Montreal

Dec 01

lindsayrgwattRandom , , Comments Off

Wen and I spent Thanksgiving in Montreal with a quick side jaunt to see the folks in Ottawa (Hi mum!).  We had a great time at both, but alas only took photos in Montreal.  Here are shots from around town.

Lunch at La Boite Gourmande (445 rue Laurier Est) – an old bank (complete with vault turned into store room for strollers) transformed into a communal cafeteria:

While Montreal may get grey winters, the locals are especially colourful- especially their art galleries:

The Atelier Punkt takes this to the extreme:

Montreal also has beautiful buildings and a fine, run-down charm:


If you visit, I recommend the Hotel St. Paul, dinner at L’Appartement and buy some fine Quebec-made clothes at Blank (think American Apparel if run by Quebecers [Ed: it is]).

Also, be sure to stop by Suite 88 for some chocolate.  The image below shows caramel, honey and green tea truffles, followed up with a lychee and ginger cone:

So there you go, Montreal in a nutshell, with a slightly gastronomic angle.

However, Quebec is home to much more food.  On the way to Ottawa we stopped in Rigaud for a poutine.  We went into this place:

This place was amazing!  (Alas, it doesn’t appear to have a name, but Rigaud only has one main street off the highway; it’s about 2 minutes in)  I ordered a smoked meat sandwich and a poutine; I won’t try and describe how good it was; you can just take a look instead:

J’adore la belle province!

Bafascinating

Nov 23

lindsayrgwattNYC, Random , Comments Off

Check out this wonderful item for sale in Chinatown:

Hipster Pizza

Jul 01

adminNYC , Comments Off

Based on my buddy Richard’s recommendations, I waited in line at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza for about 30 minutes today just to get two slices.  The verdict?  It was totally worth it.  The pizza was amazing: the artichoke pizza had the most gourmet mix of cheeses I’ve ever tried (can a cheese be succulent?  That’s the word that springs to mind).  And the Sicilian was incredible – a Margherita with some fresh basil and an olive oil drizzle.

All that for just $5.50.

One of the best parts of the meal (besides the incredible food at low price) was also waiting in line and hearing the morbidly obese man behind me complain about “it taking so god damn long because the place was full of Williamsburg hipsters blogging about their f!cking order as the stood blocking everyone else.”  I am neither particularly cool nor a Brooklyn resident, but since I blog I thought this was noteworthy.

Here’s a photo of the pizza so you can get a sense: