carswell

The Italian pastry shop is Alati Caserta (277 Dante, 514 271-3013). It gets my vote for the city's best canollis. Their lobster tails are legendary, too, and the assorted cookies not to be missed. Less refined but definitely worth checking out are the custard tartlets (aka tartelettes à la crème, for some reason) at the Portuguese bakery on the northwest corner of Rachel and, I believe, Laval. The almond tartlets are nothing to sneeze at, either.

As far as I know, no such club exists. Les Caves, like many so-called promotional agencies, sells so-called private imports but only from producers with whom they have an agency agreement. So the first question you should ask is this: does the producer whose wine you want to bring in already have an agent in Quebec? The answer is not always obvious and the best way to find out is to contact the producer directly. If the producer has an agent, contact the agent to see if they already sell the wine on a private-import basis or if they would be willing to handle your order. I've never done the private-import-through-the-SAQ thing. My understanding of the process is much like eat2much's. It's also supported by the following text pulled from the SAQ's website: Are these the people you're dealing with? What kind of forms are you filling out? What type and quantity of wine do you want to bring in? Get back to me with the details and I'll do some asking around.

What a great picture. Be still my growling stomach! Looks like you got everything right in that dish, gus. Is the brown of the greens (bok choy, what?) staining from the oyster sauce or does your stove actually generate enough heat to char/caramalize wok-fred veggies? If the latter, I'm insanely jealous.

Wow. La Mer on René-Lévesque East? Two weeks ago Chez Nino at the Jean-Talon Market had real key limes (they made a divine seviche). First time I'd ever seen them north of Manhattan.

Actually, I paid a pretty penny for some of that Irish organic salmon at Nouveau Falero last Friday. They also had wild Pacific salmon but, with the exception of Alaskan Copper River salmon (which I've never seen here), I prefer Atlantic. Also, the organic filets looked fresher. Anyway, I roasted it on a bed of sliced potatoes and drizzled it with an herb and garlic vinaigrette, so its qualities came through fairly unmasked. Probably the best farmed salmon I've eaten but still inferior to wild: partly a question of texture — like ID said, it lacks firmness — but also of flavour. Simili-saumon ?

I noticed the APDC menu refers to the duck confit as aux deux pommes. Do you think the sweetness might come from apple juice or some such? Or is the descriptor merely a reference to how the confit is served (with sautéed apple slices and mashed potatoes, say)?

Maybe I'll raise the topic when I finally drop by to pick up some confit de canard (next week, I hope). Then again, maybe I won't. I mean, do I really want to spend time trying to figure out what structuring materials are?

You couldn't ask for a better place to watch your PQs...

Wow. That's world-class.

Can't resist. He probably will also insist that his name be spelled "Picard". Thanks so much for pointing that out in public, VM. Can't wait till I can return the favour... Anyway, do you think Picard uses real china in his pie? I've heard some places cut corners with Corelle. And what the hell are structuring materials? China, maybe?

It appears the site has been updated recently. "Appears" because there's a new loading graphic and because the pages are full of fractured English that I don't recall from previous visits. Here's my choice for the top ten translation gems: 10. "...the young chef has done his de rigueur training pilgrimage to France..." 9. "oysters ... from the Maritimes provinces" 8. "back steak of deer" 7. "miniature frankfurt" 6. "where ... molluscs and crustacean alternate" 5. "...in the fall the menu is full of local harvest perfumes; winter brings back traditional dishes that warms the body and the soul!" 4. "The only smoke allowed is that of salmons and hams" 3. "[APDC is] the creation studio of chef Martin Picard, the virtuoso of spectacular recreations of dishes that stirs comforting and nostalgic memories." 2. "Thus he has no hesitation in using new structuring materials when it allows him to extent the breadth of his work." And the Number One translation gem is <drum roll>.... 1. "china pie" Wonder who's responsible for this quaint mess. Wonder if Pacard might be open to an exchange of services. "Will revise for food." Hmm...

Wow, so maybe I have eaten moose in a restaurant. Guess this means the wholesaler also forged inspection certificates and stamps, eh? Funny but you'd think that the chefs would have noticed the moose. The few pieces of moose I've been lucky enough to cook bore little resemblance to bison or venison either raw or cooked. I wonder who tipped off the authorities — a chef, a hunter, a disgruntled employee? Too bad he wasn't passing off wild ducks as mallards. Now, that would have been worth breaking the law for...

