I Apologize in Advance for the Yum that is to Follow; Now you have to go to Montreal. Oh Yeah, Montreal: Part 5

I'm lucky that Christopher loves good quality, local food, just as much as I do.  Neither of us are interested in dining at fast food restaurants, or chain restaurants on vacation (or ever, really), and a big part of our travel centers around exploring the cuisine of our destination.  We've definitely ate our way across Montreal over the course of the week, and even locals were surprised at how well we researched the food before arriving. 

We watched a few food TV shows on YouTube last week, including Bizarre Eats.  One of the dishes featured was a duck poutine, and Christopher was sooooooo excited to try this (okay, I was pretty excited too).  There is a store in Montreal called Lac Brome Lake that sells a huge selection of duck, fois gras, and other duck products. 

Next door, is a fabulous gin-centered pub, called Le Pourvoyeur, that uses it's neighbors products to make their poutine canard, a duck poutine, or a little bowl of heaven.

We showed up pretty early in the day on Monday, but saw that the pub did not open until 3:00.  The boy insisted that we come back the next day at 3:00 on the dot.  After touring the biodome, insectarium, botanical gardens, and Old Montreal, we made our way back to Le Pourvoyeur and ordered the epic duck poutine.

The fries are fried in duck fat.  They are then topped with squeaky cheese curds, and fois gras gravy.  If that's not enough, it's then topped with duck confit.

Oooooooooooh mammma!  Let's have one last look at that, shall we ...

It did not disappoint.  As our fabulous server described it; it's fatastic!  Or maybe she said fatasstic.  Hmmmmmmm.

After this epic dining experience, we went and danced the calories off during a three hour DJ set by Mr. Scruff, a British electronic music producer, whom we really enjoy. 

We felt pretty lucky that we stumbled upon this poster a few days prior, and there were still tickets available.  The venue was the tiniest I've ever been in, which made it even better.

Opener Andy Williams - sooooo good too!

We danced until our legs no longer worked, and then managed to walk home on wobbly legs, stopping to grab a smoked meat sandwich and a little dish of spaghetti to-go.  We were hoping for a side of ride-home, but they didn't seem to offer that at the restaurant.  Our feet were soooooo tired!

Would you try a duck poutine?

Montreal Part 4

Getting out of one of the metro stations in Montreal, we saw a public piano that anyone could sit at and play.  We've heard a lot of great musicians playing around town, on the street, or underground by the metro.  The appreciation for the arts here is very evident.

On Tuesday we took the metro to the Biodome. 

We explored the biodome, insectarium, and the botanical gardens.  Our favourite part of the insectarium was the huge ant colony exhibit.  It was absolutely fascinating, and I could have watched the ants all day.  The worker ants all climbed up a few different branches, and were slowly clearing all of the leaves and flowers from the tree, and returning pieces back to the colony.  You could watch hundreds on their travels up to the foliage, and then see them come back down again with their haul.

This was not behind glass, so you could really get close and watch the little guys carefully.

We also really liked the botanical gardens.

After recently seeing Flight of the Butterflies at the Imax, it was really cool to see a monarch sanctuary in person, with a tagged monarch hanging out.

After an educational, and fun morning, we moved along to Old Montreal.  The area was beautiful, but honestly, not really our speed.  There were quite a few chain restaurants, and nothing but souvenir shops, lineups, and streets crowded with tourists.  We had initially planned on going into the Notre Dame Basilica, but there was no way we were waiting in the line.

We stopped and shared some veggies and wonton tacos in a sports bar.

The wonton tacos were fantastic!

The day was great, but the evening was even better - more to come.

Happy Friday!  What are you up to this weekend?

(We're spending Saturday in Montreal, and Sunday doing nothing but watching TV, eating vegetables, and relaxing at home).

Montreal Part 3

Remember when I said that the line for Schwartz's was really long? 

Proof ...

For breakfast on Monday we shared a crepe from La Crepe 2Go.  The service at this little mom-n-pop shop was excellent.

