Bison and Morel Mushrooms

Anyone who lives on the Westcoast knows about the abundance of wild mushrooms, no not the psychedelic type that teenagers and hippies harvest, I’m referring to delicious gourmet mushrooms like chanterelles and morels. While most mushrooms are harvested in the fall, the morel is the exception that shows up in the spring and early summer.

Morels are found in areas affected by forest fires in the previous 1-2 years, and are unmistakable given their sponge-like appearance, ranging in colour from black to yellow-brown and can grow to be 4-6” in height. I was thrilled to find a local mushroom forager at the Metchosin Farmers Market with fresh morels from Quesnel BC. I bought myself 1 pound of mushrooms for $16 and started planning dinner for Sunday and Monday. Tonight we would enjoy an appetizer from our local market!

In addition to the morels I bought some fava beans, DiMaggio onions and a fresh baked baguette. I started by sautéing the onion in some pernod butter, then added a half pound of sliced morels, which were cooked until softened, about 7 minutes (this is important when cooking fresh morels since they can cause an upset stomach if eaten raw). Whipping cream was added and reduced, followed by the prepared fava beans with their brilliant bright green colour.

We grilled slices of baguette, rubbed the toasted crostini with garlic, topped each with the mushroom sauté and finished them with fresh chopped tarragon. What a delightful way to start dinner.

Our Sunday dinner continued with bison striploin and local veggies. The bison striploins were grilled for barely 6 minutes for medium rare, and were dressed with only olive oil, salt and pepper to let the flavor of the young bison shine through. Served alongside were oven braised baby fennel and DiMaggio onions, sautéed rainbow chard and smashed german gold new potatoes. While I was tempted to prepare a sauce for this dinner I decided to let the flavours of the local bounty stand on their own. Now we are ready for a full and busy week of work!

TIGBG: Goes to Au Pied de Cochon, Montreal

This is Gonna Be Good: BrookLen Goes to Au Pied de Cochon, Montreal

Cooking at Home

I really enjoyed our four fabulous days in Montreal with the great variety of food and wine the city has to offer. At the same time I missed cooking! In preparation for Thursday night dinner I picked up my weekly meat and veggie box from Alex and Virginie at Wind Whipped Farm (http://www.windwhippedfarm.com/) . They are an amazing couple who have partnered with other local farmers who supply lamb, chicken and pork for the meat portion of the box program. The variety and quality of the veggies are always excellent. Dinner started with grilled hearts of romaine then the main course featured a smoked chicken from Stillmeadow Farm (http://www.stillmeadowfarm.ca/).

The grilled hearts of romaine were topped with oven roasted roma tomatoes from Glanford Greenhouses, croutons and Caesar salad dressing, heavy on anchovies and capers. Grilled romaine is always a nice start to a summer BBQ menu!

This beautiful local organic chicken was rotiserried on low heat while we smoked it with cherry wood chips. Wind Whipped Farm provided first of season red beets, served on top of their wilted greens, steamed new purple potatoes, and a sauté of baby zucchini, snow peas and DiMaggio onion tops.


We are so lucky to have so many great people providing top quality local ingredients for our table. They are all passionate about local, sustainable food supply for local residents and restaurants. In the coming weeks I will share with you some of these great local restaurants and their amazing food!

Montreal Day 4 - Monday July 11

I managed to get myself out of the room and down to the hotel gym at on Monday morning.  When someone consumes as much pork, foie gras and seafood as I had at APDC you need to do something to burn off the calories!  One hour and 500 calories later, I was lucky if I was 10% of the way to offsetting my caloric intake of the past 2 days.  Would I do it again you ask?  Well at least once per year!

On our last full day in Montreal we set our sights on some more clothes shopping on Rue St Catherines looking for good prices on the stylish clothes you see all of the locals wearing.  French Canadians have a sense of style that you don’t see in the rest of the country.  It does not seem to matter whether they are young or old, short or tall, skinny or heavy set.  They have a sense of style!  We were hoping to find a bit of that for ourselves before heading home.

