Pass up on this new Izakaya wanna be restaurant: Kinoya

It has been one year already since the last post. I have decided to do something I haven't done in a while which is to explore a new restaurant. Since I was dining alone I would have to eat a bit more and not share the rewards or disappointments.

Kinoya bills itself as a contemporary izakaya which is promising but with all the recent Japanese joints we had in Montreal, there is still no true good izakaya as in Toronto/Vancouver (Guu) or New York City. I didn't have very high expectations on this place based on the confused menu with a bit of everything in Japanese cuisine.

As I sat down I asked to skip the cold water and go for the green tea for this cold winter night. It was an ordinary green tea although it turns out to cost me 3.50$ for the pot! It's like a slap in the face after a disappointing meal. Many restaurants may list a price for the pot of tea but I have never been charged for one so far.

They gave me an amuse of "chicken salad" which has tasteless sliced boiled chicken, a thick piece of cucumber and a peanut sauce. It was blah. I ordered from the front of the menu, getting a bit of every section and not reaching the rice dishes or the noodles dishes. At the end of the meal I was given a card for a free appetizer on the next visit.

Takoyaki - 4 pieces for 5.75$
Typically cooked in a specialty iron pan, these are not prepared as such. It looks a lot like the frozen ones you can get at Imadake and the octopus was rubbery as you would expect from frozen seafood. The Worcestershire type sauce and shavings of dried bonito were authentic.

Agedashi Tofu - 3 pieces for 4.50$
This is a terrible dish both on taste and quantity. The tofu looked good with soft inside and crispy outside but biting into it revealed it was lukewarm and not freshly fried. I tried to cut through them with my chopsticks but the outside skin was too rubbery and would not cut cleanly. The sauce was too sweet for this preparation. Small points are awarded for the nori strips, grated daikon and minced ginger. This dish is best prepared at Furusato.

Kara Age - 5 pieces for 5.50$
This dish is best prepared at Imadake where you get real chicken wings with bones, tasty meat and crunchy skin. Here it's slightly better than the chicken nuggets at Azuma but they were still nuggets with a soggy skin. I think this is another reheated dish like the tofu. I was saddened by the side of mayonnaise in the bowl and the thin slice of lemon which didn't squeeze very well. The shichimi helped a bit but could not save the bland taste of the chicken although it was leg/thigh meat and not breast meat.

Yakitori special - 3 double skewers for 10.05$
The specials card says you can get up to 3 choices of yakitori but there are only 3 choices to choose from: Momo (chicken leg with sweet tare sauce), Sasami (chicken breast with same sauce), Tsukune (japanese sausage with same sauce). The Sasami was so bad I didn't finish the 2nd skewer. It was tasteless even with the generous drizzle of sauce on top. Clearly this was cooked ahead of time without any marinade or sauce. In NYC (Torishin & Taisho) the yakitoris came to me piping hot and tasty. The Momo was tasty because of the leg meat and the sausage was tasty too but I was getting full and it wasn't good enough for me to eat the 2nd skewer.

Kinoya roll (eel, fake crab, avocado, crispy rice with extra slices of avocado and eel on top, sweet sauce) 11.50$
This roll's quality is comparable to what you can get from Sushi Shop or Sushiman. The rice was dry (old?), the fake crab was cold, the eel was cold and chewy, the ginger tasted funny and was extra strong (old?). The crispy rice was soggy and tasted spicy. My tongue was burning from it and it was a good thing this was the last thing I ate because I couldn't taste anything after. For the best eel preparation in town go to Furusato for their eel/avocado roll or eel in rice bowl.

I felt sad by the end of the meal and was tempted to go to A&W to wash it all down with a good Mozza Burger. I would have to be accompanied next time to try the rice dishes and the noodle soups. You can have my free appetizer card.

Menu of the Day- November 18

The week is ending but here is my lunch.

Quinoa cooked in a chicken leg and beef rib stock. Ground pork hash. Fresh avocado slices. Herbed cream cheese.

For dessert, greek yogurt and a melon/orange/cardamom jam.

Meat hash recipe

This is a common building block as it can become spaghetti sauce or a casserole. You can use ground meat of any type: chicken, beef, pork, turkey.

1/2 lb of ground meat
1/2 a large red onion, diced
1/2 a bulb of garlic, thinly sliced
500 ml of crushed tomatoes, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking oil

1. Sweat the onion and garlic in oil on medium heat for about 5 minutes
2. Add meat and cook on high for 5 more minutes until meat is browned. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add tomatoes and lower heat to simmer for at least 15 minutes. Gently stir.

Fou d'Ici or Fous Desserts?

Fous Desserts is a great cake/chocolate/tea/croissant store near Laurier metro. It sells my favorite croissant on the continent. It carries awesome & decadent cakes and desserts. In the summer I drop by every Saturday to get my fix.

