Unison

My family and I celebrated my birthday in advance at one of our favorite restaurants, Le Club Chasse et Pêche. It has been around for many years. It is a cosy restaurant, dark but not too much, and not too loud. We started with oysters. There were some that didn't have anything on them, but there were also some that came with a passionfruit salsa and some that were cooked with cheese on them. I didn't have any of the hot ones, but passionfruit being one of my favorite fruits, I had two of the ones with the passionfruit salsa. They were pretty amazing. The oysters were pricier than at any other restaurant I have ever been to, though. For my appetizer I had scallop ceviche with autumn strawberries, grapefruit and edible flowers. There was a bit too much pepper on the whole thing and the edible flowers brought a flavor I didn't particularly like. My entrée was duck with oat rice, ground cherries, and almonds. It was a great dish. The duck was crispy at all the right places. Duck and cherries are a combination that I see quite often and I don't particularly care for it, but using ground cherries made it different and much more enjoyable. The almonds brought a bit of crunch to the whole dish. For dessert, I had a maple syrup parfait with chocolate and with a sauce of red berries. It was very sweet, but I love maple syrup and red berries, so it was worth it. Le Club Chasse et Pêche is the perfect restaurant for special occasions, and I look forward to going back there.

Yellow

I first went to La Planque a while ago, with A and F. I didn't think my visit there warranted a blog post that time, because I only had an entrée with oysters. Let's face it, oysters don't tell you much about how good a restaurant can be. It is true that at La Planque, they serve their oysters with raspberry and mango vinegar, which is interesting. My entrée that time was particularly good: I had the fish of the moment, cod. It was served in a lobster bisque with small potatoes and spinach.

I went there a second time later with F and my parents. That time, I had oysters again, an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. The oysters came with their vinegars but also with a homemade cocktail sauce. My appetizer was salmon with a coconut sauce, my entrée was chicken with thyme, chanterelles and pecans, and my dessert was made with strawberries. Everything was good, but unremarkable.

Both times, I was seated at the terrace, but the restaurant was surprisingly big inside and could easily welcome big groups. I was also very full both times. I would go back there if I wanted to indulge someplace near home (the restaurant is in Limoilou), but I think there are more interesting options downtown.

You and Me

F and I went on a roadtrip for six days at the beginning of July. We departed on a Friday afternoon and stopped in Rimouski for a night's sleep. The next day, we visited Murdochville's old copper mine. It was a short visit, and our guide was a bit weird.

We then drove to Percé where we stayed for the two nights. The first night, we had supper at La Maison du pêcheur, one of Percé's most famous restaurants. We didn't have a reservation, but there was a cancellation and we ended up with one of the best tables in the restaurant, with a view on the water and just underneath the original roof where members of the FLQ had drawn graffiti. The food wasn't that great, though. I had a sea urchin which had a bit too much cream in it and lobster with a maple and algae sauce. The lobster was a bit too rich. 

We finished our evening at the motel bar, at the Pic de l'Aurore. This is the third time we have been to that specific motel. We always end up at the bar talking with the proprietor, Jean-François, and his girlfriend Marie. Even though they live in what is considered to be one of the most far off regions of Quebec, they are more worldly than most people I know. 

The next morning, we headed to the Bonaventure island, where there are four hiking trails which all lead to a huge bird colony. We started with the trail which allowed us to visit all the abandoned houses on the island. We then arrived to the bird colony, which was a lot more impressive than what I had expected. This is what it looked like:

We took the fastest trail on the way back. I would probably go back another time to do the two remaining trails.

That night, we had supper at a place recommended to us by Jean-François, the Bistro Sacs à vin. It looked less touristy than most of the restaurants in Percé, especially since it wasn't by the water. I found the restaurant to be way better than the Maison du pêcheur. First of all, it was less expensive. For 60$, we had two soups, two entrées and one liter of wine. I had cod cakes, and they were amazing. I also tasted F's dish. He had homemade maple sausage. They were also really good and not too sweet.

