Category Archives: Travel

Montreal

Le Petit Alep

191 Jean-Talon Street East in Montreal – walk West towards St-Laurent from the Jean-Talon metro station.
Open Tue-Sat for lunch and dinner.

2013: Le Petit Alep Official Website is now online with details and the whole menu.

Great food and excellent ambiance.

Syrian/Armenian food.
Filet-mignon with a special spicy sauce – Chiche Kebab Terbialy. Absolutely the best, this is always a safe choice.
Pureed eggplant, tahini, garlic, lemon – Métabal.
Chicken in tahini – Poulet Trator.
Grilled Pita sandwich – Pitas grillés poulet. Chicken, mayo, garlic, with a nice kick – hint of spicy red-pepper?

The terbialy sauce is a nice, medium-to-hot spicy sauce,
and it makes the difference, best on the beef kababs (medium-rare), but also available with shrimp.

And then there are the weekday daily lunch specials with great soups — just remember to get there during lunch Tuesday through Friday.
Kebbe Labanie (Kibbe Lebanese) – large meatballs in yogurt, garlic, mint sauce.
As they describe it: “boulettes de bœuf, blé concassé, noix, souce yogourt, ail, menthe”.
Filet de sole Amandine
Soupe Harira – tomatoes, beef, fennel, cardamom – nice spicy soup.

Their fries, if you choose to order french fries, are amazing too – nice crunch on the outside, and soft on the inside. It is served with mayo which I presume is how they eat this in Montreal but ketchup is available too, just have to ask for it.

Ayran is my drink of choice, buttermilk with salt – “yogourt, eau, sel”. I am not a coffee drinker, most everyone here seems to order the espresso coffee variants, so that is probably very good too.
Wine and liquor is available – wine can be ordered by the glass, half-bottle, or full bottle.

Prices in the cafe are a bargain – $6-$17 dishes (as of 2017), and perfect size servings for one person.

Water is served on arrival – can’t say enough good things about that! So many restaurants are asking us to pay for water now, it is great when you are are greeted with a filled glass of water. They have a twist to this – they will keep a fancy water bottle filled with water on your table. So, no need to keep asking for water when dining on the terbialy-flavored dishes.

For dessert, try the Atayef – petite crépe farce aux noix ou à la crème.

After eating, ask for the check, and the regulars usually then take the check to the bar, to pay it. Like a French cafe, the assumption is that diners can hang out as long as they want, but for those in a hurry, remember, you have to take action to move things along.

This is the one of my regular places for dining, there have been times I’ve been to Montreal and eaten only at two places – Schwartz’s and at Le Petit Alep!

Le Petit Alep is the younger, hipper sibling to the dinner-only Alep Restaurant right next door. Alep has a much larger menu, and the tables get the white table-cloth treatment. It has larger servings, big enough to share, and prices are $15-$25 for the main dishes. Feel free to ask for the dining area menu even if you are in the cafe, you can read the english translations, as well as find something else you may prefer – the main dining menu is 15 pages long, all items can be ordered in the cafe.

Le Petit Alep is open from 11AM to 11PM and the Alep Restaurant is open from 5PM to 10PM. Both are open Tuesday through Saturday, and closed every Sunday and Monday. They may also be closed twice a year for a two week or so stretch, so for your first visit, be sure to call before you go.

Great food and excellent ambiance.

[2007] Alep and Le Petit Alep are run by the Frangié family – the women of the family now run this place. The main Alep Restaurant was opened in 1976 by the elder Mr Frangié who ran it for long time with his wife. They opened up Le Petit Alep in 1995. His wife Jacqueline and their two daughters Chahla and Tania now keep the place running. Jacqueline and Chahla take care of the kitchen and create the excellent food, while Tania manages the tables in the dining areas.

[2008] The place has expanded, the interior is double the size, still gets full at lunch hour too. The new space has an entire wall used for displaying the wines available.

[Updated: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017]
Montreal

Boustan

As their website says: Montreal’s Best Middle‑Eastern Fast Food: Served up with a smile!
And they are right.

