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/

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

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.

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.

Dishcrawl "week" part deux

After the visit to l'Atelier, we walked to Macaroni Bar, a spot I would never step into. I would come back however to get a bigger portion of what we tasted, the fried gnocchi poutine. Instead of fries they deep fry gnocchi balls and then serve with a veal demi-glace and cheese curds. It's very rich tasting and very good. It's a bit expensive for a snack after drinking but it's all good. We also had pork meatballs served as lollipops but I didn't like the taste.


The night was officially over and some of us wanted to go to Juliette & Chocolat for dessert but it was already closed (11pm for a Wednesday) so we rushed to Lemeac as their kitchen closed only at midnight. I have never been to Lemeac even though I reserved there many times, thinking it was Laloux. Everytime I get to Laloux I'd have to ask the bartender to call Lemeac and cancel the reservation for me.


I'm told by the person in front of me at the table that everything is good at Lemeac. I had the chocolate tartelette with ginger ice cream which was ok.

Dishcrawl "week"

This week started on Wedneaday September 1st 2010. I had signed up for a dishcrawl where you pay $40 up front and you will be guided thru 4 courses at unannounced restaurants. It may be scary for you to surrender your meal decisions to a stranger but our local matchmaker @EatalianGirl was someone I trusted. We also had to wear walking shoes to go from place to place.

Our hostess with the mostess is @Ladyleet from San Francisco where she ran many successful dishcrawls. This event was to launch dishcrawl.com in Montreal. She is in love with our city and its food. As it turned out I got to show her many of my favorite spots in the city.

On our first stop of the evening we hit Restaurant Saluté on Laurier St for a porcini risotto served from a cheese wheel infused with saffron. I have had food served like this before but this was a first in Momtreal.

We walked to Lustucru, a market restaurant with a raw bar. I sampled salmon tartare (good), swordfish carpaccio with thin strawberry slices (meh), a beef tartare (not my kind of food), and duck carpaccio (i was praying for no salmonella).

The thrd stop was at L'Atelier where I wanted to go for the longest time. We had some foie gras on a toast (not for me) and a delicious cube of braised lamb. I will come back for sure.

Japanese Round-Up 2/2

Izakaya is a japanese drinking establishment that serves food to go with the drinks. It's like a tapas bar. It's all the rage now in North America as people look for a new trend to adopt.  A lot of the new japanese restaurants in Montreal are labeling themselves as such and some of the older restaurants also prominently display this to attract new customers. I went to two new izakayas last weekend. Note the Izakaya restaurant on Park is only a regular japanese restaurant.


Big in Japan is where Le Pistol used to be on St-Laurent, near the corner of Pine. It's advertised as a Brasserie Japonaise and the decor reflects the main selling point, drinks. Their main food gimmick is a series of skewered fried things. You can have meat ones (3.50$ for two, taxes included in all prices) and non meat ones (3.00$ for two). I had a small carrot and daikon salad (4.50$) which was warm and satisfying. The skewers arrived next with 2 jumbo panko fried shrimps and 2 triplets of quail eggs. The eggs were too soft (I guess they don't have a good way yet to deep fry them) but the shrimps were good.


I think they comped my 2 cups of tea because the last order took a while to arrive, a pork and potato stew. Unfortunately the pork was ground pork and in such little quantities it felt more like a garnish to the big boiled potato cut into fourths. I was the only person not drinking alcohol in the entire restaurant.


Last but not least is Kazu on Ste-Catherine and St-Marc. It's a tiny place with a counter for 8 people then tables for 12. The chef owner is rather talkative despite a weak english. He wants to knwo how is everything and throws a "see you tomorrow" as a goodbye. I had the lujnch special which is tuna on rice bowl. You have sushi rice at the bottom of this modern white bowl, bits of fresh tuna on top and a small cut lettuce salad at the top. Everything is covered in a miso dressing. I also ordered the soup of the day which was a tomato and rice or barley soup. The green tea isn't as good as at my favorite Furusato. This is definitely a place I will come back to explore the rest of the menu.

Japanese Round-Up 1/2

Last weekend I tried 3 japanese restaurants that have been discussed about on Chowhound. One was a real gem and the others are not so stellar.


Sumo Ramen bills itself as a ramen experience and some people seem to like it for its authenticity. I am not an expert on Japanese ramen joints but this place looks rather kitschy with dark orange walls glass covered tables. I ordered the japanese style fried chicken wings (5 for 3.75$, all prices include taxes) which is a greasier panko-covered wings dish. I also ate the Sumo Ramen bowl with soy soup (7.95$). This came with 3 fatty pork slices and the regular accompaniement of the soy (the other choice is miso soup) mix: seaweed, enoki mushrooms, half a cold soft boiled egg and chop suey. The chop suey is simply spicy marinated soybean sprouts. The soup was ok and the cold soft boiled egg didn't make it better. Despite the averageness of the food it's worth discovering with a group of friends and try out the other ramen bowls. They also have some dishes with rice.


On a different stretch of St-Laurent there's Ramen-Ya which is smaller and looks more upscale. They have a smaller menu as well as they don't have the bubble teas and other pan-asian items of Sumo Ramen. I had the gyoza which was quite well made even though the filling was tasteless. The gyoza skin was superb however. I got a pork belly ramen soup and this stock was much better than at Sumo Ramen.


It was fun to try out these new places but I am not keen on returning to these two any time soon.