Really? Can you cite a source? Granted that my mind's a sieve, but I closely followed the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA debates and don't recall any brouhaha over raw-milk cheese. Also, although local production of raw-milk cheese predates the late '80s (think Oka), it didn't really take off until the '90s, when the FTA (1988) and NAFTA (1992) were already done deals. There was a kerfuffle in the late '90s when Health Canada threatened to ban the importation of raw-milk cheese. Could that be what you're thinking of? In ruminating about this, I realized I don't know when the pioneering Chaput imported the first raw-milk cheeses from France. I'd guess the late '80s but it'd be good to have a specific date. Anybody?

[sorry about the accents, I pulled it off of lexis-nexis] While I believe I have the gyst of it, anyone care to tranlate for us French-language challenged? Here's a quick-and-dirty translation: Listeria: Raw-Milk Cheese Makers Worried About Their Future by Pascale MOLLARD-CHENEBENOIT Agence France Presse March 1, 2000 The Berthaut firm, the main maker of Époisses, has not yet recovered from the incident that involved a competitor but caused the entire appellation's sales to collapse. "It's hard," said the company’s head Philippe Blanc. "We've really suffered." Six months ago, Berthaut decided to stop using raw milk for its Époisses and to begin using thermalized milk (heated to between 40ºC to 72ºC). "Doing so eliminates some of the risk, though Listeria problems can occur even in pasteurized cheeses," he said, adding that his "greatest hope is someday to go back to using raw milk." Edit: added headline

Taking you literally: I don't have a copy of the AOC regulations but you can easily find lots of French pasteurized-milk Époisses for sale in North America and Europe. Also, the Encylopédie des fromages doesn't list raw milk as a requirement, just whole milk. Taking you rhetorically: No.

Canada. It's Health Canada's rule. The feds are responsible for controlling all imported goods, including food.

Have to agree with slkinsey on this. Whenever I've been served Époisses, it has been removed from its box. Also, Époisses is one of those cheeses that ripens from the outside in, and the riper it gets, the runnier it is, i.e. the very opposite of hard. VM, you don't specify whether your Époisses was made from raw milk. Ammonia is a sign that the cheese has gone to meet its maker; if I recall correctly, it is produced by the decomposition of the mould cells that cause the cheese to ripen. Those cells can be killed by mishandling or simply die of natural causes. In my experience, pasteurized Époisses seems particularly fragile, rarely ripening into refulgence, often developing off-odours. This is one case where it pays to go out of your way to get the raw-milk farmhouse (not artisanal) product. Also, if your cheese was made from pasteurized milk, the 60-day rule wouldn't apply.

www.fromageriehamel.com

Sorry to hear your sad tale, VM. While not questioning its veracity, I think it's important to mention that in the 20-odd years I've been frequenting the Jean-Talon store, I've never had a similar experience. On the contrary, they have occasionally refused to sell me a specific cheese because it was too young or too old. My guess is not that they were trying to pass off bad cheese but just that someone screwed up, always a possibility with an operation that size and new staff constantly coming on stream. As for reparations, why don't you give them a call (514 272-1161)? And, if you have a digicam, get their e-mail address, take pics of the offending fromage and squirt them off to them asap. Alternatively, if you're willing to risk an outraged reaction, you could fax them a copy of this thread (514 272-1163). Frankly, these days I tend to go to smaller cheese shops — La Baia for Italian and Yannick Fromagerie (the former Chaput store on Bernard) and Gourmet Laurier for most everything else. I find the quality to be even higher than at the big-volume stores and the service more obliging (though a Yannick clerk a couple a months ago was a total ditz; haven't seen her since). Hamel I save for satisfying my Maroilles à la Maudite jones and their artisanal crème fraîche, the best I've found in the city.

Thanks for this, ID. Am not normally a fan of meat and fruit combos but that salad sounds like it could be an exception, maybe as a first course?

