carswell

When did they come up with that one? I love blueberry muffins, and I love Liberte yogurt... but I'll take your word for it. The Banana Royale flavor is quite nasty as well. ← Blueberry Muffin showed up a couple of months ago. Obviously trying to cash in on the success of cookie-dough ice cream. Mild blueberry flavour, lots of raw-tasting muffin dough "crumbs" and way too much sugar. Feh. We definitely see eye-to-eye on the Banana Royale. So bad I'd pushed it from my mind.

Chinatown is nothing like Toronto's. It doesn't even fill six city blocks anymore. The various levels of government have had it in their sights ever since the Drapeau era. The federal goverment's Guy Favreau Complex is probably the worst offender with the convention centre running it a close second. There's been lots of discussion about sushi; search the forum using it as your keyword. These days I usually end up at Mikado on Laurier or Monkland. While it's been a couple of years since I last ordered from them, takeout-only Sushi Volant used to be quite good (you're best ordering 24 hours in advance though). And Jun-i (see here) and Oishii (see here) have recently got good reviews on this board. (Jun-i is on my short list of places to try.) The consensus on this board is that, with the opening of the new extension, Jean-Talon Market puts all others in the shade. And, anyway, that's always been the case this time of year, as it attracts many more farmers who sell a wider range of produce. Plus the neighbourhood is much more interesting for foodies. Good suggestion, though the new Blueberry Muffin flavour sucks bigtime. Their other yogurts are good, too, and an ever-increasing number are "bio" (i.e. organic).

The skin is soft. But even when grilled or broiled the skin doesn't crisp like, say, duck skin does. And, no, you don't remove the caracass for this prep because the birds would lose their shape. The only time I bone quail (and then only if I can't get the butcher to bone them for me) is when I plan to cram them full of stuffing (a Chez Panisse combo of ricotta and chard is a favourite) before trussing both ends of the cavity. Boning is a pain, however, as the manoeuvring room is minimal and the skin tears easily. BTW, only the rib cage/backbone is removed; the appendages are too small to bone. Grilled and roasted quail are best when the breast meat is still a little pink. Depending on the size of the birds and the strength of the heat, we're talking 10 to 20 minutes (longer if they're stuffed, of course). Not every braising recipe calls for 45 minutes cooking, either, though if care is taken to ensure the meat doesn't dry out, three quarters of an hour over low heat does result in a tender, succulent and nicely flavoured bird.

They're great split down the backbone and grilled or broiled. My standard marinade and baste is soy, white wine or mirin, ginger, garlic, oil and honey, often with a branch or two of thyme and/or some orange zest or juice thrown in. The leftovers are great on their own or in salads. Quail also take really well to pan roasting. The classic Italian prep is to stuff each bird with a sage leaf, a slice of pancetta and the liver if you have it; brown in butter; add a small amount of white wine, salt and pepper; cover and simmer until tender (about 45 minutes); remove to a platter; add a few tablespoons of cold water to the pan, turn the heat to high, scrape, stir and reduce until syrupy; pour over the birds and serve, ideally with polenta. The French do something similar: brown cubed unsmoked country ham (or prosciutto) and some pearl onions (2 per bird) in butter and remove; brown the birds in the fat; add back the ham and onions and pour in 1/3 cup of cognac; after letting the cognac bubble for a minute, add several branches of fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg; cover and proceed as above. I love this with bulgar.

I was gearing up to post exactly the same comment. My recipe: take a highball glass; add 5 or 6 ice cubes; squeeze all the juice from a big quarter lime into the glass and throw the wedge away; squeeze most of the juice from another quarter lime and drop the wedge into the glass; pour in Campari until slightly more than 1/3 up the side; top with Schweppes club soda. The first Campari soda of the year marks my official start of summer. The synergy between lime and Italian bitters is not limited to Campari, however; a squeeze of lime is de rigeur in my Punt e Mes. Or was. Punt is no longer on sale at the SAQ...

