One last Canada post before I fly away on the big silver bird. This one is about food. I’m feeling a bit guilty in fact for not eating the two classic Montreal dishes in the last week: poutine and bagels. To be fair, I had poutine in Vancouver and was not impressed. In fact I think I might have called it overrated.
It’s basically chips covered in a slurry of gravy and some sort of cheese substitute. I suppose it might appeal in the depths of a Canadian winter.
I didn’t have any maple syrup either but that’s not a novelty for me, however the locals have ramped it up a notch with maple butter, a misnomer because it’s basically maple syrup that’s just boiled until it’s dehydrated so much that it turns into one giant sugar crystal, which you then spread on your toast or waffles or other carb of your choice. Sounds a bit sickly but let’s face it, that’s pretty much exactly what jam is, am I right? Anyway, I’ve bought a jar at the airport, and if I don’t like it I can gift it to the family.
We had dinner in a posh restaurant one night, it was before the fireworks so we were a little pressed for time but they were very good about it. Before our meals arrived they supplied us not only with bread but also some bizarrely giant pickles and a bowl of lardons. Very strange. Is this a French custom?
The pickles may have been enormous but the oysters in my Oysters Rockefeller were tiny.
Towards the end of our stay, and after a thunderstorm with torrential downpours that left us quite soggy, we ate at the highly recommended Méchant Boeuf. Unfortunately we hadn’t been warned about the size of the meals, although our waiter was very friendly and helpful, if a little handsy (French?)
The final subject for my report is actually a liquid, the abomination known as Clamato.
It’s tomato juice with “clam juice” added. It ends up tasting very much like a spiced tomato juice, even with disturbingly gritty bits that you can imagine is ground pepper if you like. It’s so salty that unless you have the kidneys of a dog, you’ll end up more dehydrated than you started (that’s one for you physiologists). It’s popularity is inexplicable.