Located in a semibasement on Monkland near Harvard, Le Maître Boucher is a classy French butcher and gourmet shop. They sell two types of duck confit: one from Les élèvages Périgord (see above), the other made on the spot (see below). The legs I took home were individually cryovaced. The weight was given as 200 g, though I’m sure they weighed at least half again as much. They cost a hefty $9.39 apiece. Twenty minutes in a hot oven rendered little fat but turned the skin a crispy red-brown. Unfortunately, the skin was permanently welded to a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. The meat was dark and somewhat stringy but had a chewy texture, ducky underlay and savoury aftertaste. Alas, the predominant flavour was salt lick — to the point that you have to serve water with the meal, otherwise you’ll drink too much wine. Even so, expect to wake up in the middle of the night with a Saharan thirst. Too bad, really. Curious to see if a New World wine could sing sweet harmony with confit, I opened a 2000 Concannon Petite Sirah from California (wrongly entered as syrah tout court in the SAQ database). Nose of raspberry jam with sweet spices thrown in, slightly overcooked and some of it dribbled over the edge of the pot and burned. A jammy attack fades to a tannic, bitter-edged finish. A bit simple. Worked surprisingly well with the confit, though the wine's sweetness and bluntness make the match less interesting than that obtained with many southwest French reds in the same price range ($20). Le Maître Boucher, 5686 Monkland, 514 487-1437

Interesting discussion, gang. Wish I'd been free enough to take part from the start. Instead, please excuse this omnibus reply. >"i think it was fair enough, considering he basically said "this is the best of the worst" before the article [...]" Yeah but instead of lending them credibility by reviewing them, he should have shat on the wines, which without exception are plonk. And he should have lambasted the SAQ for foisting them on us and for its unethical marketing practices (more on which anon). >"you have to ask yourself though, does The Gazette's target audience even *buy* depanneur wine?" Sure they do. Keep your eyes open the next time you're at a grocery store. Or hang out for 20 minutes or so at any dépanneur on the Prince Arthur/Duluth BYOB strip; their volume is incredible. >"malcolms article cleary says the wines are ok,grow some balls and fight for whats right,all wine writers are terrified of the saq [...]" Yes. And they're even scared of the promotional agencies (aka the importers, tho' technically speaking the SAQ does the importing). Local wine critics depend on both for news and invitations to exclusive events they require in order to cover the local wine scene (e.g. the pre-offer tastings of Courrier vinicole wines). >"[...] or are in their pockets, im sure ,imean i know malcolm gets a couple of free trips a year,for writting this crap....from the monopoly saq" Do you really know that? The wine critics I know get offered junkets and trinkets by producers and promotional organizations but not by the SAQ. >"It read like a PR sheet for the SAQ. Bad news. Was the high sulphur content even mentioned in that story? And what about the high price for that shit? A missed opportunity indeed." Hear, hear! >"I guess what some people call modest, other people call cruddy." Or certifiable crap... >"they are maybe convenient,if you were a bum or a wino" Or if you find yourself heading into a BYO straight from work without enough time to drop by an SAQ outlet. Or, at 9:30 on Saturday evening, find the wine you bought to serve with dinner is corked and you don't have a backup. Etc. >"Is the dep wine the same as what is sold at Loblaws etc?" Yep. All wine not sold at SAQ outlets is industrial plonk, either imported in tankers and bottled in Quebec or manufactured in Quebec from grape concentrate and other horrors. None of it is vintage dated. Despite appearances, none of it is estate-bottled. >"The Quebec policy for allowing only junk to be sold in depaneurs is paternalistic and just tastes bad." Paternalistic? I'd say misguided (they claim they're creating jobs in Quebec) and corrupt (it's putting a positive spin on the relationships between the manufacturers of dep wines and the SAQ to say they're incestuous). >"The prices that are charged is just plain price gouging." Yep. They've got people over a barrel and screw them royally. Who says it's government for the people? >"I can find many bottles of wine in a good Ontario liquor store that are $7 and less (GST ncluded) that are better than the depaneur junk and you get less of that sulfur headache." You mean sulphite headache, no? In any case, you're wrong — not about the headache one gets from those wines but that sulphur/sulphites is/are the cause. Sulphite headaches are an urban legend and there's a PHD thesis in there if someone wants to track the development of it. Certainly some of it has to do with the U.S. decision — prompted by the CSPI and other neo-prohibiltionist groups — to require the "contains sulfites" label on all wines, ostensibly to warn people with allergies to sulphites to avoid these products. Curiously, that warning isn't required on other products that have much higher levels of sulphites (fast-food french fries, much supermarket bread, many salad bars, etc.). Also, sulphites are a natural by-product of winemaking and have been around for centuries. They are found on grapes. Before filling, barrels are often sanitized using a sulphur compound (in olden days, a sulphur wick was burned inside them; these days they may be rinsed with potassium metabisulphite). And, anyway, sulphite sensitivity doesn't usually manifest itself as a headache but rather in the form of asthma-like symptoms or, in extreme cases, anaphylatic shock. All of which is to say that the sulphite scare is, above all, a political tactic designed to turn people away from alcohol. Wine headaches are usually attributable to dehydration and a histamine reaction to components in the wine (and god knows what components are in dep wines). People who get migraines from all red or rosé wine are often allergic to anthocyanin, the pigments in the grape skins. >"But SAQ decided to take another route, the polictical one. Most VPs at SAQ are friends of power or old cabinet counsellors who are looking for their 6-7 trips as purchasers in the french vignobles." Seats on the board of directors have long been used as rewards for political service. I know two former directors. One was an unsuccessful MNA candidate. The other had been an advisor to the premier. The former knows nothing, zilch, nada about wine and spirits and less about running a business. The latter is interested in wine but hardly an expert. Both spent lots of time attending meetings at which they were wined and dined and trying to decide which all-expenses-paid annual junket they would choose (e.g. VinItaly or tour of New Zealand wineries). Neither ever mentioned issues like corporate governance; as far as I could tell, their function on the board was to act as rubber stamps. >"At the end of the day, with all it's greatness, SAQ still will not give away one iota of power transfer to the grocery stores [...]" You're probably right. Part of the problem is the union, which is dead-set against dépanneur sales because it sees them as a backdoor attempt at privatization. Another factor is the SAQ's greed; they're the main bottlers of dépanneur wines and they make a killing on them. And yet another factor is the public, which is quite happy with things as they are. That last reason is why Mr. Anderson's article can fairly be termed scandalous; he should be informing the public, not pandering to the SAQ, not maintaining the charade. What kills me is situations like last Saturday. I needed some white wine for a sauce I was preparing and thought I had the end of a bottle in the freezer. Wrong. So I had to dash out and buy 500 ml of expensive dépanneur plonk (so much for the principle of never cooking with wine you wouldn't drink...). Or a week ago, when I planned to cook Chinese and at the last minute realized I was out of Tio Pepe (the best substitute for Chinese rice wine, which the SAQ does not allow us to buy). Deps don't stock dry sherry, so I was out of luck and forced to change plans. I'm also outraged by the SAQ's "premium" dépanneur wines, with their meaningless "appellation d'origine certifiée" moniker, a marketing ploy designed to lure unsuspecting consumers into thinking they're getting a quality product (this from the monopoly that bills itself as "Les connaisseurs"). If the SAQ allowed the deps to sell an enlightened selection of sub-$20 wines from the Classique or Express listing, no one would buy the current stuff.

