I know, I know; it's been ages since I last updated. I'm sorry! I suck! But things have been happening! I mean ... for you guys. Not that much has happened with me. However, I'm at home at my mum's in VA for thanksgiving, and am taking this opportunity to update on Haines' and my Montreal trip, which we took a couple of weekends ago. Montreal! The Europe of North America! Highly recommended, my friends.
We drove up on Thursday night after work. It's about a 6-hour trip, but fortunately this wasn't a hardship on me, as I just sat in the passenger seat and looked vacantly around me while Haines did all the driving. (This also sums up much of our relationship. Sorry, babe.)
We stayed at ... the W Montreal, aka the Nicest Hotel Ever!! No seriously, the hotel was really nice. Think big flatscreen tv, huge plush chairs with pillows, a 'natural rainfall' shower (which, in French, is something like "douche de pluie," bwahaha I am so immature), Bliss shower products, an incredibly-stocked minibar (including a canister with a "personal oxygen supply" ... what?). Although ... OK, on this trip I realized that I'm much more gauche and country-mouse-ish than I thought I was, because I was all like "ooo they give you a ROBE" and "if I touch this pretty iPod dock, will it break?!" and Haines was like, what is wrong with you. Haha. The one thing about the hotel though, as you'll see below, is that ... uh the shower wall is clear. Like, you can see into the shower from the room if the bathroom lights are turned on. Consequently, any showering action during the weekend happened completely in the dark so that you couldn't see in. Yeah. Just say no to lights.
Anyway, we got a super-good deal on the hotel, and resisted the urge to attack the mini-bar. That's not entirely true -- we removed their alcohol & drinks and replaced them with ours to keep cool, haha. I'm a terrible picture-taker, so here's me looking Taiwanese-photo-y (ie washed out) in the lobby on our 1 am arrival, a bad pic of the room, and ... the infamous shower.
So on Thursday after we arrived, we drank wine (you can bring 2 bottles per person into Canada from the US) and watched a Kevin Smith Q&A on a dvd we brought, which is to say that we replicated our usual Friday night experience in New Jersey.
The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a random cafe and then headed to the part of Montreal where we knew we'd feel most at home ... Chinatown.
Haha. Just kidding. We just happened to wander that way since we weren't exactly sure where things were. Then we went to Notre Dame, the main basilica in the city. It was quite nice. Unlike the Parisian version, and most of the other Roman Catholic cathedrals I've seen, the inside wasn't worked in stone and metals, but mostly in wood and paint. Haines pointed out a strong resemblance between the altar and the Magic Kingdom castle ... which I can't really contest.
Later that day we went to the Marche Jean-Talone, a huge farmer's market and one of the highlights of our trip. We bought beautiful, freshly-made pate, fresh bread and cheese, a handful of clementines, delicious salami ... there was so much other fantastic, fresh-looking veggies and other foods, but we just bought picnic-y things. The plan was to go eat them in the Mont Royal park, but due to our lack of a map and/or iPhone coverage, we got a little mixed-up directionally and it got too dark. Therefore we ate them in the Fanciest Hotel Room Ever instead, and it was delicious.
At night we went out late and just walked around. Montreal is a pretty walkable city, and it wasn't too cold, so it was really nice to just wander. I also posed as a Very Large Fish-Like Woman In Front of A Fountain Statue at one point. I thought it would be funny but later when I saw the pictures, it was ... a little dismaying. Oh wells.
On Saturday, we fulfilled MY goals for the trip: eating. One of Montreal's famous foods is their bagels, which are supposed to rival NY bagels. We went to St-Viateur, a famous bagel shop where alas our inability to read or speak French led to us getting bagel platters with ... pasta and artichoke salad (I was going for something more breakfast-y). Still tasty, though. I must admit that I side with the Canadians on the bagel issue ... I think theirs are better than NY bagels. I'm sorry. I know. I'm a traitor.
Above is my bagel, with cream cheese, really nicely smoked salmon, and capers .... mmm. Canadian bagels are a little smaller than their NY counterparts, and are lighter (less dense) and a little less chewy. They're also slightly sweet -- the dough is soaked in honey-water before it's rolled out and cooked.
The second part of my set of goals was to eat poutine, a Quebec speciality for late night drinkers and hangovers. Or, for me, for four-o-clock-in-the-afternooners. Poutine is a dish of thick-cut steak fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. We went to La Belle Province, a fast-food-y chain restaurant, to get ours. Canadians swear LBP's poutine is the most authentic and like the original hearty peasant version, though you can get them all fancied-up with foie gras or whatever at other places around town.
