Montréal – Delicious Food Chronicles from a New Yorker

Veggies and Fruits in Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal

I had a week’s worth of meat posts from the Jean-Talon Market in Montreal. It is only fair to show my readers the vibrancy of the colorful fruits and veggies from the same market. On my first trip to Jean-Talon a few years ago, I was so impressed by their fruits and vegetable that I bought a week’s worth of grocery and brought them back to NY. Included in my purchase is a five-pound bag of beets! I stored them in the garage through the winter and ate them. That was how good those veggies looked to me. Below is a sample of this October trip. #Jean-TalonMarket

This experience took place at

Marché Jean-Talon
7070 Avenue Henri Julien
Montréal, Québec H2S 3S3
Canada

Saucisson sec, Dried Sausages, from Montreal

Meat post number 3 of the week. These are the #sausages I brought back from Montreal, mostly would be considered as French styled sausages. These dried sausages or saucisson sec are so much better than their American counterparts in most of the gourmet markets in NY. Slice up some sausages and eat them with baguette! That’s almost a perfect meal.

To read the other meat posts from this week, click here for Post 1 Boucherie Al-Khair and Post 2 Sausages.

I love this brand of saucisson sec, directly from France. Get it in a straight shape or bent. 🙂

These are the new organic saucisson sec we are trying this time, made in Quebec. The green one is very unique: the company claims that this is a sausage for vegetable loving people; made with pork and alfalfa. The blue one is made with pork and blue cheese; tasted very cheesy and strong. The blue is definitely an acquired taste.

This is Quebec’s version of the French saucisson sec. Not as peppery and more earthy than the French ones. It was great!

YUM. YUM. YUM.

This experience took place at multiple shops in the Jean-Talon Market

7070 Avenue Henri Julien
Montréal, Québec H2S 3S3, Canada

Sausages! Saucisson in Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal

I love all kind of #sausages. I especially love the European and the African varieties. Not really into Asian or American ones, other than hot dogs. Here is a showing of various sausages that have impressed me in #Montreal. These are all from shops in the #Jean-Talon Market.

Did I tell you that this week’s posts will be heavily concentrated on meat? Meat and more meat? 🙂

From left to right: Pork belly and pig feet.

To the left of the pork belly on the second shelf is the Toulouse sausages that go into the cassoulet.

So here you see many different French names for the sausages. When I pressed for a translation to English, I was told there is no such translation.

This experience took place at

Marché Jean-Talon
7070 Avenue Henri Julien
Montréal, Québec H2S 3S3, Canada

Meat, Meat, and More Meat: Boucherie Al-Khair at Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal

This is part two of Butcher Al-Khair in the Jean-Talon Market in #Montreal. Part one was about teas, spices and cheese and today is all about meat! My favorite merguez sausage sandwich get the sausage from this butcher. Let’s examine all the various meat available at this wonderful place. All the #sausages are made on site and smell fresh.

We got there around 4pm and the showcase already looked empty. From left to right, there is Merguez made from beef (less spicy); Merguez made from beef (more spicy); lamb Merguez.

From left to right, chicken shish kabob with fine herbs, citrus and spinach; chicken shish kabob BBQ style with tandoori.

This one is simple: Italian sausage and chicken sausage.

From left to right: marinated beef chops; lamb chops; marinated lamb brochette; beef brochette; shawarma.

I wish I lived in Montreal and could shop here frequently. Highly recommended.

This experience took place at

Boucherie Al-Khair
300, Rue Jean Talon E, Montreal, H2R 1T1
+514-277-3778

Tea, Spice, and Cheese in Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal: Boucherie Al-Khair

I go to Boucherie Al-Khair in Montreal to stock up on the spices: the Ras el hanout, Harissa, and anything that is middle-eastern and I cannot pronounce. I also go to the same butcher shop for my favorite sausage in the world, the merguez. That will be in an upcoming post. I love the authenticity of this shop. The store is always busy, filled with shoppers. I always feel like a kid in the candy store when I go there.

An assortment of nuts and stable dry goods.

The harissa, the sardines from Morocco, and other stuff that I have not learned yet. Now I wish I understood Arabic.

Moroccan mint tea! One of my favorites.

Cheese – many are unfamiliar and unique to the cuisine.

This experience took place at

Boucherie Al-Khair
300, Rue Jean Talon E
Montreal, H2R 1T1
+514-277-3778

Hot Chocolate, Cafe Mocha, Cafe Latte, and Croissant – Essential Food Groups

The experience of a good cup of hot chocolate, cafe mocha or cafe latte is one that warms the body and nourishes the tired soul. If you add a croissant to the mix, then I am golden. It is my ideal breakfast. I am definitely biased. I like European hot chocolate that is made from chunks of dark chocolate. I like the European cafe mocha for the same reason. It has the actual chocolate in the drink. Cafe latte, on the other hand, gives you that nice cozy milky feeling that you had after playing in the snow and coming back into the house.

While I was in Montreal, I had two separate but equally excellent delicious experience with these essential food groups.

These are two large bowls of cafe latte and a small cup of hot chocolate from Boulangerie Première Moisson in Montreal

I like their tag line – “Truly Authentic!” Think about this: How many people do you know that are truly and authentically pursuing what they love and being who they are? How many people do you know that are just stuck in the conventional box of cultural norms and expectations? The transformation process to become truly authentic starts with your latte and croissants!!

