Articles

Montreal - Sub Categories

  • Québec Cheeses (15)

    Local cheeses, all purchased from Montréal. Related: the [l:albums/travel/montreal/poutine Poutine!] pages contain information about fresh cheese curds. Cheese Shops

    • [l:node/1154 Fromagerie Atwater]
    • [l:node/144 Fromagerie Hamel]
    • [l:node/1162 La Maison du cheddar]
    • In a pinch and after-hours - grocery stores such as IGA, Provigo, Metro, Super C, etc. There is bound to be a good place to buy cheese from where ever you stay in Montreal.
    Note that the US has some very strange, bizarre, and restrictive food import policies - see [l:travel/montreal/schwartzs-jewish-deli#comment-5229 Meat, Cheese and US Border Crossings comment] for details.

  • Jazz Fest (29)

    Summer Jazz Festival. More than just jazz. More details at: [l:travel/montreal/montreal-jazz-festival]

    • 2012 Montreal Jazz Festival (6)

      Writeup, along with some video clips also available: [l:blog/2012-07-06/montreal-jazz-festival-2012]

    • 2013 Montreal Jazz Festival (13)

      Pictures and video clips of some of the final four days at the 34th Edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival which ran from 2013-June 28 through July 7. Also included are some pictures from other events going on at the same time. The best shows for me were as usual at either the Blues stage, or the Tropiques/Groove stages next to it: [l:albums/travel/montreal/jazz-fest/2013-montreal-jazz-festival/fatoumata-diawara] [l:albums/travel/montreal/jazz-fest/2013-montreal-jazz-festival/the-harpoonist-the-axe-murderer] [l:albums/travel/montreal/jazz-fest/2013-montreal-jazz-festival/anthony-joseph-the-spasm-band] The pictures below have more info and some video snippet links too. There is also a [l:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkd3PNh_1yPTqRqrVEGJaa-9tn8C4xyhN playlist of all snippets on YouTube]. And a few more photos, including full size photos, are at the [l:https://picasaweb.google.com/104075696510996624769/2013MontrealJazzFestival?authuser=0&feat=directlink Google Picasa Album] July 9th saw the start of another festival: [l:albums/travel/montreal/jazz-fest/2013-montreal-jazz-festival/festival-de-percussions-longueuil-2013 Details on Festival de Percussions Longueuil 2013] opening show. [l:http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/default-en.aspx Official Montreal Jazz Festival] site. [l:http://montrealcompletementcirque.com/en/ Montreal Completement Cirque] site. [l:http://internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/en/ International Fireworks Festival] site. [l:http://www.percussions.ca/ Festival de Percussions Longueuil 2013] site.

  • Poutine! (11)

    A dish unique to Quebec. [l:http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20130531-how-the-quebecois-came-to-love-poutine BBC article: How the Quebecois came to love poutine]. Fries, Gravy, and fresh Cheddar Cheese Curds (fromage en grains) make poutine! An exclamation point seems necessary for this dish. The process of making cheese from milk goes through a step that results in curds. These are small chunks of solid cheese that are not yet pressed into molds for the final aging process. Fresh cheese curds only last a day or two, therefore are only available in places where a lot of cheese is manufactured. Cheddar cheese curds are available widely in Montreal, and it is the key ingredient of poutine. Fresh cheese curds are easy to recognize - they will make a squeaking sound when you eat them. From fast food joints to celebrated chefs, there is no shortage of places to get poutine in Montreal. [l:http://www.montrealpoutine.com/ Montreal Poutine] has good information on all poutine places in that city. Poutine fries should at least start crispy, and have sufficient amount of gravy to smother the fries. The run-down looking Poutine Lafleur has pretty good poutine. This is the standalone place on Rue Wellington and not the chain of the same name. Maamm Bolduc was not as good - not enough gravy or cheese - but many consider it one of the best, so worth checking out. Many places that claim to be famous, or are very old diners that should probably have good poutine, do not. French fries may be limp and not crisp, sauce may be tasteless, and they dish may not be warm enough. So for a short visit, just try the known-to-be-good places, do not experiment. La Cantine, closed in 2012. This bistro on Mont Royal had excellent poutine, in very nice surroundings. The fries stay nice and crispy to the last bite. There is a photo provided below, which now serves as a memory only! Surprisingly, some fast food joints have good poutine too - such as La Belle Province. And Frite Alors! has amazing fries, and good poutine too. 2013: Schwartz's has gotten onto the poutine act: [l:albums/travel/montreal/schwartzs-hebrew-delicatessen/schwartzs-poutine]. It is essentially fine as a novelty item, but the basic poutine elsewhere, and the smoked-meat sandwiches at Schwartz's, are both best eaten without anything else added to either dish.

  • STM - Métro and Bus (8)

    Montreal subway and bus system. External link: Photographer [l:https://instagram.com/explore/tags/mtlmetroproject/ Chris Forsyth's #mtlmetroproject]

  • Le Petit Alep (10)

    Great good, awesome ambiance. Near Jean Talon metro station.

  • Marché Adonis (4)

    Excellent middle-eastern grocery store - large selection of fruits, ready-made food, feta cheeses, tzatziki, and sweets. They now have a home page: [l:http://www.adonisproducts.com/pages/accueil_en.asp adonisproducts.com] DISCLAIMER: please note that this web page has no association with the Marché Adonis business. And this site is not in Quebec, so English readers are the majority here, and French may not be understood by most. Thank you!

