Rebel Yell

I watched National Treasure not too long ago and I enjoyed it fairly well. I don't think I have ever watched another treasure quest movie, and the concept is pretty exciting. However, the acting was far from good and the whole movie felt a little bit too Disneyesque. The quality of the action scenes also varied.

Je ne regrette rien

F and I caught up on Valentine's Day last week. We went to the Louis-Hébert, a restaurant we had been meaning to try for some time because  lot of politicians go there, and we are both pretty passionate about politics. It is a cozy little restaurant that apparently has a few separate rooms which can greet politicians who have confidential meetings. The waiter was really nice and on the verge of being too present. F and I ordered the same dishes for the whole evening. We started with foie gras au torchon, which came with brioche and what looked like a honey compote. The honey compote was very sweet, but it was nice element to have on the dish, especially knowing that honey is usually a Québec product. We then had a celery cream which was not too heavy and which tasted truly of celery. For our entrée, we had rabbit with squash risotto, Brussels sprouts and cranberries. The rabbit was delicious. The last few times I had rabbit, it was always too salty, but this one was great. The risotto was not risotto per se: there was a definite lack of cheese. The Brussels sprouts and the cranberries were a welcome addition.

Every dish we had was good, but the restaurant was simply too expensive for what it was. For that reason, I don't think we will be returning there anytime soon.

Everything In Its Right Place

My brother's birthday falls on February 11 and my mother's, on February 16. That explains why F and I have been spending Valentine's Day with my family for the last few years. However, since they often bring us to cool restaurants, I don't really mind. This year, we went to Salmigondis. It is a small restaurant, but there aren't that many tables, so it doesn't feel too crowded. The space is nicely decorated, so even though it is a bit dark, it still feels warm. The noise level is appropriate and we got to listen to some cool music, from Salt-N-Pepa to David Bowie to Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
We started with an oyster covered with horseradish cream and a mussel. I usually don't like horseradish, but the cream wasn't too bad. However, I couldn't really taste the oyster, which seems a bit of a shame. I then chose to have the trout tartare which came with gravlax, cucumber and a few lingonberries. It was beautifully presented, as you can see below:

The tartare was a bit spicy: a welcome flavor. For my entree, I had deer with beets and cranberry. There was a little too much cranberry, but the beets were good. This is what my dish looked like:

My favorite course was dessert. F and I were given two desserts to share. One of them was a caramel flan. It was good and not too sweet. That was the more classic dessert. The other one was an olive oil cake which came with a parsnip semifreddo. My brother found the semifreddo to taste a lot like parsnip, but I thought it was delicious.
A pleasant setting and original food: Salmigondis provided us with both and made our evening memorable.

La vallée des réputations

Sunday night, A and I went to the movies to see a Québécois movie that came out last Friday, L'amour au temps de la guerre civile. It was a dark, dark movie. In the first part, the main character, Alex, drives around a drug dealer. The whole thing seems mind-numbingly dull. After getting caught by the police, Alex ends up in some guy's apartment and spends his time watching porn and dealing with a crazy chick who is almost always high. He then reunites with a more serious lover but they waste time getting high and trying to get money for drugs. During the whole movie, it seems like the characters are completely unable to get out of their miserable life. Some scenes were confusing. There was a lot of mumbling and it was sometimes hard to know who was talking in the same-sex love scenes. The despair conveyed by the movie, added to the frequent confusion, made for a weird experience.

May It Be

Last Saturday was pretty much a restaurant day. F and I went to Paris Grill with my parents for lunch, and we went to Le Hobbit with a few friends from out of town for supper. These friends had been to Le Hobbit a few times before, and I guess it's a restaurant they like to go to when they are in Quebec City.

I started with yet another bourbon cocktail. This one had butternut squash and spices syrup and maple syrup in it. The drink was strong at the beginning and got sweeter afterwards. Perhaps the bourbon tends to float on the other ingredients.

The food I chose wasn't on their regular menu. I had a deer appetizer with rosemary and roasted onions. There was also an orange purée which was perhaps squash. The portion was a bit big for an appetizer, and it wasn't a very refined dish, but everything was good. I then had  seafood tagliatelle with lobster bisque, spinach and zucchini. The tagliatelle was al dente, there was a great ratio tagiatelle/other ingredients, and the amount of vegetables was awesome. This was my dish:

F had an onion soup and duck cannelloni. I tasted the onion soup broth and it was good, not too salty. The duck cannelloni is apparently a staple at Le Hobbit. It was great, but a little rich.

The Hobbit is a good place to go to have casual food with friends. However, it was bit expensive.

Sous le ciel de Paris

My parents came to Quebec City for a quick visit this weekend. They asked me to choose a restaurant for lunch, and I chose Paris Grill. It is one of the restaurants comprised in a group that also includes Ciel! It has a French feel, which is something that my father usually likes, and it is in a good location for my parents, because they didn't have to make a detour and they could be back quickly to Montreal. There are more restaurants to choose from downtown, but that wouldn't have been practical.

I had never been to Paris Grill, so I could only hope that it would be a good choice. It turned out to be a pretty good one. The restaurant was nicely decorated and quite roomy. We were there at one in the afternoon on a Saturday, so the brunch crowd had cleared up by then. We still had the brunch menu, though. 

