Montreal has a good-sized Chinatown between Old Montreal and the Latin Quarter. The smells wafting from restaurants reminded me of China.
This sign made me smile: it captures the blend of cultures that gives Montreal its falvor.
Mar 092008
Mar 092008
Montreal seemed to have many buildings with large murals.
The sidewalks were not always cleaned in Montreal. This winter has been especially heavy, with over three meters of snow!
Mar 092008
Wow. They aren’t just in China!
Mar 092008
Kristiina asked me my opinions on foie gras production. You can read some thoughts in a response to her comment.
Mar 072008
On my way to China, I watched a few episodes of No Reservations, Anthony Bordain’s latest television exploit. One of his trips was to Quebec, where he visited a duck farm to see how foie gras was made, cooked at the Montreal Culinary Institute, ate a breakfast of maple syrup at a sugar shack, and stuffed himself silly at Au Pied De Cochon. I was amazed at and jealous of his bacchanal at Au Pied De Cochon, and it was one of the reasons why I was interested in going to Montreal. (Interestingly, when I mentioned to my friend Mary Taylor that I was going to Montreal, one of her questions was if I was going to Au Pied De Cochon. It was also well known by the folks at the hotel.)
Au Pied De Cochon is a restaurant with a love of foie gras, duck, and pig. When you walk into the restaurant, you know that you are going to have unique experience. After the coat rack (heavy coats are a necessity in Montreal in the winter), you look down to a refrigerator full of shrink-wrapped foie gras. Check out the menu: the foie gras section has nine dishes dedicated to this elegant ingredient. I only wish I had the stamina, time, and money to taste them all.
I started with the Plogue à Champlain: a layered dish of potatoes, cheese, and bacon below a seared piece of foie gras and topped with chopped apples. The entire dish was covered in maple syrup. It sounds decadant and heavy, yet the dish felt light, and all of the elements were able to hold their own against the sweet syrup. (Apologies in advance if I had gotten ingredients of the dish incorrect–it was a long, but fun, night.)
I followed up with the “Melting Pot”–a variety of meats and potatoes in a large 10-inch diameter, 6-inch high dish covered with pastry dough and baked in the oven. That is a marrow bone poking out in the photo above. A waiter noticed me struggling with the standard fork in trying to get the filling out, and he was kind enough to bring me a demitasse spoon. This was heartiness in a pot, the perfect winter dish. Although the dish was heavy, the meat was rich, tender, and flavorful.
I was lucky enough to be given a seat at the end of the bar by the pass-through between the kitchen and dining room. In addition, the kitchen is open, so I was able to see dishes move back and forth between the kitchen and the brick-enclosed wood-fired oven before being passed off to the servers. Like all restaurants, it’s a fast paced, hot environment with food zipping back and forth.
The chef of Au Pied Du Cochon, Martin Picard, was not working that evening; the person running the kitchen was a gentleman named Marc. I was able to chat with him throughout the evening even though he was busy preparing dishes. Unfortunately, I did not think to get his full name even as he prepared my food.
The staff at Au Pied De Cochon has a passion for good food and wine. This was not a job where members of the staff were phoning in their work–they were excited and happy to be working there, and their enthusiasm was contagious. I tried to thank everyone at the restaurant who made my visit there so pleasant, but I’m sure I missed people. For those of you who I did not thank, please let me thank you again here!
Au Pied De Cochon is truly a meat-lovers paradise. The large cuts of meat fell off the bone; they looked luscious and tender.
This is a wonderful restaurant: I was welcomed with opened arms even though I was dining by myself, and the food was excellent, hearty, and made for a perfect meal on a cold night. Another single diner was seated next to me; we had a fine conversation and I enjoyed splitting my bottle of wine with her.
I would want every restaurant meal to be good as the meal I had at Au Pied De Cochon.
Mar 062008
As I wrote last week, I went to Montreal for the weekend. Montreal is a wonderful city. It was an easy flight into Montreal: while the flight was scheduled for two hours, we only spent an hour in the air. You can’t check in online because of the passport restrictions, but if you aren’t checking any bags you zoom through the check-in process.
I didn’t spend much time in the airport. Airports tend to blend together, and this one was no exception. Customs was a breeze, but it’s a good thing I printed out my itinerary. The customs official definitely wanted to know when I was leaving Canada, and if I hadn’t had my itinerary handy I think my customs interview would have been longer and upsetting. As it is, I wish I had printed out the hotel confirmation–I think the customs official was concerned when I said, “I’m staying at some place downtown.”
I stayed at the Hotel Le Relais Lyonnais, a small but very nice hotel in the Latin Quarter. I spoke with them before I flew into Montreal, and based on their recommendation I took the shuttle bus from the airport to the bus station. It’s only $14, and the bus station was less than two blocks away from the hotel. It’s the kind of transportation I look for when I travel: cheap, convenient, and fast. Incidentally, when you arrive at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, keep in mind that it used to be named Montréal-Dorval Airport (or just Dorval). Some of the signs have not been updated yet.
The Hotel Le Relais Lyonnais has small modern rooms with a ton of closet space, a nice bed, and pleasant amenities. The cafe downstairs serves traditional French food; one afternoon I enjoyed a ham and gruyere galette (buckwheat crepe) with a nice cup of coffee. The front desk at the hotel is not usually staffed, and your card key opens up the front door as well as the door to your room. (There is a buzzer that summons a person to the front desk in under a minute, and the staff of the cafe also can admit people into the hotel.) The gentleman who checked me in at the hotel was warm and friendly. I’m not sure if the hotel is family-owned, but it certainly had that feel.
The person who checked me in at the hotel was representative of everyone I met in Montreal: friendly, well-spoken, polite, intelligent, and knowledgeable of current events. I had many conversations with people in parks, restaurants, and bars and invariably people went out of their way to be helpful. Montreal may be the friendliest city I have ever visited.
Montreal, as one of the major cities of Quebec, is a city with a strong French culture. Everyone I spoke with from Montreal was bilingual. When I would attempt to speak French, people would understand that my French was terrible and immediately switch to English. The Québécois people I met were proud of their culture and heritage without being arrogant or oppressed. Beyond the French and English speaking majorities, Montreal is a cosmopolitan city with a wide variety of races, cultures, and languages.
I had a wonderful time in Montreal and hope to visit again soon.
Incidentally, my cell phone worked in Montreal when I turned on roaming mode. I avoided making calls because the roaming rate was around 60 cents per minute. My brother pointed me the web page listing international functionality, and it turns out my cell phone would have worked in China, too. At over $2.20 a minute, I’m glad I didn’t make any calls from there either.
Mar 042008
The Wall Street Journal wine critics visited four four-star restaurants in New York City and ordered the menu with wine pairings. It’s an interesting read as they had mixed experiences at all four restaurants. This quote about Le Bernardin is especially telling: “We felt very much like we had been treated as hayseed tourists […] While we always try to remain anonymous when researching a column, we have never succeeded so brilliantly: In this case, we were positively invisible.” Ouch.