A Quebec traditional comfort food, the shepherd’s pie from restaurant Mâche (pictured above) in the Latin Quarter is definitely a hit for people avoiding the cold. With six different variations of the original classic of ground beef, corn and mashed potatoes, this spot is offering variations that include pulled pork, merguez sausage and veal.

Restaurant Biarritz on the Main offers up a seasonal menu that changes weekly. Reflecting what’s available at the market, the winter season sees its share of soul soothing menu options such as the pork belly confit with cauliflower puree, romanesco, currants and capers.

Baxo, located in the Old Port, serves up modern terroir inspired dishes in an atmosphere as rustic that is able to charm the snowpants off of winter. Not to be missed is the entrecote for two – served on their signature butcher block with seasonal root vegetables, this dish will help you hibernate well into the night.

There’s nothing like a big bowl of hot soup on a cold and blistery day to keep you warm. What’s even better is if that bowl of soup is piled high with barbecue pork, saucy braised beef. Nudo in Chinatown offers a dinner and a show – the show being your noodles being made in front of your eyes.

If it’s coming in after having a snowball fight, or fighting your neighbour for a parking spot dug out in a snow-bank, warming up with a hot chocolate is synonymous with winter. Nowhere does it better than Montreal’s primere “Chocolate Bar”, Cacao 70. Close to 25 different kinds of hot chocolate ranging from 29.2% purity, all the way to 100% (with or without alcohol), a definite chocolate lover and aficionado’s fantasy destination.

The post GREAT COMFORT FOOD WARMS UP WINTER IN MONTREAL appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

According to chef Juneau, Montreal is a great epicurean and inspirational city but it unfortunately lacks some openness towards the rest of the country. The Pastaga team will open up their kitchen and their dining room to these invited chefs who will have carte blanche when it comes to the running of each event.

The December 3first edition of Royal Canadian Monday saw chef Marc Lepine, winner of the 2012 Gold Medal Plate award and chef of the critically acclaimed Atelier in Ottawa taking over the Pastaga kitchen. Chef Lepine created an unbelievable 6-course tasting menu for the occasion. Every dish was like a playful and beautiful work of art. I still can’t decide which of the evening’s dishes was my favourite.

There was the 46 degrees sous-vide arctic char, cherry tomatoes, red pepper gel sheet, dehydrated black olive, 65 degrees sous-vide quail egg, fried capers, caper brine sponge, tarragon aioli that was a definitive contender. But the butternut squash soup, crab apple nitro-noodles, puffed wild rice and crispy duck’s contrast of textures, temperatures and flavours was my most memorable moment of the evening.

The “crab apple nitro-noodles” were made tableside by chef Lepine himself using liquid nitrogen, which brings out the kid in all of us, no matter how worldly we may think we are. The contrast between the sour-sweet frozen crab apple noodles and the warm soup was just unbelievable. Chef Lepine’s Atelier restaurant has been referred to as “Canada’s Alinea” and it was nice to experience some of that talent at this first edition of Royal Canadian Monday.

The line-up of chefs for the upcoming events is impressive and includes Jonathan Gushue (Langdon Hall), John Horne (Canoe), Jeremy Charles (Raymonds) and Quang Dang (West) all scheduled to make an appearance at Pastaga in the next few months.

This is extremely exciting news for Montreal and its food lovers! It is a great opportunity to discover some unbelievable culinary talents from around the country without leaving home. Look out for Jonathan Gushue of Langdon Hall – ranked #77 on the San Pellegrino World’s 100 Best Restaurants 2010 – who is scheduled to be at Pastaga around mid-January.

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THE DETAILS

Pastaga Restaurant, 6389 Saint Laurent Boulevard

To reserve your table for the next Royal Canadian Monday: (438) 381-6389

The post PASTAGA WELCOMES TOP CANADIAN CHEFS TO THEIR ROYAL CANADIAN MONDAY appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

With so many options, it’s quite possible to go on a gastronomic tour of these noodle joints across the city. But to save you the time and stomach real estate, I’m going to give you a rundown of some of the best choices of pho, no matter which part of the island you’re on.