We wandered around Jean-Talon market, and learned a little bit about one of our favourite spices, turmeric.  Apparently solid turmeric is as hard as stone, and regular spice grinders cannot be used for it.  You either need a stone mortar and pestle, or a new grinder that's the only one of it's kind. 

We bought a small spice grinder (not the fancy one that can grind turmeric, since I doubt we can get solid turmeric at home anyway).  We also picked up some really strong, dried mushroom sausage.

It made a great snack with some wine, cheese, and beer sausage.

We visited The Main for a smoked meat poutine, as recommended by our friend Jesa.  It was delicious!  We shared this one, but could have definitely gone for another right after!!  The menu at this restaurant looked incredible - we sort of wanted to eat everything.

For dinner in the evening we visited Burritoville, also recommended to us by a friend, Elaina.  The food was fresh, nutritious, and full of flavour, and the live music made it even better.  We've been enjoying vegetarian meals in between smoked meat and poutine (you know, balance).

Tonight we're going out for a fancy dinner!

What's on the menu for you this evening?

Montreal Part 2

Our first full day (Sunday) in Montreal was exactly that - full.  We walked over 20,000 steps over the course of the day, covering an insane amount of ground and numerous areas in Montreal. 

Things we noticed right away about Montreal:

- There is a lot of really nice graffiti art on buildings all over the city; it's everywhere

- We have heard a lot about Montreal smoked meat and poutine, but we never expected to see so many rotisserie chicken places.  People here must realllllly love their chicken.  Seriously, it seems like there is a rotisserie chicken shop on every street, and they all look sooo good, and smell amazing.  It's on our list!
- There are a lot of pretty spaces in between buildings

- There are very few chain restaurants (Old Montreal had the most of any area we've seen here yet)
- We have not yet encountered someone who could not speak English; if we say "hello" they instantly start to speak English to us
- Poutine is everywhere, and none of the poutine places skimp on gravy; there is usually a pool of gravy left in the dish; no need for ketchup for those leftover dry fries!
- There are beautiful cathedrals all over the city

 

We started our day on Sunday by walking to St. Viateur Bagel.

We enjoyed our bagels with some iced teas from David's Tea.

These bagels are widely recognized as the best in Montreal.  They were good, but I don't think they compare to NY bagels.

Later, we wandered to Schwartz's for a smoked meat sandwich. 

This place is very famous, and the line up is always insane.  We went through the take-out side, which is much quicker, and got one hot smoked meat sandwich to share.

I was surprised that the sandwich was on very small, thin pieces of regular bread.  There wasn't enough bread for the amount of meat.  The meat was very flavourful, and extremely tender and moist.  We both agreed that the sandwich needed more mustard, and a pickle or something for a bit more flavour and crunch.  I'm having trouble understanding why people would wait in an insane line for these; although, to be honest, I kind of want to go have another one, just to be sure I'm not missing something, or perhaps to try something else on the menu.

While walking along, we came across Park La Fontaine, which is absolutely beautiful!

In The Village (also called The Gay Village), we had fun people-watching, as it was the last day of Pride Week, and a lot was going on.  The street was packed, and a lot of fun. 

Later in the afternoon we shared a classic poutine at La Banquise, a restaurant famous for having the best poutine in Montreal, and our third dish recommended by a food TV show of the day (the bagels and smoked meat sandwich were also from food TV recommendations). 

This poutine was really good, but we still liked the one from Nyk's the most.

We continued walking, admiring the sites along the way.

After resting our feet in the room for a while, we had a very full and fun evening.  We started with a vegan dinner at Aux Vivres.

I got a beet, carrot, apple juice, and Christopher's was made with ginger, apple and lemon.

We shared a soup to start.

And then I had the dragon bowl, and Christopher had a veggie burger.

After dinner we went to a cool cigar and martini lounge called Stogie. 

After the cigar lounge, we went to a rooftop terrace for a beverage, before heading back to the hotel.

* I'm currently listening to Christopher repeat words after his phone as he completes Lesson 1 of Rosetta Stone: French.  He's so cute.