Montreal: Day Two

We woke up early in our apartment/hotel suite, with the sun streaming in through the space between the drapes, and the sound of construction rising up through the street air into the bedroom. Apparently construction can start rather early in downtown Montreal. No matter, we fell back asleep regardless and dozed until we lazily decided that it was time to start the day.

L'Appartement Hotel had a free continental breakfast buffet, which is one of the reason that I chose that location. Very few hotels in downtown Montreal offer this and when I travel, I've always found it to be nice to be able to grab some cereal or a muffin in the morning and then a bagel and piece of fruit for a snack on the road or later in the evening. Unfortunately, the scene we walked into reminded me of what the family section in a Denny's might be like on a weekend morning. People everywhere, loud talking, barely anywhere to sit. The biggest problem though was in the layout of the breakfast. Now, not just my interior designer instincts could have figured out that this space was the most poorly planned buffet line ever. A large island in the middle holding the coffee, tea, hot water, milk, yogurt, muffins, etc, with narrow walkways on either side. There were trays but these proved to be bulky and useless since there was nowhere on this island to set them down while gathering the breakfast choices. A juggling act proved even more tricky finding out that the plates and cutlery where actually on the back wall in the middle of the toaster and bagels/breads, past the island. So, you had to push past people to get a plate, then go back past people to get a slice of bread, then back again to toast it. Insane, I tell you. Maybe this was the French's idea of a joke on the visiting English? In any case, we basically carb loaded on Eggo's, muffins, cereal and toast, and then ramped up that hit with a sugary jolt of cafe mochas that we made by dumping half a packet of hot chocolate into our coffees. A couple of those, and I was buzzing to get outside!

We changed into our walking gear, packed up a bag with the camera and some snacks, and off we went on our downtown adventure! One of the first things that I noticed about the downtown was all of the graffiti art. I say art because these were truly pieces of beauty. No cowardly juvenile tagging here, but full colour, mural sized pieces of urban cultural beauty. I couldn't help but stop to admire each piece that we saw. I eagerly ducked between every building on our way down St.Catherine's street (down the Latin side), eager to see what treasure the brick would hold. I've only posted a few of the photos that I took of these colourful and detailed masterpieces. I wish that Winnipeg had more of this type of art in the downtown. C kept smiling and asking me if I was enjoying my camera as he was forced to stop every ten feet to watch me click click click quick snapping shots with amazing shutter speed.

Even a BFI bin is transformed into a thing of beauty after being covered in vibrant spray paint. As we walked farther and farther down St.Catherine's street, we passed all sorts of interesting clothing shops, sex shops, restaurants, pubs, a burlesque parlour and we checked out as many places as we could. We reached a huge bridge that we walked under and saw the homeless people, sleeping on cardboard mats, their dogs curled up asleep beside them. We walked farther and the shops were replaced with taller condos and official looking buildings. Realizing we were probably getting away from the "tourist" area, we decided to turn around and make our way back to one of the cross-streets miles up. We had a map so we decided that once we found the right one, we could take a left and walk right through China Town.

