sf&m

Anthony Boudain has a column in the last issue of Gourmet Magazine where he rails against pretentiously extravagant restaurants heavy on the stemware and cutlery. He talks about the chef-driven, open kitchen, no thrills trend that precisely puts the food and local ingredients front and center. Sounds like LC's Montreal, right? He gives us four examples of this trend from Paris, New York, Chicago and yes, Montreal. That would be Au Pied de Cochon. And he missed Le Club Chasse et Peche , the most recent, sophisticated and prominent member of this approach in Montreal. (So I am told.) All the power to the hard work and ingenuity of chefs, staff and investors who brings us locally produced foods, prepared with new approaches, new inventiveness yet an understanding of place, time and culture - wherever that may be. Good food is not a zero sum game, but Montreal's unique French and (for North America) old culture is very special asset. I wish best of luck to Toronto and Vancouver and everywhere inbetween, by my heart is in Montreal right now - the potential there is just extraordinary.

Yes, cookatlarge, the 800 gorilla in the corner is the fact that Montreal is the 2nd Largest French speaking city in the world!!!! Whether Montreal and Quebec has the bucks or not is immaterial. It was dirt poor and suppressed for 100s of years and still survived. It sits on a unique North American Culture - older than any other European Culture in north America. Is it smug? I don't get that feel as a visitor and guest to Montreal. Is it vibrant, different and important, YES! Far as I am concerned let Vancouver and Toronto can be what they can be in terms a cultural Melting pot - make the best of it, I know it well from my native San Francisco. You should do well. If you're lucky, you might be covered by Gourmen magazine as the latest...whowhoa. But don't even compare yourself to Montreal's 500 year old blend of North America and France... ok, call me in 200 years - we'll check how you are doing. And TO, please stop copy lame gourmet "poutine" ... as if you had a clue ..... and who the f.... needs "signature dishes" when you can enjoy dishes perfected by french culture over 100s of years served up to perfection in any number of bistros. Using local ingredients that "we" can raise, grow and ferment right here. ROUTINELY! Pass me that Duck Confit, please!

So this Caffe Artigiano is a chain or franchise?

Eat Drink Man Woman, directed by Ang Lee - if you have not seen it run- don't walk to get it. others that come to mind right off: Like Water for Chocolate Babettes Feast

Haven't been to Pullman, but Bu's kitchen has improved a lot since they opened. Frankly I've enjoyed Bu's small dishes more then Le Chou's which (on the one visit) was a dissapointment. While it's still cold I highly recommend Bu's "Zuppa de canederli" - a light broth with small breaded veal dumplings - also called "soupe l'alto adige". The marinated octopus - "polipo e patate" - is terrific as is the standby "antipasto di verdure". Not to speak of the wine choices of course......

Thanks for restarting the quest! I tried the Ferme Goulu Confit that comes in a jar last spring. Since this was my first try of duck confit I felt it would be presumptious to post a "review". I liked them a lot but of course I am a duck confit virgin. It was about that time the fiddle heads come in so I tried for a QC only experience with the Duck confit, Hasselback potatoes (roasted with duck fat) fiddle heads, Morels, wild garlic and an ice cider reduction. Although the fiddle heads are still a taste to be aquired by me, it worked out quite well. I'd be interested in your impression of the Ferme Goulu legs - I think you reviewed the cryovaced version from Goulu/Les volailles et gibiers du marché and wern't too happy. Did you ever try the ones that come in a jar? I got mine at Les volailles et gibiers du marché. I guess it's time to go down to Frelightsburg, need to go visit Pinnacle anyway.

Yeah, that Pistachio is incredible. With the amount of nuts in it I don't see how they can make any money even at $6 per 1/2 liter. And as mentioned before - don't forget the Pomme de Glace Sorbet with Ice Cider from Clos St Denis. Haven't tried the fruit sorbets yet - waiting for Spring and Summer They'll open the "garage doors" so it will be open to the market outside - and hopefully they'll put in a second counter or we'll be in trouble. BTW...these folks are really nice too....

Re: SAQ Classique Terroirs I did ask them if the will bring in more QC wine and the clerk said no. But who knows. They have redone the store with more attractive shelf units. However the "front unit" facing JTM is full of Italian and French wines - tells you something. In all honesty you'd probably be hardpressed to fill the store with QC only wine. But next step would be ON and BC wines I would think. But perhaps they are "farther away" then the French and Italian wines - culturally speaking. What got me was the presentation. Seems to me it's not made by someone with a deeper knowledge of developing QC wine producers. But surely SAQ has it all worked out for the best....... lol.

