identifiler

rozrapp, yes, this is what I refer to. You can call them tuxedo, I call them baggage boy suits... I don't mean any disrespect but we are talking really old polyester tux's here. Last time I went, one guy had unmatched pants and his hands were barely showing from his tux. This clearly tells me that they walk in and just shove one of the hanging tux on their back... Again, great, amazing food, great service and I guess this old unrevived french approach still has it's place, and why not Mere Michelle for it... It's like dealing with the Pepin encyclopedia of techniques... It's a classic but when you look at the plate dressing/styling... it really is a old classic...

I often go to Mere Michele with the office, we usually rent the enclosed glass room (I know that is smoking because I have smoked there many times). That place serves great food, however, the same excellent quality can be prepared at lower prices in other places. The one thing that always amazes me are the worn out suits on the waiters. The service is amazing and the "old getto baroque" atmosphere is acceptable for a few times (although it brings ina lot of "old money folks"), the stop line for me is when the waiters still have the same suits they had in 1950... you know when the elbows, the lapels and the butts on everyones suit is shinny and thin, it's time to change them... Polyester has seen days gone by and it doesn't need to be Dubuc suits either... I'd rather see all of theme in Kakies then in those old monkey suits...

This is about the 7th time I have been there ever since the first week when it opened. I have to say, we had a wicked time last night and everyone just swalloed their plates. We elaborated a little bit more on the menue, in the past, I had tried the braised shank, the caribou ribs, the longe d'agneau from Ile Verte and a couple more things. We really wanted to get the best of our meat eating night. I had a taste of everything and it was all good. The onion soup with lard, the bleu cheese salad (that blue cheese was awsome, goat for sure). Salmon gravelax, the crepe was a slight overkill but the dill cream was heaven. Everyone also had the usual foie gras sushi (deep fried cube) and rinced it down witha Madiran. For entree, two of us, including myself had the pied de cochon (porc leg with foie gras), Jarret d'agneau, salmon in potato crust, magret de canard. The pied de cochon order was truly to die for, I had never seen such an imposing piece with so much flavor. The ability to get a piece of porc, foie gras, french onion, mushroom mustard sauce and cheese potatoe in one bit is really amazing. The duck was also very good, I did not taste the salmon potatoe crust but it looked very good, it replaces the salt crust he used to make, in this case, it's a piece of salmon, rolled like a sushi roll, in mashed potatoes, flash fried and served in half cones. The lamb was as always, excellent, very good cuts, and again the bed of lentils very well coocked. In fact what really jumped at me last night was the absolute perfection of the cooking/timing to our table, freshness of the vegetables used. His mashed potatoes are much better in winter since he probably used older less starchy potatoes to do them. It was truly a great meal that ended with the usual Illy coffee, I had a tarte au sucre for two and some had the infamous melted chocolate cake. The tarte au sucre was abolutely goregous to the eye, the way it is dropped into a simple plate, it's shape, texture and color is the apoteosis of quebecois cuisine. We had quite a party. It is by far the largest meal I ever had, I finished every once of it (and I weight about 150lbs...), this is because I couldn't hold back. I had the pied de cochon remains (la couenne, the hoof and the bone) rapped. Next morning, I unrapped it, removed the metal clip, dumped the whole thing in a large metal bowl and dropped it outside for my dog's breakfast. He played in the snow for hours with his cochon foot, ended eating every single piece of it, inculding crushing the bone for the marrow, nothing was left behind.... hahahaha.

I am/used to be a smoker. I hate smoking in a restaurant or indoors to start with. It just drives me nuts. We had dinner at Pied de Cochon last night, some lady was smoking like someone gone mad in the "portique" the whole 10 cubic feet was a cloud of white smoke, then she opened the door and let it all in on our table... how classy... La Chronique also offers a tobaccoe desert, I'm not sure if it is still on but there was a Cohiba infused desert with chocolate.

Cafe Italia just beside Milano makes a mean espresso, Elektra also makes a really nice one, there's a little spot in my home town that makes the best latte in my view, au deux marie makes a nice coffee. As far as chain goes, those new Java U coffee places are not too shabby either. I might have had, so they say, the best allonge in the world at Tasso D'oro in central Rome beside the duomo, by the time you have finished your sentence, the coffee is siting in front of you. It was in italy that I realised cinnamon and chocolate latte's are a few (why mask it) and that capuccino was truly a morning pastry, rarely served at night.

Robert Beauchemin was pretty harsh on morimoto this week in the voir. I quote "on attendait de lui une prestance inoubliable. On a découvert l'expression d'un ego démesuré dont la cuisine ne révèle certainement pas l'exubérance. Et celle d'un businessman futé dont les sakés et autres entreprises commerciales jettent un peu d'ombre sur la carrière. Le chef du Soto, Junichi, peut faire de ce genre de cuisine Est-Ouest quand il veut, et probablement mieux!" I have to agree that I am always very nervous when I see vertical integration schemes for money... Reminds me of that inside trading witch and her drug dealing boyfriend.