They were pretty damtasty. Haines says that in Jersey you can get this dish too, but it's called "disco fries." Jersey is weird. Oh, and those hot dogs next to the poutine are called "steamies" because they're steamed instead of roasted or grilled. This is also a specialty in Quebec.
Montreal also has this enormous underground complex called the Underground City -- it's (very seriously) miles of connected underground shopping, hotels, restaurants, etc. We spent a few hours wandering around in it, but there were a lot of shoppers and it got a bit overwhelming, so we didn't do any buying. However, we did come to realize that there was an entrance to the Underground literally 50 feet from our hotel. Would have been smart if we'd realized that earlier, instead of wandering around in the cold ... whoops.
On Saturday night, we had our fancy-pants dinner, where we dressed up and I have no pictures because I am the WORST PHOTOGRAPHER EVER and basically forgot to take any besides the food. The food shots aren't very good either since I was kind of embarrassed that I was taking them in this uber cosmopolitan city, and so I'd whip out the camera, aim in the general direction, and take a single pic really fast. Anyway the pix don't do the food justice. We went to a restaurant called Lem
éac and had an amaaaaazing pan-seared foie gras for an appetizer. Haines had filet mignon with bone-marrow butter (YES BONE MARROW BUTTER *DROOL*) as his entree, and I had some perfectly roasted duck breast. We also ate this incredible, enormous caramel french-toast dessert which I also did not take a picture of, but believe you me, it was good.
Sunday, alas, was our last day, but we still managed to get some good stuff (*cough* food) in. We went to Schwartz's, a famous Katz's-like deli for smoked meat sandwiches on rye, fries, and pickles. They turn over the tables really fast there, but nonetheless there was a line waiting for seats the whole time we were there. Understandably: those sandwiches were pretttty dang good. I've only been to Katz's that once when we were all in college, but I don't remember being that impressed; I might need to go again to compare. These were really tender and moist. Mmm.
(I have about 10,000 pictures of Haines mid-bite. I really should give him time to compose his face. Tee hee.)
Then we walked around the street, which turned out to be the antique district, I think. We went into this cute store called Kitsch 'n Things, and bought Canadian souvenirs, i.e., I bought a beer glass with Canadian Molson on it, and Haines got ... vintage cups celebrating the moon landing. OK, whatever, it says Montreal to me.
We stopped by the Jean-Talon market on our way out of the city to pick up some more pate, bread, and sausage to take home, as well as some plums and radishes. (We both promptly devoured these at home, each by ourselves.) Basically it was a great trip. We saw a few famous sights, ate delicious food, and went to the markets, but we really took it slowly and just chilled and relaxed the whole time. I want to go back in the spring and eat a picnic lunch in the park. Hurrah for Canada!
Anyway, we got a super-good deal on the hotel, and resisted the urge to attack the mini-bar. That's not entirely true -- we removed their alcohol & drinks and replaced them with ours to keep cool, haha. I'm a terrible picture-taker, so here's me looking Taiwanese-photo-y (ie washed out) in the lobby on our 1 am arrival, a bad pic of the room, and ... the infamous shower.
So on Thursday after we arrived, we drank wine (you can bring 2 bottles per person into Canada from the US) and watched a Kevin Smith Q&A on a dvd we brought, which is to say that we replicated our usual Friday night experience in New Jersey.
The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a random cafe and then headed to the part of Montreal where we knew we'd feel most at home ... Chinatown.
Haha. Just kidding. We just happened to wander that way since we weren't exactly sure where things were. Then we went to Notre Dame, the main basilica in the city. It was quite nice. Unlike the Parisian version, and most of the other Roman Catholic cathedrals I've seen, the inside wasn't worked in stone and metals, but mostly in wood and paint. Haines pointed out a strong resemblance between the altar and the Magic Kingdom castle ... which I can't really contest.
Later that day we went to the Marche Jean-Talone, a huge farmer's market and one of the highlights of our trip. We bought beautiful, freshly-made pate, fresh bread and cheese, a handful of clementines, delicious salami ... there was so much other fantastic, fresh-looking veggies and other foods, but we just bought picnic-y things. The plan was to go eat them in the Mont Royal park, but due to our lack of a map and/or iPhone coverage, we got a little mixed-up directionally and it got too dark. Therefore we ate them in the Fanciest Hotel Room Ever instead, and it was delicious.
