Montréal I just spent a few days in Montréal last week, visiting my son who is doing postgraduate work in Physics. What a city! I know the cliché is that it is the best of North America mixed with the best of Europe. I don't like clichés, but the cliché is kind of true, particularly when it is not a glacial winter day. The markets are incredible -- last year we went to the Atwood Market and this year we went to Jean Talon. I've never seen anything approximating the quality of produce and the sheer abundance anywhere in North America. Radishes are beautiful and delicious. Plus, all the produce is cheap. We had a precise and savory meal at Brunoise, an intellectually challenging and satisfying meal at Toqué, and a fun, boisterous romp at Au Pied de Cochon. All these restaurants are highly recommended and received numerous stars and top points from my wife, my son and I. Of course, we made our ritual pilgramage to Schwartz's to have smoked meat and various "charcuterie Hébraique." My son is living in the Plateau these days, a varied and architecturally interesting neighborhood. A neighborhood filled with beautiful homes built with Quebec's local granite, with a rich stylistic diversity from street to street. It helps to speak French in most of the interesting parts of the city, even though there are enough English natives and bilingual speakers. But the spirit and heart of Montréal remains French. It rermains remarkable that this outpost of French language and culture survived several centuries of isolation and intrepid weather. Not only did it survive, but it developed its own culture, a culture distincly Québecois and as different from modern France as it is different from the United States. What a place! If I was a young man and Montreal didn't have a state liquor monopoly, I'd consider moving up there. What a place!
Joe, what a radish romantic you are.
Jean Talon is always my last stop before leaving Montreal, The vegetables there make it hard to follow one of the truly important natural laws: "Never eat anything larger than your head.*" |