Busy Weekend + Good News

My apologies to those of you who were expecting daily updates. Last week was a bit of a blur due to L.'s very good friend Brendan being in town (different Brendan, for those of you in Van.) Below are a few of the highlights. The ones I can remember anyways.

Wednesday, November 21st
Brendan arrives late in the evening, a little shell-shocked by the snow and cold. This was to be expected as he currently resides in San Jose, CA (although he grew up in Newfoundland). Sadly, L. had to crawl into bed shortly after Brendan arrived, but I stayed up and talked with him for another 2 hours.

Thursday, November 22nd
Continuing my efforts to get to know one of L.'s best friends I invited Brendan to breakfast before his meeting with a local software company. I started to feel a little bad about dragging him through the snow in order to get to one of our new favourite haunts, Coco Gallo. Montreal is covered with all day breakfast restaurants & diners. We are within a ten minute walk of about 5 places I can think of right off the top of my head and that doesn't even include big chains like Chez Cora. After a leisurely late brunch, Brendan hoped in a cab and I went about my daily routine of grocery shopping and laundry.

After L. got off work we opted, for logistical reasons, to order in some St. Hubert's rotisserie chicken (review pending) instead of making the trek downtown to an actual restaurant. It was also decided that instead of venturing to St. Sulpice we would instead head to Vices & Versa, the excellent bar specializing in local microbrews that Alain introduced us to a few weeks ago.

However, even on a Thursday night, Vices & Versa was packed. We then opted to just venture down St-Laurent towards the Plateau as we were sure to find something before long. After some minor drama hooking up with Mark who had already beaten us to St-Sulpice we opted for a weird little bar called Bar Taverna VV. It was empty when we got there, but quickly filled with an eclectic mix of young women playing pool, local winos and a long haired guy in a suit out to get his dance on. A few beers and many laughs at the expense of the dancing guy later we excited back into the snow and L. made sure that Mark got safely into a cab home.

Friday, November 23rd
Fortuitously, L. had already booked the day off, so we all went out to another one of our local breakfast haunts. Brendan had another meeting that afternoon, so we opted to put off shopping until Saturday. L. and I got to take a much needed nap before tidying the house for our party Saturday and then I got to make a pork chop dinner for Brendan and Mark. After dinner we all jumped into a cab downtown to Le Boite de Karaoke, where we were all older than the KJ. This was the Montreal Karaoke debut for L. and I, so we opted to stick to the tried and true. L. did a little Tainted Love and a surprisingly faithful cover of Jessie's Girl. I stuck with China Girl and Ballroom Blitz and I even got to do Love Shack with Mark's wife Andrea (I was Kate Pierson to her Fred Schneider).

Saturday, November 24th
Yet another breakfast out. I opted to add a breakfast smoothie in order to get some much needed vitamins. We then accompanied Brendan out to Plaza St-Hubert, which is basically an outdoor shopping mall that spans about four blocks on both sides. I like it because it's such a bizarre mix of shops and services. High-end bridal boutiques are next to outlet shoe stores and not far from sex shops and places that sell hooker shoes with sparkly mud-flap girls on them. But, it is also home to some great little local shops like Les Delires du Terroir which specializes in artisan beers from Quebec as well as local cheeses and preserves. After striking out on finding some souvenir t-shirts, Brendan wisely opted to have a gift-basket made up here. I stayed to help him pick-out the contents and buy some goat Camembert for the party, while L. headed back to apartment to wait for Frank who was arriving early with another of our recent passions: Guitar Hero III.

After deciding that the maple syrup options at Delires were not sufficient I offered to walk Brendan through the Jean-Talon Market as the selections would be much better. After jokingly suggesting that Brendan purchase a bison rib from a kiosk at the market, he instead ordered several for the boys at home as well as a selection of game-meat sausages. We also managed to find maple syrup in a tin shaped like a sugar-shack. Perfect.

While L. went to fetch more snacks, I played guitar hero with the boys and Frank helped me hang the curtains in the living room. The party itself was very well attended, especially considering we don't really know that many people here yet. I even got to catch up with my friend Chris from Cinemuerte in Vancouver.

Being that Brendan had to be at the airport by 6 AM on Sunday, I opted to say my goodbyes before going to bed around 3 AM. All in all, not nearly as nerve racking a visit as I had feared. And who knows, maybe we will accompany him to Newfoundland this summer.

Which brings me to my Good News: The sample profiles I did for Montrealplus.ca were very well received and I have been offered eight more profiles to do for December 11th. While not enough to live on by itself, it'll certainly take the edge off while I look for more freelance gigs. Yeah me.

More Snow!

It's official. Vancouver is a city full of wimps. I actually get to experience a city that doesn't go into panic mode at the sight of the first snowflake. There are teams of trucks pushing the snow off the street all day long. The streets are full of people, on foot and in cars. Our neighbors even shoveled our walkway for us while they were out there, instead of just dumping their snow on our steps!

Roast Chicken Review: Coq au Bec (Part One of a Continuing Series)

First off, a little background:

Not long after I met L. he began extolling to me the virtues of a Quebequois institution known as St Hubert. It's a chain of restaurants specializing in roast chicken and ribs and doesn't really exist much outside of Quebec (although I understand there are a couple in Ontario, but that's about it). I had initially assumed that this obsession with roast chicken was just another one of L.'s quirks, a personal fetish nourished by happy childhood memories of meals out with his mom. But no. On our visit in July it quickly became apparent that this obsession was not unique to L. People in Quebec really like their roast chicken, often referred to as "Montreal style rotisserie chicken". It doesn't matter where you go in Montreal, you will be within walking distance of roast chicken. Even the shwarma places offer the option of half a roast chicken.

