shiv

Chez Louis had some sour cherries when I stopped by yesterday afternoon. Not many left, though...

I would second the biscuits. Biscuits and gravy are the ultimate comfort food for me, and heck, I'm not even from the South! I would also add baked beans to the list.

potatoes broccoli bread maple syrup would be a veryclose fourth.

I sure hope this doesn't get my eGullet membership revoked... Mushrooms Chocolate ice cream Nuts in baked goods, especially brownies Mayonnaise and anything that contains even trace amounts of mayonnaise Mustard Relish Pickles Raw Tomatoes Coffee (though I *love* coffee ice cream and frappaccino-type drinks) BBQ potato chips Cream cheese EXCEPT in cheesecake and frosting Discernable egg yolks, especially when they're runny and leak onto other things on my breakfast plate. Scrambled eggs are particularly vile to me, in part because of the smell. As a child, my grandmother would hardboil eggs and we'd share them - me eating only the whites and she eating only the yolks. I'm not a big fan of cheese, at least when it's not melted. Pass on over all your unwanted Mexican food, whipped cream, bananas, watermelon, potatoes(!!), cilantro, pancakes, maple syrup, and brussels sprouts, though.

This drives my husband crazy. It's not that I want a huge volume of food - I would happily halve the individual portion sizes, in fact - but I love variety, usually in the form of side dishes. A few of the places that we're regulars at know this and will give me small portions of a few different sides. My boss is a chronic over-orderer of the absolute highest magnitude. We'll all order our meals and then he'll order several extra sides, especially if he knows someone at the table has a particular fondness for something. Then, if he doesn't think we've ordered an appropriate assortment of appetizers, he'll fill in the gaps as he sees fit, always ordering enough food for a party at least twice our size. And then comes dessert. We usually don't even get to order our own specific desserts - he'll just order 5 of this, 4 of that, 2 of these, a plate of these, etc. for everyone to split. On the one hand, it's gluttonous and terribly, terribly wasteful. On the other hand, I get to sample so many different things that it's hard to complain. And he extends the same principle to alcohol, so by the end of the meal, it's hard to really care about much of anything! :)

Any roast chicken is a good roast chicken in my eyes and I love to experiment. However, we keep coming back to the butterflied High-Heat Roast Chicken from Cooks Illustrated. It's simple, quick, easily changed up with different spices, and the chickeny-flavored potatoes it produces are to die for. Come to think of it, that's probably more my favorite roast potato recipe than it is roast chicken...

It was my grandmother's steak (and every other meat but poultry), but the experience was the same. I grew up refusing to eat ANY beef, lamb, or pork because of this, and dammit, I feel like I've been cheated! I've only recently started eating these things again, and it's like a whole new world has opened up to me. With the exception of carrots, celery, onions and potatoes, I don't recall ever having much in the way of fresh vegetables in the house, always frozen. We're Irish AND from New England, so boiling - and boiling, and boiling - was the cooking method of choice for pretty much everything. Thinking back, the only food that I can remember being consistently excellent were the potatoes. Fried, mashed, baked or just boiled, they always hit the spot. Could just be that they were the only edible part of most meals...

My family's huge and when everyone was around (usually on Sundays and all holidays, birthdays, etc), we had to use the dining room to fit all those people. By the time I came along, a lot of people had already moved out, so most week-day meals were eaten in the kitchen. Family gatherings were (and still are) common, though, so the dining room gets plenty of use. Now that it's just my husband and I, meals are split between the dining room and in front of the TV. We've got an island in the kitchen of our new home that would be great for eating, but we haven't found the right stools yet.

A pipe dream or am I just not looking in the right places?

I didn't think tomatoes were good for dogs...

Add another vote for ginger Altoids. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find them in the Montreal area, and have to stock up whenever I'm in the States.

In my (decidedly blue-collar) neighborhood, we referred to preppy rich kids as "cake eaters". And if you have a tendency to drop things, you might be referred to as having "butter fingers".

Grandparents were from Ireland and settled in Boston in the 1940s. We're a large family, so we always had a variety of desserts. As far as pie goes, it was usually just apple though occasionally mincemeat would make an appearance (in addition to apple, never as a replacement). There was invariably some chocolate creation, too, though rarely a pie. I don't recall EVER seeing a pumpkin pie on our TG table, and have never heard of cranberry pie.