China Town was very cool. One of the most amazing things about Montreal downtown on a Saturday is the people. The is actual hustle and bustle. Imagine Corydon on a hot summer day, and multiply that experience by 10. People everywhere, dressed in their own unique style, something that Winnipeg definitely seems to lack. People speaking in English, French, Chinese, Spanish. Open aired cafes spilling into the street. The noise of vibrant city, alive. I absolutely loved it! China town contains countless spice stores, trinket stores, and bakeries. Our feet were getting quite sore and since we hadn't had lunch yet, we were both getting peckish. We thought that a snack might do us good, but this turned out to be lunch-suicide. We walked into the first bakery that we reached, after walking past a window with neatly arranged pastries filled with cream, calling to us through the window "come eeeeat usss! we are soooo soft and tasty!" Of course, we're on holidays, so we listened to these little voices of naughty delight. Once through the tiny entrance, we realized that the bakery was actually much bigger than it appeared on the outside. Like many shops in Montreal, a narrow space between two buildings often incredibly houses very large spaces. It reminds me of the scene from Harry Potter where the building that the Order of the Phoenix use opens up like an accordion to accommodate for the space required. Anyways, back to these big, plum pastries! There were more choices than we knew what to do with and everything was $1. What?! I was indeed a kid in a candy store. Actually, a young(ish) adult in a Chinese bakery shop. I wanted one of everything! I mean, come on, I was walking all day, right? Coconut tarts and buns, custard tarts and buns, buns stuffed with different creams, twisty pastry, savory tarts, hot dogs wrapped in pastry...oh, and they also offered the wonderfully refreshing and fun-to-drink bubble tea that I so guiltily love. What could be more fun than getting a plastic cup full of the flavour of your choice, with a huge wide plastic straw with red stripes, poking into the liquid, carefully transporting plump round chewy balls of tapioca to my eagerly awaiting taste buds. Chewing up the tapioca is such a simple pleasure but evokes such a child-like moment of happiness for me. I am smiling just thinking about it. I think only having a bubble tea everyone once in a blue moon also makes the experience that much more special. Again, back to the pastry. We decided on a big fluffy bun with soft bright white cream, poking out of the ends. We also decided on the coconut bun with a sugary crust top and dough swirled together like a cinnamon bun. Lastly, we found a long twisted soft pastry that had egg custard dotted throughout the folds. Since that one was wrapped in plastic, it only made sense to buy it for later. Obviously. Once at the counter, C asked again if I wanted bubble tea. I sometimes feel like having too many treats will spoil me and nothing will be special anymore, and then I feel guilty. But, after very little arm twisting, I had a coconut bubble tea ordered and C was waiting on his mango version while we paid for our bun. They were wrapped in light parchment paper and placed in one of the thousands of white paper bakery boxes they had on the counter. Leaving the bakery with our small parcel of fresh sweets made me feel very Parisian and the bubble tea, more metropolitan. The sun was warming the entire street and we bustled our way through the crowds to some nearby empty benches around the corner. Our feet needed a rest and our tummies needed some more fuel. We each picked up a pastry and took our first much anticipated bites. The taste was as sweet and fresh as it looks in the photos. We polished off the 2 in the box and the packaged one in about 5 minutes. Moooore sugary carbs, and we're ready for the road again. 

One of the coolest things about larger cities is the abundance of public art. Montreal has some huge pieces. The one below looked like a jumbled bunching of letters on red poles from the street, but the piece also included a viewing box: a small square on a pole on top of a box, to look through. From the right perspective, the seemingly random letters come together into a statement.

 One of my other favorite pieces that we stumbled across was a thick green lawn, covered in giant car air fresheners. Signs on the grass stated in french to keep off the lawn, while children cheerily laughed and ran through the wooden sculptures. I for one, am with the children on this one. Public works of art should be enjoyed to the fullest and I was ready to run through the tree too if our feet weren't getting so sore from a day of walking.

 A day before we flew to Montreal, hubs jumped down from a ladder and came down off-balance and hard on one heel. It was still sore when we got to Montreal and the hours of walking weren't doing him any good. We were nearing Vieux Port now, the oldest area of Montreal. C's foot was throbbing by this point and after staring up in wonder at the beautifully constructed Cathedral Notre Dame, when we looked down, an angel of mercy was standing before us. 10' tall, white and named Duke. A row of horse drawn carriages were right behind us, the riders taking a break to snack on sandwiches. We looked up at the first one and asked how much. A quick check in the wallet for cash and we were good to go. We first made our way through the winding financial district before getting to Vieux Port. There is nothing quite like seeing all of the old architecture and knowing that many of these structures were standing in the same place over 200 years ago.

 After a too-short and too-expensive ride, we were dropped off near the harbour and started making our walk back up the hill. We explored a few unique decor shops along the way and paused for scenic photographs in between the stone houses on the cobblestone streets. We reached a large opening between buildings, and were suddenly in a town square. C was getting tired and his sore foot were not helping his mood for an area he felt was too touristy. We saw many street performers including a Peruvian pan flute band (cue the hilariously cute South Park episode), a woman enthralling a group of children with her animal balloons, and a man doing street magic. He had take the hoodie of a volunteer from the crowd and was proceeding to put a lit and smoking cigarette into it. The faces on the on-lookers was priceless and the magician's timing was impeccable at creating tension. I'll spoil the ending. The hoodie survived and the magician was not pummelled by the large owner of the article.

