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