Montreal food

See the following discussion for a few addresses and a warning. www.chowhound.com/topics/437574

Garde Manger, Holders, Petit Conti, Rosalie, Cavalli, Cafeteria

We broke our Bodum Chambord - just the glass beaker part. Does anyone know of a store in Montreal that sells spare bodum parts (specifically the glass part for an 8 European cup Bodum)? We could order it online but want to avoid shipping costs. Thanks!

I will be coming to Montreal from NYC with a friend of mine while our girlfriends are away for a bachelorette party. Neither of us have been to Montreal before. We will be staying at the Sofitel which I believe is downtown. We need some restaurant recommendations for Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Keep in mind that we are in our late 20s and definitely plan on going out to bars, etc. after dinner so will probably be going for 9 or 9:30 reservations. I am willing to spend a decent amount of money but would like to keep to places with entrees in the $20-$35 range. I would like a good scene, good food and something that will have the right vibe to start the night. Thanks in advance for those with recommendations.

You just cannot beat cheese curds from the St. Albert cheese factory in St. Albert, ON - about half way between Montreal and Ottawa, 8 km off the 417. You might try: Chez Chartier 655 chemin Bord-du-Lac Lakeshore Dorval, QC H9S 2B7 (514) 631-5011 They used to carry St Albert, but of course it has been refrigerated. The second best is curds from Hamel at JTM - they have not been refrigerated, but they are not from St. Albert. Good luck.

I see from Bronte's own banner on another board that Bronte is now open for weekday lunches. Has anyone gone there for lunch? What is the menu like?

Not high end, but another menu sighting: Soupesoup's (the one on Duluth) chalkboard menu had a fiddlehead salad yesterday.

It is good to hear that Bazaar is back to life. I had a real memorable meal at their older location, and I was really upset that they might have slipped after a move.

I am not an expert on Fried Chicken, southern style or otherwise. I've been eating KFC (once a year) and grocery store fried chicken. Yesterday I found a new restaurant on Lincoln St on the corner of Guy St. They advertise their chicken as bronzed but it's really fried. The place is pretty basic and you can see the fryer from the counter. They have a regular and spicy version. I took 4 pieces home (30 minutes walk/metro) and the skin was still crispy good. I don't have the address but it's the 4th store (2nd floor) from Guy.

fig. a: Italians doing it better

There were all kinds of surprises waiting for me when I got home from work the other day.

fig. b: Atwater flowers

First off, no one could accuse Michelle of not bringing me flowers anymore because she'd visited the Atwater Market early that afternoon and picked up these beauts. Okay, they weren't exactly for me, but still...

Her real adventure, though, began not long after her trip to the market. That was when she made arrangements to visit Antonio Pettinicchi all the way out on Sauvé East. That was when she got the real treats.

fig. c: olive tree

Now if you're not familiar with Antonio Pettinicchi (we sure weren't until about a week ago), all you need to know is that on his farm in Molise he produces exceptional olive oil strictly according to traditional methods (hand-picked olives, cold pressed, stone millstones, etc.), all of it is absolutely organic, his only North American outlet is in Montreal, and the quality/price ratio is such that many of the city's finest kitchens have taken note. Every year he comes to town for about a month so that he can do a little wheeling and dealing, and every year he sells out swiftly.

Antonio was there to greet Michelle and he immediately took a shine to her--the fact that she'd arrived by bike didn't hurt. He let her sample both his extra-virgin olive oil and his extra-virgin wild olive oil and Michelle was suitably impressed. Both were outstanding--light, yet intricate--but the extra-virgin wild olive oil was the one that really blew her away--it had a wonderful pepperiness to it the likes of which she'd never encountered before.


fig. d: olive oil bottle composite

Then Michelle got introduced to the rest of the Pettinicchi line, including...



...beautiful, plump green olives...



...lovely canned pomodorini, artisanal cavatelli, heaven-sent balsamic vinegar and vin cotto, and a gorgeous array of confettura, including quince-apple, Barbary fig, and...



...this exotic white watermelon number. In other words: abbondanza!

It didn't take us long to begin enjoying our spoils. We uncorked a bottle of wine and opened up the green olives, and a little later we transformed one jar of pomodorini into a simple, delicious sauce for the cavatelli that highlighted the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. We were going to just wing it, but then we decided to see what Marcella Hazan had to say, and we found this comment introducing her Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter: "This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and none has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste." She adds that this sauce is "unsurpassed" for potato gnocchi, but that it's also excellent with certain factory-made pastas, such as spaghetti, penne, or rigatoni. We took liberties and had it with the cavatelli.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

1 cup canned imported Italian pomodorini, with their juice
2 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 medium onion
salt to taste
1/2 - 3/4 lb pasta
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Put the canned tomatoes in a saucepan, add the butter, the onion (don't chop it), and the salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with the pasta. Serve immediately, sprinkling liberal amounts of parmigiano-reggiano overtop. (You'll find that the cheese marries particularly well with this sauce because it's one of Hazan's specialty butter-based pasta sauce recipes.)