OK, I'll bite, though you don't provide much in the way of information as to your age, interests, budget or travel status (solo, couple, group). Despite its length, this is hardly an exhaustive list. But maybe it'll give you a starting point and prompt others to chime in. Lunch: If you're a beer fan, L'amère à boire; the food's no great shakes but the Cerna Hora is an outstanding Czech-style pilsner. If beer's not your thing, La Paryse (OK burgers but an institution). Dinner: Brunoise (reservations essential on a Saturday) or, failing that, Area. Lunch: MBCo, Café Vasco da Gama (only after 1 p.m. on weekends), the Au Pain Doré outlet on Peel just north of Sherbrooke, the Premier Moisson outlet in the underground passage between Central Station and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, the food court in Central Station. Personally, I'd go the extra distance (about a ten-minute walk) to Cuisine Bangkok in the Faubourg Ste-Catherine for delicious and affordable street-stall Thai. Dinner (more or less in order of increasing affordability): Club Chasse et Pêche, Chez l'Épicier, Version Laurent Godbout, Holder (I think it's open on Sundays) or, if a pleasant terrasse is more important than the food, Boris Bistro. If Marché des Saveurs has tourtière, it'll be the heat-at-home variety. Ditto those available at Au Pain Doré and Première Moisson. You might see if Prince Noir (aka Le Tartarin) in the new extension has it on their menu. Personally, I'd give a pass to what is, after all, a pretty standard meat pie (and cold-weather fare to boot) and make a beeline for Le Petit Alep for wonderful Syrian/Armenian food, Café Italia for decent sandwiches and great espresso, Café International for fine pizzas and panini and good espresso or just nibble my way around the market (lamb or merguez sandwhiches, fried squid, sausages, Polish donuts, crêpes, ice cream from Havre aux glaces, pastries from Alati-Caserta, etc.). Come dinnertime, I'd think Alep (the more formal restaurant next to its little brother), Italian Café Via Dante or, if I was feeling flush, Ristorante Lucca. Two classic Montreal bistros: L'Express and Au Petit Extra. This is the same area (within a few blocks) where you were on Saturday. On St-Denis, you could try Mikado if you're in the mood for sushi. Or wander up St-Denis to Agapes, ChuChai (or its nextdoor BYOB arm, Chuch) or Le Continental. Or head over to the St-Laurent glitz strip north of Sherbrooke (Globe, Café Mélies, Il Sole, etc.) or Chinatown (east and west of St-Laurent between René-Lévesque and Viger). If you're in the mood for simple French bistro, consider Café du Nouveau Monde. How's about a BYOB? Le P'tit Plateau (closed for vacation until mid-August), La Colombe, Yoyo, Les Héritiers and Le Poisson Rouge are five of the most popular French establishments (the latter specializing in fish), though there are countless others. The more rustic Le Piton de la Fournaise features Reunion Island cooking. (Word to the wise: I don't think I've ever seen a solo diner at a Montreal BYOB.) Despite their getting mixed reviews on this and other boards, you might want to take a chance with the only-in-Quebec Au Pied de Cochon or the little bit of Paris on Pine Ave. that is Laloux. On the northern edge of the Plateau is Laurier East with lots of interesting shops (including bakery Le Fromentier, which shares its premises with a very good charcuterie and cheese shop) and two enjoyable and affordable restos, the Persian-Québécois Byblos, Le petit café and modern French-Québécois La Gaudriole. The Plateau is also home to a number of decent and affordable Portuguese restos, various sandwicheries, couscouseries, ethnic restos of varying worth and Reservoir, a cool microbrewery with pretty good beers and really good food. <rant>For reasons that remain a mystery to me, visitors seem enamoured with the so-called underground city. I can't see it as anything more than a poorly planned, windowless shopping mall. Fine for when you want to avoid the weather but a tourist destination?! </rant> High-end: Tony nouvelle Portuguese bistro Café Ferreira Trattoria. Tony nouvelle Italian Ristorante Brontë. Low-end: Cuisine Bangkok. You might enjoy a day in Outremont/Mile End. I proposed one itinerary here. Updates: I believe Christophe is closed for July; Olympico is now smoke-free; Les Petits Plaisirs d'Andréa has moved to St-Laurent; Le Club des Pins is no more; on that stretch of Laurier three new restos worth mentioning are Jun-i, Raza and Pesce (see recent threads on this board); Aux Lilas is a few doors north of Saint-Viateur, not Laurier; Au Cyclo, which, based on a couple of recent meals, has me wondering whether it's not the city's best Asian eatery period, is on the corner of Park and Labadie; and when they're spot on, Frite Alors!'s tallow-fried french fries really are the best in the city bar none. In the same general neck of the woods, winebar/resto Bû and microbrasserie Dieu du Ciel should be on any imbiber's short list. What else should you do? - Montreal's not really a museum city on the order of London, New York or Paris. The Museum of Fine Arts is only as appealing as whatever big exhibit they've put together. The Musée de l'art contemporain is mainly of interest to locals. The small museum at the Canadian Centre for Architecture can be fun if the topic interests you. Ditto the Pointe à Callières museum in Old Montreal, which is devoted to local history. - One of the city's unsung jewels is the Lachine Canal, a 15-km strip park that streches from the Old Port to Lachine. The landscape is mostly industrial but the bike/skate path is now uninterruped by cross traffic for its entire length and illuminated at night. Bikes and inline skates can be rented at the Old Port and boat tours of the canal are also available. - Exploring Mount Royal, parts of which are as close as you can come to the country in the city. Why not take a picnic? - Gawking at the houses in upper Westmount and upper Outremont. - If the weather's good, the city's vibrant Village gai can be entertaining if people-watching's your thing. Lots of cafés, coffee houses and bars from which to do it, too. - Montreal is an island, so fresh-water swimming is a possiblilty. The most convenient to downtown is the lake, er, pond on Île Ste-Hélène, a real scene on a hot day but far more interesting for the sociologist in you than the athlete. - For concerts and other entertainment, see the listings in Hour or the Friday Gazette. The Jazz Festival and Baroque Music festivals have just finished. Les nuits d'afrique is about to start. Les FrancoFolies and the two summer film fests are yet to come.