We also talked with the proprietor, a nice French guy. I will be going back there for sure.

The next day, we drove to Shediac, a beach in New Brunswick near Moncton. The drive was long, so by the time we were done with the beach, it was time for dinner again. We went to a restaurant next to our hotel called Pisces. I had oysters and a bouillabaisse-like dish, which allowed me to taste all kinds of sea food: lobster, shrimp, scallops, salmon, mussels and calamari.

The following day, we went to Halifax. We walked along the harbor for a while. We were supposed to sleep there, but we thought it might be too expensive, so we got back in the car and went to New Glasgow, a pretty small town.

From New Glasgow, we drove to the Glenora distillery, which I believe is the only distillery in Canada which produces single malt whisky. We arrived in time for lunch and we both had a dish inspired by Vietnamese sandwiches. The sandwich had pulled pork smoked with wood from whisky barrels and pickled daikon and carrots in it.

We then visited the distillery and took a hike around it. We had dinner at the distillery restaurant, but it wasn't a particularly memorable meal.

The next day, we returned home. I liked traveling around the Atlantic provinces, but I don't think I will be returning there anytime soon (this was my second time in those provinces). Percé, however, is still a favorite of mine, and I would go back there again and again, even though this was my fifth time there.

Take my Breath Away

I watched Top Gun for the first time recently. At the beginning of the movie, I was really skeptical. A lot of the elements of the movie could have turned me off: the scenes with unidentifiable jets, the fact that you couldn't recognize the actors most of the time because of their helmets... However, the movie really worked for me. It was also a surprisingly sad movie. It is a bit annoying that the same two songs keep on playing, though.

Little French Song

For my dad's birthday, we went to La Chronique. It is a restaurant which has been around for quite some time, and so it wasn't crowded ike more recent Montreal restaurants. Before ordering our appetizers, my sister asked the waitress where the tuna from the tataki came from, and the waitress couldn't guarantee us that the fish came from sustainable fishing. She told us that the tuna tataki was a staple at the restaurant and that it would be difficult to take it off from the menu at times. Even with all those explanations, my sister ordered the tataki, as did my mom and I. It came with a bit of avocado, which is always good. I could understand why the dish was appreciated by most customers: there were a lot of pieces of tataki. For my entrée, I had Kamouraska lamb. It was good, but a bit small for an entrée.

La Chronique is a restaurant I would come back to whenever I really don't feel like dealing with the noise in a restaurant.

Turnip Farm

I went to see Jurassic World. There were some moments that made it seem promising. Some moments made me jump out of my seat a bit. However, the tame Velociraptors and the final fight are simply too ridiculous. The movie also definitely lacked a Jeff Goldblum-like character pondering on the meaning of life.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

After going to Decca 77, I went to see U2. It was something I wanted to do once in my lifetime. I used to listen to U2 a lot when I was younger. I haven't listened to their more recent albums that much, but I do have the latest one on my Apple devices, as all Apple users do. The songs from that album weren't that bad. They played a lot of them in the show, along with some classics like "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was a strong moment, with lights the color of the Irish flag:

There was a fair bit of technology in the show. There was a huge rectangular screen in which Bono could walk and images would go around him. Bono still has a great voice, and yes he talks a lot about global causes, and The Edge is pretty cool. I am glad I got to see this show.

New Year's Day

I got tickets for U2 for June 12th because June 13th is my sister's birthday. Unfortunately, we had another family gathering on the 13th. My mom decided to make a reservation on the 12th at a restaurant near the Bell Center, Decca 77. They are used to having people who go to shows after eating, so they had a special pre-event menu. I had already been to the restaurant a few times before, and I had found it okay, not particularly remarkable. Now that I had a taste of their pre-event menu, I am even less impressed. I ordered an heirloom tomato salad as an appetizer. I thought it would be fresh and simple, but my dish was really busy, with a lot of ingredients in it. There were also blobs of a mayonnaise-like sauce. For my entree, I had fish, which I thought would be light, but there were also blobs of sauce around it and it also had too many different ingredients around it. The dessert was okay, especially because it involved rhubarb, which is in season. If I ever go back to the Bell Center, I would try to find another restaurant near it.