Example choices:
Chicken Shawarma (Shish Taouk) – grilled chicken, all-dressed is wonderful. The whole sandwich is grilled, which gives the pita a nice crusty texture.
If you feel like rice and potatoes added, go for the Chicken Plate.
Or the Creation – the Ultimate Pita, which contains eggplant and potatoes along with the standard fillings.

They have multiple locations, the two downtown are 2020A (Basement) Crescent St (corner of Maisonneuve) and 19 Ste-Catherine E (corner of St Laurent).

More pictures and full menu are at their website.

Montreal has many places with good shawarma, one in nearly every city block, yet another point in favor of what makes this city fun to visit.
Most of these places are open very late, until 4AM on weekends.

New York

Xi’an Famous Foods

Xi’an Famous Foods is worth the long trek down to Flushing, Queens. And one of their best items travel well too – the cumin lamb burgers – though be aware that the appetizing, hot, spicy smell of the food pervades the subway, the bus, and car, so make sure it is wrapped well!

The best item here is the Spicy cumin lamb with hand-ripped noodles plate. Chewy flat noodles in a spicy sauce. Noodles taste great but are difficult to eat, very long strands! I usually use the spoon to cut them into manageable pieces and then use the chopsticks. I wonder what is the right way to eat them. ? If this was served in a bowl, then would be easier to eat. On a plate, have to be careful and try to avoid splashing drops of the spicy liquid all over the table when shoving the noodles into ones mouth!

Flat noodles

Their original location is in Flushing, Queens, New York at 41-28 Main St underground eateries.
This place has only 6-10 seats.
For nicer surroundings, visit the adjacent restaurant at 41-10 Main St.
Both are self-service.
If walking from the Train 7 Flushing station on Main St, 41-10 is around 3-5 blocks down, and 41-28 Golden Mall location is another 2 blocks down.

And now they have multiple locations in the city too – mostly downtown, in and around Chinatown: 45 Bayard St is one location. Most locations are quite small, with very little seating. And it can go from empty to crowded in seconds. Think standard NYC hole-in-the wall type of place, with great food. Visit their website at xianfoods.com for their current locations.

While it is difficult to take home the cumin lamb since it has a lot of liquid that can slosh around, the lamb burgers are a better bet for takehome.
If you do take the lamb cumin burgers home, sprinkle some lime juice on them, to kick up an already excellent dish another notch!

[2015] They have a full-service restaurant two blocks away at 41-10 Main St. They label it as a chic version of their original restaurants and have renamed it to biang!. It does look really nice.
Update: As of January 2017 (maybe earlier), the name is back to Xi’an Famous Foods and it is also self-service like most (all?) of their other locations.

New York

Copacabana Brazilian Grill and Buffet

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Best way to eat Brazilian food.
They have the famous grilled meats, churrascaria style.
And a buffet of hot food and cold salads.

Rice, beans, and a sample of the meats, and it is a wonderful dinner.
Place is self-service for both takeout and dining-in.
ood is great.
Especially the grilled beef sirloin sliced on order.
They have both regular grilled meats and blood varieties too.
Stick to chicken and the sirloin steak for normal American tastes.
They will explain and describe all the skewers, just ask.

Astoria location pictures:

80-26 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights location pictures:

This place is so much better than many Brazilian restaurants in the US that only serve all-you-can-eat type of meals. Here, get as little or as much you wish without the pressure of trying to gorge excessively:-)

The name of this place is Copacabana Pizza and Grill, but that is just a name and there is no pizza available here!

May 2017: A second location has opened up in Jackson Heights, nice!
80-26 Roosevelt Ave, 82nd St station on #7 train. This one has the correct name: Copacabana Brazilian Buffet and Grill.
The first location is in Astoria: Near N, W trains 36th Ave subway station. Corner of 32nd St.

Montreal

Grillade Farhat

Grillade Farhat – Sandwiches are the best choice, available with brochette of merguez (spicy sausage), chicken, kafta (spiced ground beef on skewers), brochette de boeuf (beef pieces), foie d’agneau (lamb liver).

