Larry

After many "experiments" to get my younger sister to eat fish I finally found one a few years ago that she approved of and now even requests it, but only at home. She still never orders fish when out. It must be a white, thin fish, either turbot, sole or tilapia. Smother both sides with excellent pesto, dip both sides into a mix of breacrumbs, touch of cornmeal and freshly grated parm or romano. Place on a preheated lightly oiled baking sheet and drizzle with just a touch of olive oil. Bake and then broil for the last 30 seconds.

Well, I am very excited and I wish you all the luck. As Carswell mentioned, if you build it, they will come. Montrealers, well at least the ones that I know, are always willing to try out new places. If you are planning to be on Mont Royal I would recommend offering some good breakfast options. Including things with eggs like I've had some at the Vancouver location. The two major breakfast places on Mont Royal, L'Avenue and Beauty's are always packed on the weekends and getting the overflow, (at first) would be good. In addition, seasonal and city focus would be good. Quebec cheeses, chocolates, meats, etc. We have some wonderful cheese and bread makers right here! No stale paninis, please!!!!!! That seems to be the only food option in coffee places when I am meeting a friend but still want a bit to eat. Even just some regular sandwiches and nice salads. Is it just me or does it seem that we have gone overboard with the grilled sandwiches? Wow, this sounds so demanding, but I'm just telling you so that you get a twentysomething's opinion in addition to the type of stuff that as a customer would make me go once and keep returning.

Yes, I was just in Vanouver and wishing we had something like Cafe Artigiano here in Montreal. We can always use a new coffee house here especially one wth quality food! The food choices at Second Cup, Starbucks, etc are pathetic. I ususally find myself stopping off at a bakery and picking something up before grabbing a cappuccino. I know this is me completely dreaming, but I would love a coffee shop that gives a nice square of dark chocolate with my beverage, has small scones with no crusty icing, even good slices of toast with a variety of jams and honey as an option. Also, some good desserts to enjoy after dinner. The downtown dessert place scene has definitely declined so a new place to stop in for a good piece of chocolate cake with a scoop of hazelnut gelato would be nice. But then again, this is just me dreaming. Have you heard of the Le Pain Quotidien in Europe and the US? It is not a coffee shop but the simple breakfast that is offered is wonderful and something that cannot be found in Montreal. What locations are you considering?

Being Ukrainian we won't be celebrating Easter till Mayand my mom and I will be baking Paskas and Babkas the week before. Both breads are round and tall and we usually bake them in tall cans or deep springform pans. Paskas are a richer version of Kolach (the Christmas egg bread) and the Babkas are even sweeter and richer, similar to brioches and usually glazed. Paska can either be made with oil or butter, but Babkas are made with lots of butter and egg yolks.

The best vegetarian in Ottawa that I have had so far has been at Roses Cafe on Dalhousie and at their other location on Gladstone. Haveli's on Robertson Road in Bell's Corners also has a pretty good vegetarian selection. I have yet to try out Coconut Lagoon, but I have heard great reviews from friends.

For Marcona almonds, macadamias and almond paste I would suggest Laurier Gourmet or Latina on St Viateur. Also, check out Freno Vrac on St Laurent. There is another organic bulk food store on Parc but I am foregtting the name at the moment, they always have good quality nuts and dried fruits. Those date bites sound delicious, are they Middle Eastern? Good luck

Varenyky can be made with so many fillings and they are easy becuse you can use the same dough for all of them. The basic savoury fillings are the potato, bacon and cabbage and wild mushroom. My grandfather serves them for dessert too with a sour cherry compote filling, blueberries, apples, pressed cottage cheese with raisins and honey. The fruit filled ones are great with sour cream as well as the savoury ones. May I also suggest cabbage rolls for your buffet. You can make them little three bit ones, both vegetarian and non veg. For the veg ones you can make a filling out of kasha, rice or both mixed with some shredded carrots, onion and dill. The meat ones are traditionally filled with ground pork or beef with either rice or kasha again. Platters of various sliced kiebalsas and smoked fish, with horseradishes (red and white), pickled beets, crispy pickles, and rye crostini are also good grazing platters. Think of it as a Ukrainian antipasto platter. As for salads, a combo of cucumber, green onion, sour cream and dill is nice to accompany the starchier parts of the meal. Smoked salmon on blinis is also a good idea with lots of dill and lemon. As for Ukrainian desserts I most commonly see walnut tortes, ricotta/cottage cheese cheesecakes, honey cakes, prune filled rugelach type cookies or just fresh strawberries topped with sour cream and brown sugar (we call it a Ukrainian summer sundae). Hope this gives you some ideas

I would try to avoid Sante, been there twice and never a memorable meal. I would second Beckta and Eighteen. There is also Domus, but haven't been there since the summer. I heard that John Taylor (Domus) has shifted his interests to a new venture so I'd also love to know how the food is holding up.

There was a good pumpkin bread recipe in this month's (Dec 2004) Cooking Light magazine. It calls for 4 large egg whites but I just used 2 whole eggs and it turned out great. I also added a mix of dried fruits instead of the chocolate chips. The recipe makes 2 loaves and is perfect for breakfast as it isn't too sweet.

You can't eat carrots because they have lots of carbs, so do peas, corn and beets. There are still so many other vegetables left. I do a modified south beach this time of the year (I still eat fruits), and usually have a some form of salad for dinner with a protein on top: grilled fish, chicken, tofu, chickpeas, etc.

Trend that the entire world should adopt...