On the way we stopped at a small restaurant in the office district just off St Catherines.  We spotted a pizza place that was 90% full at 1145 with men in business attire, women taking a break from a shopping trip downtown, and other local office workers.  Add to that the wood fired oven we were sold on having a couple pizzas to get us through the afternoon.  We managed to get a table near the door at ‘Il Focolaio’ (1223 Carre Phillips, 514-879-1045, www.ilfocolaio.ca) and within minutes the place was packed without a seat to be found.  Since building a wood fired cob oven in the summer of 2010 we are always looking for places to try and compare to what we are doing at home.  While they were quite good, I have to say I am happy with my home made pizzas which will be featured in the next couple weeks on my blog.

Later in the afternoon we dropped into the Plateau Lounge at our hotel, W Montreal.  As one would expect a lounge is almost empty on Monday at 1630.  We had an amazing cocktail called a ‘Cote d’Artagnan’ which consisted of cognac, whiskey, sweet vermouth and maple syrop with twists of lemon and orange.  I will share the drink recipe if/when I can convince the hotel to share it with me!  We asked the bartender for restaurant recommendations for Monday night, a night that most Montreal restaurants are closed.  She recommended ‘F-Bar’, a Portuguese restaurant at Place des Artes.  After a quick review of their website I was hopeful that we had stumbled upon another great Montreal restaurant.

We skipped making a reservation and walked over to Place des Artes where we came across two very modern restaurants along the waterpark.  Both were brand new glass and steel buildings (we should have taken pictures) that were no more than 16 feet wide, with 12 foot ceilings and seemed to stretch forever from the front door, through the bar, the dining area, then to the kitchen at the very end.  We were in for a really pleasant surprise!

The restaurant was busy but not overcrowded for 1800 on a Monday night.  The hostess brought us to a great table beside the bar where Jeff and Phil could see at least half of the dishes being served to other patrons, since I was facing the window I didn’t have the advantage of seeing the amazing dishes being ushered to one table and the next.  After the first 5 minutes of watching plates pass by Jeff knew exactly what he was having for a starter and the main was obvious from the menu.

Tonight we each decided to order different appies and mains, share…  maybe but not for sure…

For starters we ordered the pea soup featured on the menu and their website, the mackerel that we saw going to another table, and the charcuterie platter.  I had the charcuterie platter with 3-4 slices each of salami, prosciutto, capicolla, chorizo, brawn (jellied pig head), rabbit/sweetbread terrine as well as a bowl of pickled gherkins, radishes, mushrooms and pearl onions.  I have ordered many charcuterie platters before and have often felt ripped off by the portions, not so at F bar, where the platter was delicious and generous.  Phil ordered the pea soup which I had assumed was a hot pea soup.  He kindly offered to share but I kindly refused.  It wasn’t until our flight home that he told us it was a refreshing cold pea soup with crispy bacon and fresh mint foam, now I wish I’d taken him up on his offer. 

As much as we both enjoyed our starters, nothing could compare to Jeff’s mackerel.  Two fillets of mackerel served on 3 sauces (almond, coco bean and chorizo/pepper).  I could have eaten 3 orders alone!  Simply amazing.

For our mains we ordered the lamb burger, cod (morue) and Magret duck breast.  Again Jeff scored on his choice of mains, the magret duck breast.  The duck was served in round stainless tin on top of new potatoes, olives, DiMaggio onions, mushrooms, strips of guanciale and tarragon.  The duck breast, although not overly large, was seared to rare perfection.  What an incredible dinner.

The lamb burger with salad and fries was Phil’s choice.  He was thrilled to bite into his burger on a home-made Portuguese bun to find it cooked medium rare, the way all burgers should be served (if you trust the chef).  It was served on top of a nice slow roasted slice of onion and topped with a cucumber-mint raita, not something you’d expect on a burger but it really worked with the lamb burger.  The fries looked well prepared but were a bit soft (they needed to be eaten first, but Phil was far too eager to try the lamb), not nearly as good as everything else at F bar.

