Mr. Fagioli

I wondered about that upthread. Of course, the terrace will be an option before long (not this week, though, from the look of the forecast). ← I don't feel comfortable relaying a conversation that may or may not have been for public consumption, so I'll err on the side of vagueness: the smoking ban is not a fire-prevention measure per se. As for the charred smell, it was pretty powerful at the time of the reopening and has been steadily fading. I expect it's still there to some degree, but as I say I haven't been in over a week now. It will probably be quite noticeable to a first-timer...

Is there still a bit of charred smell from the fire next door in January? I haven't been in a week or so, but I did find that a bit of a turn-off the last few times I dropped in. (Though I certainly don't blame them for it.) The lack of cigarette smoke is a good thing, though.

Update: no Spanish rice at Antoine right now, but Vieille Europe has <a href="http://www.matizespana.com/MatizEnglish/Products/MatizArroz.html">Matiz-brand Valenciano</a>. The Libreria also has a variety of rices, but apparently no Bomba. I'd ask them if I wanted to track down a specific Spanish product.

2: more peolple from more places!? obviously you havent been in montreal in a while - brazilian restaurants, ethiopian, indian, bangoly, french, italian, chinese, japonese,vietnamese, korean, québécois from traditional to comtempory, fusion, portuguese, russian, suisse, german - and may i go on :are all types of restos you'll find and then some ← You're right that Montreal has people and restaurants representing all those ethnicities, but with the exception of French and Québécois (and possibly Portuguese?), Toronto can easily be shown to have more people and better restaurants. In many of those examples, Montreal has nothing that can truly be called "fine dining." As for the other points, they're both more and less debatable: there's undoubtedly more disposable income in Toronto, but arguably a disproportionate amount of it gets spent on glitzy overhead, as Lesley suggested. Montrealers have less money as a whole, but they spend it creatively on food and they tend to have pretty good taste in my experience. Montreal supports a tremendous number and variety of quality mid-range places, which is no help if fine dining is what turns your crank...but it's wonderful for the rest of us.

Hey! I resemble that remark! larkhess ← As have I at times! I know there are exceptions in every crowd...hence all the "mostlys."

I've seen Spanish paella rice for sale at Poissonnerie Antoine (Parc near St-Joseph, opposite the PA), though I can't guarantee it's the same variety. I'm also reasonably (though not completely) sure at least one of the high-end rices sold at Milano is a Spanish one. You should also try the Libreria Español, on St-Laurent above Roy, if you haven't already.

SYoung, I'm a fool for wading in here, because I'm utterly unqualified to attempt an experience-based answer to the question. However, I can't help but point out that by the logic of your question, New Yorkers should stick to New York (and perhaps L.A., London and Tokyo) because other places have less money and, ipso facto, lesser restaurants--and a place with lesser restaurants is, the way the question is posed, "a waste of time." I realize that you're talking about fine dining, but please: I don't think even the most virulent Montreal-basher would claim that there aren't enough quality restaurants here to occupy a serious gourmand for at least a short visit. Just the fact that the point can be debated at all should tell you something. I don't think that anyone would deny that Toronto has a much larger number of top-shelf restaurants. But that fact alone should in no way keep you from exploring what other places have to offer. I just can't see why it would, sorry. If I'm missing something...I'd like to hear it. Ultimately, I would hope that you will consider the fact that you have been living two hours away from Montreal (by air) all this time, without paying a visit in at least 25 years. Surely it's worth a weekend or a week to check out one of Canada's prime tourist destinations (for both food and other things). Just wait a few weeks or a couple of months, while we finish cleaning up the crusty sidewalks and putting leaves on the trees. BTW, those people staying out til 4 on a weeknight? Mostly under 30, mostly of questionable taste, mostly unrepresentative of anything except their own plastic world. IMNSHO.

Thanks, shelora. Do you happen to remember what wine you used in the farrotto and/or served as an accompaniment? BTW, I've seen morels for sale recently, but they might have been dried. I didn't give them a second look because they were so expensive; I think I'll stick with dried porcinis for the moment.

Maybe you should halve the next batch and bring some up to a low sautee for a few minutes to see what happens. If you don't burn them, it ought to deepen the flavors some. ← I will try that, and I should be able to manage it without burning anything. I'm not the best cook around, but I do have a reasonably delicate touch with the heat (of the stove). Should be sometime in the next week...

