Lovely Treats from La Belle Province

I can't quite make the transition to talking about autumn food until I have the summer food posts out of the way. This summer, the funnest food I had was definitely in Montreal and Quebec City.
Jeff and I usually manage to get away for a roadtrip every summer, but this summer he couldn't get time off work so I had to make other plans. My lovely friend Deb obliged me with a 5 day girls' getaway to Montreal and Quebec City for a shopping - eating - drinking extravaganza. It was fantastic on all points, but we're here to talk about food. Each meal could probably be its own post, but here are the highlights:

1. Breakfasts.

Every morning started with a cafe breakfast with a huge mug of cafe au lait. This particular breakfast also had a toasted bagel with cretons. Pork pate for breakfast. I love it.

2. Jean-Talon Market.
We were blessed with a hotel room with a full kitchen so I wanted to make sure I got to cook at least one tasty meal in it. We spent a lovely morning at the market perusing the veggies (spherical eggplant!) and the wonderful cheese shops and bakeries and meatshops.
Duck fat in a jar! Horse meat! Duck sausages! Purple peppers! Yup - this market has it all.

Alas, cooking options were limited in the hotel kitchen (no oil, no spices) so the spherical eggplants and purple peppers and horse meat were left behind at the market. We still managed to bring home a feast of sausages, wine, cheeses, garden fresh berries and some lovely bread.

3. Schwartz's Deli.

Restaurants with ritualized ordering procedures have a fond place in my heart. This place has exactly the same spirit as the best BBQ places I've been in the southern States. The ritual is equal to the pleasure of actually eating the food.

There are two lineups here - one for take-out and one for eating in. We were in the take-out line and still waited 25 minutes for a smoked meat sandwich. Would I stand in line here if I lived here? I don't know for sure, but all that waiting, staring at the meat through the window did make me yearn to learn how to smoke beef.

I had read somewhere that you should order your sandwiches medium-fat because then they're more juicy. And so I did because I always do what I'm told.

Mmmm, medium fat. They perhaps were a trifle too juicy for Deb's delicate hands.

4. Au Pied de Cochon.

This restaurant has gotten a lot of press for two things - for really pushing the whole 'snout to tail' philosophy of enjoying and preparing meat (a philosophy to which I try to subscribe) and also for putting foie gras on practially everything on their menu. This was my first time with foie gras, and I've got to say that it's damn tasty. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the ethical aspects of eating the fattened livers of force-fed ducks but it seemed like something I should try at least once. Next time I come here, I'll go for the 'pied de cochon', which is what the guy beside me was eating. A roasted pig's foot, stuffed with sausage and triumphantly topped with a thick slice of foie gras.

This time we decided to eat light and shared an order of fried clams and a foie gras pizza with prosciutto, arugula, figs and goat cheese. Thumbs up, indeed.


Finally it was off to Quebec city for...

5. Classic French dining

Quebec City was a little more fancy pants than Montreal and it was definitely harder to get a seat in a restaurant due to the massive tourism that the 400th Anniversary Celebrations brought to the town. On our first night, our concierge suggested that we make a reservation if we wanted to eat out. At his suggestion we ended up at this little bistro at the end of a very long day. It was a little pricey, but duck confit with frisee salad and cretons on toast seemed like a perfect French meal, with the added Quebecois touch of having everything served on a slab of slate.

There was plenty of other great food on this trip, but there's simply too much to post here. You'll just have to go and eat for yourself.