My black cod was also served in a stainless metal tin like the duck but with a much simpler presentation.  The seared black cod was just barely cooked through, as I like it, layered atop mashed potatos and braised fennel.  The mashed potatoes were a very complex preparation of ‘sardine parmentier’ which consists of mashed yellow potatoes, sardines, grainy Dijon mustard and cream.  An amazing combination that I will try at home after making a batch of APDC mashed potatoes!

Dinner at F bar was a great way to wrap-up our trip to Montreal.  The total bill including a couple good local beer, a nice bottle of Portuguese white wine, tip and tax was $220.  F bar and her sister restaurant ‘Ferreira Café’ on Rue Peel are strong recommendations for anyone travelling to Montreal.  Now it is time to pack all our new clothes, amaro, pastis and chocolate from ‘Chocolats de Chloe’.  I did not provide a review of Chocolats de Chloe (546 Rue Duluth Est, 514-849-5550, www.leschocolatsdechloe.com) but if you like chocolate you’ll love this shop that only uses Valrhona, my favourite chocolate, in everything she makes. 

Montreal Day 3 – Sunday July 10 - Tete de Cochon

Late Sunday morning we ventured back on the Metro to the Plateau to find a place for a light lunch.  We disembarked at Station Sherbrooke and started looking for restaurants along Rue St Denis. 

On a morning such as this, where I do not have a dining destination in mind, I follow a set routine that helps me find a restaurant of my liking.  First of all I watch for the number of people on the terrace or in the restaurant to gauge whether or not the locals have already determined that this is a decent place to eat.  If a place is busy I try to determine if it is simply full of tourists or favoured by locals. (I remember our first visit to a dim sum restaurant in San Francisco over 10 years ago, we were looking for a table for 2 and after scanning the restaurant we noticed 99% of the customers were Chinese.  I knew it was going to be an amazing dim sum experience).  Secondly, I scan for what is/was on diners plates, does it look interesting, appetizing and fresh or not.  If the restaurant passes the first two steps then I will look at the menu.  If the menu is on a chalk board or printed daily, then again I think there is a higher likelihood of success.  I typically steer clear of restaurants with plasticized menus that have frayed edges from years of over handling, a good sign that nothing changes from year to year or season to season.  Of course the menu items themselves are the final deciding factor for me.  Interesting ingredients, fresh seasonal produce, unique meats all are a great sign that the owner and chef care about good food.

This Sunday morning after walking both sides of first 2 blocks of St Denis from Rue Roy to Rue Duluth we chose to have lunch at Bistro Fruits Folie (3817 Rue St Denis, 514-840-9011).  The fresh fruit that adorned some of the plates on the terrace lead me to believe this would be a good choice.  We sat at a table inside for some relief from the muggy Montreal summer morning.  The menu selection was quite extensive covering 3 pages of breakfast, plus 4 pages for lunch.  Jeff ordered the Clubhouse Gigantique sandwich which was served with the same sides as mine, a generous portion of frites and salad.  I ordered a croque-madame sandwich. Their version substitutes the usual ham for chicken and excludes the usual fried egg on top.  Phil had the eggs benedict which came with a generous serving of fresh ripe fruit.  Although neither the lunch nor the patrons were as eclectic as the day before at Le Barbare, it is worth a visit especially if you have a terrace table where you can watch the Montreal day pass by.  Total bill for 3 with tax and tip was $50.

I’m glad we had a light lunch and continued to walk around the Plateau and Vieu Port (Old Montreal) to burn off some calories in advance of our second dinner at APDC at 2000h.  This is a dinner we have been looking forward to for the past year, in fact, when Sarah-Jane made our dinner reservations in March she pre-ordered our main course to ensure that we had one of the two that are served each night.

