The Lamb Grilled at Mei Restaurant in Montreal was expertly prepared in Northern Chinese Barbecue style, and earned a 5 out of 5 Rating.
The menu at the Mei Restaurant leans heavily towards soup, noodles and dumplings, but they also feature a number items that are Barbecued in Northern Chinese Style. I tried several of these, most notably their excellent Grilled Squid, and the skewers of Lamb grilled in the same fashion and shown above were extremely good as well.
As with the aforementioned Grilled Squid, as the other ‘Barbecued’ items on the menu, the dominant seasoning came from a liberal dry rub of Cumin and Chili. The Squid dish actually built upon this with a Hoisin glaze, which worked very nicely, but while that wasn’t the case here, I didn’t miss it al all.
One curious thing that caught my attention were some flecks of green (almost certainly Scallion), a few of which can be seen if you look closely at the picture. There were only a few and I rather think that the skewers were given a brush with Scallion Oil before being put on the grill. I really couldn’t detect the taste of Scallion particularly, but it didn’t matter, really, as the main seasonings were perfectly applied and complimented the Lamb very well.
What made the difference in this dish, I am sure, was the quality of the meat itself. In many places, when you get served Lamb in small pieces as on these skewers, it can often be excessively fatty, and then greasy after cooking, or it can be quite tough, with tendon and other connective tissue. Here, though, the Lamb was relatively lean, but still juicy, and ended up being very tender to the bite. The grilling job was well done, and if I hadn’t wanted to try some other dishes, I might well have ordered another round of the Lamb Grilled at the Mei Restaurant.