I saw purple "Harry Potter" cauliflower at Marche l'Ouest over the weekend.

Growing up in Boston, Crunchies were a rare treat for us, usually brought by relatives visiting from Ireland. I sent them home regularly for a while after moving to Montreal, until my family politely informed me that they were able to get them at any of the local Irish stores.

Haven't been there in a while, but I remember Les Delices De L'Ile Maurice as being quite good. It's at 272 rue Hickson in Verdun and the phone number is 514-768-6023. I think it's closed on Sundays. I'd be wary about going there on a really cold night, since there's not a whole lot of space to wait inside. I've never been there and not had to wait at least a few minutes. The chef/waiter (and /owner, I think) is a real character. There is no printed menu here - he recites the choices for you. Basically, you choose your meat and your sauce, and there are several varieties of each. Prior to your main, you get lentil soup, a small plate of fried onions, chicken wings that my husband really likes, and samosas. From start to finish, we've never had anything by great food. The samosas are particularly good and I usually order some extra to bring home. I don't recall exact pricing, but I know it's an excellent value for the amount of food that you get. I want to say that it ran about $27 for two people, probably including a couple of sodas, but I'm just not positive. This isn't a high-end restaurant by any stretch of the imagination, but overall it's always been a positive and enjoyable experience.

Mr. Ma's is in Place-Ville-Marie, right at the corner of Metcalfe and Cathcart.

My husband and I tried Kam Shing (on Van Horne) this past Saturday and it was quite good. We had spring rolls (tasty, but not the best I've had), lemon chicken (really good, but not great), and fried noodles with chicken, green peppers, and black bean sauce (absolutely delicious). The quality of the meat is an issue I have with a lot of Chinese restaurants, but it wasn't a problem here. We didn't order too many dishes since the waiter assured us that we'd have plenty of food. I was satisfied with the portion sizes, but I nearly ordered a second dish of the fried noodles to take home since they were the best I've had in ages. I've always been partial to Mr. Ma's in PVM. I don't know that it's especially authentic and it's a bit pricey, but the food's always well-prepared with quality ingredients. Plus, Mrs. Ma is just great.

I can never, EVER get enough of Berlin! As far as restaurants go, it's my home-away-from-home. The staff is extremely friendly (especially Eric, who works weeknights) and the service is usually great. The food is very good - homey, I think, but in a good way - and it's consistent(!!!). We've gone there so much that we don't actually need to order anymore... The only complaint that I could possibly voice about Berlin is that they're not open for lunch (only on Sundays).

At the same time, given all the horrid things that are happening in the world today, I find it absurd that anyone would boo a national anthem in the first place. In my opinion, people go to events like this to get away from what's going on in the rest of the world, because they want to have some fun in what is largely an un-fun time. The people that booed are the ones that brought politics into this event in the first place; it seems unfair to blame those that were offended for picking up on the theme. Lesley, having traveled across Canada, I fully recognize that there's A LOT more to this country than just hockey. Unfortunately, most Americans won't get to see it. Although I'll always be an American and call the U.S. home, I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to see and experience Canada and Canadian life to the extent that I have.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I had to jump in here... Booing the US national anthem isn't exactly a new thing for Montreal fans. It was booed at both of the first round games vs. the Bruins that I attended last season and I've heard it at other games as well. There was no political motivation then; it was simply in bad taste. The biggest problem that the Americans I've spoken to had with the most recent and notorious anthem-booing incident is that it was at a kid's hockey game. These American kids were absolutely thrilled to be playing in Montreal and then thousands of fans started booing. I don't envy their coach having to explain that the fans weren't booing at them... As an American that's lived in Montreal for almost five years, I can testify to the fact that on the whole, this is a Yank-friendly city. And people that have been here before will recognize that. However, the fact is, events in Canada generally aren't allotted much news coverage in most American cities, so widely-covered things like this are really the only glimpses that many Americans get of what Canadians are like. As unrepresentative of Canada (and even of Montreal) as this was, I would imagine that it left a bad taste in plenty of American mouths, and I'd bet that some of them will choose another destination for their next vacation.

Say it ain't so!! :( My husband and I just found Fandango a few weeks ago and it quickly became one of our favorite restaurants. Although Montreal offers a great selection of excellent restaurants covering a wide variety of cuisines, Fandango was definitely a stand-out.