea of shareable so that people order meals collectively and people sample from different plates--again like the Chinese concept of communal dining. The Spanish tapa is a small dish that's priced low, enabling you to sample many dishes without spending a lot of cash. Tapas in Canada often cost in excess of $20 each, meaning you're not going to purchase many of them per person (by contrast, Chinese dim sum dishes run between $4 to $5 each).

Máquè presents the same idea of meal-sharing but they slashed the size of the portions and state on paper "our menu is a small plates/sharing style menu." What they didn't slash is the prices, so you're still paying fair money for each dish.

Our server recommends starting with a steamed bun, which is the only course you're not supposed to share.

Asian in basis, the Slow Roasted Pork Belly bun comes with red dragon sauce, cucumber and peanut. Although pork belly is the cut from the same loin from which we get bacon, it is a lot more subtle tasting than bacon. I find the dragon sauce nice as it cuts through the fattiness of the meat, but the power overwhelms the delicate nature of the pork. I love the addition of the pea shoots, which adds nice colour and zing.

The Smoked Duck, white kimchi with mustard miso sauce tastes wonderfully zesty, a tad smokey and crunchy to the bite. People with kimchi-phobia need not worry; this rendition takes more like a mild sauerkraut. All "buns" are not buns in the Chinese sense of "bao" but more like a taco sleeve using bao dough.

Still borrowing from the Asian influence, the dumplings come garnished with scallions and sesame seeds.

The menu describes the Pork & Leek Dumplings as made with mushroom gochujang (Korean chilli sauce) and sesame vinaigrette. The vinaigrette tastes mild and somewhat out of place for the dish. Being a Chinese staple, especially with all the sesame seeds, I expected to taste the powerful sesame oil, which was not to be found. The stuffing tastes delicate and it's fun to eat with the pretty wrapping.

Perhaps the prettiest dish on the menu, the Roasted Beets on soy bean hummus, with citrus, spiced walnuts and yuzu dressing, a Korean citrus sauce.

The beets tastes rich and sweet, the basil leaves add wonderful colour and flavour to the dish. The clementine orange pieces could be a tad sweeter but fit into the melange nicely. The walnuts add lovely texture and crunch. There isn't very much hummus so pairing becomes very limited. I recommend a more generous dollop of hummus to allow everyone a chance to dip.

Next up, the Beef Tartare, made with shiitake in XO sauce, quail egg and brown butter sourdough. XO sauce finds its roots in Hong Kong, where top tables competed to put out the most luxurious sauces. XO stands for extra-old, a grading that comes from cognac with minimum ageing requirements. Usually, a bottle of XO cognac starts at about $300 and goes up from there. Needless to say, using actual XO cognac in cooking is a waste of spirit and unnecessary expense. When you taste cognac, you can pick out the subtleties--when used in cooking, there's no point. The subtleties are gone. Regular brandy is good enough for XO sauce and I hope that's what they use here.

The tang of the brandy and the depth of the quail egg elevates this dish to meteoric heights. The mushrooms provide a bit of texture in this velvety smooth mixture.

The tartare comes with bread, where the beef can spread onto the bread and be eaten as a toast topping.

The Wild Mushroom, White Truffle Miso Cream, Egg Noodle with chestnut tastes about as rich as anything I've ever eaten. Their version of Chow Fun (or Ho Fan) oozes with umami, thanks to the truffle base.

I can't quite make out what types of wild mushrooms are here; I suspect oyster and straw mushrooms, perhaps more. They taste wonderfully crunchy, contrasted by the super-smooth texture of the egg noodles. Folks, this is one of the best dishes I tasted in my entire life.

Finally, the Fried Rice with white prawns, greens, topped with a pine nut furikake. Furikake is a Japanese condiment to be sprinkled on rice dishes; it consists of dried fish flakes, sesame seeds, seaweed, sugar, and salt, and often MSG. Sometimes, when re-hydrated, you can see the fish flakes expand, giving the illusion that the dish moves and grows.

The greens include edamame beans (one of my least-favourite beans) and shredded leaves (can't quite make out if it's bok choy with basil?). The fried prawns add depth but it's the furikake that adds lovely al dente like bite. If you've ever made rice from scratch with a pot on the stove-top, you often end up with a crunchy rice, caked on the bottom. If you scrape off this rice, it's a lovely snack that's fun to crunch. The furikake has the texture of the scraped-off rice, crumbled into bits. This is another insanely successful dish.

For dessert, we opt for the Dark Chocolate Cake, with anise, bourbon butter cream and pecan sea salt. Deliciously dense with a bitter edge from the chocolate, this slice blends beautifully with the sweet cream. The shards of sea salt and the crumbles of pecans rounds out this dessert with crispiness.

Maque truly explores Asian fusion, with touches from China, Korea, Japan and Thailand, blending with many traditional European ingredients. As I said earlier, I would like to see the prices drop a bit, as well as the portions--leaving the opportunity to sample more of the menu. All the menu items we never got to try remain on my "wish I could have had that too list." In fact, when Maque first opened, we came, shared a number of dishes, enjoyed them thoroughly, came back the next day, and sampled the rest of the menu. Yes, some of these dishes are THAT GOOD.

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Ray Yuen, Pit Master / Grill Master
Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736
Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788
Canadian Barbecue Society Member

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