Thesorus

happened to me last night, for a before-movie dinner ... bad food, bad service ... The food, HUGE, Humongous portion of chicken and what was advertised as risotto ( looked like normal rice with a cheese sauce in it ); at least 1/2 kilo of meat, 1/2 of rice and 1/2 kilo of "grilled" vegetables, all hidden under a think cover of brown sauce ... The plate was like 12x6 inches ... the soup was ok, but the main dish came at about the same time ... What did I do ? nothing, really, I ate as little as possible, talked as little as possible, stayed there a little as possible, tipped as little as is polite ...

I love groundcherries, and when they are in season, I always make jams ... simple recipe, no measurement, groundcherries, lemon slices, sugar, and either rosemary or cracked pepper. This is tonight's batch ...

a twist on the gin-tonic : rhum + tonic + good ice ...

a waiter will never "earn" a good tip for me if he/she squat or site next to me ... I might run away first ... that's just plain weird ... and other behaviours suggesting that I'm 10 years old ...

suburban food for me sounds more like confort food; upscale home cooked meals, with a twist, while urban food will be more refined ( mostly in the cooking process, presentation and ingredients ). good suburban food should not ( IMHO ) try to reinvent the wheel, and go te fusion way, and try to accomplish what the client does not really want. That does make make less appealing, or of lesser quality, or that the ingredients are not perfect; it simply is different.

( just recently registered to this forum ... and I think I like it very much !!!! ) Good evening, Just came back from an early "solo" dinner at Leméac, which is one of the restaurant I prefer in Montréal for a early ( or late ) dinner. Quite a nice meal, had the sweetbreads as the main course, delicious, I'm not an expert in sweetbreads, but they were juicy, tender and quite tasty, and the sauce diable complemented them nicely. For the entrée, I had the calamari, very tender, not at all rubberry. They have a bottle of La Vieille Prune from Louis Roque, aged in oak barrels, and is a lot more enjoyable than ordinary white prune alcool, more rounded. The bottle they have is also quite impressive, 1.5L !! And for the question. I often eat out alone and I have a couple of places that I know I won't feel "singled out", Leméac is one of them, l'express and the "Au Pied de Cochon", and some other Sushi bar. Any other "single" restaurant where I can eat at a table or a bar, and not feel like I'm alone and taking the place of 2 persons ? Thanks. Max.

I pretty much eat everything, and like you, I have some "doubts" about truffles. I have to say that my truffle experience is limited to truffle oil, which I tried for the first time a couple weeks ago when orderning a salmon tartar with truffle oil, to my surprised, it was overwhelming, and was told that it's the way it supposed to be. So, I might wait a bit before trying the "real" stuff, if I can find some relatively fresh truffles in Montréal. M.

thanks for the link ... will read up ... Max.

Good evening, Next week, I'm organising a picnik with some friends, and the location doesn't let us bring glass on site ( lot's of people, kids, dancing, ... ) I plan to bring a couple of bottles of wine, and was wondering the "best way" to transport the wine. I know that I have to at least open the bottles at home at the latest moment, but what kind of bottle would be the best ? Can I use a plastic bottle ( empty evian, or other water bottle ) ? I will not keep the wine in the plastic bottle for long, 1 hour, maybe 2 at most. and what about sparkling wine; ( I will not open an expansive bottle, just a nice sparkling to put on my fruit desert.) ? Thanks for the info. Max.