SNAPSHOTS | MONTREAL 2019 | DAY 4

One of my bucket list items is to travel to Paris and eat all the baguettes, croissants, and pastries in sight. But until then, a kouign amann in Montreal will have to suffice.

Pâtisserie au Kouign Amann is a humble bakery located in the Plateau neighbourhood of Montreal. (I hope they know their sign has a typo; that's why spell-check is important kids). Their namesake pastry, the kouign amann (pronounced queen ah-mahn), is a French pastry that translates to "butter cake." It's sometimes described as a caramelized croissant, as there are layers of dough folded with copious amounts of butter and sugar.

I often see kouign amann shaped into muffins or pinwheels but this patisserie does it the authentic way, large cakes, not unlike pizza, served sliced in individual wedges.

MH ordered an almond croissant ($2.95) while LT and I shared a kouign amann ($2.15). The staff placed our baked goods into paper bags but we decided to wait for one of the three tables to open up rather than going out into the cold.

One thing I noticed right away in my first bite was the crispy caramelized crust. It was almost like a candy shell with bits and pieces getting stuck in our teeth. Thankfully it's not all sweet, as there's a hit of salt to the chewy layers.

It didn't take too long to finish up before we were off to our next destination.

Vacation diet in Montreal could only mean one thing -- it's finally time for some good old Canadian salad! 

But where does one go for poutine in the province that it was invented? It's too bad I missed out on Bon Appetit's poutine video (which sadly came out after my trip), but many other blogs and reading material steered me in the direction of La Banquise.

Established in 1968, La Banquise is a Montreal institution. It's been recommended by Anthony Bourdain and awarded the title of "best poutine" in reader polls. Although it's open 24 hours, there's almost always a lineup during peak times. We came around 11:00am on a Tuesday and it was fine.

With over 30 different types of poutine, it can be hard to narrow it down. I decided to go for the classique poutine -- just straight up fries, cheese curds, and gravy. The regular portion ($7.75) is huge, so it's probably a smart idea just to share an order. The cheese curds are melty and most importantly, squeaky! I wouldn't say it's the best poutine I've ever had, but hey, when is poutine ever bad? 

LT had the dan dan (regular $9.60) with pepperoni, bacon, and onions. If you can believe it, this is one of their tamer poutine creations. The pepperoni and bacon certainly upped the sodium content of the plate.

With bellies full of potatoes, we walked off the calories -- only to find ourselves in a macaron shop (although if you know me, it wasn't a coincidence).

Point G opened in 2008 by pastry chef Julien Reignier. It was Montreal's very first bakery dedicated to just macarons. A half dozen was only $10.00 so of course we had to fill a box! The flavours I chose were the exotic (mango and passion fruit), crème brûlée, lime, red velvet, raspberry litchi, and lemon. The texture of the shells were textbook but I thought the fruit flavours tasted a bit artificial. My favourite was probably the red velvet which had a cream cheese filling.  

Next on our food-filled agenda was a trip to Jean Talon Market located in the heart of Little Italy. Similar to Atwater Market, Jean Talon is open year-round 7-days a week. We bought a handful of souvenirs from here, including chocolate from Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois. Aside from cool packaging and amazing chocolate, the staffer at the stall was also really nice. We probably gave off tourist vibes and we ended up in a conversation about her brother who also lives in Edmonton -- small world indeed.

We headed back to the Airbnb to drop off our haul and then spent the next couple of hours exploring the neighbourhood. Our apartment was right across the street from the Montreal Convention Centre so we popped in to take a couple of pictures. The rainbow glass windows brought back memories of being a student at ECHA.

The World Trade Centre was also closeby. You wouldn't expect a place of business to be a worthwhile tourist destination, but the fountain and architecture is office goals.  

It was really difficult to navigate Old Montreal because of the cold and the icy narrow sidewalks. Our last stop before we headed back home was Le Petit Dep.

A quaint little "convenience store" with lots of cute vintage touches. The tables and shelves are full of quirky Montreal souvenirs and gourmet treats. It also operates as a cafe with pastries and a breakfast/lunch menu. Although small, there's something interesting to find in every nook and cranny.

Afterwards, it was back to the Airbnb to defrost and rest up before dinnertime, which happened to be at ...

Otto Bistro, brought to you by the same team behind the popular Otto Yakitori Izakaya. They describe themselves as a Japanese restaurant with French bistro sensibilities. It's a departure from the traditional tapas and charcoal skewers served at their izakaya, instead focusing on Japanese homestyle cooking with French techniques.

Located in Le Plateau, it's a small, cozy restaurant with friendly, personable service.

We started the meal off with an order of croquettes ($9.00). Made with burdock root, potatoes, and a bocconcini centre. The sauce underneath was a thick tomato miso paste.

These were really tasty, almost like a Japanese mozzarella stick complete with a marinara-like flavour.

