What better place than French Canada to try Burmese cuisine for the first time? It’s actually a bit odd that this should be my first time trying Burmese cuisine, given the proximity of India and Burma and the longstanding ties in particular between Burma and Bengal, but there you are. After the excesses of Schwartz’s and Joe Beef on my first day in Montreal I was looking for something very different for my second dinner in town and when I learned that there was a Burmese restaurant within reach and that it seemed to have received decent reviews I proposed it to my friends and they were happy to eat there. Continue reading
Category Archives: Canada
Grilled Chicken and Bagels (Montreal)
No, not at the same time.
The day after our dinner at Joe Beef a friend and I went out for some Portuguese grilled chicken for lunch. I had no idea that Montreal had a significant Portuguese presence but a number of people suggested that I try some Portuguese chicken for an unfussy weekday lunch, and Romados was the place that was most highly recommended. We’d originally planned to walk there from my hotel (about a 2.5 km walk) but it was snowing lightly and so we cabbed there and walked back. But we didn’t walk back directly. Instead we walked up to the famous St. Viateur Bagel Shop (2.2 km), where I purchased two dozen bagels for my wife who has recently become bagel-crazy, and then we walked back from there to the hotel (3.7 km). I’m making a point of noting the distances for the benefit of my friends who know how allergic I am to exercise of any kind. It turns out that if you put me in a beautiful, walkable city, I will walk. It’s the countryside that I am wasted on. Continue reading
Joe Beef (Montreal)
If Schwartz’s was one of the places I knew I was going to be eating at in Montreal, Joe Beef was the other. This is literally true: I had a dinner reservation; it is, they say, the hardest reservation in town but we secured it a while ago, once participation in the conference I was attending was confirmed (dining with me were my four friends on my panel, three of whom I had gone to graduate school with and one of whom lives in Montreal). Even a few months out, and even on a Thursday night, the best we could get for a party of five was a table at 9.30. When we arrived the restaurant was packed, the party before us was dawdling, and we were not seated till 10. This gave a couple of us a chance to scan and slowly translate the menu (more on this below) while the rest waited outside (there’s not much space inside for waiting, which made me wonder what people do when it’s really cold outside). Continue reading
Schwartz’s (Montreal)
I was recently in Montreal for a conference for a few days and, as you might expect, eating was high on my agenda when not at panels. I had recommendations from some Canadian foodies, including a couple who know Montreal well, but I didn’t need anyone to tell me to go to my first port of call: Schwartz’s, the iconic Jewish deli that opened in 1928. I say “deli” but by law it’s been “Schwarz’s charcuterie Hébraïque” since 1977. And they’re known primarily for one thing: smoked meat. That is what I was there for and you’d better believe that is what I got. (In fact, I am not sure that I saw anyone there who was eating anything else.) Continue reading