At night we went out late and just walked around. Montreal is a pretty walkable city, and it wasn't too cold, so it was really nice to just wander. I also posed as a Very Large Fish-Like Woman In Front of A Fountain Statue at one point. I thought it would be funny but later when I saw the pictures, it was ... a little dismaying. Oh wells.
On Saturday, we fulfilled MY goals for the trip: eating. One of Montreal's famous foods is their bagels, which are supposed to rival NY bagels. We went to St-Viateur, a famous bagel shop where alas our inability to read or speak French led to us getting bagel platters with ... pasta and artichoke salad (I was going for something more breakfast-y). Still tasty, though. I must admit that I side with the Canadians on the bagel issue ... I think theirs are better than NY bagels. I'm sorry. I know. I'm a traitor.
Above is my bagel, with cream cheese, really nicely smoked salmon, and capers .... mmm. Canadian bagels are a little smaller than their NY counterparts, and are lighter (less dense) and a little less chewy. They're also slightly sweet -- the dough is soaked in honey-water before it's rolled out and cooked.
The second part of my set of goals was to eat poutine, a Quebec speciality for late night drinkers and hangovers. Or, for me, for four-o-clock-in-the-afternooners. Poutine is a dish of thick-cut steak fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. We went to La Belle Province, a fast-food-y chain restaurant, to get ours. Canadians swear LBP's poutine is the most authentic and like the original hearty peasant version, though you can get them all fancied-up with foie gras or whatever at other places around town.
They were pretty damtasty. Haines says that in Jersey you can get this dish too, but it's called "disco fries." Jersey is weird. Oh, and those hot dogs next to the poutine are called "steamies" because they're steamed instead of roasted or grilled. This is also a specialty in Quebec.
Montreal also has this enormous underground complex called the Underground City -- it's (very seriously) miles of connected underground shopping, hotels, restaurants, etc. We spent a few hours wandering around in it, but there were a lot of shoppers and it got a bit overwhelming, so we didn't do any buying. However, we did come to realize that there was an entrance to the Underground literally 50 feet from our hotel. Would have been smart if we'd realized that earlier, instead of wandering around in the cold ... whoops.
On Saturday night, we had our fancy-pants dinner, where we dressed up and I have no pictures because I am the WORST PHOTOGRAPHER EVER and basically forgot to take any besides the food. The food shots aren't very good either since I was kind of embarrassed that I was taking them in this uber cosmopolitan city, and so I'd whip out the camera, aim in the general direction, and take a single pic really fast. Anyway the pix don't do the food justice. We went to a restaurant called Leméac and had an amaaaaazing pan-seared foie gras for an appetizer. Haines had filet mignon with bone-marrow butter (YES BONE MARROW BUTTER *DROOL*) as his entree, and I had some perfectly roasted duck breast. We also ate this incredible, enormous caramel french-toast dessert which I also did not take a picture of, but believe you me, it was good.
Sunday, alas, was our last day, but we still managed to get some good stuff (*cough* food) in. We went to Schwartz's, a famous Katz's-like deli for smoked meat sandwiches on rye, fries, and pickles. They turn over the tables really fast there, but nonetheless there was a line waiting for seats the whole time we were there. Understandably: those sandwiches were pretttty dang good. I've only been to Katz's that once when we were all in college, but I don't remember being that impressed; I might need to go again to compare. These were really tender and moist. Mmm.
(I have about 10,000 pictures of Haines mid-bite. I really should give him time to compose his face. Tee hee.)
Then we walked around the street, which turned out to be the antique district, I think. We went into this cute store called Kitsch 'n Things, and bought Canadian souvenirs, i.e., I bought a beer glass with Canadian Molson on it, and Haines got ... vintage cups celebrating the moon landing. OK, whatever, it says Montreal to me.
We stopped by the Jean-Talon market on our way out of the city to pick up some more pate, bread, and sausage to take home, as well as some plums and radishes. (We both promptly devoured these at home, each by ourselves.) Basically it was a great trip. We saw a few famous sights, ate delicious food, and went to the markets, but we really took it slowly and just chilled and relaxed the whole time. I want to go back in the spring and eat a picnic lunch in the park. Hurrah for Canada!