My weapon of choice is the “Dac diet” pho – usually labeled as the house specialty; served with slices of brisket, rare flank steak, tendon and tripe. Way uptown the spot you have to hit is Restaurant Nam Quan (3562 Rue Jarry East) – one of the best in the city. This literal hole in the wall operates from the basement of a single home dwelling. Quaint and cozy, they start serving tables at 10 am.

Restaurant Nguyen Phi (6260, Chemin de la cote-des-Neiges) is one of my favorites. Like most other places, the sizing system is a bit strange. Pho comes in either a “medium”, “large”, or “extra-large”. I give up trying to rationalize it, and learned to embrace it as soon as the soup touches my mouth… on my lips. Nguyen Phi shreds their tripe really fine which adds great texture and crunch to each chewy mouthful of noodles.

Another spot midtown is Pho 198 (5193 Côte-des-Neiges Road). Steps from the University of Montreal campus, this spot is taking sole responsibility for sustaining local students on a budget as well as sending them back to school ready for a nap. Being a student once before, I can attest that this option is far better than reconstituted dried ramen from a bag that looks like Justin Timberlake’s hair circa 1999 of N’Sync fame.

Making your way through to the Plateau, if pho’ing should strike you, Restaurant Pho Tay Ho (6414 Rue Saint-Denis), is where you should go. Opposed to the “dac biet”, their specialty here is their chicken pho. Generous slices of poached chicken in an aromatic chicken bone soup, there is an option for a mix of both chicken and beef in the same bowl. Pho sure, it’s one of the best chicken noodles soups in the city… yes, I went there.

Pho Bang New York (1001 Saint-Laurent) is your best option downtown and in the Chinatown area. Their soup is richer in earthy spices, which is highlighted by the generous greenery of basil, scallions and cilantro. Don’t let the tables slapped together in a mock communal dining space intimidate you. There’s something to be said about the level of intimacy that is shared when you’re sitting elbow to elbow with a stranger and having rogue neighboring spit and soup particles tickling each others faces.

Photos: Emilie Nguyen Ngoc

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FoodLab has been serving outstanding food in a very casual, trendy atmosphere for the past year. The menu changes every 2 to 3 weeks and is always centered around a specific theme: French Holidays, Japanese izakaya, etc. I sat down with Michelle Marek and Seth Gabrielse, the two talented chefs at the helm of FoodLab, for a Q&A session right before the big birthday event.

What was it like at the beginning?
Michelle Marek: We took a tour of the kitchen space a month and a half before it opened, it was in construction and we were planning it all out. But really, what we got was what we saw. The same empty, completely empty, space.
So when you started out, you didn’t even have the home ovens?
Seth Gabrielse: Nothing, no tables, nothing. We had a piece of the stage from downstairs.
MM: We covered it with a tablecloth just so it didn’t look so trashy.
How did you cook with no water?
SG: We cooked at my place and Michelle and I biked everything in.
And how long did it take before you had water and ovens?
SG: When we opened officially – because we did several events before FoodLab was launched – but when we opened officially, at that point, there was water at the bar area (several feet away) and we could use one third of the bar fridge.
Was there one single moment when everything came together for you?
MM: It’s a series of moments. We had a lot of nice experiences. We’ve been building something and we keep getting proof that, yes, this is still interesting and there’s still a lot that we can do. Despite our limitations, we’ve never let that stop us.
SG: There were moments at the beginning when we looked at our kitchen and realized that it would’ve taken 3 or 4 of the tech guys who work here about half an hour to dismantle it all as if it never existed.
MM: That’s a weird feeling.
SG: Now it’s fun because we see it becoming more permanent. And for me too, it was a series of events but one of the solidifying things was when we decided to start doing the themed-menus and we had a very positive response to them.
Can we expect the same kind of theme format for year 2?
SG: I think so.
MM: What freaked us out at first was not having some sort of direction. It’s literally impossible to work like that. There was no direction so we imposed this direction so at least there was a structure within the menus, because otherwise, it’s all over the place. We’re also looking forward to more collaborations next year, more festivals and more longer-running events.
In your wildest dreams, if there was no budget limit, what would you want? Who would you want cooking in your kitchen?
SG: This is not so wild and crazy but we would love to do an event with some of the old-timers of Montreal, some of the guys who pioneered this business. You know, James MacGuire, Joël Chapoulie, etc. It would be a lot of fun to bring some these guys together and do a meal with them.
MM: We’ve always wanted to do a big dance in the dome, open it up and have a dinner and dance event, but not techno dancing, more like ballroom. We’ve always wanted an educational element to what we do here so it would be cool to explore more workshops, more cooking classes or host these micro workshops here. The demand is there and it’s a neutral space in the city. We’re only open four nights a week so we are flexible and space is not an issue.

