Our first stop: Montreal. A francophone city that speaks enough English to prevent language barriers from hindering our enjoyment (although, unfortunately, this also failed to motivate me to practice my disintegrating high school french).
Firstly, a brief photographic digression on the beautiful architecture of Montreal.
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| Old Montreal, near Champ-de-Mars subway station |
Montreal has some very charming little houses lining its streets.
And now, moving on to our food adventures. While in Montreal, we made a stop at the infamous Schwartz's, whose walls boast the autographed pictures of celebrities such as Céline Dion, enjoying their smoked meat sandwiches.
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| Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraique de Montréal 3895 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, Québec H2W 1X9 |
Famous for its smoked meat sandwiches...
...and notorious for its long line-ups
I have to stress the fact that this photo was not taken on a special holiday where all these people had many leisurely hours to expend on smoked meat. T'was a normal late August day. Implication: there's a line- up this ridiculous every day. I did not taste their smoked meat sandwich, but my fellow food taster told me it was worth the wait, the smoked meat was just amazing.
To all the vegetarians and vegans reading this, don't despair and scorn these Montrealers (Montrealites? Montrealonians?). There are plenty of other charming, wonderful aspects to this city.
Our stay in Montreal would not have been complete without poutine. For those of you who don't know, simply put, poutine is french fries with cheese curds, drowned in gravy. As you would've probably already guessed, it originated from Quebec. We had our share at a place called Patati Patata: Friterie Deluxe, a tiny yet chic little corner eaterie. Our poutine came in a white takeaway box, topped off with a single olive.
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| Patati Patata: Friterie Deluxe 4177 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal QC H2W 1Y7 |
I sunk my fork in for the first bite and came away with a conglomeration of potato and dairy. The melted cheese curds stretched long and thin, making the process not unlike eating spaghetti. I put the fork into my mouth, and at once, savoury gravy dripped onto my tongue as my teeth bit into the hot, crispy skin of the fries and the chewy lumps of cheese. Let me tell you: it was pure heaven. In retrospect, the fries weren't just dripped in gravy but also grease, making this a treat to be enjoyed sparingly or else risk looking like Bonhomme.
On our strolls, we came across a place called Rolopan, that served "crêpes avec un twist!"
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| Rolopan Crêpes 3723A boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal QC H2X 2V7 |
With displays as handsome as these, can you imagine me passing by without popping in? Fake crêpes galore inside...
Something you should know about me: I have a fetish for fake foods that look as good as, maybe even better than, their real life counterparts. Hence the photos. This company is wise enough to have the crêpe master perform her art facing the customers, with but a shoulder height glass pane in between. I watched in awe as she gathered the ingredients and proceeded to making our strawberry cheesecake crêpe.
Her deft movements were clearly an indication of the popularity of these crêpes and the frequency at which she had to make them. She skillfully spread the batter before it dried out on the flat pan, and wielding the scraping knife like a samurai, made the crêpe fly like the skirt of a flamenco dancer. She then carefully added fresh strawberries, custard and an actual slice of cheesecake, then lovingly rolled it up and handed it to me.
The crêpe was light and a bit too sweet for my taste, but its chewy texture complemented nicely with the tartness of the strawberries and the creaminess of the cheesecake. Who would have thought to roll cheesecake in a crêpe! In the end, a positive experience all around.
So what about the chocolates you say? Well, we did stop at a chocolatier shop called Juliette & Chocolat. The decor of the shop was a beautiful juxtaposition of elegant chandeliers and rustic wooden tables, creating a quaint, little scene in which you wouldn't be surprised to see Juliette Binoche herself step out from behind the counters. It also helped that the employees all wore these adorable poofy red chocolatier hats (like the ones you see in Lindt chocolate commercials but red). The chocolates themselves however...
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| Juliette & Chocolat 3600 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal QC H2X 2V4 |
They had the most seductive selection of chocolates and brownies (at not-so-pretty prices, might I add).
Some of them had the most exquisitely detailed patterns on them for which my lousy camera just...failed.
After much debate, we decided to indulge ourselves and ordered two brownies, a hot chocolate and a chocolate fondue.
Both brownies were cloyingly sweet and the hot chocolate turned out quite differently from what we expected. There was some extra ingredient in it that we could not identify. I suspect there may be some of that marshmallow fluff in it. It tasted like Hollywood, too fake, too plastic, and not enough chocolate. The only good thing was the chocolate fondue, with its beautiful palette of vibrant fruits. Although I imagine it would be hard to mess that up.
More on Ottawa later...
-L
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