Travel Reads

A food lover’s guide to Montreal

VAWN HIMMELSBACH, Chic Savvy Travels

Food is a huge part of the experience of travel — whether it’s honey-roasted crickets at a street stall in Bangkok or the best pizza of your life in Naples.

As I get ready for an upcoming trip to Montreal, I’m perusing Food Lovers’ Guide to Montreal: Best Local Specialties, Markets, Recipes, Restaurants & Events, by Patricia Harris and David Lyon.

The authors, who also write a food and travel blog at HungryTravelers.com, courted over potage d’oignon gratinée on rue McGill and believe Montreal is one of the best places in the world for food (and romance).

In fact, they point out that Montreal has somewhere around 5,000 bistros, bars, luncheonettes, cafes, brasseries, pubs, delis and restaurants.

In the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, you can still find mom-and-pop eateries that serve up tourtières, poutine and fèves au lard, while a new generation of chefs have developed a cuisine based around localized foods (such as cheeses and hard cider from old monastery villages and wild game from the northern woods).

Artisanal cheese-making, for example, has taken off in Quebec since 1995, and now you can find more than 400 cheeses. For foodies, you may even want to explore the Cheese Route (routedesfromages.com). And try Le Cendrillon (which translates to Cinderella), an ash-covered soft goat’s milk cheese chosen as the best cheese in the world in an international competition in 2009.

Pâté Chinois. Photo courtesy of HungryTravelers.com

The book is divided into chapters on each Montreal neighbourhood, along with foodie faves (old standbys, or newbies with buzz), landmarks (gastronomic icons), specialty stores, markets and producers (farmers, cheesemakers, wineries, butcher shops, bakers, pastry shops and chocolatiers, to name a few), cooking classes and events — along with recipes sprinkled throughout.

It also includes tips on where to get the best of Montreal. Find the best traditional poutine at La Banquise, the best Montreal-style bagel at St-Viateur Bagel and the best smoked meat at Schwartz’s Smoked Meat. The back of the book includes a Quebec wine primer.

When I head to Montreal, I’ll be bringing this book along to help me track down the best steak-frites and a slice of sugar pie. And I’ll keep it on hand at home, next time I want to whip up Quebec’s national dish: pâté chinois.

To read more about Montreal, check out Romance, s’il vous plait: Montreal has your romantic getaway covered, by Chic Savvy contributor Dana Dougherty Reinke.

Date Added: October 16, 2012 | Comments (0)