 Despite all of the food we had eaten that day, we were again, getting hungry. A lesson for those of you thinking that only sugary carbs will keep your tank running, not so. The night sky had fallen and the temperature had dropped slightly but it was still pleasant outside and the streets were no less filled with excitement and people. In fact, all of the restaurant were no hubs of activity, inside and out. We finally found a street with restaurant after restaurant on it and we decided to walk the strip to determine what sort of food we were craving. Chinese, nope. Sushi, nope. Greek...hmm, that looked really good. Mexican...hubs was down for that. We walked back to the Mexican place and saw the line going out the door and men in sombreros and decided that this was just a little much for us at the moment. We wanted to just sit down and enjoy ourselves. Me, having a memory for the placement of objects, remembered that there was a taco sign on one of the building near our apartment and I could see in my mind that it was on the south side of the street, on the far corner of an intersection. So, we started walking back up the hill and then back down the street that our hotel was on. We walked and we walked and we walked... We started losing confidence that we were going in the right direction but after consulting the hotel map, we were only another 5 blocks from the hotel. Marching on. We passed the hotel and now I remembered the restaurant was nearby. Well, maybe nearby from the hotel when you haven't already walked for 10 hours and are getting sore and tired and hungry. We stopped a girl at an intersection who was English and she told us that it shouldn't be far. We still didn't see it. "That it!" I proclaimed. "One more block and then I say we turn around and just go back to the Lebanese place on the other side of the hotel or pick up something from the grocer!" At the very next corner, we saw the glowing sign...tacos. Sigh of relief. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good feeling when we went in. The restaurant wasn't very full and the menu was short and didn't contain anything vegetarian and very few chicken dishes, which I was craving much more than beef. We each found something to try. I got chicken enchiladas that was actually more of a chicken mole, heavy on the sweet side, with bland overcooked rice and refried beans. Remember: you eat with your eyes, first. Looking at this plate didn't make me want to eat anything. Tasting it even less. I was disappointed but hungry. C got these mini beef tacos that actually had a little green to them vs my plate of brown. I do give credit for the homemade corn tortillas though, which were tasty albeit a little dry. We ate quickly and left quickly, our exhaustion falling down on us in an instant. I had been talking about getting gelati or ice cream for most of the evening but there wasn't anywhere good that was open near us at this time. We did stop in a small cafe almost across from the hotel and ordered 2 large slices of cake, to go. Chocolate layered cake for me and a sweet cinnamon caramel cheesecake for C. We carried our weary bodies back up to our suite, collapsed onto bed after making a fresh kettle of tea, and dug into our cakes while watching the promo for a huge fight that was happening the next night. Substantially more sugar pumping back through our veins and our sore legs felt a little better from the hit. We stayed up watching the end of a beautifully filmed promo/doc and then slid into a deep, restful sleep.

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Sunday we had to switch from our apartment hotel suite in Montreal to a Hilton room Laval where my conference was taking place. The area in Laval where we were was nothing like Montreal. No culture, no history, just big box stores, malls, and pedestrian-unfriendly street. Our last meal alone was that day's lunch since I had to meet with the other marketing members for dinner that night. We decided to hunt down a Lebanese place since we had missed out in Montreal and settled on Amir's, which is a chain but was closer to our hotel than the other recommended places. Since we didn't have a lot of time, we went with proximity. Surprisingly, we were rewarded despite my slight apprehension. The food tasted fresh, healthy, and flavourful! I had a Falafal Plate that came with my choice of 4 sides! Oh, how I love choices! Tabbouleh, bean salad, couscous salad and marinated beets for me. C got the kebobs with garlic spread, pickled turnips (which I am always disappointed by the lack of at the Donair/Shwarma place near us), rice, salad and fries. Everything was wonderful and it was a lovely meal to share together. My fun in Montreal with hubs was over. Our one year anniversary was the Monday so we wouldn't see much more than an hour of each other that day, but the whole trip was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go back!

Montreal: Day One

One would think that having a trip to Montreal scheduled would be highly anticipated, but with the amount of work we have both had, the busy schedules have definitely hampered the build-up of excitement. Luckily, after hectic late packing, unhooking and hauling up our hot water tank up cut-off basement stairs, we had wisely booked a 9am flight so we had time to get ourselves ready in the morning and eat breakfast without too much of a rush. The trip had been booked for our company's national marketing conference for Sunday night to Tuesday evening. Since our 1 year wedding anniversary fell on the Monday, C and I decided to fly out Friday and spend that day until Sunday evening together, when I had to go for dinner for business.