Order the sandwiches tout-garni – all-dressed. They are fantastic with the harrisa (chilli paste), aioli (garlic mayonnaise) and tomatoes, onions, etc. The key to the taste here is that all the meat skewers are grilled after an order is placed which does mean a 15-20 minute wait. For repeat visits, power tip: call ahead with your order so it is ready by the time you arrive.

For a final touch, they will also grill the whole baguette sandwich after it has been stuffed giving the bread a nice crispy texture.

All the grilling is done over charcoal (grillades au charbon). The baguette sandwiches are around 9 inches, easy to eat one, two if one is hungry. This place has a few tables, but don’t look for decor here. The merguez, chicken, kafta sandwiches are best, the grilled beef meat is avoidable – tough and too much gristle.

Sandwiches are an incredible price – CAD$6 or so [2016]. Plates can also be ordered – with one, two or more brochettes, for around CAD$4 per brochette. Plates come with sides of harissa, aioli, hummus, along with a salad and pita. But the grilled sandwiches are much better, the grilled bread makes all the difference.

[2016 Note: They recently relocated, the old address was 5595B Côte-des-Neiges, 514-738-4999, (three blocks west of Côte-des-Neiges metro). All the web information, include Google results, have the wrong address. Use the new address above!]

Old Farhat location and pictures:

Montreal

New Year’s Eve Montreal

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2016-12-31 New Year’s Eve at the Village Mammouth, Montreal Olympic Stadium.

DJ, Music, Skating Rink, Food Truck, Beer, Rum.

Much better than Old Montreal since the Stadium is much easier to get to using the Metro, just off Pie-IX metro station.

And while it was cold, they had a number of heated areas that provided the hand-warming when needed.
Not to mention the no-lines at the port-a-potty cabins!

Kids to adults, all can have fun. Highly recommended over the crowded and inaccessible (but more popular) Old Montreal spots.

Video: https://goo.gl/photos/g6xEsnJbd3CVzxATA

Montreal

Getting Around

Montreal has an excellent métro (subway) and bus system. Visit the STM site – Tariffs for details on tickets.
2016: Credit cards from the US now seem to be accepted at the Metro ATM vending machines.
Before this the Metro would only accept Canadian credit cards.

For three consecutive days, the 3-day pass is good deal. For tourists visiting for a week and starting on Monday, the CAM hebdo – a weekly commuter pass is a good deal. Other useful passes including a evening pass starting at 6PM and a Fri-Sun weekend pass.

On the tickets subway to bus transfer or vice-versa is free to continue a journey, remember to hold on to your ticket for the entire ride. More details on the Metro at the STM Metro and Bus official web site.

2016: Slowly rolling out the new AZUR Metro Cars! They are great! Here’s a video on YouTube with pictures and video of both the old and new metro cars.

Bixi Bicycle is a great option if you have a working smart phone with data plan in Montreal. T-Mobile or Google Project Fi is a good choice for US residents. Bixi is only available in the non-winter seasons, though. The reason you need a smartphone is to get a quick map of all the Bixi stations around your location when you need to return a bike.
Be sure to read the How it works section on the Bixi page carefully, especially the part about how to return the bike. The bike has to be firmly inserted into the dock, and it may fail sometimes and the led light turns red. Do not leave – remove the bike and insert it again until the led is green! If this fails, note down the number at the Bixi web site and call, otherwise you will be responsible for a lost bike.
While buying a daily pass each day would be fine the advantage of buying the 3-day pass is that you will be charged the hold on your credit card for the bike deposit only once. The 30 day subscription is a great deal for 6+ days of Bixi use, but it seems tourists may not be able to use it since it comes with a Bixi key but that can only be mailed to a Canadian address. May be worth a call to Bixi to explore alternatives for those vacationing for more than a week in Montreal.
Bixi is great deal now that the daily pass price has been reduced to $5 and there are far more Bixi stations than previously available. Google Maps also now works pretty well and tries to show directions using streets with bike paths, which is very useful in the crazy-car-drivers world of Montreal.
Biking on most of the East-West roads will encounter flat roads, while most of the North-South travel will run into inclined streets, especially around south of Sherbrooke to north of Mont Royal. Ave du Parc is one tough bike ride.