High and Dry

Last week, a friend form Alma was in town, so I invited him to join F, A and I at a restaurant I had been meaning to try for some time, La Gueule de bois. I had seen this restaurant a while ago when I had walked past it, but other than that, I had never heard about it. It looked like a nice place, though, and sure enough, it was. However, there weren't that many people for a Thursday night, which was a bit of a shame, but that also meant the restaurant didn't get too stuffy. For my appetizer, I had their homemade blood pudding with scallops. The chuck of blood pudding was huge. I don't order scallops very often, but each time I get them, I am reminded of how delicious they are. My entree was fresh pasta with shrimps and rabbit. To have shrimp and rabbit in one dish was a bit intense, but it was delicious. The rabbit wasn't too salty, as it usually is. I had cheesecake for dessert. It was one of the smoothest cheesecakes I have ever had. All in all, F found the restaurant to be a bit too expensive for what it was, but I believe the price was right enough. My friend from Alma liked the restaurant a lot, too. His biggest complaint was that they didn't have any local beer, which they should since there a lot of microbreweries near the restaurant.

Cruel World

I went to Lana del Rey's show last Thursday. I didn't get tickets for it myself since it was a school night, but my sister got me some tickets for Christmas.

Grimes was on stage for the first part of the show. I haven't listened to her album that much, but I only recognized one of the songs (an article about the show I read later only talked about two songs from her album). Apparently she is releasing another album soon, so she must be testing her new songs. Her performance wasn't really appropriate for the Bell Center, though. It was too concentrated on one part of the stage. There were also weird dancers all around her. Since Grimes is from Montreal, it made me think that maybe she only called up some of her friends so that they could dance around her on stage.

As for Lana del Rey's performance, well, it wasn't exactly the best show I have ever seen. She didn't talk that much, but she smiled a lot. She went down into the public and brought back some gifts on stage, among which there was a Canadian flag. She didn't do any encores, either, and the show was finished after an hour and a half. She seems to rely a bit too much on her pre-recorded voice, or maybe that's just my imagination. At one point, she held the microphone towards the public but I could still hear her singing. Perhaps I was mistaken and it was the public singing, because everybody seemed to know all the lyrics. In general, her songs varied just enough from the album versions so that there could be doubt whether she was lipsynching or not. The videos playing behind her were a bit too self-indulgent, with lots of footage of herself and of American flags.

I had forgotten about the possibility that she might do her Leonard Cohen cover in Montreal. I really hope she will record it someday, as "Chelsea Hotel #2" is such a great song. Besides songs from her albums (mostly singles from Born to Die and Ultraviolence), she also played a song called "Us Against the World" which I liked a lot, "Serial Killer" which is a little bit more of a minor song, and she covered a Peggy Lee song in a pretty jazzy way.

Perhaps I would see her again in Quebec City with some friends, but I don't think I will be going back to Montreal to see her.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

I finally saw the final episode of "Mad Men". I am really sad this show is over. For now, it is definitely my all-time favorite TV show, and I hardly can imagine another show taking its place. A lot of people have complained about "Mad Men" over the years and have constantly compared the episodes they were watching to earlier ones, but I have always enjoyed the show. Some seasons were funnier than others, and that was way okay by me. It is probably the smartest show I have ever watched, and the one that rings true the most.

Paranoid Android

Last weekend I had dinner with F and my family at Kitchenette. I started off my meal with a drink made with gin, cucumber, coriander and a homemade spicy sauce. The drink was very refreshing, and the spiciness added a nice touch. I then had oysters which were delicious, but the restaurant didn't have much to do with that. For my main course, I had a "reimagined" salad niçoise. I thought the salad would be really deconstructed, but the changes were more on the subtle side: a small tuna steak instead of tuna flakes, poached eggs instead of hard-boiled ones, and fingerling potatoes instead of simple potatoes. There was a twist in the dressing also, as there was avocado in it. The salad was very good. The dessert was great too: I had a cake made with coffee ice cream.