I stopped by SAQ Classique Terroirs at JTM today. Big F'n deal! Mostly French and Italian wines still there. They've pulled out maybe 2-3 shelve units of foreign wines and put in QC wines instead. Probaly 5-1 foreign to QC products. And they seem to love to cover all the "Mistelles", fruit blends etc. Local producers are not very deeply covered, not even L'Orpailleur is covered in full far as I could see. No effort to cover and present "serious" QC efforts in an organized way - feeble as that may be. So good news for Marche des Saveurs I guess. It's a bait'n switch far as I am concerned. And probaly prepping for sinking Marche des Saveurs store. That name is a joke. OK, so there is not that much QC products but then at least augument with other Canadian provinces if you need to fill the store. I guess they are not specifying wich Terroirs they ment to cover. Marche des Saveurs stock did look ragged but they were loading in boxes for the weekend. Some of the small producers are probably out of stock as mentioned. MDS is an important outlet for small producers and people who want to reach them. I like to know more about this infernal "law" (now, there is a misnomer..) being passed, if anyone knows.

On Wednesday I noticed a big sign outside the Mozart/St Laurent SAQ announcing arrival of new wines..... I think it said for Thursday.......

I've brought in a lot of wine from California over the years, but mostly in batches of 8 bottles. (Have a suit case outfitted for the purpose.) I am finding the charges vary based on "the mood" of the officer, but mostly I have seen about 100% surcharge going through customs in Montreal. I've never bothered to calculate it accurately (it's so depressing), but I think it's been my experience that it's cheaper to bring it through customs in Toronto.

Toto2, agree the young staff at MdS are terrific. Helpful, friendly and interested. Before Christmas they were hustling cartoons of wine in as fast as customers were lugging bottles out the door. Ouch - did not know about SAQ du Terrior. Be careful what you ask for, eh? It should be an extension of MdS wine outlet instead. MdS has the "mechanism" for dealing with very small producers, which is really important we have a retail outlet for.

Indentifier, I think there is a more general purpose store going in at JTM, at the South East corner - Bientôt. Did not know the JT bookstore is the only dedicated cookbook store in M. A multilingual, multi cultural book store would be great.... who could argue against the tempting cornucopia of cultures and foods avaliable in Montreal or SF for that matter..... but..... what are we loosing to our convenience (even greed maybe)?? I can 't believe I am saying this but I am becoming more and more concerned about the fragility of different GENUINE cultures .... about the REAL thing.... about the preposterous idea that anything can be emulated...anywhere. Will it all become a US like Wallmartized mongrel miasma where there is no culture besides the $$$ ruled and plastic packaged? Of course the "ethnic" stores around JTM adds immensely. But I like that they are separate, obviously run by people who know what they are doing - from the culture they represent. Those stores should carry books, cooking utensils etc. (and some of them do.) that are genuine and belong to that culture - less convenient - but the true thing. Truth is hard to come by these days, so I would not mind walking a few steps to get it. And if you want a REAL Chinese Wok, you won't find it in gourmet cooking shop but in some hole-in-the-wall in Chinatown. I see JTM as microcosm with a solid core of LOCAL produce and suppliers and culture with a periphery of different cultures from the rest of the world providing the "spice and counterpoint" to local produce, food and customs. Quebec and it's french "inspired" culture, food and producers is an incredibly valuable resource. Especially since there is some real world comptetitive exellence developing. Montreal and Monteregie (and other regions) have an enormeous gastronomical potential that we need to nurture. (Not that we can't enjoy Indian food as well!!). Carswell, yeah my idea for merging Marche des Saveurs and Local SAQ can be written off as an Incredibly Stupid Idea - I am good at those. What set me off in that tangent was that I heard SAQ was taking a nick on MdS sales. Can't confirm that. But I can confirm that the MdS vine store is out of SPACE - with recent proliferation and several new Ice Ciders they are out of room. So next idea.... SAQ should be banished from JTM, and the small SAQ outlet should be converted by MdS to a dedicated Vins Des Saveurs, featuring a complete selection of QC wines with room to expand.