And so I decided that despite not really caring for roast chicken (too dry and mealy for my tastes) I would strive to rate the various roast chicken options as fodder for my blog. In order to make sure the comparisons are fair, only the traditional chicken breast dinner will be rated. In most cases, a dinner consists of five parts: the chicken, french-fries, gravy, a biscuit & coleslaw. Each part will be rated individually on a scale of one to ten, adding up to a total score out of 50.

First up is Coq au Bec

Chicken: Surprisingly moist and flavourful. Not too greasy. The skin was crisp, salty and spicy in just the right combination. Overall, kinda delicious. 8/10

Fries: A whole different story. Greasy, squishy and obviously fresh from the freezer. Could even have been imported potatoes (for shame!) Reminds me of the fries I ate at the ice-rink concession stand as a child. 4/10

Coleslaw: A little on the scary side. Basically just weak, hair-like strands of cabbage, with a sneezing of carrot thrown in for colour; floating in a sour vinegar marinade. 2/10

Gravy: Not too salty or too spicy. Good, thick consistency that sticks well to the fries. Easily the best part, next to the chicken. 8/10

Biscuit: Tasteless white roll. Cold, but edible with a bit of gravy. 3/10

Overall score: 25/50

Snow!

It snowed last night. About 5 cm, although most of it got rained away. Apparently there's going to be more tomorrow and Thursday. L. doesn't even have boots yet...

Hobbies

Here in Quebec there is a concept known as "terroir". This is similar to the French concept of terroir which is used mostly when speaking of wine and is meant to refer to the geographic area where the wine was produced. Each terroir has certain innate qualities associated with it, which are thought to influence the resulting wine.

However, in Quebec the term is used a little more generally and with a lot more pride. "Les produits des terroirs" can describe anything that is produced locally and with local ingredients. There are "vins du terroir" (native wines), "bieres du terroir" (local micro or artisan brews), "fromages du terroir" (native cheeses) and even a genre of literature: "romans du terroir". Because many in Quebec see themselves as belonging to a distinct culture (and in some cases, a distinct country), such products are celebrated with a good deal of pride as they represent something uniquely quebecois.

It goes even further than that though, because "terroir" not only implies where something is produced, it can also be used to describe how it is produced. In many ways Quebec still sees itself as a land of humble farmers who live off the land and so "terroir" can also imply a sort of folky, home-made quality.

Which leads me to the subject of hobbies. Apparently, L. and I have both been inspired by the spirit of the land as we are both pursuing hobbies involving handcrafted food/drink stuffs. See, being that I am still mostly unemployed I have a lot of free time during the day, and being that we are pinching pennies, I have decided to start making my own bread. L., on the other hand, is taking inspiration from his friend Alain and is going to experiment with brewing his own beer.

So, because I've been meaning to bring my love of food to this blog for a while I have included my own recipe for Honey Wheat and Flax Bread:
1 Cup Soymilk (unsweetened)
1/2 Cup water
1 Heaping tablespoon active dry yeast (or 2 packets)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon honey (the darker the better)
1 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup Brown Flax Seeds
3 Cups Organic Whole Wheat Bread Flour + aprx 1/2 cup more

1. In a glass measuring cup, heat water & soymilk in the microwave for about 40 seconds until it is a little warmer than lukewarm. Be careful, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.
2. Pour the liquid into a large mixing bowl and add the honey, olive oil, salt and yeast. Stir gently to combine everything and then let the bowl sit for about 10-20 minutes in a nice warm place (I like the top of the stove, especially if the oven is pre-heating).
3. Take the flax seeds and give them a quick whir in a blender. Reserve.
4. When the liquid in the bowl is covered by a think layer of yummy foam, give it a stir with a fork and add the flax seeds, then start adding flour, one cup at a time.
5. When the dough is too tough to stir with the fork, get your hands in there and keep adding flour by the handful until it will no longer stick to a clean finger.
6. Form the dough into a ball in the bowl, then cover the bowl with a hot, damp tea-towel and leave it somewhere warm. (Again, I like the stove).
7. After about an hour, the dough should be about double the size it was when you left it. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it a couple of times on a lightly floured surface. Then, take a sharp knife and cut the dough into two equal portions.
8. Form both dough lumps into loaves by tucking everything under.
9. Lightly oil two bread pans, pop one loaf into each pan and let them sit on top of the stove for another 15 - 20 minutes.
10. toss the loaf pans in the oven for about 35-45 minutes.
11. The bread is ready when you can knock on the bottom of the loaf and you hear a hollow sound. Take the loaves out of the pans and cool them on a wire rack.
12. Enjoy with a liberal dollop of homemade jam.

In Case You Didn't Know

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I thought I'd give a shout out regarding the new Cinema Sewer book that FAB Press just put out a little while ago. It's a revised collection of all 12 issues, plus 100 pages of comics, interviews and other cool stuff. The perfect gift for the trash-hound on your Xmas list...

Update 2

So we finally did manage to get internet hooked up, minutes before L. got on the phone with Primus to scream bloody murder about their lousy service. Turns out they had forgotten to send us our modem. Then they sent us two. Luckily they were kind enough to give me the tracking numbers so that I knew which one to refuse when they finally showed up.

We completed our final trip to Ikea (again, with the very gracious Isabelle) over the weekend and have only one more room (the office, of course) to finish setting up before L.'s friend B. comes to visit. I am a little nervous because B. is the only one of L.'s close friends I have yet to meet. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I have been warned to expect non-stop giggling from the pair of them.