As for the rest of the menu, I would say that it shows a certain sense of diversity. There are a few dishes influenced by Mexican and Asian cuisine. I tasted some of the food that my family chose and everything was good. For instance, my brother had a burger. You would think that having a burger in a restaurant cannot really be a special experience, but this one had foie gras in it. My mom had a pizza which was a bit weird because it had Boursin on it, which is a pretty cheap cheese, but it also had truffles on it. I tasted my dad's steak, which I normally wouldn't do because to me, steak is a pretty standard dish, but again, there was a twist: the sauce was made with bacon.

Unfortunately, even though the space is nice and the food is great, there weren't many people in the restaurant when we went there on a Saturday night. However, it is possible that it is more of a lunch restaurant, as it is right next to the state television tower. I personally would go back there anytime, for lunch or for dinner, as I found no great flaws in the restaurant. Our waiter, though, was a bit weird.

The Twist

While I was in Montreal for Mother's Day, F and I also had dinner with a friend of ours at Evoo. We only had cocktails and a main course, though. I had a cocktail made with strawberries and basil, which was delicious. As for food, I had scallops with mussels, fava beans, grilled tomato purée, crispy shallots and kale. My dish was good, but it was nothing earth-shattering. The bill, however, was more surprising. The bill for F and I came up to about 100$ before the tip, and we only had a cocktail and a main course each! There is a nice atmosphere in the restaurant, but it certainly isn't worth spending that much.

I Know I Know I Know

I read All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews' latest book. I had previously read one of her other books, A Complicated Kindness. I don't remember A Complicated Kindness very precisely, but I remember that I had enjoyed my read. I also enjoyed All My Puny Sorrows. "Enjoyed" perhaps isn't the proper word. All My Puny Sorrows is the kind of book that makes you incredibly sad all along your read. There are some funny moments that lighten up the book, though. I found the way it was written to be interesting, especially for the dialogs.

What Goes On

After our Mother's Day dinner, we all watched The Bicycle Thief. Weirdly enough, it felt as if we were watching a thriller. We all knew exactly what would happen, we just didn't know exactly when the events were going to happen. When they did, we felt miserable all the same. Some of the characters' actions felt so pointless. The story of the movie is so simple, and that must be why it stays with you so much. Fortunately, the little boy had some pretty funny moments which made the film a little bit less grim.

Take Me Out

For Mother's Day, we all had dinner at Graziella. My father asked the waiter to put us in a quieter section, and indeed, it wasn't as noisy as most of the more recent Montreal restaurants. The space was also beautiful, with Riopelle paintings on the walls.

For my appetizer, I chose to have foie gras yet again. There wasn't anything particular about my dish, except for the Marsala Jelly that came with it. It tasted very strongly of wine, but it was original enough.

The waiter had recommended us to share some pasta dishes for our second course. I shared a risotto with my brother. There were shrimps and peas in it, and the sauce was made with lobster bisque. It was very good, very al dente, but a little bit salty.

My main course was a milk-fed veal chop served with chanterelles, vegetables, and a purée that was delicious, but which I couldn't identify. The veal chop was huge and the chanterelles were very nice.

All in all, I found Graziella to be a very elegant restaurant, which I would surely return to.

Can I Kick It?

I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron. In Quebec City, it is almost impossible to see a movie in the theater in English, so I saw it it French. I also saw Avengers in theaters in French, and I didn't like it much then. When I saw it again on DVD in English, though, I appreciated it more. Perhaps the same thing will happen for Avengers: Age of Ultron. It was okay, but it made me less emotional than most superhero movies do. I found Thor to be the funniest in this movie. The amount of comedy in Avengers: Age of Ultron was more satisfactory than in the first movie of the series. Avengers was a bit too Disneyesque. I liked the Maximoff twins a lot, and Captain America is still my favorite.