Do you know which residences? Probably the ones one the flank of Mount Royal at the top of University Street, just beyond the Royal Vic Hospital. If so, the walk to Chinatown, where all the restos are located, is all downhill and would take 20-30 minutes. The McGill residences aren't particularly well situated from a public transit standpoint; your best bet would be to walk over to Park Ave. (av. du Parc) and catch one of the southbound busses to René-Lévesque Blvd. and then walk the two or three blocks to Chinatown. Alternately, you could walk down University to Pine Ave. (av. des Pins) and catch the eastbound 144 bus to Sherbrooke station and then take the southbound metro to Place d'armes station on the southern edge of Chinatown. Check out the STM website, especially the nifty Tous Azimuts directions generator. FWIW, I usually end up at Furama (the dim sum service is on the second floor, by the way).

La maison Kam Fung. Many consider this tops. Restaurant Lotte Furama. Many others consider this tops. Restaurant Ruby Rouge (514 390-8828). The new kid on the block. Restaurant Tong Por. The QPR leader. A bit less westernized. As you guess, most of the restaurants, even the ones that bill themselves as Szechwan and Hunan, are Cantonese. The Beijing's menu features a number of northern Chinese dishes and is a good bet for dinner.

Just checked their web site. This week's private import "special" is an unspecified Seghesio for $50 + tax, 92pts from WS. ← The law was amended a couple of years ago to allow licensed restaurants to deliver beer and wine along with delivered food. I would guess that applies to take-out too. I wonder whether O&G is exploiting this loophole (if so, cool). Do they require that you buy something edible along with the bottle?

The Plaza Côte-des-Neiges store closed years ago. Only the store in the Cavendish Mall in Côte-Saint-Luc remains, and it's a shade of its former self. Which doesn't mean that they don't carry Staub, I hasten to add.

