life
Tuesday, february 26, 2013
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Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com festival // life
The city’s culinary experience is just a pit stop away Sara Baron-Goodman assistant life editor
Last Thursday marked the beginning of the annual Montréal en Lumière festival, which will run until March 3. Every year the festivities focus around a theme and this time the city is celebrating the vibrant culture of Buenos Aires. As a thriving culinary city, a huge part of the festival revolves around literally tasting the spirit of Argentina, along with Quebecois favourites we all know and love. For the foodie on a budget, the returning Escales Gourmandes series of gourmet pit stops is a must. Scattered around the free outdoor site at Place des Arts, Montreal restaurants have set up kiosks where festival-goers can drop in for a small snack or full meal. To do it right, I recommend arriving on an empty stomach. My first stop was the SAQ Express booth; to wet my palete, so to speak. For $4.50 I had a steaming cup of hot red wine. Mulled with spices similar to a hot apple cider; it was the perfect antidote to the bone-chilling wind. Other items on the menu included several varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Blanc and spiked coffees, all between $4 and $6. They also offered chorizo sausages and marshmallows to roast over nearby fire pits, but I opted out as I was saving myself for better things to come. Next up was L’Atelier d’Argentine—a Montreal restaurant that was serving up its South American specialties. The chefs grill the food in the middle of the booth for customers to salivate over as they wait to order from their spots at the wooden tables that line the perimeter. I had the grilled pork sandwich slathered with criolla sauce; the sauce, made with olive oil, diced tomatoes, onions and peppers, added tanginess to the savory pork. My companion opted for the
montréal en lumière festival brings you escales Gourmandes
Indulge In some of montreal’s tasty delIghts at montreal en lumIere. Photos by wrIter. corn empanadas. The dough was buttery and flaky and the inside was hearty, tasting like a cream of corn soup. Dipped in the homemade chimichurri sauce for an added zest, I think that might have been the winning dish of the night. The empanadas were around $6 for two and the sandwich was just under $7. Next, we stopped at the small window set
up by Café Jura. We each devoured a churro, which oozed dulce de leche from the doughnut center. For $3.50, it was a delightful and authentic treat. From there, we spied the Baraque à Frites and the Maison du Chocolat right next to it. Someone with greater willpower than I might have kept walking, but forgoing fries
and chocolate is simply not something I’m comfortable with. At Baraque à Frites I was presented with a cone of crispy Belgian-style fries and a choice of one of their specialty mayonnaise dips for $4.50. I selected the Béarnaise, made with mayo, white wine and tarragon. The fries were a little salty, but the creaminess of the mayo salvaged the dish and I was altogether satisfied. Of course, it was then necessary to balance the saltiness with a little sweetness and poke around the Maison du Chocolat hut next door. This kiosk was set up by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and was a miniature version of one of their stores. After much deliberation, my friend and I chose to bring home caramel apples and 72 per cent dark chocolate bark, adorned with almonds and fleur de sel caramel, all for $12. The last stop for the night was the SAQ Bistro, set up as a sit down restaurant inside a dome. The ambiance was definitely memorable, but the food fell short of my expectations. We ordered what the menu promised to be parmesan fondue with tomato coulis, for $6.50. Disappointingly, we were served two small, square, battered bricks of cheese that looked store-bought, with tomato sauce slathered on the side. For another $5 each, I had half a shot glass of porto and my friend had a tiny plastic cup of Cabernet white wine. I left the Escales Gourmands probably about seven pounds heavier, but thoroughly content. You will find something to satisfy just about any palette and it is all relatively inexpensive. The winner, in my opinion, was L’Atelier d’Argentine. But I will definitely be back to sample the rest of the kiosks before making a final judgment. For more information, visit http://www.montrealenlumiere.com/outdoor-site/activitiesseries.aspx?categorie=escales_gourmandes.
festival // life
Cheese lovers rejoice montréal en lumière celebrates Quebec cheese anne-darla lucia d. contributor
The term foodie is widely considered to be an informal way to describe food and drink aficionados—and Montreal is just crawling with them. Although society attempts to shove us all under the same banner, take note, there are subcategories and we are not all the same. Some enjoy seafood over meat, some beer over wine and others, the best kind, cheese over anything and everything. Needless to say, as cheese lovers, we can sometimes feel like a fairly marginal group lost in a large culinary world. However, on Feb. 20 at Place Desjardins, in light of Montreal’s four day Festival of Our Cheeses, I discovered that we are far from being alone.
The seventh edition of Montreal’s Festival of Our Cheeses came back with a bang after a one-year hiatus. The event, free of charge, welcomed hundreds of visitors enthusiastically rejoicing in the deliciousness and pungent smell of Quebec cheese. The festival’s atmosphere was vibrant and bustling. Visitors and producers alike seemed genuinely excited and happy to be a part of the event. Cheese producers were standing behind their designated booths in their signature “Fromages d’ici” aprons and hats with large welcoming smiles. “It’s a really fun and convivial event,” said Francis Boivin, a representative for Fromagerie Île-aux-Grue, after he jokingly asked his wife of
40 years if he could have permission to speak with me. Although the festival is similar to a trade show, the joyful and talkative cheese artisans were neither aggressive nor seemingly competive with each other to push sales. “Most of us are actually friends here,” said Christian Barrette, founder and producer of Le Fromage Au Village. “Cheese producers in Quebec are part of a very small community and many of us share the same distributors. Because of this, you quickly learn that it’s in everyone’s interest to cooperate. At the festival we joke around with each other. It’s a lot of fun.” The event, I quickly learned, meant much more to these small cheese producers than simply having fun. Montreal’s Festival of Our Cheeses actually provides regional cheese producers with the rare opportunity to gain visibility and interact with people outside their predominantly rural communities.
“If it weren’t for Fromages d’ici organizing the event and inviting us here, as a small cheese company, we could never afford to be an exhibitor at a festival this size,” said Hélène Lessard, Barrette’s wife and business partner. Benoit Robitaille, a die hard cheese fan, has been coming to the festival every single year since it began. Aside from his love for cheese, the main reason he keeps coming back is to show support to small Quebec producers like Barrette and Lessard. “I find it deplorable that supermarkets offer very few Québécois products,” he said. “Because we really have some of the best cheeses here.” In between talking to producers, visitors and making pit stops at the wine & cider booths to cleanse my palate, I tried every single cheese at the festival. The best ones, in my opinion, were “fleurs d’ail,” a firm cheese with garlic flower seasoning by Le Fromage au Village and La Famille Migneron’s “la tomme d’elles”, a firm surfaced cheese made with sheep’s milk. All in all, if you love cheese, make sure not to miss next year’s festival. It was delightful and quite an experience for my taste buds.