Hilarious, carswell. California pinot noir...Tickle Me Elmo for '05. (I'm thinking there must be a better analogy -- some product that became ridiculously hot because of a movie -- but I'm drawing a blank.) Just a heads-up: the Sélection on Laurier has (or had as of yesterday) Quinta do Noval Silval vintage 1998 port for $51 (regular $63). I don't think this is a system-wide sale, though I could be wrong. Personally not my thing, but looks like a good buy for those who are interested.

I appreciate this thread because until now I've been using and abusing various dried peppers (mainly ancho, mulato, pasilla, amarilla, chipotle) by sheer naive experimentation. Now maybe it's time to listen to sage advice instead. Anyway: my experimentation led me to the following handling of these peppers. I remove the stems and membrane and tear the meat into smallish pieces. I then marinate the meat and seeds in olive oil for about an hour (more if the peppers are dried to the point of being brittle) with some minced garlic and possibly some fresh peppers. However I've found that fresh peppers don't really add much, so I save them for the late stages where they can contribute aroma. (Especially if I have highly aromatic habaneros.) After the oil has had a chance to soften things up, I puree the peppers in the food processor. (Oil and all -- I try to keep the amount just sufficient to soften the peppers; they don't swim.) Typically I'll use the resulting paste in a black-bean stew. Until now I've simply allowed them to stew -- no sauteeing beforehand. Comments? Correction? Chastisement?

I picked up some whole spelt (farro intero, triticum dicoccum; Rustichella d'Abruzzo brand), which includes a risotto-like recipe on the package -- except that it requires soaking for two hours before adding to the soffritto. Quantities are two litres of broth to half a kilo of farro (no other quantities are specified -- it's a basic combo of onion, butter, Parmigiano, and porcini). I take it this is "farrotto". Anyway, before I go ahead and try this (and I may also try something like mrbigjas' shallot and lardon recipe, which is very much like a barley-based favourite of mine), I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for handling this particular Rustichella product. I'm also wondering about Farrotto more generally -- is it usual to stick to a simple porcini/parmigiano recipe, or should I consider that more of a starting point? TIA!

Read this thread a few days ago and enjoyed it much...I thought about the bad beers I've tried and can think of several in four main categories: 1. Atrocities of my own making. Sure I botched various batches for various reasons, but the most memorable failure was the most elaborate effort of all, and one of the last beers I ever made: a full-mash Belgian-style white beer. I laboured mightily to find the right ingredients and follow the recipe, but it came out horribly astringent with a chalky mouthfeel. I still pucker just thinking about it. 2. High-priced and/or imported dreck. Draft Double Diamond at low/mid-range Indian restaurants always seemed to have a vinegary tinge to it, probably because of dirty lines or low turnover. And yet for a while there I would keep ordering it in hopes of getting something good. I don't anymore. I find Heineken inoffensive enough, but it's a ripoff. Ditto most megabrews. Grolsch in green bottles seemed to be badly stored much of the time, because it often had a weird rubbery taste to it. (As a poor young homebrewer I would sometimes gag it down for the flip-top bottle.) But worst of all are some whose names I've long since blocked out. In the late 80s I was living in Toronto, and there was a microbrew craze on. Quite a few people with no more qualification than a wad of cash in their pocket seemed to think it would be fun and profitable to open a brewery. Some of the stuff that came out was great, and some was truly awful. Tasted like cheap homebrew kits (the underhopped can 'o syrup kind) scaled up to microbrewery size. And that's probably not far from what it was. Blech. 3. I am Canadian, but you couldn't pay me to drink that piss. Canadian megabrews tend to be bland, inoffensive, and pretty much alike. A poster farther up suggested they seemed to come from the same brewery, and that might not be all that far from the truth. According to a friend who used to work for one of the megabreweries, they both have a very limited range of recipes and a much larger number of brands. Whole families of "lagers" and "light" versions of beers are the same beer watered to the desired alcohol content; others are one base recipe plus some added colour or flavour; and other times it's the same beer under a different label. I realize this is just hearsay, so I won't name names. But I think you'll find blind taste testing of lager-vs-lager and ale-vs-ale will bear this out. 4. Frankenbier. In Canada these days the megabreweries are desperately looking for ways to sell their wares to non-beer-drinkers. Enter <a href="http://www.molson.com/brands/molsoncanada/molsonbrands.php#7">Tornade</a> and similar abominations. Unfortunately I think it does qualify as beer (they call it "alcomalt")...they're essentially concoctions of cheap megabrew beer and flavourings like lemonade or "sangrila". I refuse to try most of them, but I have had the Lemonade and I'm convinced that it's the worst thing ever done in the name of beer.