Carswell, where is the pasta store located anyway? - somehow I could not find it..... I'd like the bookstore to focus on "local" material, QC related. There may not be enough material, but at least for the core. It suits the JTM idea. Great for vistors blown away by the market. Something you can bring back for sure. One advantage I find with a small store like that is that you sometimes find gems that you overlook in the huge inventory of say Renaud-Bray. I know I did. After all, that kind of browsing is what's fun with a real bookstore. By being French language oriented, perhas they can keep their prices up and avoid the pressure from the flood of books from the Empire (old and new). Of course they should also carry english language books, if related to Montreal/QC. Such as resto guides. But it was great NOT seeing "Les Halles" (by that NYC guy) on the front desk like everywhere else. And if SAQ opened up a bigger branch they should merge it with the Marche Des saveurs wine store and offer a complete selection of QC wines before a single import goes in. IMHO!

Since it is part of what I do for a living, I guess I'll chime in re: resto websites. Carswell, you must be thinking of Globe, Godin, Buonanotte, Rosalie etc website. Lounge music, flash and pop ups galore. Basically too much money spent on design and too little on practical testing that it actually works. A shame on some really good art work. Flash is not really the problem. Design and testing is the problem (specially the latter). Typical seems to be that these sites are tested/approved on high speed networks with one browser and the real life experience in customer land suffers. And a lot are still using pop up windows which doesn't work anymore because people have pop-up blockers enabled. It's not easy - you need to test on multiple browsers and platforms. (Time & $$) List of some Montreal resto websites others ought to learn from (or not).... Lobby Bar model of simplicity and attractive graphics (but frame based) Brunoise Clean, professional - Worthy of a Gastronomical temple (do these guys do everything right?) Les Chevres PDF download of tasting menus! BU weekly updates of Vins au verre (although funky hiding of site entry from home page) And for what it *could be* - IF it all worked... Globe And for what Globe wanted but did not get Les Remparts Great graphics and Flash that works! And for a homage to excess and setting Carswells hair on fire (in a Flash) Queue de cheval

Try Le Coin Gourmet. Store Directory or 1-888-84-Gourmet There is one on St Denis and one on Cavendish I assume you already tried Dante Hardware.

Maybe time to re-calibrate your taste buds? A Quebec Marecheal Foch? DeChaunac? Ice Cider - but of course!! Saturday The Marche des Saveurs' wine store was jammed! And folks were not buying the regular one or two bottles.... the cashier line up was filled with people carrying 6+ bottles. The Madam in front of me peeled off to add a Clos des Brume Solidago to her cart full of wine. "I use it instead of sherry" she informed me, and right she was. Certainly you can stand a holiday bottle of Ice Cider, or how about a few bottles of Mousse des Pins for New Years? Try a bottle of Trubador (also from Vignoble des Pins) - a blend of Foch and Frontenac in what Gilles Benoit calls "Amarone" Style. Most QC wineries are represented at Marche des Saveurs, and instead of standing in line in the deadly mall air at Rockland you get a brazing walk around JTM in fresh air and see lots of HAPPY faces. And there is always a tasting going on... Now if only the french cheese importers would go on strike, he, he....

Yes, poutine, I forgot the Ice cream store "Havre Aux Glace" I think it's called. Maybe not the ideal season to start an ice cream store but they have two excellent Sorbets I highly recommend for the Holiday season: "Cidre de Glace" - (or "Pomme De Glace"? - forget) made with real QC Ice Cider from Ciderie Clos Saint-Denis. Must cost them more then they sell it for, there is so much Ice Cider it precipitates out in the freezer. No prob. Just mix it in again. Would go well between Holiday table courses. If it lasts that long! "The de Noel" - Very interesting, subtle sorbet. They would not tell me what's in it. I had it with a super ripe persimmon and they enhanced each other nicely. Nice after-feast treat with nuts & fruit etc.

I checked out the new extension today. It's still disorganized and at first I was paranoid that it would add a permanent gentrified mall extension, but after walking through a couple of times I *think* it will work out. I hope that the new section will be open air across the market like the other lanes - in the summer. Also, several of the stores are people that were already at JTM so the competition overload will be a bit less than you might think. Such as: "Boucherie Prince Noir" is moving there - AND apprently re-opening Le Tartarin. "Les Volailles et gibiers du marche" is moving there, to a very handsome corner location which will be open to street in summer. Good selection of Ferme Goulet Duck products, Bison Meat etc. "Brulerie Aux Quatre Vents" coffe shop moves across the street to inside... But 3-4 new specialized butchers/meat stores are moving in, one new cheese shop, a new Poissonnerie "Aqua Mare", etc. The Olive oil and Spice shop looks VERY intertesting. Good selection and well packaged spices. BTW - they have inexpensive Thai or Balinese Mortar and pestles. This store will be a hit for sure. The small Gourmet Bookstore has a good selection. Could be a destination for folks coming up from the US to check out JTM - for picking up QC specific books that could be hard to find down south. They have the L'Eau a la Bouche book - looks very nice. Several other "coffe table" foodie books with QC authors/angles + many french publishers books. It's gonna be expensive next time.... All in all I think the extension *might work* and not destroy the JTM ambiance..... we'll know by summer.