Hasn't this been going on for a while? Well, at least in Montreal

It's chilled vin de noix! Very good with a cheese called bleu d'auvergne. Is this something that you serve mixed or straight? Of what "noix" does it taste? I am intrigued. Do you ever shop at hypermarchés? Or are they mostly for people who live outside of the city? We stayed outside of Lyon and would drive in each day passing a few large ones, we would stop in and always get snacks for the road. Thank you again for all the pictures, including all of the steps that go into the final dish.

Of course, everything in moderation, too much of anything is bad for our health. I thought that you actually meant that there was something wrong with brown rice...as if it were toxic or contaminated.

Do you mean that in the long run brown rice is bad for us??? I can't read japanese

I think this one is going to go down in the best of blogs section. Might have to take a detour on my trip to London this summer and head back to Lyon!!!! Everything looks fantastic, the bread, the cheese, produce.

Went to pick up some Viateur bagels and they were huge, practically no hole in the middle!!!! Why is this happening? Do more people want to make sandwiches with their bagels these days, or just want more room to drape their lox on top? They were also a bit more heavy tasting. Does any one else feel this way? I think there should be two types, fat and classic thin ones. I am sorry to say this but I am starting to like my Ottawa Bagel Shop Bagels more these days because they are still fairly thin.

Whenever in Kingston my stops are Chez Piggy, their affiliated bakery and White Mountain Ice Cream. The food at Chez Piggy is simple but always good and they had a pretty good vegetarian menu. It is very casual, nothing pretentious in Kingston.

Traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Easter Lunch for us was the following, including some non traditional add ins: Plain Paska with golden rasins (slightly sweet egg bread) Whole Wheat Paska (we've been expermimenting and this one actually came out quite nicely) Rye Bread Various homemade sausages, kielbassa (heavy on the garlic) Whole baked ham Liverwurst Bresaola/Capicollo Wild smoked salmon and lox Smoked Bacon Devilled Eggs Avocado, Tomato and Red Onion Salad Baby Potato Salad with Lemon and Dill Regular Potato Salad with homemade mayo Mixed Greens dressed with lemon and evoo Half Sour Pickles Plain homemade Horseradish Red horseradish (with chunks of beet of course) Flourless Walnut Torte Orange Ricotta Cheesecake Almond Biscottis Almond Shortbread crecsents Babka (an even sweeter egg bread, similar to baba au rum minus the rum) Platter of fresh fruit Lots of chocolate eggs for my sister and just bars of 85% for me....they don't make eggs that dark

Traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Easter Lunch for us was the following, including some non traditional add ins: Plain Paska with golden rasins (slightly sweet egg bread) Whole Wheat Paska (we've been expermimenting and this one actually came out quite nicely) Rye Bread Various homemade sausages, kielbassa (heavy on the garlic) Whole baked ham Liverwurst Bresaola/Capicollo Wild smoked salmon and lox Smoked Bacon Devilled Eggs Avocado, Tomato and Red Onion Salad Baby Potato Salad with Lemon and Dill Regular Potato Salad with homemade mayo Mixed Greens dressed with lemon and evoo Half Sour Pickles Plain homemade Horseradish Red horseradish (with chunks of beet of course) Flourless Walnut Torte Orange Ricotta Cheesecake Almond Biscottis Almond Shortbread crecsents Babka (an even sweeter egg bread, similar to baba au rum minus the rum) Platter of fresh fruit Lots of chocolate eggs for my sister and just bars of 85% for me....they don't make eggs that dark I also just realized this was supposed to only be pastry and baking, oops

We are definitely willing to venture far for good market stuff!!! We will check out Borough market for sure. Thanks

The dessert place is "Oh sooo good" and it has moved to York Street, actually a few doors down from Kinki. It's a place that my friends like to go to but I find their cakes horrible!!!! They do have a big selection, usually 20-30 to choose from every night but you will only like them if you like the taste of mass produced cakes using cheap ingredients. Plus, the new atmosphere is not as comfortable as the last. For dessert you're better off just getting some gelato or sorbet from either Piccolo Grande (on Murray) or Pure (on Elgin)... the weather should be nice. The place to be seen in Ottawa (if that even exists) is Eighteen on York, Friday and Saturday (martitnis) nights can be fun. As for butter tarts, my dad is a huge fan so we've tried them all, and you'll have to venture out to the west end to the "Three Tarts Bakery" on Wellington. They also have so, so cakes but it's all take out. If you do go, head down the street to Thyme and Again for some of their desserts which you can actually sit down and eat but it's a very neighbourhoodish atmosphere and they close at 8 during the week and 6 on Saturday. Service can also be bad and unhelpful if you come in an hour before they're about to close. Hope this helps

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. We're not going until the end of June so keep them coming. Best bread places?

This will be my first trip to London and my family and I will be staying in a flat in the Chelsea/Knightsbridge area near Sloane Square. I just wanted some recommendations on places nearby to eat and most of all nearby markets, food shops and grocery stores. Best bread in the area, best cheese store, desserts, organic food stores, everything. Thanks

If only for the view you must eat in a restaurant in Eze!!!! Just go to the Chateau and grab a drink and sit there for a while, touristy but breath taking. Avoid any place in Cannes, eat on the beach in Nice and in the cours Saleya. Buy some of the wonderful spice mixes that they make up in the market to take home. We stayed in a hotel in Cap d'Ail and most nights would just run across to the grocery store in Monaco and pick up some prepared food stuff, meats, cheese, breads, and set up a spread on the hotel balcony. These were truly the best meals.