This is the said croissant from Boulangerie Première Moisson. It was flaky, buttery and fine.

This is the best cup of cafe mocha for me after spending a day at the cafe for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I saw the young girl painstakingly shaved chocolate slivers into my drink.

These experiences took place at

Boulangerie Première Moisson and

CAFÉ DES BEAUX-ARTS

384 Sherbrooke Street West

Montreal, Canada

Le Nil Bleu Ethiopian Restaurant in Montreal – A Restaurant with an Identity Crisis

Le Nil Bleu, or the Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant in Montreal is a vegetarian friendly and swanky place, serving typical Ethiopian dishes. Located at the bottom of a boutique hotel, the restaurant has a hotel lobby feel – there are a lot of super white sofas used as dinning chairs, miscellaneously placed sculpture and palm trees that block the walkway. It was also difficult to see the food because the lighting was minimal and sometimes blue. I believe the restaurant suffered from an identify crisis. But we went for it anyway.

We ordered from the tasting menu with options of various appetizers. From the left to the right: filet mignon tartar, caramelized veggies with yellow lentils, zucchini with tomato salad in Alicha sauce. The presentation was nice. The three dishes tasted average.

For our main entrée, from six o’clock going clock wise, we have Yatakelt Watt, Doro Watt, Yemesser Watt, Yekik Alicha, the same tomato salad from the appetizer again and then the injera.

This is the honey wine that is supposed to be a dessert at the end of the meal. It was ok but nothing to get excited by.

Now thinking back, this was a very sub-optimal experience. They messed up on our order and gave us the wrong entrée. We had to wait for a long time when the restaurant was not full. The tomato salad showed up twice between the course and the waitress never communicated that to us. Their tasting menu was extremely confusing and we heard other tables asking the same questions as we did. A bit disappointed because I love Ethiopian food.

It was not good eating. Thumbs down. 😦

This experience took place at

Le Nil Bleu

3706 Rue Saint-Denis
Montréal, QC H2X 3L7, Canada
+1 514-285-4628

Philosophy of Oysters: “Why Then World’s Mine Oyster” William Shakespeare

“If life is like a box of chocolates, then heaven is an oyster.”

“Then the world’s mine oyster.”

La Boite Huitres, The Oyster Box, at the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal

La Boite Huitres, The Oyster Box, at the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal is where we had a box of delicious oysters. Oysters are the candy of the sea and the sensation you get is indescribable. La Boite Huitres says that each oyster lover has his/her oyster G spot that can only be achieved when he/she meets the right #oyster.

I am still trying to figure out what type of oysters I am in love with. Right now, I am pretty indiscriminate. I like everything from both coasts, most of the time. But I am slowly finding out that I may prefer the salty, the seawater, the taste of the raw and not the creamy, such as the Kumamotos.

Here is the box of Explorer we had. We sat at the counter in a late October afternoon. It was cold and the oysters felt even colder. But we were so happy to try these oysters.

Kusshi from British Columbia is our favorite, clean and a little creamy.

Kelly Gigas from Ireland was fine, more grown up and stronger in taste.

Glacier Bay was clean and brought both the sweet and the salty.

Colville Bay was not terribly memorable, unfortunately.

Wellfleet oysters were meaty and reminded me of the Vikings.

Aftermath: We polished off a dozen of oysters in less than 10 mins. Highly recommended!!

This experience took place at

La Boite Huitres, The Oyster Box

Marché Jean-Talon
Montreal, Quebec H2S 2W1
+1 514-277-7575

Qui lait cru !?! Fromagerie Whose Milk !?! In Montreal

Qui lait cru !?! Fromagerie is a fromagerie that we frequent when we are in Montreal. It is located inside the Jean-Taon Market place. It’s an artisanal cheese shop that sells cheese from goat, sheep and cow. One can sample any one of their cheese before purchase. They carry an incredible number of cheese from the Quebec region and around the world (mostly French and Spanish).

Look at their signs – how cute! Do you have a preference for type of cheese you like? Cow’s milk? Sheep’s milk? Or goat’s milk? Personally, I am diverse but prefers a semi-soft cheese from cows with a nice crust that is not too stinky.

There is usually a long line to the store and you go around their u-shaped cheese cases, trying whatever cheese you desire. One particular cheese I had this time had a crust that is washed by Chardonnay, Merlot and sea salt. Mmm.

Interestingly when we asked the cheese monger, a young man in his 20’s hailing from Northern Quebec where only cows roam (his words, not mine), to recommend something to us. He asked us where we are from and quickly went to raw milk cheese or “illegal” cheese in New York. 🙂 The recommended cheese was excellent. I wish we would loosen up our regulations to let in more delicious cheese.

Here is our loot, a combination of hard and semi-soft cheese with half kilo of Gruyere from Switzerland. It was a very happy day indeed. 🙂 Highly recommend. It’s worth the 6-hour trip from New York.

This experience took place at

Qui lait cru Fromagerie
7070 avenue Henri-Julien
Montreal, Quebec h2s 3s3
+1 514-272-0300

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