Sorry, aprilized - did not mean to make light of your craft!! It must be annoying to have worked on designing and executing a dish and a write up doesn't get it right. That's obviously not acceptable, but probaly more of a fact double-check- under-deadline kind'a problem than anything else. But you know what - the public doesn't know that and since it was a very favourable review it will bring in guest and $$$$ and you get a chance to do your stuff... seems pretty good to me. That early (but confused) review might turn out to be good thing for you. And hey, maybe he was just too distracted by your lovely waitresses!!!!

You might have jumped the gun on him a bit too fast. I think he mention the duck marinated with ANIS....."Bien cuite, la poitrine marinée avec de l'anis". As for his tartare he's probaly victim of the tartare trend - might be hard to keep them seperate if you have 4-5 of them a week. Ah, the trend fog - we just had a Tartare (The restaurant) open in SF - serves only...... I thought it was a pretty good and "clever" positive review and he DID mention that we should give it some time. And his mentioning of certain waitresses "poitrines gourmands" which my Mac translated as "chests greedy" can't hurt!!! Hmm, maybe I can sell that tag line to HOOTERS.

I also found the review less than informative. "Desserts will not move you" ? - Gee, that tells me a lot! Clearly guzzied up by the headline writer. Although he did warm up to Brunoise at the end.... just don't know how many readers made it that far. I don't understand why a reviewer would first state they don't really care for a type of food (vegetarian) and then proceed to review the place. I guess it's honest, but can you really give an honest opinion about a resturant or food type you don't fancy and thus probably not very informed about? Anyhow...putting you on the spot a bit Lesley :), if YOU wrote a review for National Post today which Montreal restaurants would you cover?

Carswell, I used a Canon A75 digital camera. I recently got it so I profess no great skill with it. These pics were taken between 1 and 2 pm, when the market was jumping, very crowded. Basically I walked around for 1/2 hour and took snapshots frankly with no particular thought or plan. For web viewing I cropped the images tightly and reduced size to 400 pixel wide and jpg compressed them to 50%. So there is quite a lot of resolution drop to get them to websize. I suppose one could get a "allée" shot if one got there at 7 in the morning, before the crowds. Certainly to get anywhere near the "totality" of Jean Talon Market would take a much more skilled photographer, and even so... it has to be experienced. Gary - oh, yeah, the bean and leak bundles, SAMI fruit, the Honey vendors, the Cranberry stand (best Cranberry Juice ever) the Duck Confit counter and and..... Re Cheese: Marche des Saveurs (SE corner) has a small counter with a good selection of Quebec only cheeses - less crowded. And you can usually nip into a QC wine or Cider sample too...

Ah, Jean Talon market in August. These pictures were taken August 14, 2004. Just snapshots really, but something to remember on Wintry days or pine over if you are unfortunate not to live in Montreal. This post belongs on the "Market Update" track, but I did not want to kill it with this heavy image load. Might have to edit it.... With no further ado: Jean Talon Market, August 14, 2004 Bean Time The BERRIES.... and potatoes? Chez Luis Roots Onions And they are purple too... A favourite for foraging Black jewels And Brown... North Side: The Temple of Cheese.... and a good lunch too South side al fresco... grilled lamb, sausages, crepes, more sausages, calimari ..and ...and The new Apples are in...must have one.... Can you believe this guy? That's his fourth this morning.... Did I mention the Wild Blueberries??? C'est tout, ça! ---- AND MUCH MORE

I saw the "purple broccoli" too..... looks like Cauliflower to me. Wonder if it retains color when cooked or pickled?? Last Saturday I took some pictures at Jean Talon - to pine over come winter I guess - including the purple heads. I be @#&%$ but I can't figure out how to post an image. Neither can I figure out how to ask the egulllet techies how to do it!! In the help file it mentions a "file attachment button" - I guess I am stupid but I don't see it on my posting page. !#%$!! How do you get that enabled??