Marché G & D

This place is always packed with lot of people having dinner or lunch at the top in the restaurant and downstairs at the Chinese supermarket purchasing groceries.
I didn’t expect this place to be so huge, but it is enormous. Dropped in to have dinner with fellow research scientists who came from China to attend the conference. We all ordered different variations of noodle soup dishes. I ordered the braised beef noodle soup which was the signature chef special dish.
When they served us our orders. Oh my, they are gigantic bowls with so much of soup, thick chunks of beef, noodles, cilantro and spring onions with red chillis.
The soup was scrumptious (my mouth is watering right now), I enjoyed it. Loved it and would definitely come over here with a very hungry stomach.
After having a lovely meal, we all went downstairs to shop in the supermarket. The vegetables were very fresh. Several sea food, fresh fruits, Chinese snacks, bread, noodles, sauces and more. This is a to go place if you need anything of Chinese origin. Recommend this place if you want to try out the awesome beef noodles.
PS: they don’t serve chicken but they do have one vegetarian soup noodle bowl if i remember correctly.
–SH

J’adore cette épicerie dans le quartier chinois. C’est l’endroit rêvé pour ceux qui veulent découvrir de nouveaux produits exotiques ou pour celui (comme moi) qui cherche un ingrédient particulier pour une recette asiatique. Pour moi c’est un arrêt obligatoire à chaque fois que je visite le quartier, question de bien garnir mon garde-​manger.
Contrairement à d’autres épiceries chinoises, les allées sont larges. Donc, nous né sommes pas tous coincés lorsqu’il y a beaucoup de monde. Au début, ça peut être intimidant lorsqu’on cherche un produit en particulier, mais l’épicerie est bien divisée et on finit par s’y retrouver. On peut toujours demander de l’aide, le personnel se fera un plaisir de vous aider, malgré le fait qu’il né parle n’y français et parfois ni anglais non plus. Avec une image du produit sur notre téléphone intelligent, on finit toujours par se faire comprendre.
Bref, pour ceux qui aiment cuisiner des recettes asiatiques, ceci est un incontournable.

Marche G & D
Shopping at IGA and Metro is so vanilla. Everything comes in nice clean well labeled packaging orderly arranged on shelves in brightly lit aisles with a sketchy looking security guard always nearby. Don’t get me wrong, the big chains have there place, I mean they do have a great selection of canned corn and frozen pizzas.
Those times when Montréal starts to seem a little bland and I want to tickle my taste buds, I walk over to Chinatown and stop in at Marché G & D. As the largest Asian grocery store downtown they stock loads of stuff from pretty much every Asian cuisine.
Like so many businesses in Chinatown, they are in an odd location. Find the entrance and push aside the long strips of clear plastic dangling across the doorway. Then descend down the stairs and WHAM! cluttered aisles, questionable smells, blaring Mando-​Pop, strange animal parts, seemingly random organization totally devoid of windows and lacking any cellphone signal. It’s a whole different world down there.
They’ve got everything from fresh lemon grass (great when making Thai) to frozen chicken feet (if you are in the mood). You can also find fresh soy milk made in Montréal and a tasty selection of candy from Japan. You’ll also find a pretty awesome selection of fresh green leafy vegetables, many that I’ve never seen before and some that I might consider weeds.
Prices are generally better than the elsewhere in Chinatown and they have the best selection. Unfortunately they have a loyal following so shopping after work can be nightmarish.
The place has tested my patience more than once but I still love it. Without Marché G & D I’m not sure I would survive.

Marché G&D has all the things you would expect in a typical asian kitchen: Dragon Fruit, Longan, soft egg tofu and dumpling wrappers, garlic chives, mochi ice cream, chinese sausage, bok choy, gai lan, and well really I could go on, but you get the drift. (Ok one more, black sesame ice cream!)
It’s located on St-​Laurent in the basement, and is my new close to home one-​stop shop for any time I feel like creating something with ingredients that aren’t typical to my local IGA. The only thing that I could ask for more… expand on the candy aisle!
PS It’s open on New Years Day that’s a plus in my books.

Chinatown is one of Montréal’s most interesting and distinct ethnic neighbourhoods, housing wonderful restaurants, grocery stores and shops that sell anything from lucky waving cat statues to pottery.
Marché G & D is my favourite grocery store here: large, clean and a spot where you will always find something new and interesting. It provides an opportunity to do your grocery shopping and feeling as if travelling through China at the same time. Any ingredient of Chinese or Vietnamese Cuisine seems readily available, from Bok Choy to chicken feet or dumpling wrappers. Strewn into this are occasional allusions to western eating, like Wonder Bread or Nutella. But what really stands out is the selection of fresh produce (Chinese specialities next to the ordinary selection of lettuce, tomatoes, apples etc), fresh and live fish and seafood, meat, and tea. And all of that at prices rather lower than ‘ordinary’ grocery stores.
Cheap shopping and a sense of discovering a far country in one — can’t get much better than that. So be bold and try something new! You might not know how to prepare a particular ingredient, but the Internet sure does: o).