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

Menu of the week - February 1st 2010

Even though last week's menu was tasty and enjoyable my tastebuds felt tired after eating so much food. Other things didn't work too. The soba was mushy on the last 2 days and microwaved roast pork is not that good. This week I only work 4 days so I will not make as much lunches (Tuesday is soup day). I also have to plan a menu for our Glee night on Friday.


I decided to make dishes based on what's on special at Provigo. Last week the spaghetti sauce was half price so we'll have some pasta. I'll enhance the sauce with tofu and edamame for the vegetarians in the group. The rest will have a simple beef hash with mirepox. This week we have 31-40 shrimps, large eggs, frozen vegetables and bacon on special. I'll make deviled eggs two way: a cilantro+nori mix and a mustard+garlic mix. I'll serve the shrimp cold with frozen vegetables boiled then cooled. There will be a sour cream+something dip. 


Breakfast box:
7 cooked shrimps
1 hard boiled egg
shredded nori
mayonnaise cilantro dip
6 Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits




Deviled Eggs:
12 hard boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
Mayonnaise
chopped cilantro (include stems) and chopped nori
old style grain mustard and chopped garlic
chopped green onion to garnish



"Fifth Element" Spaghetti Sauce - from my unpublished cookbook
ground beef - use firm tofu and edamame for vegetarian version
mirepox
garlic
soy sauce
crushed tomatoes (can is ok)
whole tomatoes (can is ok)
mushroom
tomato paste
vegetable oil
salt
pepper


Chop the garlic and mushroom. Cook the garlic and miraqua in vegetable oil until mushy. Add the ground beef, salt, and pepper and cook thoroughly. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add the crushed tomatoes and whole tomatoes and let the liquid reduce by half. Add soy sauce, turn heat to low and let simmer until the desired thickness is achieved. Add the mushroom at the very end of cooking.


Suggested serving: To achieve the full umami experience, serve with Parmesan Cheese and Red Wine.

Menu of the week

Warm weather costs me money. 


When it's warm in the winter like today (higher than -10C) I end up going on a large food shopping tour. Today I headed to Chinatown first to buy some pastries at Harmonie (6$), a dozen Egg Rolls (8.5$) and 1 pound of lean roasted pork (7.5$) at the butcher below Keung Kee (I don't kow the store's name!). I then headed to a market to buy tofu and gai lan (4$). I finished at the Hoang Oanh banh mi chain with some chả lụa and thach (5.5$).


I then took the 55 bus on St-Laurent to get to the corner of Mont-Royal. I walked to Kouign Amann for the 2nd best croissant (6 for 10.25$) in the city (store number one is closed on Sundays) and also got a slice of tomato+leek quiche for lunch (2.65$). I made my way to Romados for their famous roasted chicken (11$) and an apricot marzipan tart (10$) but they gave me an almond one instead. I walked to St-Urbain to take the 55 bus going south and stopped at Prince-Arthur St.


I walked to Marché Lobo to get cilantro and green onion (2.25$) for my omelet, 2 bags of cherries (6$) and Provigo for my whole wheat bread (3$). This concludes a shopping trip that cost me close to 70$. It yielded 5 breakfast sandwiches and 4 lunch boxes and extra vegetables and cherries and dessert.


The breakfast sandwich is the crab mix omelet slice and slices of chả lụa with Kraft Singles cheese on whole wheat 3g-per-slice bread. I mixed mayonnaise and cilantro stems and green onions for a spread. Material cost is 1.90$ per sandwich.


The lunch box has roasted pork pieces at the bottom, boiled gai lan and a cube of tofu over, and soba noodles on top. I will take the soba out first then reheat the rest in the microwave. Material cost for each box is 3$ with 2$ for the pork roast.