I don't know why I never told you about it before, maybe to keep the secret to myself. They were a participant in our croissant Dishcrawl back in October 2010. They were also chosen by La Presse as the best croissant in Montreal.

The best dessert I had is called "l'ecureuil" or "the squirrel". It's a tart with salty caramel filling and covered with nuts. You cannot eat more than one slice at a time but it's out of this world.

Another favorite is the King Kong and Belle Helene viennoiseries. The first is a mix of banana and dark chocolate while the second is poached pear and dark chocolate.

Fou d'Ici is a new gourmet grocery store in the Louis Boheme condominium complex at Place des Arts metro. They have basic staples as well as fresh producce, dairy section, cheese section and a butcher. The prices aren't outrageously expensive when you compare them to the nearby Provigo or Metro supermarkets.

I explored the bakery & pastry department first of course and was delighted to see they carry desserts from Rhubarbe, a really great cake maker (they are located near Fous Desserts and also a Dishcrawl spot). I tried a basic croissant and found it better than average with a crust that is buttery like at Fous Desserts.

I was also happy they have Chef Daren Bergeron from Decca77 participating as the kitchen chef as I enjoy many of his food already.

They carry other Montreal businesses items such as the corn chips from Maya (best tortilla chips).

Answer to the question: both Fous Desserts and Fou d'Ici deserve your attention and stomach space.

@foudici
@FousDesserts
@rhubarbe_mtl

Restaurant Review: Deville Dinerbar

This place recently opened near work so I decided to go explore it with coworkers for lunch. Service was efficient and quick and we were able to leave within 1 hour.

This 50s styled diner looks fancy and the staff is dressed accordingly. The bar seats are uncomfortable so don't linger too long on them. The menu is presented in a tall leather bound booklet and the pages are in thick card stock. Prices may seem steep for a diner but it's supposed to be luxurious and the portions are big.

First we had the "Disco Fries" at 10$ which is simply a fancy poutine with matchstick fries, veal demi-glace and a cheese mix. This was very good except at the end when it was too salty due to the demi-glace sitting at the bottom of the dish.

A coworker took the bacon wrapped meat loaf which looked huge but he was satisfied with it. 

I had the Chicken Schnitzel and Spaetzle at 19$ and it was a lot of food. I ended up eating 1/3 in the restaurant due to the Disco Fries. The chicken has a layer of ham and cheese underneath the crust and was generously doused with lemon and capers.

Another coworker had the Deville burger at $16 and it was a double burger with all the fixings.

This new addition to the downtown core is different than what currently exists and although it's not an exceptional discovery it's good enough for people to try it.

http://www.devilledinerbar.com/

Restaurant Review: Zenya

Don't let the downtown location fool you, Zenya is not a tourist trap but a capable Sushi joint provided you know what to order. The restaurant is very large and has the decor fit for the downtown scene.

I've been here 6 times in the last two years and the food has been consistent: what was bad/good the first time stayed bad/good on subsequent visits. Do not order the cooked dishes!

I've been spoiled with the traditional dishes at Furusato so when I tried ZenYa's versions, they were horrible in comparison. The miso soup and miso cod are pretty standard but stick with the sushi bar.

This is my go-to place for the best amaebi (raw sweet shrimp) in town. They always have fresh Pacific salmon which is a plus. The maki rolls, the unagi (eel) and ikura (salmon roe) Are also ok like everywhere else.

They don't have the selection of Isakaya but the quality is superior.

Restaurant Review: Ta Chido

This new Mexican "snack bar" has been open for only 10 when I dropped by for dinner. The seating area is tiny like Kazu but the kitchen in the back is large. There is a large funky painting running on one side of the room.


I ordered a Milanesa Torta (breaded beef) and Tinga de Pollo Quesadilla (chicken, chipotle, onion) with Algua Fresca (watermelon) and Frijoles (black beans). It was a lot but I wanted to try everything.

The quesadilla uses a handmade tortilla which explains its thickness. The chicken preparation had little flavor. A little more salt or spice would be welcomed. The provided pickled jalapeño and hot sauce helped a bit.

The cooked beans was flavorless. It was prepared in a broth but it could have been water too.

The beef sandwich had flavor! It was my favorite item. I'm not crazy with the bread though.

Ta Chido
5611 avenue du Parc
http://tachido.squarespace.com/

Menu of the week - October 3 2011

Maple Leaf "natural selections" (no preservatives) chicken with Gadoua's Tendre Ble bread and Liberte cream cheese.

Lunch will have President Choice lasagna, Romados chicken and roasted peppers.

Ugh the organic farmed roasted peppers gave me food poisoning. Gonna pass on small farmers for a bit now.