And finally – remember to bring your helmet!

Parking is a major hassle on the streets downtown, and parking lots are very expensive. Moreover, driving downtown is just no fun, especially along Ste-Catherine (always avoid), or the lower part of St-Laurent. Avoid driving as much as possible. For any street parking, be sure to learn enough French – names of the days of a week at least – to navigate the multiple signs that apply to street parking. Paying for parking since 2010 is nice and easy now that they accept credit cards. The street pay parking stations accept US credit cards.

East-West street addresses in Montreal will have an East (Est) or West (Ouest) designation. The street that separates East from West is boulevard St-Laurent, also known as the Main. This is very important because looking for 4400 Jean-Talon without knowing if that means East or West of St-Laurent would mean a lot of time spent in searching to find the right place!

New York

Absolute Bagels

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Absolute Bagels has closed. Suddenly and very mysteriously.
nytimes.com/2024/12/12/nyregion/nyc-absolute-bagels-closed

These bagels are were the best in New York City and therefore in all of the US. 🙂
Perfect combination of chewy bagels with crusty exterior and light-airy interior. And they taste great too.

Chewy and airy-light at the same time.
Not dense.

My second choice bagel place in NYC is Russ & Daughters at 179 East Houston Street, near Chinatown. Have tried all the usual other well-known places, but Absolute Bagels has the best bagels.

Eat the bagel without toasting, or lightly toasted. Texture is different when lightly toasted – more crusty exterior and airy interior.
Optional: sliced onions (with lemon juice), sliced tomatoes, smoked salmon, capers.

Sesame Bagels
Absolute Bagels – Inside
Mornings – especially weekends, be prepared for long lines. And if you want sesame bagels, arrive a few hours before closing – they usually run out. This is important for me since every few months or so I buy a dozen plus bagels from NYC to carry back to Boston – really a downer when they run out of bagels. Best to call if you are going to get there late afternoon or evenings. There have been a couple of times when I had to leave without sesame bagels.
Sometimes they have the dough ready and can bake up bagels in under 20 minutes which they did for me once!

When taking a dozen or more bagels home, be careful to let the bagels breathe. Warm bagels will steam up and the steam should be allowed to escape otherwise it will flatten the bagels at the bottom of the bag and make the bagels go all crooked.

Freezing bagels

Bagels easily last 3-6 months in the freezer, and thaw out nicely, and still taste great. (At least NYC bagels do that well.)
No need to slice large bagels before freezing too, in fact, they are better off not sliced beforehand. Montreal bagels are good too, but they just don’t freeze well – they don’t taste as good after a stint in the freezer, have to eat them fresh.
Unlike Montreal bagels, NYC bagels are pretty big. For long term keeping, I think the bigger size of NYC bagels allows them to handle the freeze and defrost cycle better.

My method to get frozen bagels back to edible creations: Sprinkle water or wet the full bagel. Put in microwave on 50% for 25 seconds. Then wait 1 minute, slice bagel, and toast it.
Water trick and then toasting helps with non-frozen bagel that may have slight gone stale or hard too.

Absolute Bagels Price
2020: $1.50 each and $18/dozen (13).
Previously: $15 (2016), $12 (2012).

They have a small seating area, and also offer the usual toppings – cream cheeses, salmon, etc.
Zagat Review
And what about the New York vs Montreal bagels comparisons? Pointless. They are quite different and both are great! Here’s a write-up on the St Viateur Bagels of Montreal.

Montreal

Poutine

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A dish unique to Quebec. 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. 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 (the Ste Catherine @ St Laurent location). And Frite Alors! has amazing fries, and good poutine too.

2013: Schwartz’s has gotten onto the poutine act with Schwartz’s 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.