Until November 28, Foodlab will feature a Kamouraska menu inspired by a trip Michelle took to that region earlier this summer and then again a couple of weeks ago to collect ingredients which will be part of the menu. From November 29 to December 2 there will be a Quebec Christmas menu (Pea soup, tourtière, cretons, and a lot of traditional dishes will be on the menu at FoodLab while SOUK@SAT is taking place) and in December there will family-style set menus throughout the month for all your holiday parties. These will change on a weekly basis.

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THE DETAILS

FoodLab, Society for Arts and Technology (live show fans should make sure to check out this great deal on tickets from La Vitrine), 1201 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, 3^rd floor
Tuesday to Friday starting at 5pm

The post SAT’S FOODLAB CELEBRATES ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

What started as a hobby and delicious weekly specials at his former restaurant, Chef Dylan Kier honed his favorite past time into a crowd-winning recipe. What actually turned out to be a championship-winning recipe has taken Kier and his Blackstrap team to a first place title at a local barbecue competition and then subsequently asked to represent Quebec at the Jack Daniel’s invitational in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

“It started from a small home smoker my wife gave me as a gift and it took off from there.” Unfortunately, he out-smoked the smoker and broke it. Kier’s passion for barbecue and trying to understand every aspect of smoking meat, amalgamated to a cross boarder run with five buddies to haul home a 500-pound, Missouri’s finest industrial smoker.

“I was researching all kinds of recipes, ones from famous pit masters to celebrity chefs, tweaked and modified to find one I was happy with to call my own.”

Hitting up their eatery, I had the opportunity to taste a few items on the menu; first at bat was the Blackstrap brisket sandwich. A generous mound of beautifully smoked brisket, the meat was tender and juicy. The bark – the outer crust of caramelized dry rub – was incredibly flavorful and sweet.

The pork ribs came with a side of coleslaw and braised greens – although all menu items are dry rubbed, there is homemade spicy barbecue sauce and sweet barbecue sauce available should you desire smokey palate lube for your meat.

The secret to Blackstrap’s deliciousness is in the rub – a complex mélange of spices that highlights the meat’s natural sweetness, and draws out the deep and mysterious wisps of smoke that has embedded itself for over 12 hours. Nicely paired with tart and tangy sides, the slaw and cider braised greens, brightens up each bite of ribs.

If you are unable to decide what to order, Blackstrap has made it simple for you, get  “Le Gros” (The Big)” – a sample plate of everything on the menu enough for two people or one hungry one.  From ribs and brisket, to smoked turkey and pulled pork, Le Gros also includes a sampling of all the side, such as braised greens, smoked spicy beans, biscuits and most importantly, fried mac and cheese balls.

These bad boys are exactly what you think they are and everything you want them to be. Cheesy and lustful, these golden nuggets ooze with cheese and beg to be eaten slowly and not shared. Slow is key – no one needs molten hot cheesy lava singeing the roof of your mouth.

There is something to be said about honest people serving up honest food and nothing is more unpretentious than barbecue. Kier and his team at Blackstrap exemplify southern hospitality, while sharing their passion of barbecue and providing Montrealers another reason to use wet-towelettes.

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THE DETAILS

Blackstrap BBQ, 4436 Wellington, (514) 507-6772

The post BLACKSTRAP BBQ: MEMPHIS COMES TO MONTREAL appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.