Restaurant review: Azuma

Someone strongly recommended this Japanese restaurant on Chowhound, saying they go there weekly. It mentioned they serve traditional dishes as well as sushi so I had to try.

I started with agedashi tofu which was pretty standard except the sauce was too salty to slurp. The Chicken Kara-age however was not as pretty. Instead of marinated chicken chunks which were then deep fried, I received bland chicken nuggets with a coating that was soggy and not crispy.

If they put so much care into the decor to make the place look homey, please spend some extra dollars to give us something better than the freezer section of Provigo!

The next item was a fried maki roll with salmon, tuna, avocado, spicy mayo, and tobiko. I was happy to see this because when I lived in Northern California I enjoyed the fried California roll from the restaurant Satsuma. This version however was not as special. The fried roll was not piping hot and the coating had time to get soggy. the flavors inside was so muddled you couldn't care less what was inside. The sweet sauce that accompanied didn't help.

The unagi was chewy. The tamago was not fresh (you can buy premade tamago at the market). Only the fresh salmon was up there with the other restaurants I go to.

Overall I was disappointed with this place although it did serve traditional Japanese dishes, a rare thing in our city.

Menu of the week - September 26 2011

I am still bringing sandwich ingredients to assemble at work for breakfast. I gotta get my "regularity" food now that I am over the hill.

We have Gadoua's Multigo bread (1$ offcoupon) with Lactantia butter and duBreton no-preservatives roast pork slices.

Provigo has their twice-a-year chicken breast mega-sale this week (boneless and skinless for 2.99$ a pound) so I boiled 4 breasts' worth of chicken pieces in butter and spices. I buy a soup+salad combo from the cafe downstairs to make a lunch with it.

I need to make a sauce for this "butter chicken"

Store review: Cerise sur le Gateau

This new pastry store on Fairmount is the latest addition to a wave of new businesses around Fairmount Bagels.

Last fall we saw the opening of Lawrence then Boulangerie Guillaume. This year we saw the arrival of my favorite ice cream spot Kem CoBa.

With my personal discovery of Barros Luco and their wonderful sandwiches I am ready to move into the neighborhood!

Cerise sur le Gateau is a small and simple bakery offering croissants, pastries and cakes. I tasted the croissant which was better than average but I am not a fan of the sweet egg wash. Other good offerings include the lemon tart and the eclair (au chocolat or au caramel).

My favorite item however is the madeleines. They are of the small and compact kind rather than the larger and airy type found at 3M Patisserie. There is a light lemon flavor and they received the seal of approval from two French coworkers.

Drop by to sample their pastries and cakes, it's worth it.

Web site: www.cerisesurlegateau.ca

From my desk

It's no fun to type this in the crude iPhone keyboard

Mamie Clafoutis

An outpost of this favored bakery opened recently near me on St-Denis so I had to go try a few of their offerings. Within just 2 visits I can tell this place will be part of my waistline next summer.


On the first visit I tried their plain croissant which had an incredible taste as though they sprayed some liquid sugar on the crust. Another friend found them uncooked however so I don't know. It still doesn't replace Fous Desserts' as my favorite in town. I also had the Tarte Tatin which had very good caramelized apple slices but the crust was somewhat bland.


On the second visit I tried the "cake" with salted caramel. It felt like a powdery pound cake but I really enjoyed it. The caramel wasn't salty at all though.I also had the "Ficelle Bleye" which is like ArHoMa's blue cheese baguette except the cheese was baked thru the entire bread as opposed to be just on the top and there were walnuts in it too. This made it a very satisfying light meal on its own.

Menu of the Week - November 15 2010

Breakfast: 2 slices of Gadoua Multigo (white whole wheat) bread, butter on one and mustard on the other. Prosciutto di Parma and Surimi slices.

Lunch: Romados grilled chicken pieces, boiled egg, blue cheese piece, soba noodles, boiled Chinese broccoli.

Snack: Yoplait cup (100g)

Bread and butter

I mentioned Au Pain Dore's 36 hour bread in the last post. It's a bread that is kept to rise for 36 hours before baking. The result is a more pronounced bread flavor that tastes a lot like a light sourdough bread. The crust is also different which makes this an all around good alternative to a "regular" baguette. Unfortunately for Au Pain Dore it's the only thing worth buying at the store as their competitors are much better at pastries, croissants and desserts.


To go with that bread I would suggest a nice tasting butter such as Lactantia's My Country butter. I am a fan of this brand since the 80s and even tried to have them ship it to me in California. Whenever there's a special at the market I buy 6 1-pound bricks to store in the freezer (each sealed in a plastic bag) so I never run out of it. I also use the half-salted butter with jams or to finish a sauce.