We also got the entree-sized karaage ($12.00), which comes with five pieces of fried chicken, kale, yuzu mayo, and pickled watermelon radish. The chicken is coated in potato starch to give it a thin, crispy exterior. We got the chicken "truffled" (+$2.00) which means a quick toss in a sweet truffle soy sauce. I didn't get much truffle flavour out of it but it was still delicious! The meat was super juicy and succulent.    

MH got one of the feature specials, the grilled salmon collar ($24.00) with salad, marinated vegetables, ponzu, and grated daikon radish. Fish collars are not the prettiest cuts, nor are they the easiest to eat, but it's one of my favourites for the rich, fatty meat.

Our final dish was a plate of mazemen. Mazemen comes from maze, which means "to mix," and men, which refers to noodles. It's essentially a brothless ramen, served with an assortment of toppings that you mix together.

I had my eye on their uni mazemen for the longest time, but because of a snowstorm in Vancouver, they were unable to get a fresh shipment in. So we made do with the ikura hotate mazemen ($26.00). Scallop, salmon roe, chili oil, cucumber, cilantro, chives, and shallots. It's also served with a whole roasted bone marrow! The noodles were slightly spicy, punctuated with the briny, salty pops of the salmon roe. There was so much going on, but it was a great adventure going from each bite to the next.

Since we were in the area, we decided to walk back to Fairmount Bagel after dinner. After we decided they were our favourite in the great bagel debate, we wanted to pick up a couple dozen more to bring back home to Edmonton. We saw some cool murals along the way and risked hypothermia, but in the end, carbs will always be worth it.

Fin!

- CT

SNAPSHOTS | MONTREAL 2019 | DAY 3

Monday morning in Montreal! While everyone else was power-walking into work, we took things nice and easy, starting with a leisurely trip to a coffee shop just across the street from our apartment.

Melk, which is 'milk' in Dutch, is located just next to the Place d’Armes metro station. It's also attached to the Montreal Convention Centre, but the coffee shop can only be accessed from the outside.

This is Melk's third location, having just opened at the beginning of the year. The aesthetics scream hipster, as do the staff. 

The tables remind me of school desks in a way, a little cramped and not where you want to stay for a long period of time.

I'm not a big coffee drinker so I opted for a matcha latte ($3.91). It was one of the better matcha lattes I've had. Lightly sweet, and not overly bitter. MH had the chai latte ($3.91) and LT had a maple latte ($4.13).

After finishing off our drinks, we headed out to the Mile End neighbourhood to get some breakfast.

Open from 8am-1am daily, Larrys is a small neighbourhood joint that you can pop in for any occasion. It's a breakfast place, a cafe, a tapas restaurant, and a wine bar all wrapped up in one cozy package.

There was a bit of construction going on outside the restaurant but that didn't stop the lively vibes inside. It would have been a long wait for a table to free up so we opted to sit at the bar.

The menu is tapas-style, featuring a long list of small plates that you can pick and choose from to build your meal. The same mix-and-match approach applies to breakfast.   

Because we were planning to go for more food after (bagels!), LT and I decided to share an order of 2 eggs ($2.50 each), a sausage ($4.00), bubble and squeak ($4.00), and toast and butter ($3.00). We got the eggs scrambled, and they were perfectly prepared. Soft, creamy, and slightly runny. The chives were also a nice touch. The sausage is housemade, and also available for purchase at their sister butcher shop (Boucherie Lawrence) located around the corner. But a new discovery and my favourite item from the bunch was the bubble and squeak. Bubble and squeak is a British invention that re-purposes leftover vegetables from a typical roast dinner. It's mostly comprised of potatoes and cabbage, mashed together and then shallow-fried. It was a bit greasy but the seasoning and textures were on point. 

After we finished eating, we explored Mile End for a bit. It's a hip, artsy neighbourhood with eclectic boutiques, bookstores, restaurants, and cafes. It also has its fair share of Montreal institutions, including residential streets with character homes and spiral staircases. We were freezing cold so we popped into a few vintage shops along the way for warmth.

The Montreal equivalent of the battle of Alberta is battle of the bagels! The two iconic bakeries -- St. Viateur and Fairmount -- are located within blocks of each other, both open 24/7. It's a friendly rivalry, with no clear-cut public consensus on who makes the better bagel.

Before I weigh in on the debate, just know that Montreal-style bagels will change your life, as it did mine. The Montreal bagel is a little sweeter, as it's boiled in honey water before being baked in a wood-burning oven. This gives you a chewy interior and a crispy, toasty outside. Once you have one fresh, all other bagels (I'm looking at you Timmies) will be ruined forever.  

We started with St. Viateur, even though it was further away as we needed time to digest breakfast. Since opening their doors in 1957, St. Viateur has grown to over seven bakeries, three of which are restaurant hybrids. Their flagship proves to be the most popular, with lineups through the door.

Considering their high production volume, it's amazing that a lot of it is still done by hand. This includes rolling and shaping each individual bagel. Who knew bagels are like snowflakes? Fascinating.

St. Viateur makes nine varieties of bagels, but sesame is the classic. We ordered half a dozen, including an extra one to try on the spot, but they only charged us for the six. A single sesame bagel is $0.90 if memory serves me right.