I have my doubts that it's true across the board, but we won't really know until stats for the season are out...(I do find it a surprising statement, because the sunny days and crisp nights we've been having are supposedly ideal sugaring-off weather.) Speaking with one producer today, they said they had a good year, but that it was so-so for others. How's that for a useful analysis? I think you could find someone to say the same in any given year. Also, I note that we're at the end of the season, but at least two vendors at JTM still had a supply of No. 1 Extra Light syrup today, and many others had no. 1 Light. (These grades are produced from the early runs at the beginning of the season.) Some of the taffy and syrup I've tasted has been sublime. Syrup prices at JTM are as they have been for the last year: (for 540 ml can) $4 for Amber, $4.50 for Medium, $5 for Light, $5.50 for Extra Light. About $7-8/lb for maple sugar in various other forms (hard, soft, butter, taffy). So, if we're in for a shortage and a price spike, the signs aren't obvious yet. At least not to me, but I only see a small part of the retail landscape so take this with a big grain of salt. As an aside, I think it's high time for the temporary walls to come down at the market, and for cars to be banished from the confines of the market itself. At least the first will definitely happen shortly, too bad nobody ever acts on the second...

Speaking of the JTM, as of last Sunday the maple producers were still going strong with tire-sur-neige -- including the stall inside around the middle (I believe it's Marc Girard) which this past winter had a supply of last spring's maple butter right up until February. That gentleman also sells a No. 1 Ambré syrup that he insists is strictly cooking-grade (as opposed to the pour-it-straight-down-your-throat-grade No. 1 Medium and No. 1 Clair), but I find it quite tasty on pancakes. Hard to beat at $4/500 ml. (I noticed in a souvenir-shop window on Sherbrooke a 250 ml bottle of "gourmet" maple syrup for $11. Criminal.) Of the large outdoor maple stalls at JTM, I've tried both the tire (taffy) and maple butter from Beauregard (south side) and Bouvier (north side). Generally I found Beauregard's preferable. I'm not sure if it's because the product is inherently finer, or just that Mr. Bouvier cooks his taffy and butter a little longer -- regardless, Mr. Beauregard's seems lighter and more delicate. BTW, if anyone uninitiated in the world of maple syrup happens to be reading: don't bother buying the taffy in a tub outside of the season, since it's almost always cut with glucose to stop it from crystallizing. (AFAIK this is not the case in-season when buying directly from producers, but it doesn't hurt to ask if there's any doubt.) And if you do get taffy or butter in a tub, take care not to dip any implement in it twice, as that will promote crystal growth. Both products keep pretty well in the fridge or freezer. If you can keep it around long enough for storage to matter, that is. Havre aux Glaces was also offering unflavoured (a.k.a. cream-flavoured) ice cream with maple taffy, but I had mine without. Wonderful. If you've ever wondered why anyone would bother with no-flavouring-added ice cream, you need to try this. Here's hoping the warmish days and crisp nights have been keeping the sap flowing, and we get one or two more weekends of fresh tire...

I almost wish you hadn't posted that, wattacetti, for like carswell I am carless, so you might as well be talking about some place in Halifax. Still, worth remembering for next time I have a rental. Fortunately the options aren't bad where I am...just not tantalizing on this level. Though I do wonder how a takeaway paella could be of much interest. It's a dish that makes wonderful cold leftovers, but I still want to see it fresh the night before and I still want that crispy rice from the bottom of the pan. Also, you mention the absence of smell as a key feature of a good fish market and you're so right. A food-inspector friend taught me that rule many years ago and it's served me well. It's what keeps me away from a couple of big-name places that I really shouldn't name because it's been so long since their aroma chased me away.

A 2:44 TV news report from CBC is here: http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/crowe_usbeef050413.mov (Quicktime) http://www.cbc.ca/clips/rm-lo/crowe_usbeef050413.rm (Real) (Those tremors in the cows are not just video artifacts; they're quite visible on the full-size TV version.) Text and many links: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/200...sbse050413.html

Just one sample: at Poissonnerie Antoine on ave. du Parc fillets labelled simply "salmon" are $8.99/lb, and salmon labelled "biologique" (organic) is $13.99/lb (maybe 12.99 -- I'm going from memory). Definitely pounds, not kilos. I wasn't buying anything today so I decided not to wait my turn and ask questions, but I'd guess that the organic is Atlantic and farmed. It's certainly much nicer-looking than the regular: an attractive side of fish versus some motley roughly half-pound fillets. Of course, it's possible they fuss more with the presentation to encourage people to forget the price difference. Antoine is not a top-notch place, and it's small. Not sure how that affects the price, but today's prices strike me as being similar to what you'd see in a supermarket. Next time I'm shopping there I'll be sure to ask about the provenance of the organic.