ArHoMa bakery

My friends who live in the  HOchelaga-MAisonneuve area has told me about this place before so I decided to drop by last weekend to have a sample. I found Philippe eating his breakfast there and he gave me a few of his recommendations. He made some of the art decorations in the store.


I tried a half-baguette which had a good crust. It wasn't bad but nothing extraordinary like the 36 hour baguette at Au Pain Doré. The magic came from the Ficelle Benedictine which is a soft baguette with blue cheese baked into the crust. This is like a super charged cheese croissant. I ate this with some prosciutto for lunch and it was heavenly.


Another specialty I also enjoyed is the croissant aux pistaches which is like an almond croissant but with pistachios instead. It's a little variation on a common theme that is quite interesting. This store also sells chocolates, jams, cheese and cakes. The desserts will be for another time.

A cheesy revelation

This year I really started to enjoy fancy cheeses. Previously I would eat cheddar or monterey jack only because it was safe and mild. In California I learned to enjoy pepper jack which is jalapeno laced monterey jack. No brie, no blue, no swiss, no mozzarella except if it came with pizza.


These days the mozzarella replaced cheddar as the safe cheese and I've been eating more of the soft goat cheese and blue cheese. In my trip to Switzerland this summer I had emmental and gruyere in the fondues and raclettes.


René from my choir had me taste all sorts of cheeses during our Glee soirées and my current favorite right now is the Bleu d'Elizabeth from Central Québec. Here's a good description from Chasing the cheese:


Bleu d’Élizabeth is an organic, cheese made from raw milk from both Holstein and Jersey cow. The cows feed on dry hay but are also pastured on clover, timothy grass, bluegrass and other organic grains. This semi-firm cheese has blue and sometimes green veining, as well as a natural rind. It takes its name from the church rectory of Sainte-Élizabeth de Warwick, located at the front of the farm.

Why Japanese food ?

When I moved to Northern California for work in the mid nineties, Japanese food was still a novelty for me. My coworkers would never eat Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese or other Asian food, they prefer Japanese food for health reasons. They also eat mostly chicken and turkey as their main protein but that's another story.  Eventually I didn't miss Chinese or Vietnamese food anymore, the Japanese food fulfilled my taste buds on the Asian flavors.


These days I eat at two Japanese restaurants weekly: Furusato for traditional at-home dishes and Kazu Izakaya for modern preparations of Asian ingredients.


At Furusato I often make myself a meal out of their appetizers section. They make the best Chicken Kara-Age in Montreal. I also enjoy the simple preparation of grilled mackerel or Oyakodon (chicken and egg over rice). The word 'oyako' means 'mother and child' and is either creepy or poetic when applied to a dish. The only things I miss is the amaebi and fried fish appetizer I enjoyed from Masa's Sushi in Mountain View. I get my fix of amaebi at Zenya on Ste-Catherine St.


At Kazu I like the smaller dishes which also lets me compose my own meal with several choices. I particularly like the shrimp okonomiyaki, a cabbage pancake not found elsewhere in Montreal. Do sit at the bar if you can so you can watch the food being prepared. I've been going to Kazu since their 2nd week of opening so I now know how every dish is prepared. There's only raw salmon and tuna in this restaurant so don't go if you just want sushi.

why Lego?

I decided recently that the only toys and games worth buying now are Lego's. Although I did buy a Transformer toy recently because it was 50% off, I will "invest" in Lego because even if I tire of them from time to time, they are infinitely reusable and compatible. 


ps: the nephews in California, can I have my Star Wars Episode 1 Lego sets back ?


I purchased the Lego Universe game recently and although it doesn't have as much content as World of Warcraft, it is very fun and has room for infinite play time with the built-in model designer. As part of your adventures you will collect pre-built models and single bricks. You can use the single bricks to form model parts and then manipulate the parts to form bigger models. The money that you also get from your adventures is not the main currency in this game and I think that's revolutionary for these kind of games.

Croissantcrawl

Last weekend we had Dishcrawl Montreal event #3, the croissantcrawl. As the weather was uncertain we decided to do it indoors and so we had 55 people tasting 9 different types. I'll let other people tell you about it.


Dishcrawl post
@FoodGuyMtl post

Dishcrawl "week" part trois

I wanted to write about the rest of the week's food experiences while @ladyleet was in town but I'll just summarize it now. 


Thursday - Kazu with @ladyleet
Friday - break
Saturday noon - Noodle Factory in chinatown with @ladyleet, @EatalianGirl, and @cgoldwax. We also went to Qing Hua dumplings
Saturday evening - I followed @ladyleet to Restauramt Biron where I met @massaymaha and @calliope27, two gals working in the social media scene at @Telegraphe. It's asian food made by a white guy and there are innovative preparations of the foods I know.