Any idea where on CDN, skunkbunny? I walked the length of the boulevard from Queen Mary to Plaza CDN a couple of weeks ago and don't recall seeing anything similar. Also, searching the keywords Lao, Laos and Beijing on Canada411.com turns up nada in the 'hood. Closest match is Ban Lao Thai on Décarie in VSL, a fine resto but probably not what you're looking for.

Why didn't you mention the '98 Le Pin? You're hoarding it all for yourself, aren't you? And who can blame you? Was $3,500/750 ml, now only $3,150! I loved the announcement's tag line, by the way: Faites-vite et saisissez l'occasion car les produits sont offerts en quantité limitée. Race you for that Yquem!

According to Le Petit Robert: Attach with a nail? There's bound to be a story in there somewhere.

According to their websiite (scroll down almost to the bottom), Chambers Street Wines has a few bottles of the Domaine Renardet-Fâche in stock. You could also get in touch with Louis/Dressner Selections and ask which local stores carry their two offerings (Domaine Franck Peillot and the Renardet-Fâche).

Expanding on the preceding post, according to Dave Broom in the New American Bartender's Handbook:

'Twas I. But only because Mooshmouse beat me to it. All signs point to poutine's being invented in Warwick, Quebec, in the '80s. See here.

The only drink that comes with its own cane!

Screech Caribou (the drink, not the animal)

La tire = maple taffy, right? Not uniquely Canajun, I'm afraid. Though incorporating it into vanilla ice cream is, as far as I know. Can't vouch for the Nova Scotia product, but chowchow is a fairly common condiment in at least some parts of the US (e.g. the southern Midwest). Cracked wheat, rye and flax. I make porridge with Red River and a few raisins and serve it with warm milk and brown or maple sugar. Yum. Another candy to add to the list: Cherry Blosom. Only in Canada. And what about KitKat, Mr. Big and Aero? Are they distinctly Canadian?

www.redrivercereal.com

If TH qualfies, then so do nun's farts (pets de nonne).

Chocolate-covered blueberries Oreilles de Christ Maple taffy ice cream Hot Chicken (the sandwich) St-Hubert/Swiss Chalet-type "barbecue" Pouding chômeur Cipâte Salmon pie (pâte au saumon) Herbes salées Lobo and Melba apples Montreal melons

Red River cereal (why it isn't exported is beyond me) Mae West (the confection, not the person) Ice cider Lake Manitoba whitefish caviar Any number of Quebec cheeses and surely a few from elsewhere Matane shrimp Spruce beer Various oysters (Pickle Point, Malpèque, etc.) Caribou Edit: Removed poutine and Montreal-style bagels.

Let us know how it turns out :) Too bad pierrefonds is so far away, or i'd be off to get a bottle or two of my own. The beaubien selection is carrying the 2003 only, and haven't even HEARD of a 2004. I picked up two bottles anyway, just to give them a try. I'll keep checking the thread for 2004 notifications. ← Opened my first bottle of the 2004 on the weekend. It was a fine, drinkable wine but seemed more dilute than the 2003, which is a zestier, zingier, more typically New Zealandish expression of sauvignon blanc. So now I'm scouring the outlets for a few more bottles of the 2003; if any of you see some within, say, a five km radius of Mount Royal, please give a shout. Also tried a bottle of my (and the SAQ's) first ever New Zealand rosé: Sacred Hill's 2004 Whitecliff Merlot rosé. A pretty strawberry pink in the glass, this proved a simple, quaffable, crowd-pleaser of a wine, off-dryish on entry but with a dry, faintly bitter finish. Despite costing $3.30 a bottle more, it had none of the complexity or savoury flavours of the Vin gris de cigare, which, alas, has all but disappeared from Montreal Island shelves.

Yep. Throw in a 2-3 cloves for each potato. And if you use a food mill to purée, you don't even have to peel the garlic or the spuds. After puréeing, add butter or olive oil. Thin with warm milk or cream and/or the potato-garlic liqueur. The other suggested methods are fine in their own right, but this is the simplest and purest.