Sunday night we arrived right on time and were seated at a big table at the very back of the restaurant. Unfortunately the combination of our table location, the hot humid weather and a malfunctioning air conditioner made for an uncomfortably warm dinner which was only briefly offset by the feature cocktail a maple syrup mojito.  After cooling off with our cocktails we ordered some appetizers and our meaty main courses.  While Saturday night was mainly focused on seafood, tonight we all decided to focus on the mainstay of Martin Picard’s mecca for foodies: cochon (pig) and foie gras.

The appetizers tonight included a seasonal treat, deep fried zucchini blossoms with aioli.  I just love to order these at restaurants when they are in season, I have always wanted to try making them at home but deep fat frying is so much easier in a restaurant kitchen than at home. 

What APDC meal would be complete without a serving of foie gras.  We have tried so many of their foie gras specialties to date but there is always something new to try.  It may take us another 2 years to have tried them all but we have yet to come across one we haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. 

Tonight we ordered the ‘Terrine Foie Gras’ a simple ¼ pound serving of foie gras terrine served with apple/maple jelly and perfectly toasted croutons.  The terrine did not last very long, but even in the short 10 minutes it took to finish we noticed the flavour improve as the terrine warmed to room temperature which at that point must have been 35C.

Once again the temptation was too great and Phil ordered the side of poutine.  If you are going to have poutine anywhere in Montreal, you might as well have it at APDC!

In keeping with the Loire Valley wine theme started on Saturday night we enjoyed a red wine Clos Cristal from the Saumur-Champigny appellation, a lighter bodied wine with an earthy richness that would go well with our ‘piece de resistance’ for dinner, ‘Tete Cochon pour deux’,or the ‘Pig's Head for Two’.

The creative mind of Martin Picard and his commitment to nose-to-tail dining is on par with Fergus Henderson from St John in London England.  The pig head is first brined, then cooked sous vide in duck fat, then it awaits the final stage of roasting in the wood fired oven prior to serving.  The final presentation as you can see is totally over the top!

The roasted pig head is placed atop a thick layer of APDC mashed potatoes, the mouth filled with sautéed vegetables, then joined on the plate by a steamed lobster (thankfully a female with roe), seared scallops and a bowl of sauce.  The crowning glory is a steak knife stuck in the top of the cracked skull to give you access to… you guessed it, the brain! 



ouch



The next 45 minutes were a real adventure in dining for us, and apparently disturbing for some APDC patrons at tables around us (a couple and their 2 children opted to leave the restaurant before our main course arrived for fear it would give their 7 and 10 year old boys nightmares!).  Gorka and Jessica, our servers, challenged us to eat everything, seriously, everything on the pig head.  I was surprised by the amount of meat on the pig head, but of course there is Jeff reminds me, otherwise there would be no such thing as headcheese or brawn!  The skin was a rich mahogany, tender in some places, crispy in others.  The meat from the cheeks, tongue and other parts of the head were delicious and juicy, either from the fat around it or the duck fat it was confited in.  While we did not eat much of the fat from the head, we did go as far as trying some, though not all, of the brain.  We both opted to not go so far as to eat an eyeball, some things are even too much for Jeff and me (there is a story about a fish eyeball that may someday rear its ugly head again, but that is for another time).  I have opted to not post the ‘after’ photos of the pig head but I am happy to email them to anyone that may be so inclined!  Gorka scored our pig head effort at 7.5 out of 10, not bad for our first time!

After all that description of the ‘Tete de Cochon’ it is difficult to describe the ‘Happy Porkchop’ that Phil ordered.  It was served on the bone topped with sautéed shallots and mushrooms and surrounded by one of their amazing rich sauces.  I normally would have tried some but I was too caught up eating the head from Phil’s happy pig!

We ended the night with a Calvados toast (or three) to APDC’s amazing staff.  A great way to end an amazing meal!

On our way out the door we spotted the main course for our next trip to Montreal.  Three daring people were seated at the front window of APDC and were eating a roast leg of veal.  Seriously, two joints (tibia and fibia) from a trimmed leg of veal.  We may need an extra person or two to join us for that massive dinner.  Any takers? 