Serves 2.

[based on a recipe from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking]

Marcella was right about that sauce, but then she's never led us wrong. And its butter base allowed us to keep Antonio's olive oil strictly for bread-dipping.

The next morning we trotted out the white watermelon preserve and discovered that it has these incredible caramel notes to it and that it's equally good on toast or on yogurt.

Antonio is only in town for a couple of months, he's rapidly running out of some of his products already, and once he's gone he won't be back again until next year, but if you'd like to get in on the action you can contact him and arrange your own personal rendez-vous:

Les Importations Antonio Pettinicchi
1579 Sauvé East
Montreal
Ph: (514) 996-1900
email: info@pettinicchi.com
www.pettinicchi.com

Need one last final push? Check out what Nancy Hinton of La Table des Jardins Sauvages & SoupNancy has to say about Antonio and his olive oil.

aj

* Of course, there are exceptions to this rule:

Those of you with an interest in Patience Gray, edible weeds, Tuscany, Italian cuisine, and Italian culture more generally might want to check out Adam Federman's "Paradise Lost" at The Whetting Stone, which chronicles the melancholy story of Carrara, its fabled marble, and those who sought it (including Gray and her partner, the sculptor Norman Mommens) through the ages.

File under: "It's a strange and beautiful world"

What about that place on St-Laurent near des Pins, where Fattouch used to be?

What about Raza on laurier? The space is nice and the food interesting while being accessible. It seems to fit your requirements: http://www.restaurantraza.com/carte_en.html

Hiya, welcome to Mtl! First thing that comes to mind is Au Pied de Cochon. Though I've never been (not a big meat eater and this place is a bastion of pork and foie gras!) it's unique to the city and I'm pretty sure other folks have said it's quite kid-friendly. Be sure to make reservations as it's very popular: http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/ Here are some threads to check out: Kids friendly restaurant - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/512168 Kid friendly in '08 - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/475866 Great resto in Old Montreal with a 2 year-old? - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/455189 Ethnic, kid-friendly, drive-able Sunday lunch - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/490324 Eating in/near Old Montreal with a toddler - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/402256 Where to eat with a 5 and 7 year old? - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/423520 Montreal is a relatively small city so most of these suggestions are easily accessible from downtown (where your hotel is) by metro or taxi. Good luck and enjoy your stay!

Hello everyone, In Montreal for an academic conference next week. This may be a tall order, but we're looking for a good restaurant that can also accommodate children (we're talking a 1, 2, and 5 year old). Something indicative of Montreal cuisine is preferred (we're from LA/NY/DC). We're staying in the Sheraton Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel,1201 Boulevard Rene-Levesque West, so anything within walking distance or a short cab ride is a plus. Many thanks in advance!

I'll second the good quality of Cocoa Locale, we went on Sunday at opening (we were actually 15 minutes early, didn't realize she opens at 12), and we had a coconut cupcake and a chocochai one, too, and they were both excellent.

Thank you so much for all these suggestions! Pinxto and Bazaar are probably not good choices; in the end I'll probably stick with Moishe's or maybe Gibby's. For the record, Lebanese food is practically Israeli food (or vice versa!), and my grandmother makes hummus quite regularly. In fact I once had a conversation with the owner of a Lebanese cafe in the McGill Ghetto who said most of his clientele were Jewish students who went to Israel and got hooked on falafel! But as much as I'd like to go to Bazaar, probably it isn't the best choice for this. Thanks again!

I think there are both dry and wet jerk recipes (which are more tomatoey); at least that is what I have eaten in Jamaica. And while I actually prefer the dry rubs for my belly, I think it is "authentic" (whatever that means) to have a wet sauce on the chicken, as long as the spices (scotch bonnet, allspice, cloves and thyme maybe) are there and it is prepared in a jerk pit or barbeque.

Yep that is a new place, sorry. Just passed by today, but couldn't get the name because of their awkward signage. Definitely a new gelateria with shiny mounds of gelato. Also, walking by Prince Arthur I saw two more ice cream stores that I hadn't paid attention to before. I am not sure if they are selling house made stuff, but they looked interesting. Just on the opposite corners of Prince Arthur and de Buillon there is Cremerie Bretonne and Gelateria Pagliacci standing. God knows since when. Not tried them yet though, we were on my way to Mazurka and ice cream before cabbage didn't sound that appetizing.

The food's much the same as ever, though, like my waist, the sandwiches' cream cheese layer seems to get thicker with the passing years. The biggest draw is the terrace, one of the city's sweetest. For search engine purposes, it's Santropol, by the way. And they have a website: www.santropol.com

BLM, sorry to hear you did not enjoy it. Although I am far from a expert in Jerk Chicken, my friend and I loved it and two friends of mine that are Guyanese went Sunday and they also loved everything. Since you are in the area have you tried Bitoque? I haven't yet as they had a horrific review in Hour.