Awake

My office organized a party at Houston. Everybody kept saying how they loved the place, but I personally prefer Charbon Steakhouse. We had a special menu prepared for us. I first had salmon tartare, which was good but unremarkable. I then had wild boar. The meat was excellent, but the portion was too big. I don't remember the dessert much because at that moment it was time for the party to be over. I certainly wouldn't go back there for a date, but it is agreeable enough a setting for an office party.

Étienne D'août

Last month, F and I celebrated our five years together at a restaurant called Légende. I started off with a gin, elderberry and ginger cocktail. It tasted strongly of ginger, but it was still pretty good. We then had one of the prettiest cured meats platter I have ever seen. Every product on the platter was delicious. Next I had a foie gras dish with apple. A classic combination, but it worked. We finished off with a cheese platter. It was okay, but the main thing I remember from that course is the fire cider that we ordered with it. I had never noticed that dessert wine on any other menu before, but now, I will surely be on the lookout for it. As for the Légende restaurant in general, I would definitely go back there for their cured meats platter. It would be a great way to start off any evening. I am glad I got to enjoy this restaurant for the first time on a special occasion.

The Body of an American

For Easter weekend, F and I decided to go on yet another little getaway. Normally our first reflex is to go east, but at this time of the year, there isn't much to do there. We are starting to run out of places to go to in Quebec, and F hasn't done his passport yet. We settled on Ottawa, which is where we had one of our first getaways. We arrived at the Gatineau Sheraton on Saturday afternoon. After getting our room, we walked over to Ottawa and roamed aimlessly around for a little while. We ended up at Sparks Street Mall, a pedestrian mall that looked like it had declined in recent years. We walked through the mall and decided to go back up to the beginning of the mall, where we had seen an Irish pub. It turned out to be part of a chain, but the ambience of the place was good nonetheless. I had mini shepherd's pies, which were cute and good, but after a while the crust gets soggy. Here is what they looked like:

After that we sort of fell into a food and alcohol coma, and we spent the rest of our evening at the hotel bar watching the hockey game. The next morning, we went to the National Gallery of Canada, where they had a temporary exhibition on Escher. We also went through the permanent collections. There was a lot of everything: baroque art, Impressionists, American abstract Expressionists, and lots of interesting Canadian and Quebec art. We went through the whole museum pretty quickly, but at least we got to see a little bit of everything. After our visit, we went to the Byward Market for a little while, and then we took a walk on on Parliament Hill in an attempt to see if it was possible to visit the Parliament without a tour guide. We didn't have any luck with that, so we walked back to our hotel to get our car to try and find the Prime Minister's house, at 24 Sussex Drive. After a roundabout, we couldn't figure out where Sussex Drive continued, so we ended up in a fancy residential block which houses diplomats. We drove back to ByWard Market, where we got lunch in an Irish pub, which apparently is part of another chain of Irish pubs. In the Irish standards section of the menu, they had a mild curry, so that is what I got. It tasted just like my mother's curry.

Another food  and alcohol coma fell upon us. We then went to the hotel pool for a little bit, and then we headed to Gatineau's casino. We ate at one of the restaurants, which on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays serves a buffet. The buffet was good, with lots of kinds of salads, seafood and meat. However, it was a bit pricy, especially considering that F and I never eat that much at buffets. F then played roulette and blackjack for a little bit, and then we were off.

I now have a newfound appreciation for Ottawa. The last time I was there, it was an even quicker trip, so it left me with the impression that there is nothing much to do in Ottawa. Now, however, I have changed my mind about that. There are a lot of other museums in Ottawa that we could have gone too, and there are more Irish pubs than in Quebec City. It might seem weird that Irish pubs are the places we hung out at the most, but they are more fun than clubs, for example. Also, apparently the Irish ethnicity is the third answer that comes up in the list of ethnicities Ottawa citizens identify to, so it isn't that weird. In general, Ottawa is a nice city, just big enough.