While I was in Montreal, I found myself regretting not taking any French class beyond basic elementary. (Bonjour, je m'apelle, numbers, and pizza toppings can only get you so far.) It was especially hilarious when we found ourselves in an Uber with Pierre who spoke exclusively in French after LT mistakenly told him "I don't speak English."
Regardless, we got to our first destination of the day (Sunday brunch!) without a hitch.
Located in Saint-Henri, Foiegwa is billed as a trendy, upscale "diner". The restaurant is small and chic, filled with framed caricatures, marble tables, and brown leather banquettes. It's a popular spot, so we made sure to get there right when they opened.
Although there's a lot of controversy surrounding foie gras (namely how it's produced), it's considered a popular delicacy in French cuisine. The name of the restaurant (a bit tongue in cheek) alludes to the fact that you can add foie gras to any dish for $9.95. We didn't take them up on the offer, not because of ethical reasons, but because the food itself certainly doesn't lack decadence.
MH ordered the forestière omelette ($16.95) with button mushrooms and black pepper Boursin folded inside. The plate also comes with a side of crispy hashbrowns, chunky applesauce, and slices of tomato.
LT and I decided to share two dishes. First was the croque madame ($17.25). A classic French dish, a croque madame is basically a ham and cheese sandwich, slathered and baked with béchamel sauce, and then topped with a fried egg. It's understandably heavy considering the sum of its parts -- creamy egg yolk, rich béchamel, melty cheese. I do think it could have used a touch more salt to cut through the fattiness but I found the applesauce helpful with that as well.
The dish I was probably looking most forward to was the homemade spaghetti ($22.75). Perfectly cooked al dente, the spaghetti is prepared in a butter and black truffle sauce. A 64° egg is placed on top and then blanketed underneath shavings of Parmigiana Reggiano. When popped, the egg yolk just adds another element of creaminess. Considering it's pasta, it may look like a smaller portion, but because it's so rich with intense truffle flavour, you really don't need much more.
We desperately needed to walk off the calories from brunch, so we popped into Marche Atwater just across the street to look around. Open year-round 7-days a week, Marche Atwater is just one of the many public markets in Montreal where you can pick up fresh produce, meat, cheese, and bread.
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I believe it was the last week of the Calder exhibition so it was really crowded in the showroom. Still enjoyable though! My favourite pieces were the wire sculptures.
After leaving the museum, we walked a few blocks over to CandyLabs. CandyLabs is a boutique candy shop, specializing in handmade hard candies. If you look closely, the candies have custom images and designs, in a wide variety of flavours. The craftsmanship is absolutely amazing! If you're lucky, you can catch them constructing and rolling out a fresh batch. Although the candies are on the pricier side, they make fun souvenirs!
Later on, we walked down Saint-Catherine which is the main shopping street in downtown Montreal. It was way too cold to window shop and take a leisurely stroll so we were almost power walking to the next stop.
I always make a point to visit the observatories in the cities I travel to. It's an easy way to take all of the city in. I also find it a humbling experience to see how big some of these places are.
We were slowly getting hungry again so we left for an early dinner. It was about a 15 minute walk to the restaurant but it felt like a marathon in the biting cold.
When I was researching places to eat at in Montreal, I knew Kumamoto Ramen had to be at the top of the list. Kumamon is one of my favourite characters and this place also just brought back all the Japanese Ichiran feels. Although they have normal tables, their main draw is the solo dining booths designed for minimal human interaction. You have self-serve water, customizable order forms, call buttons, and a faceless pair of hands delivering your ramen from under a curtain.
As a starter, I ordered the iidako karaage, or deep fried baby octopus. I'm a big fan of the chewy texture of octopus and squid so these were up my alley. A tad greasy but I enjoyed these little nuggets. (Should I start a petition for McDonalds to come up with some octopus nuggets? No, just me?)
A steaming bowl of ramen felt like a godsend after spending time outside. I got the black tonkatsu ramen which was their original pork soup base with the addition of black garlic oil. The bowl also comes with chashu (your choice of fatty or lean), bean sprouts, kikurage (wood ear mushroom), negi (green onion), and a half tamago (egg). You also have a choice between straight or wavy noodles.
The first few bites and sips of the ramen were really satisfying, but after a while, the broth started to take on a bitter funky flavour. It was most likely the black garlic oil that did it so I'd probably opt for their regular tonkotsu bowl next time.
A short block away, we hit up the Montreal branch of Uncle Tetsu for dessert. Uncle Tetsu is a Japanese cheesecake chain that started in Japan and now has locations all over the world. There's multiple shops in and around Toronto, as well as a shop in Vancouver.
I first tried Uncle Tetsu's cheesecake when my brother brought one home from his trip to Toronto. Compared to the one we tried in Japan at Uncle Rikuro's, Tetsu is my favourite uncle (lol). Although the soft, fluffy textures are quite similar, Uncle Tetsu has a better, more pronounced flavour overall.
The turnover for a cheesecake is quite high, so you're likely getting one fresh out of the oven. After acquiring the goods, we high-tailed it home in an Uber and spent the rest of the evening eating cake. Sounds like my kind of night.
Fin!
- CT
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