A culinary journey to Montreal

Poutine

No trip to a new city is complete without visiting its local restaurants. Here are my notes from the culinary journey to the city of Montreal in Canada. 

Tire sur la neige

Though only open during Spring, Cabane-a-sucre Constantin, located outside the city of Montreal should be on your itinerary if you happen to be in the cit y in search of a cool May. Dishes included cretons (breads) with a pork based marinade, omelettes with fried bacon and ham, pork sausages (Jambon), beans, a pea soup, sweet crepes, pudding (pouding chomeur), sugar pie (tart au sucre), and the meal capped with tire sur la neige (hot maple syrup on a cold snow that had to be rolled on to a stick to be eaten). Every dish was served with maple syrup and a variety of other sauces. It is not someplace I would likely visit again, but I will chalk it up as a cultural experience.

Poutine is another Canadian specialty that comprises of French fries served with cheese. Not something I particularly enjoyed.

Bellagio in downtown Montreal. Italian. I tried their shrimp pasta, and complementary bruchetta. It was very flavorful. A little pricy but completely worth it.

Pork sausages

Gandhi, in Old town, Montreal. Indian. Bland and over-priced. The most lousy Indian food I have ever eaten.

Seafood: Butterfly shrimp and salmon with baked potatoes, and veggies at Holiday Inn's Ace Deli and Bar Grill Restaurant. The seafood was fresh and cooked well with spices. Edible but quite mediocre in taste when compared to the price.

Finally, if you are in Canada and a wine connosieur, don't miss the taste of Peller iced wine. It is a Canadian specialty, made from grapes picked in the winters. I had to bring a bottle back to the States to tide me over until my next trip north.

A Taste of Morocco

A platter of entrees

Marrakesh

2147 P St NW, Washington, DC 20037

Washington D.C offers such a wide variety of ethnic dining options that it is very possible to develop a culinary blind spot. A recent visit to Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant in downtown DC., gave me the opportunity to fill one such gap in my dining experience.

Marrakesh has a set menu for $35. We tried this along with several items on the a la carte menu.
Among the cold tapas, we tried their zaalouk (eggplant cooked with mild spices), spinach, and hummus. Among the hot tapas, we tried their shrimp in a tomato sharmola sauce and a hot vegetable soup.  If you have never tried the chicken bastille, it is recommended for those who enjoy the combination of savory and sweet flavors. It is available as both a tapas and an entree. The shrimp was a bit spicy and went well with the complementary bread.

For entrees, several kinds of couscous, (chicken, lamb and fish) and tagines are available. We tried their vegetable couscous,  a fish tagine, a mildly spiced chicken and a lamb dish served with prunes and apricots. We capped our meal with some fresh fruit and moroccan tea.

While the food was reasonably priced compared to the DC standards, it might come off as a bit bland for those with an Indian palate. Having said that, it is worth trying at least once. The establishment had a cozy ambience. If you go an a Saturday, an entertaining belly dancing act starts after 8:30.