It's easy for someone like myself who's been catching/killing/cleaning/eating Pacific Salmon for 30+ years others would find it more of a challenge. Also remember there are 6 different types of Pacific Salmon-which adds to the confusion. But surely nobody will bother to ship pink or chum to New York or Montreal (where I'm located); and Sockeye is probably the easiest to identify visually (unless we're talking about some serious adulteration). I think it's really the species whose flesh is visually similar to the Atlantic salmon's that ought to cause the most wariness among consumers. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to visit my local merchants since this discussion began yesterday, but I'm curious to go and see how different the fish market looks to me in light of all this!

I appreciate the tips on locations and things to consider such as seasons. (I've wandered in to Nouveau Falero before, but either I didn't notice or they didn't have Pacific salmon that day. Can't remember when that was; it may well have been out of season.) Based on the other two threads, and my own tasting experience, I'd say the only thing I have against farmed salmon per se is blandness, but from now on I hope to get more information about the kinds of conditions it was raised in. If the tales of salmon farming on the BC coast are accurate (and I have no reason to believe they are not), then I wouldn't want to eat farmed salmon from there; on the other hand, practices in the Bay of Fundy sound as though they're reasonable. Of course, being in Montreal I'd expect most of our farmed fish to come from relatively nearby. Just as not every chicken, lamb, pig or steer is raised equally, I wouldn't expect every farmed fish to be necessarily raised in overcrowded, polluted conditions or to be by definition inferior to its wild counterpart.

I've read this thread with great interest, and a couple of questions stand out: If there's no wild Atlantic salmon left, and all farmed salmon is Atlantic, then isn't the solution to the consumer's immediate problem to learn more about the visual identification of salmon species? If you can ID Atlantic salmon, then it seems that you've ipso facto identified farmed salmon. By the same token, if you know your Pacific salmon, then you know your wild salmon. I realize this isn't easy when you're looking at fillets on ice that could be Atlantic, Spring or Coho, but surely it's a start. Am I missing something here? Second question that stands out for me: if there's no wild salmon left in the Atlantic (or at least no commercially viable stock), then why not attempt restocking? Aren't ecosystems better off with "domesticated" versions of indigenous species than either a vacant niche or exotic species? Or are the streams and rivers just too far gone?

Thanks. Yes, I realize that he was talking about that particular outlet (Laurier, as it happens), but unfortunately I haven't got much time to schlep around town at the moment. For some reason I've never ordered directly from saq.com, but I may give it a go once I've polished off some of the things I already have around.

A quick & partial update: I made a shortened list of many (but not all) of the suggested bottles under $20 and went to my local Sélection. I was only able to find the Monauriol 2000 and the Cetto Petite Syrah. Haven't had the Monauriol yet, but I'll bet we'll be seeing the Cetto at bbq's all summer, until supplies are exhausted. At great buy for less than $12. The staffer who helped me determine that everything else on my list was sold out did mention that all the recommendations were excellent. Maybe if I have some time later in the week I'll see if any of the other bottles are still in stock.

Ah, OK. I'd got that impression from the eGullet discussion, where some posters have mentioned that Atlantic salmon is what's farmed on the West coast. I obviously misread that as also applying to other areas.

Some of you probably saw this article in yesterday's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/dining/10salmon.html Bottom line: NYC consumers are often being sold farmed salmon labelled as wild, and paying dearly for it. eGullet discussion here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=65330 But rather than joining in over there, necessarily, I'd like to ask which Montreal fishmongers, if any, can be trusted on this particular labelling issue. Is it safe to assume that these merchants can also be counted on to have the best of the farmed fish if they have any at all? What about the "saumon bio" I see sometimes? Is that farmed fish raised on foods like krill? More than once I've seen a customer asking the nice man how she can be sure that the fish that costs 50-75% more really is wild, and the answer always comes down to "trust me" and "you'll taste the difference" (long after you've paid your money). And since the only salmon I ever see here is Atlantic salmon (which also happens to be the only species that's farmed), I'm not sure what else the consumer can do. Is there a better way?