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.