A sundae available only at the height of strawberry season. Strawberry ice cream topped with sliced fresh strawberries (whipped cream optional, IIRC). I think of it as the summer analogue to maple taffy ice cream, a sure sign of the change in season.

Just a minute, man! I didn't say it weren't no good, just that it don't do much for me. I'll go out of my way for the maple taffy ice cream or one of their June strawberry cups. But not for their vanilla, when I can get the different-but-just-about-as-good Hagen Daaz or B&J's vanilla at the corner store. My complaints are three: the vanilla (not intense enough and tastes more like extract than bean); the cream (tastes like ultrapasturized, not farm-fresh); and eggs or relative lack thereof (it's a personal preference, but I like eggier, more custard-style vanilla ice cream). Also, I find all of LB's ice creams denser than ideal. The cream and egg factors are less of an issue with other flavours. But vanilla is ice cream at its nakedest. Given the price of the taffy ($1 a swirl at the Jean-Talon Market, you know), they have to. IIRC, the premium is around 50%.

Don't know squat about a coupe à la tire d'érable. Have vague memories of once ordering, in mid-May or thereabouts, a coupe de crème glacée à l'érable or some such, thinking it would feature the ephermeral maple taffy ice cream. Was sorely disappointed; it was maple ice cream with whipped cream and nuts. (In any case, like Yquem, maple taffy ice cream is best appreciated in all its bare naked glory.) The lesson? Seize the day. Gather ye crème glacée à la tire d'érable while ye may... Only if you arrange to have gurneys, stomach pumps and mobile coronary units on standby. The downside to LB's maple taffy ice cream is its cloying richness. Seconds are unthinkable. In fact, the thought of eating anything for an hour or two afterwards induces mild nausea, as does the thought of its capping a smoked meat marathon. YMMV, of course. What's grape harvesting got to do with it? The expression you want is probably la saison des sucres [sugaring-off season] or la coulée de sève [sap run]. Unlike some eGulleters (hint, hint), it's not really my neigbourhood, especially before biking season, but I'll let you know if I hear anything. Let's hope others do the same.