Montreal Day 2 - Saturday July 09

On Saturday morning we caught up on our sleep after the Thursday/Friday red-eye flights and corresponding lack of sleep.  We headed to the Plateau area for coffee, lunch and shopping.  I am convinced the only way to get around Montreal is by Metro (subway) and bus service.  The service is cheap if you buy daily ($8) or 3 day passes ($16) which gives you full access to the entire system, information is available on their website (www.stm.info).  We took the Orange line Metro from Square Victoria to Mont Royal, stopped at the tourist info booth at the Metro station to get a recommendation on an excellent café for espresso drinks.  The young man at the info booth referred to a new tiny café ‘Flocon Espresso’ (781 Mont Royal Est, 514-903-9994, http://www.floconespresso.com/).   The café had a total of 12 seats inside and 4 outside, but size doesn’t matter…. especially when it comes to good coffee.  We enjoyed our café americano’s and decided to find a place for lunch as it was approaching noon.   While we have tried many good bistros and restaurants on the plateau I wanted to try something new so we wandered up (and down) Rue St Denis and finally came across a really funky looking, busy café ‘Le Barbare’ (4670 Rue St Denis, Montreal, 514-288-8377).  We took a table towards the back of this very eclectic café and quickly got past a perceived language barrier to choose from their rather extensive printed menu, but opted for the weekend brunch specials on the chalkboard. 

We had two orders of ‘bene homard-chorizo’ eggs benedict with diced lobster and chorizo sausage and one grilled cheese-bacon sandwich with 3 cheeses and side bacon.  The eggs benedict combination was far to strange for us not to try and we were not disappointed, even while we enjoyed our eggs I kept on trying to find something wrong with the combination of eggs, lobster, chorizo and tangy hollandaise sauce but couldn’t.  The skillet potatoes that were served with all of our lunches were not terribly good, steamed russet potatoes fried in oil and seasoned with rosemary just did not appeal to any of us.  The grilled cheese sandwich made with aged cheddar, mozzarella, goat cheeses and bacon on foccaccia bread was excellent, the cheese flavours complemented one another and the bacon was just right for the sandwich.  In addition to the oily potatoes the sandwich was served with a side of ‘f o lards’ which is quite common in Quebec.  The ‘f o lards’ are beans with pork, I haven’t had much experience eating beans with pork since being a teenager so really can’t judge their quality relative to other restaurants so all I can say is they were beans with pork.  Lunch included brewed coffee which was actually quite good, a pleasant surprise since I usually avoid brewed coffee.  Since I am on vacation and it was after 1100 I decided to enjoy a local cidre rose, very refreshing on a warm sunny afternoon.  Lunch for 3 including tax and tip was a reasonable $60.

Shopping along Rue St Denis

After lunch we did some clothes shopping along Mont Royal and St Denis, then stopped in at Arthur Quentin (3960 Rue St Denis) for a quick browse through the imported French linens, tableware and kitchen goodies.  I maintained control leaving the store with a French cookbook on terrines, a cheese slicer and a great restaurant recommendation from one of their helpful, friendly staff.  Then we needed to get back to the hotel to make it to the Cirque de Soleil show ‘Totem’ at 1700, before heading back to the plateau for the first of 2 amazing dinners at my Montreal Mecca ‘Au Pied de Cochon’.

After our slightly delayed arrival  at ‘Au Pied de Cochon’ (536 Avenue Duluth Est, Montreal, 514-281-1114, www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca) we were greeted by our favourite server and fellow foodie Sarah-Jane.  We met Sarah-Jane in 2009 and immediately connected based on our interest in food and wine.  We have shared restaurant recommendations with one another, in particular ‘Judas Goat Taberna’ (27 Blood Alley, Vancouver,604-633-1912, www.judasgoat.ca) which has enjoyed a spike in foodie visits based on the number of people Sarah-Jane and I have sent to this tiny Spanish-inspired tapa bar in Downtown Vancouver (a review of Judas Goat at a later date).  Sarah-Jane got us started with glasses of petite-chablis while we decided what we were ordering.  Ordering was fairly easy since we have booked consecutive nights at APDC to have a seafood platter one night and one of Martin Picard’s signature pig dishes on our second night.  Tonight was the night for the seafood platter so we just needed to choose some light starters.  We picked a number of small dishes to share and loved them all.