I was a bit anxious about being on the brunch service, as their brunch menu doesn't have that many lunch options and my parents don't really go for breakfast in restaurants. However, they found satisfying lunch options. My dad had a soup, which was a bit spicy, and he had a steak which he shared a little with my mom and me. He found the steak to be a bit hard, but then, he did ask for medium. I tasted the steak both plain and with the pepper sauce my dad chose, and I have to say that the sauce was pretty essential. The plain steak didn't do much for me. My mom and I shared a filet mignon burger with bacon. I am not a huge fan of bacon, but theirs was pretty thick and not very greasy. The burger was a success: filet mignon in a burger is incredible. We also had sangria and it came with strawberries and raspberries in it, so that was nice.

We had a very enjoyable lunch. It wasn't perfect, but Paris Grill is definitely a good choice of restaurant.

I Don't Wanna Break

This week my friend A, whom I had gone to Nihon Sushi with, wanted to try another sushi place. We went to Hosaka-Ya Sushi. It is one of the restaurants comprised in a duo of restaurants, the other one being Hosaka-Ya Ramen. The ramen place doesn't take reservations and it is pretty hard to get a seat, so I don't think I will be going there soon. The sushi place, though, takes reservations. It is a small restaurant, but we went there on a weeknight, so it wasn't very full. There was a weird smell when we first entered, but the place managed to look well decorated despite its size. Here are some cute decorations that were near our table:

A had gotten sea urchin to take out from Hosaka-Ya once, so I was eager to try that. However, they didn't have any that night. We will have to come back for that! A had a wakame salad with bits of shrimp, salmon and snapper as an appetizer. I had a taste and it was great. I chose to get an avocado hosomaki, a hamachi hosomaki (yellow tail tuna), izumidai sashimi (tilapia) and a sashimi maki. The maki was made with salmon, tuna, butterfish, tilapia, tobiko, avocado and shiso, which I thought was basil. I liked this restaurant's rice better than the one from Nihon Sushi. A and I once again watched with envy another table get a huge dish with food chosen by the chef, so we will return for that and the sea urchin and the green tea ice cream which was great! It is a bit weird to be eating raw fish and ice cream in the dead of winter, but sushi is definitely a theme when I go out with A.

Let Go

I watched Two Lovers, a movie directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. I watched  a few movies with Joaquin Phoenix in the past year: The Immigrant, also by James Gray, The Master, and Her. I find him a fascinating actor to watch. His performance is the main event in Two Lovers. The movie itself is a fairly ordinary romantic drama.

Be Italian

Sometimes, F doesn't feel like cooking and wants to eat quickly, but I don't really like to go to a fast-food chain for dinner. Those nights, we go to Le Manoir. They serve pasta, it isn't far from our place and the service is really fast. Luckily, the restaurant also looks really nice. When we go in there, it is as if we have stepped into an old home with numerous rooms. 

The last time F and I went there, we were seated in a different section than our usual one. We often end up in one of the bigger rooms where noisy families gather up for birthdays, but this time, we got the bar section. It was cosier and more peaceful. 

We started with Caesar salads. Our portions were huge. I then had linguine with scallops and shrimp. It was good, but I probably wouldn't take it again, as it is a bit too rich.

We had a very satisfying evening. It is nice to be eating nothing fancy, all while being in an environment that looks a bit fancy.

Politicians

Vincent Marissal is the political columnist at La Presse and he is probably my favorite one. I find him to be very neutral and he criticizes all political parties equally. He published a book recently called Nos amis les politiciens (our friends the politicians) in which he did portraits of different politicians he met throughout the years. In his book, I had the impression that he was less neutral than he is in his column. You can sense that he doesn't believe in Quebec independence. He has some funny stories on a lot of politicians. However, I found his book to be somewhat repetitive. When anecdotes involve a few politicians, the story is repeated in each politician's chapter. Of course, this allows the reader to pick up the book and choose which politician he wants to learn more about, without having to read the whole book from beginning to end.

Nur Ein Wort

This past weekend F and I went to Montreal because my sister's German boyfriend was in town. My parents took all of us out to Bouillon Bilk. The restaurant was bigger than the last time I was there, but I found the decoration to be pretty sparse. However, there was recently a flood there, so that could be an explanation. It was very noisy, just like most of the more recent Montreal restaurants.

I started off with a gin and tonic made with a tea-flavored tonic. F had a cocktail made with a whisky I like a lot, Té Bheag. He found both cocktails to be kind of strong, but I was okay with them. 

We then had oysters. The waiter had announced that the restaurant had a few different kinds available, including the Trésor du Lac from Quebec I had been wanting to try. We asked for a mixed platter. However, they didn't include the Trésor du Lac in it. The ones I had were a bit too salty for my taste. 

We also had a small pre-appetizer which was beef tataki. It was fine, but it was served in a ridiculously large plate.

For my appetizer, I ordered sweetbreads with veal tongue. It was my first time having sweetbreads. I was a bit disappointed to find out that they were fried. Had I known that, perhaps I would have ordered something else. They tasted like chicken, and the veal tongue tasted like ham.

I had sea bass for my entrée. They left the skin and made it crunchy, which I appreciated. However, the portion was a bit small.

F and I then shared a platter of Quebec cheese. It came with very good nut bread. There were also candied nuts, but they were a bit too sticky.

I enjoyed my evening, but I found the restaurant to be a bit overrated. Usually, when I find a restaurant to be very good, it is often because of one stellar course and the others pull it off with a few understandable kinks. However, at Bouillon Bilk, every course had a few lacking details. I wouldn't mind going back, but if I were asked an opinion, it wouldn't be my first restaurant choice.