My summer hit list

I decided to give you a quick list of the restaurants I patronized (i.e., the places I “hit”) during my almost 2 months in Montreal. It’s not really a “best of” list, as I never got around to going to places like Schwartz’s, Fairmount, La Banquise or Le Bilboquet. That being said, I did make it a point to go to Cocoa Locale (reviewed here), Pho Lien, Havre aux Glaces, Pâtisserie Harmonie (mentioned here and reviewed here), Taste of India, Zero8, Asean Garden and the Jean-Talon Market. To tell the truth about Asean Garden, it’s one of the Engineer’s favourite restaurants, but I’ve never reviewed it because I’m not that into it. He likes it because there are dishes from different regions in Asia (so you can order Chinese food, Thai food and sushi in the same meal), and because if you have a big appetite, the all-you-can-eat buffet is a pretty good value. I actually slightly dislike the place for those two reasons: it suffers from the jack of all trades, master of none syndrome (it does so many types of dishes that it doesn’t do any of them particularly well), and with my appetite, it’s cheaper for me to order à la carte than to go for the buffet. To each his own.

I also got to whittle down my list of places to try a bit. I still have about two dozen places I want to try; I was going to say that there was no way I would have had the time to try them all during my stay, but I think that since I wasn’t working much, I could have tried them all if I had set my mind to it – I just couldn’t have afforded it! I did finally go to Café Byblos, Fuchsia – Épicerie Fleur, Au Cinquième Péché, and Dunn’s Famous Deli. The latter was because I’m still looking for the best burger in Montreal, but unfortunately, Dunn’s was nothing to write home about.

During my short stay in Ottawa, I went to see the Caravaggio exhibit at the National Gallery and tried a cupcake at Isobel’s Cupcakes and Cookies. I did also go to The Works not once, but twice! The burger patties are not as moist as I remembered, but that’s because they now only cook them all the way through (it’s safer, albeit drier). I had the Spartacat Special (bacon, gouda and avocado), which had been my favourite since 2004, and the Sk8r Boy – I’d been meaning to try it for years, and the mix of bacon, jack cheese and peanut butter works surprisingly well! The Engineer, faced with a menu this big, has a more methodical approach: alphabetical. He reads through the menu and picks the first, or next, burger that pleases him. He didn’t make it past the B’s yet.

This wraps up the summer Canadian interlude on my blog; back to talking Texas!