Once we arrived in Montreal, we took a cab ride to the hotel. We stayed at a place called L'Appartement Hotel, which is as it sounds. Our room was like a one bedroom apartment, with a living room, dining room, and kitchenette (which I love). We had a small balcony that overlooked a busy downtown street. The room was clean, the decor simple and outdated. We dropped off all of our luggage and by this point were getting pretty hungry. The plan was to walk to Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen. Open for over 80 years, this cornerstone of the Jewish community is a local favourite and the line is always out the door, spilling onto the street. This is such a normal occurrence, that it is the only venue on the street with an overhanging canopy coming off the building to protect waiting patrons from the elements. I had been regaling C with stories of this hole-in-the-wall deli where customers sit at long shared tables or at the counter on screwed down stools, tucking into tall stacks of fresh smoked Montreal meat. We found the address without much difficulty. True to form, there was a line out the door, with what sounded like a group of Irish tourists ahead of us and a young couple on a first date. One of the servers came outside, checking to see how large each group one "Vous-etes tous ensemble? You are all togethers?" "Non? You are 2? Come with me. To the counter, go." With that, we were bustled in ahead of the line, parked our wear selves onto the padded stools, and waited. The place was packed. Every table was full and 3 men were doing nothing but cutting up meat. Directly across the counter from us was a bread slicing machine. The stainless steel cabinet underneath this appliance was full of loaves and loaves of chewy soft rye bread loaves. Every time our server got a moment, he would place a loaf onto the slicer and the machine would vibrate, jiggling the bread through its blades, creating a perfectly sliced loaf of rye. Those slices were then stacked beside the meat slicers for creating huge sandwiches, or placed on the side of platters.

We ordered the required smoked meat sandwiches with a plate of fries on the side and 2 large kosher pickles. I forgot that they have different fat grades that you can order so ours both came as medium, the default. Doing it over, I would have had lean. Mustard and ketchup are the only condiments provided. Starving, we wolfed down the fries first and then dove right into the sandwich. I went with the method of adding mustard on a section, then taking a bite of the colossal meatiness. The pieces that kept falling out were looked after with quick stabs of my fork at the end. No morsel left un-devoured. The nice thing about this lunch was that it was satisfying but I didn't feel heavy after the meal. The portion was just right. We paid as soon as we were done eating and left since the restaurant's revolving door of clientele doesn't encourage lingering. As our bellies were feeling satisfied but not too full, we walked across the street to get some homemade ice cream in homemade waffle cones. The cones were harder than I've had at home and the ice cream was less sweet. We each tried a different type of chocolate ice cream, which was perfect, and I tried an amazing chai spiced scoop and C's second scoop was a raspberry cheesecake. We walked back to our hotel, enjoying our homemade creamy dessert.

Real Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich

With our typically hectic schedules, C and I rarely get much relaxed downtime. Travel days are always more tiring and after a long walk and a rich lunch, we decided to take a nap. We fell asleep and dozed for over 2 hours, lazily waking up, a little more refreshed. We bunkered in, watched what English TV we could find, and as night fell, we started getting hungry again. We had walked past the Quebec version of a Superstore on the way back from our first exploration of our little area so we decided to head back there for some ingredients. Since we had a kitchenette, the option of staying in for dinner on the night that we were most tired was a treat.

We walked down every aisle in the store and picked up ingredients as we went. We didn't know what we felt like eating, but we knew that we would be inspired as we saw what was available. Fresh local strawberries were the first thing I spotted and needed to try. none of these steroid sized strawberries from across the world, these were small locally farmed berries. Into the basket. Local pea leaves for salad, local yellow and red tomatoes, baby carrots...I couldn't get over how much of their produce was locally produced! I definitely wish our Superstore was more like this one. We decided that we'd do a salad with some sauteed veggies on the side. Protein was next. Another amazing thing about this store was that they had small inexpensive portions of fish and meat at this store. We could buy just 2 turkey and veggie sausages for $1.99, or for the same price, chorizo, or another choice of sausage. We could buy small pieces of tilapia, cob, haddock, salmon, etc. Again, if we had this option at our Superstore, then we could just buy the right portion for the 2 of us of a more expensive cut or variety for a reasonable price. We ended up getting fresh haddock as a second protein (our first being those turkey sausages), and some orange spice to coat it with. C grabbed some sun-dried tomato bread and bought a tub of sharp cheddar cheese, which he loves.