The ‘Foie Gras Cromesquis’ (2 for $3.50) are pefectly sized morsels of deep fried breaded foie gras.  They are about the size of large marbles (as big as a loonie) and have huge foie gras flavor, once you’ve let them cool for 2 minutes to avoid scalding the inside of your mouth with hot duck liver! 

The marinated smoked sausage (also $3.50) is a nice smoky, briny european weiner that disappeared almost as fast as the foie gras cromesquis.  A half order of ‘house made boudin’ arrived at the same time as the ‘poutine’.  In an effort to keep our calorie and fat intake down we opted to skip the foie gras option for both of these dishes, but if you have room (in your belly) you are well advised to try them both on your next visit. 

The boudin noir, blood sausage, was served on a bed of the PDC mashed potatoes with melt in your mouth baked apple slices and topped with caramelized shallots.  Simply heavenly! 

The poutine, a French Canadian classic, is prepared to perfection by the APDC staff, with big white chunks of Quebec cheese curds nestled into perfectly done French fries (cooked of course in duck fat) and topped with a decadent, beefy gravy.  I could feel the cholesterol building in my arteries as I enjoyed my share of the poutine.  During dinner we enjoyed a couple bottles of French white wine from the Loire Valley produced by Domaine Phillipe Tessier which is not available in any restaurant in BC.  A nice crisp Cheverney that went well with our entire dinner.

After our starters we prepared for the amazing mains.  Jeff and I ordered the ‘Plateau du Plateau’ seafood platter while Phil order the ‘Pied de Cochon farci with Foie Gras’.  We have had both of these dishes on previous visits and tonight was just as amazing as the past.  The seafood platter had an incredible selection of seafood including: razor clams, giant clam, sea urchin, squid, malapeque oysters, whelks, conch, soft shell crab, and scallops. 

Each was prepared in their own special way and generally served in/on their shells.  We were far too busy devouring the amazing selection of seafood to note how each were prepared but some highlights included: malapeque oysters with cubed ocean water aspic, sautéed conch with a lemon vinaigrette, diced razor clams on their shell with chopped walnuts, seared scallops with fresh seawood salad, and big chunks of whelks in a creamy aioli. WOW, what an amazing platter for $95 for 2 people. 

The Pied de Cochon (PDC) farci with seared Foie Gras ($45) was as big and rich as I remember when I ordered it last year.  Phil kindly offered Jeff and I the 150 grams of seared foie gras that topped his wood fired roasted pigs' foot (we would never, ever refuse such a kind selfless offer from anyone!).  This dish is prepared by deboning a large pigs foot from the ankle to the elbow, then stuffing the deboned pig forearm with chunks of pork and foie gras, the stuffed foot is breaded and roasted in a huge wood fired oven while being basted with some secret potion created by Martin Picard to create one of the tastiest preparations of something most people would turn their nose up at, not us!  The stuffed PDC is served on top of the PDC mashed potatoes, a saute of mushrooms, tomatoes and herbs, then finally topped with of seared foie gras.  What was remarkable was that Phil with his 6’6” frame and 30 year old appetite could not quite finish this amazing dish.  He gets full points for trying, and he tried hard!
Needless to say, there was no room for dessert, but we did have room for a couple glasses of Amaro Montenegro which we used to toast Sarah-Jane’s birthday.  She celebrated her birthday barely one hour after the end of our amazing meal.