Unfortunately the bagel we got wasn't warm but it was still good. It had a harder crust and was a little more dense in the middle. MH preferred this one.   

The walk over to Fairmount was another cold one. It was very cramped quarters in the bakery as well, with floor-to-ceiling crates of bagels just waiting to be shipped out.

Fairmount also has a long history in Montreal, opened since 1919 (1949 in its current location). They produce a wider selection of flavours but the classic is classic for a reason. The sesame bagel ($1.00) was still warm when we got it which seemed to tip the scales in their favour. I found the Fairmount bagel to be more chewy, as it was thicker and fluffier. There was a lot more sesame seeds around the outside too.

Since I wanted to do a fair comparison, we also did a blind taste testing when we brought both bagels back to Edmonton. After we popped them in the toaster, the two bagels were very similar in their chewy textures. In the end, Fairmount still won out for me -- I noticed that it had a better, nuttier flavour.

With a tote bag full of bagels, we took an Uber up Mount Royal. It's a small mountain located pretty much in the heart of the city. I for one did not know that Montreal drives its name from 'Mount Royal.'

The lookout was quite nice as you can see a good view of downtown. I thought the observatory views from the previous day were better (and indoors!), but at least the mountain is free. We also spent some time in the chalet, which has tables and chairs, as well as public washrooms inside.

Next, we were off to another cafe! Confetti Cafe & Glaces is a newly opened cafe, located in the Le Plateau - Mont-Royal area. What drawn me here was the unique, eccentric decor.

They didn't have an English menu yet but we already kind of knew what we wanted based off of their Instagram. MH got her favourite almond croissant and LT ordered the affogato, with espresso poured over a chocolate brownie, scoop of ice cream, and dark chocolate dome. She was a bit disappointed that the chocolate dome didn't really melt when the hot espresso was poured over.

I ordered their ice cream sandwich after seeing drool-worthy pictures of salted caramel oozing onto the plate. Unfortunately they switched the flavour out with molasses cookies, chocolate ice cream, and frozen chocolate ganache. As I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, I didn't enjoy it as much. Since it was pre-assembled and frozen, the cookies were also a bit hard to bite into at first.

We had late dinner plans so we retreated back to the Airbnb to take a break and rest up.

Leméac was the last item on our agenda. We came for their late night prix fixe menu, which includes your of choice of appetizer and entree for only $28. It's a steal of a deal when you consider that a regular entree starts at $29 and can cost up to $52. The only caveat is that the special menu is only available after 10pm. (Although I'm usually in bed by 10pm, this Asian grandma knows a great deal when she sees one.)

We arrived a bit early for our reservation (around 9:45) because we were eager beavers. Although they seated us, our waiter mentioned that he couldn't take our order until 10pm.

For our appetizer round, LT got the crab cake. The crab cake was packed full of crab with very little room for filler. It had a breadcrumb coat which was fried up crispy and light. It was served on top of a smear of sauce gribiche, a creamy, briny mayonaisse made chunky with bits of egg, pickles, and capers. The accompanying cucumber salad was spiralized like noodles, a bite of something fresh to balance out the fried.

Seeing as we were in a French restaurant, MH went for the escargot, intermixed in a portabella and tomato ragout with basil sauce. MH offered up one of her snails so I was able to try one for the first time. To me, it had a similar taste and texture to mussels, but a little chewier.

I went for the grilled calamari and zucchini. The dish included both rings and tentacles, along with slices of zucchini. It almost tasted "Asian" to me, as there was some definite wok hei going on. It could have been the charred bits from the grill but whichever way they cooked it, it was amazing. I'm also biased because I love squid, but I would've been happy with just another plate of this for my entree.

Speaking of entrees, LT decided to go classic French with the steak frites, a grilled beef hanger steak and French fries. Although it's not the most expensive cut of a cow, hanger steak is known for being tender and full of beefy flavour. I switched entrees with LT halfway through the meal and was impressed with how tender the steak was. They were a bit heavy-handed with the salt, but otherwise, we had no other complaints as it was cooked to a perfect medium rare.

Also, if I had known that there would be a mountain of French fries with the steak frites, I probably would have chose a different side for my own entree ...

... which was the truffle oil salmon tartare. MH ordered the same thing, but had wisely chosen the side of green beans instead

The salmon tartare was mixed together with chives, diced onion, and lotttts of truffle oil. Although I do love a strong truffle flavour, it almost became too much to finish. I also wished that there was more crostini to go around, although you could probably ask for more.

We were pretty full but dessert was not to be missed. MH ordered the banana and dates sticky toffee pudding with a quenelle of vanilla ice cream ($13.75). Reminiscent of a banana bread with lots of sweet caramel. 

I knew before ordering the pain perdu ($14.75) that it would be pretty big, but I didn't know it would come out looking like a brick on a plate. The French toast "loaf" was topped with dulce de leche ice cream and maple caramel. It was decadent and delicious, but also very sweet. We could have brought another friend (or two) to finish it.



Fin!

- CT