I had heard that the kitchen at intercontinental had picked up in the last year. I was there when they opened (long time ago), it was great but it also went down for a while. Let's hope they keep it up. That being said, I was in Quebec City yesterday. I stopped by the newly placed Cafe du Monde for lunch. Good god, talk about volume !!!!

Olive and Gourmando do offer some nice stuff. My top vote also to Passe Partout. This is something I have dropped ever since I got myself a large kichen aid mixer... experimenting with different dough starters, temps, sugar concentration, etc... making bread is truly an art. I have a question for the plateau folks, a year ago (or two) there was this article in la presse about a couple who made the best croissant au beurre ever, apparently from their own kitchen using a simple home oven... I read that the croissant were usually all gone by 7:00h AM. Does this ring a bell? If so is that place still open ?

Mexican can easily be souped up to be a wonderfull focus of ingredient for a new restaurant. I actually know a tomatilla organic grower, they keep very long but that skin, yicks, got to rince these suckers real well or the skin keeps a really strong soapy taste !

Did Chao Phraya close on Laurier ? I thaught that was the best thai spot in Montreal ? Last time I drove by, it looked very close... They must have had the best margin of most restaurant in montreal !... weird...

Steve, the name escapes me but I was watching some really old reruns of the frugal gourmet the other day and they discussed that a lot, they were in New York and they were holding both in there hands... someone must know this.

Maggie, I travel a lot to Chicago and yes... There are some things difficult to get in Chicago compared to Montreal, however, you will see in the "mexican food in Montreal" that we do very bad compared to you. My last stop in Chicago had me going to Topolobambo, that is fine mexican ! I'll fly in some fresh bagels if you pay my bill at tompolobambo.

what is there to explain, I've met hima few times and he likes to curse a lot ! Just like me... Nothing like a good well placed "Tabarnak que c'est beau" when I dress my plates for kids !

Cabrales, Pied de cochon crazy cook curse boy does a very strange foie gras tempura. Its basically 4 pieces of one cubic inch, flash fried. When served, it is forced on you immediately, hard on the outside and perfect liquid broth on the inside... very odd but very good. Any bogger piece would have been gross. Fresh mesclun is one of the easiest produce to grow in the winter. I'm suprised all thes restaurants use that crappy California rubber stuff... what a sin. I have pousse de roquette all year around in the garage.

I'm just reading this... very good news. I am an organic producer myslef (for my own kitchen) However, I do have some special vegetables that even some of the best folks in quebec cannot produce, two color alaska melon, Montreal melon and many rare tomatoe heirloom. I am very happy to hear about this new spot. I think a very good proposition would be to have a seasonal based menu. It would be very difficult to offer tomatoe, cucumber type ingredient in the winter. My kitchen's winter menues mostly trun around choux, ratabaga, petit navet, yellow carrots, salad, beets, celeri rave and others. It would be very nice to have a clear broth, clear produce approach such has Cube has with the seafood... I like that stuff. Guru, this should'nt be a suprise since this is pretty much how the menu travels at Lemeac... but there is plenty of meat there. Quick question for you ? Will you bring the smoker with you ? The saumon fume is very good but I am very curious to find out if you also actually smoke the hareng on site ?

fandago is truly apart from the rest in quality, the rest being neighborhood family style restaurant, you can get good brezillian at senzala on Bernard. TRy la guadalupe mexican 2345 ontario est la hacienda 1148 van horne el chalan on beaubien There's defintely a lack of this stuff in Montreal. There could be room for a fantastic Topolobambo/Fontera grill combo like in Chicago... they serve a 115$US glass of 1800 Jose Cuervo Tequila... hahahahahaha

Hey Richard, I couldn't agree more with the answer submitted to you. This is Laurier street est, a nice little est end heaven around the Marquette street area. After my Jean Talon outings, I do head out to fromentier for some of the best bread in town (what an art !). Making bread is truly an scientific operation. Queue de cochon has some really nice merges and can set you up witha complete and very nice "Choucroute". By the way, I'm new here but I'ma real food crazy person. I am also an organic grower and most of the produce used in my kitchen are directly dropped to my place by some of the best producers in the Montreal area. The best kitchen is in your garden. Due to my occupation, I also have to go to restaurants a lot so I have a good check list of places to go or not to go (I tried Lemeac last week and SOY last thursday) both were great, soy is great as always and Lemeac is like an upscale Express plus they have their own smoker on site. Reguarding the bagel thingme, it is basically understood that there are two types of bagel in this world, the new york style bagel and the montreal style bagel. Many new yorkers think the montreal style bagel is from New York, in fact, it was the montreal baguel that was imported to some of the jewish communities of New York. The major difference between the Montreal Baguel and the New York Baguel is the fact that the shapped doe IS POCHED IN HONEY WATER PRIOR TO BAKING in the montreal style baguel. The New York style is closer to the thick bready stuff... (I'm not a fan...) Another point of importance between the montreal and new york style bagel... The montreal style baguel takes advantage of gravity fed, whipped, Liberty creme cheese. The new York gets that lumpy thing called philadelphia... (but it stores 3 months in the fridge...) Identifiler