Ahh Montreal - Friday July 8

We took the shuttle bus from the airport to downtown, called the 747 bus.  Great value for $8 which then includes access to the entire public transit system for the day and it was quick, taking only 35 minutes from the airport to downtown.  We have checked into the fabulous W Hotel Montreal and have a great 2 story suite on the 10^th floor, with a bedroom and bath on the mezzanine and living space with balcony below.
After a couple hours rest in our room we ventured out for a bite to eat at our favourite lunch spot ‘Chez Schwartz’ (3895 Boulevard St-Laurent, Montreal, 514-842-4813, www.schwartzsdeli.com).  Schwartz’s has been in business for over 80 years in this location serving the best smoked meat sandwiches you can find anywhere.  We thought we’d miss the usual Schwartz’s lineup since we were arriving at 1430 on a Friday afternoon, but to our surprise they were still lined up, this time only 15-20 people deep.  We waited less than 5 minutes for 3 seats at the counter.

Service at this Hebrew Delicatessen is always fast and friendly, especially at the counter, where you get to watch the action of the guys pulling big slabs of smoked meats from the steam ovens to slice it expertly for the best smoked meat sandwiches in town.  Our cherry colas and cream soda were on the counter within a couple minutes followed by 2 orders of fries which are clearly made by Schwartz’s team and not the frozen variety from the large food supply companies.  The fries magically appear from the back room after a couple clicks of a button on the wall.  While we waited for our smoked meat sandwiches we watched them prepare a couple steaks, wieners and foie de beouf (liver steak).  In the dozen times we have eaten at Schwartz’s we have never had any other main courses other than smoked meat.  One of these days when I have more than 3-5 days in this great city I will try something else on the menu, but when time is limited I stick with the tried and true smoked meat. 

We ordered 2 sandwiches and a large plate of smoked meat with a stack of rye bread.  The sandwiches are piled high with meat and standard yellow mustard.  The smoked meat is perfectly smoked and seasoned with their special seasoning and served warm from their steam ovens, as usual the meat was tender, juicy and virtually melts in your mouth.  My one sandwich wasn’t quite enough so I decided I should help Phil with his large plate which we could see he was struggling to finish.  Lunch was very reasonably priced at $45 for 3 people and we left with tummy’s full of yummy smoked meat.

Dinner was quite late after hanging out at Jeff’s favourite Rue St Catherines watering hole for a couple hours.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a decent local chain restaurant “Le Steak Frites St Paul”.  They have been in business since 1986 and now have 14 restaurants in greater Montreal, just 5 years ago they adopted the ‘votre vin’ policy where you bring your own wine.  It’s not even an option to buy wine from them so you must be prepared to grab a bottle from the local SAQ (government liquor store) or a deppaneur (local corner store that sells wine and beer until 2300).

Even at 2200 we were told it was a 45 minute wait for a patio table so we opted to sit inside where the service was prompt and courteous although not terribly attentive.  We should not have bother ordering the fried calamari as it was heavily breaded and a bit overdone.  I was quite happy with my duck confit main course which included French green beans and mushrooms.  The serving of duck was generous with 2 legs of duck that were prepared beautifully and not too salty or over seasoned as I’ve found in other restaurants.  The 7 ounce steaks were well prepared and served medium rare as ordered.  All 3 main courses came with an endless supply of frites that were good but we resisted the temptation of finishing those they served us, that helped keep the calorie count for the day a bit lower!  No photos of this dinner but I’m happy to recommend their restaurants as decent quality and value.  Dinner for 3 with appetizers and mains, tax and tip was $115.

To Montreal - Thursday July 7

Our trip to Montreal started out with an Air Canada red-eye flight from Vancouver to Montreal on Thursday night to Friday morning.  Business Class service on domestic flights just is not what it used to be.  No cocktail before take-off, no warm mixed nuts served in ceramic bowls, just your choice of water or orange juice in a tiny plastic cup.  I guess we are supposed to appreciate the fact that this is better than what the other 150 people on the flight get, nothing for free (not even headphones or a blanket).  Needless to say the breakfast we were treated to at 0600 was at least hot and served with cheery smiles, but I won’t bore you with the details or photos of that meal, as there are many more interesting meals to share!  It was afterall airplane food...