Of course, while in Montreal, you must eat Montreal Smoked Meat. This has scared me to this point in my life, because I never really knew what was happening there. Why was the meat pink? It scares a person such as myself who only likes an itty bitty bit of pink in her steak. But now that I understand the concept of smoked and brisket, I dived right in. We were lucky because one of the ladies at the unit we were working in is married to the manager at Schwartz’s, and he had lunch delivered for us one day. We had smoked meat sandwiches, fries, coleslaw and big huge pickles. It was quite an experience, although I felt as though I needed to go back to the hotel for a nap after. No pictures of the food, but I did walk by Schwartz’s on Rue St-Laurent on the weekend.

My friend Jen sent me to La Paryse. It’s just a tiny little hipster burger bar off Rue St-Denis, and it was incredible. Seriously, my mouth is watering thinking about it.

Here’s my bacon cheeseburger – they use mozzarella not cheddar. Still getting used to taking pictures of food in restaurants, as I got some strange looks from the people at the table across from me 🙂

 There are no pictures for the rest of the places we ate, but they do have websites if you’re interested:

• Basha – Good shawarma is one of the joys in my life, because that is one thing for sure that I can never make at home. My awesome co-worker Herve who used to live in Montreal told me about Basha, which is a food court lebanese spot (although I think they have a sit-down resto too). I think I ate there 5 times. It was amazing. Huge platters of chicken or beef shawarma, rice or garlic potatoes, hummus, tabbouleh, three other kinds of salad and garlic sauce and hot sauce over top. I can’t express how happy this made me.
• L’Entrecote St-Jean – This french restaurant was recommended by a few people, and was the first place we went for dinner. There’s only one thing on the menu – steak et frites – but it was fantastic. You also get a little green salad with walnuts as a starter. The steak also comes with a pan sauce that I’m still thinking about, very dijon-y. Yum. For an additional $6 you can also add soup and profiteroles for dessert, which I obviously did.
• Weinstein & Gavino’s – Another Herve recommendation. W&G’s is on Crescent street, which is a skinny little street lined on both sides with restaurants and pubs, and is close to McGill University (kind of like Hess Village in Hamilton). We ventured over here on a night that the Habs were in a playoff game, so you can imagine the energy (read: public intoxication) in the air. My pasta was fine, but what I loved was the little spinach salad I had to start. It had garlic croutons and little crispy bits of pancetta, and I think some slivered almonds as well. Because I’m a nerd, I asked the waiter to find out what kind of vinegar was in the dressing: white balsamic. Definitely have to try replicating this at home.

There were a couple other places we ate that aren’t worth mentioning, as well as a few Subway nights. I also caught a cold the second week so I didn’t eat much besides soup and bagels. In retrospect this was a good thing, because I’m not sure my clothes would have fit if I kept going at that rate. And we haven’t even discussed pastries and treats yet!