  • Marché Jean-Talon (8)

    The Jean-Talon market is a couple of blocks east of the intersection of Jean-Talon and St-Laurent, near the the Jean-Talon metro station. Newly refurbished in 2005, visit this place for fresh fruit, groceries, cheeses, bread, fish, desserts. Great food available in the market itself, additionally, surrounding area is Little Italy, which has many good restaurants.

  • Schwartz's - Hebrew Delicatessen (12)

    Absolutely the most addictive food in the world, the best smoked-meat in the world.

Le Bleu d'Élizabeth

Le Bleu d'Élizabeth

fromages d'ici info: La Fromagerie du Presbytère, Sainte-Élizabeth de Warwick, Central Quebec.
Organic, semi-soft, raw-milk farm cheese with blue-veined interior. A natural rind with ochre-coloured spots and an interior with lovely blue veins, sometimes with a tinge of green due to the presence of Penicillium Roqueforti. Balanced salty flavour.

Bleu d’Élizabeth is an organic semi-soft cheese made from non-pasteurized milk with interior mould. Its natural rind is strewn with ochre-coloured spots and contains beautiful blue and sometimes greenish-coloured veins resulting from the presence of Pénicillium Roqueforti. The unique taste and perfect salt balance of this cheese is sure to please the most discriminating palate! This cheese is named after the place where it is produced.

Baluchon Biologique - Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade

Baluchon Biologique - Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade

Fromegerie F. X. Pichet Avec sa texture lisse et crémeuse, ce fromage de lait cru biologique.
Fromagerie Hamel Catalog: Un fromage à pâte demi-ferme à croûte lavée fait de lait cru

Raw milk cheese, semi-firm, with a washed rind. (Possibly comparable to the Oak Classique cheeses that are so plentiful in every Quebec grocery store?)

Barre a Boulard - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf

Barre a Boulard - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf

Barre à Boulard (Not sure if the farm is accurate)

Goat Cheese, Semi-Soft
This cheese log, ladled into a mold, is dense and sticky with a fruity flavour and a light taste of yeast. Its ivory rind contains a top-of-the-line yeast, with naturally-occurring blue mould which provides its rustic, full flavor.

Le Belle du Jersey - Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean

Le Belle du Jersey - Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean

Cuisine du Quebec: Pâte molle à croûte lavée.
Lait de vache entier cru
.
Soft cheese, with a washed-rind. Raw cow's milk.

Le Belle du Jersey won the silver (argent) medal at the World Jersey Cheese Awards in the US. (Table agroalimentaire du Saguenay)
Un fromage à pâte semi-ferme à croûte lavée.
Semi-firm cheese, with a washed rind.

Jersey du Fjord - Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean

Jersey du Fjord - Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean

Le Jersey du Fjord won the bronze medal at the World Jersey Cheese Awards in the US. (Table agroalimentaire du Saguenay)

Un fromage à pâte ferme
Raw milk, firm cheese.
Fromagerie Hamel Catalog: Perfumed with the aromas of the sea and an exotic zest of orange, Jersey du Fjord cheese is made from raw cow milk by Les Bergeries du Fjord, located in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Jersey du Fjord is a Cheshire type of cheese.

Le Fleurmier de Charlevoix

Le Fleurmier de Charlevoix

Le Fleurmier de Charlevoix (English)
Soft, bloomy rind cheese with a mild aroma of mushrooms and hazelnut, and hazelnut and almond flavour. Very creamy cheese.

Laiterie Charlevoix (French)

La Fromagerie Atwater

La Fromagerie Atwater

134, rue Atwater +1-514 932-4653
In the Atwater Market, Fromagerie Atwater is a big shop, and has a large variety of cheese available, including some tasting stations on weekends. For long-distance travel, they can vacuum pack the cheese which is not always necessary, but sometimes good to have.

In Winter 2009, when the suddenly popular Le Cendrillon - St-Raymond-de-Portneuf cheese was very hard or impossible to find in most Montreal shops, this cheese shop always seemed to have it in stock.

The Atwater Market is three or so blocks from metro Lionel-Groulx.

Québec Cheeses

Local cheeses, all purchased from Montréal.

Related: the Poutine! pages contain information about fresh cheese curds.

Cheese Shops

Note that the US has some very strange, bizarre, and restrictive food import policies - see Meat, Cheese and US Border Crossings comment for details.

Chocolats Privilège

Chocolats Privilège

In the Jean Talon Market, at 7070 Henri-Julien Street in Montréal.

Chocolats Privilège has great chocolates and chocolate spreads. And the hot chocolate drink is just $1.50 and unlike most other hot chocolates, it is very good!

Chiche Kebab Terbialy

Chiche Kebab Terbialy

Filet-mignon with a special spicy sauce - Chiche Kebab Terbialy (this is how they spell it). Shish Kebab is a more common spelling.

This is one of the best foods available in Montreal. The pita bread with the fantastic spicy sauce, goes very well with the beef kebabs. The salad is somewhat bitter - not sure if I like it - but it is certainly a good contrast to the beef and the spicy bread. Rice and vermicelli mixture on the side helps balance the spiciness. All-in-all, a perfect dish. Correctly portioned too, just the right size for lunch.