The ingredients

A rich treat of bread and cheese

We walked back to the hotel with our bags of goodies and started prepping dinner. We were both hungry so started snacking on the bread and cheese while we washed up the fresh tomatoes for the salad.

Local tomatoes

With the salad ingredients washed and chopped up, we started on the protein.

Beautiful fresh, ripe, produce

We decided that instead of cooking our fish in oil, that we would add go the French classic route and use butter. Butter is such a rich, flavourful ingredient that can make anything it touches taste amazing. Oh my, babcia would be proud!  I have to mention now that we toted this precious block of fat from Montreal to Laval and then back to Winnipeg with us. Yes, that is how obsessed I am with not wasting good food. 

Babcia, this is for you. Love M and C

A generous pat of butter was added to the hot pan and as it melted, its amazing aroma was released through our tiny kitchenette and suite. Once it was bubbling and starting to turn a golden brown, the meaty haddock fillet (which had been patted dry first) was gently placed in the pan. The fillet immediately began sizzling and cooking through. The sausages had already been cooked since they took longest and now this was the final part of the meal. The translucent flesh of the fish began to turn opaque white as it cooked. when the fish was cooked halfway through, I carefully turned it over using tongs, but even a gentle flip was too much for the delicate fish and some of the cooked portions flaked off into the butter. Mmmm, no harm done.

Fresh haddock coated in orange spice and cooked in butter

Vegetable turkey sausages and flaky fish

With the proteins crispy and hot, dinner was served. We were both so hungry and everything smelled amazing, I couldn't wait to dig in.

Juicy sausages (although we both agreed we should have bought some spicy mustard for them), flaky butter crispy fish, fresh vibrant salad and veggies, and crispy chewy bread with cheese. Nothing could have been better that night. It's a very confident feeling to  know that we can go to another city and whip up a delicious and comforting meal without too many ingredients or kitchen wares. I would consider this our 1 year anniversary meal. It's very "us". Simple, comfort food, well executed. We did so much cooking together while we were best friends. It was almost our form of dating. Getting to know each other through creating meals and moving seamlessly together through the kitchen together. Our relationship roots, for me, are deep in the kitchen. We would talk about everything and we definitely worked well as a team. We still do.



Our almost-anniversary meal

There was barely any room after such a wonderful meal, but there was just enough space for a few juicy bites of sweet, fresh, washed strawberries. A simple humble ending.

Local sweet strawberries

 Almost one year ago from this day, I married my best friend in an intimate and personal ceremony in front of my family and friends. That night, we took a picture of our hands together, showing the rings that we wore together for the first time. So, one year later, I thought that it would be fitting to take the same photo. It has been a very tough year for us with many hurdles and obstacles that we've had to carry each other over. We've made it through to the other side, not too worse for ware, still learning about each other and getting used to each other quirks and eccentricities. People say the first year of marriage is the hardest, and I can believe that. With all the changes and trials that come with living together as a married couple, getting used to habits, and forming a "working" relationship with your partner, stress is a normal reaction to such changes. Add onto that having close friends walk out of our lives right before our wedding, the lose of a job, both of us starting new jobs right after our honeymoon, C working up north about 3 out of 4 months before the wedding, me working on getting our house finished while he was away, lack of sleep, lack of time, building a house, moving out of my apartment, a death in the family...we have definitely had our share of trials in our first year. One of the biggest hurdles as well is perfecting the ability of two independent being to live a co-dependent life together. I think that we are doing quite well based on our current schedule with the house needing to be at a certain point before dinner. Long days, high stress, and lack of sleep definitely put pressure on a relationship, no matter how solid it is. Despite all of that, when we are able to take time to just be ourselves and be goofy together, we are amazing. That is what this Montreal trip brought out in us. Or true selves. Relaxed, with nothing to worry about or work on. Spending uninterrupted time alone together, away from our phones and email, is exactly what we need. An intimate recharge. So far, Day 1 of Montreal has been perfect. I wish that we could stay on vacation together forever!

One year later.