Last week - up in Montreal for the usual bizness boogie. Long F- ing flights, flight attendants with false eyelashes - older than my dead grandmother, things that could perhaps pass as food enroute (in a hospital), sore back, condemnation for 5 days to Marriott jail - you get the picture....
However, yours truly had a serious and well planned ulterior motive for making the trip. The house of delicious porky, foie gras infested goodness - Au Pied De Cochon. Mmmmmmmm...
SO - workmate DAVE and I (commonly referred to as grasshopper - sorry Lori), slog through a couple of days of dreary but successfull client appointments - Zzzzzzzzz. My planned highlight for the week, reason for living and best of the trip, was our Wednesday evening reservation at Au Pied De Cochon - loose translation for you frenchy-impaired - " the foot of the pig". And yes - you can order the foot of the pig - more on that later.
This place is without question - in my top 3 favorite restaurants ANYWHERE in the world - maybe #1. So let's get to it:
We head for the restaurant in a cab - BTW - if you haven't been to Montreal - put it on your list ! So very cool - like DAVE said repeatedly during our drunkfest that evening, " Wow - this is like being in a foreign country ! "
I believe what he was mostly referring to was the Quebecoise/French being spoken all around us. It really is a charming city with tons of history/cool architecture, extremely friendly people, yummy food, and is very walkable. I might suggest a visit in the spring, summer or fall though - unless you like icicles on your eyelashes.
We are seated - at my request at the chef's counter. The last time I was here a year or two ago - we sat in the dining room of this very bistro/cafe style joint and had a rip-roarin-good time, but this time I wanted to "BE the fois gras". It was GREAT.
Let's start with the eats - (by the way - a few of the pics are a little blurry - but by that time - so was I). We had stopped for some ass-kick cheeser beer at a local taven around the corner - we got there a bit early.
First Course - me - Bison Tartare. Despite the abbatoir-like food processor they ground the meat up - right in front of me - it was perfectly spiced, delicious - and I was pissed when I even let a little bit of it get away from me - in my make room planning for further gorging on courses that would be sure to follow.
DAVE's First Course - oh what the hell - here's DAVE in all his glory. As you can see - he opted for crab rather than lovely organ meats or piggie parts (the weiner). Nice choppers DAVE !
My second course - a most blissful perfectly prepared, humungous slab of Foie Gras terrine. It truly was the BEST I have ever enjoyed - anywhere, and I am a bit of a gallbladder bustin' savage when it comes to Foie. Served with grilled oven fresh bread and an orange rind marmaladey-compote (I think).
Know this - Au Peid De Cochon offers Foie Gras in more forms and styles than any place this side of the pearly gates. I am NOT exagerating either - check out the menu: http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/index_eng.html I LOVE THIS PLACE !
To digress for a moment - check out what our neighbors where having at the chef's counter ! Since my last visit there - they have amped up their fesh seafood offerings to include all kinds of crazy stuff from the atlantic. Don't forget kidz - Montreal is north and even east of Maine! They have all kinds off goodies we west-coasters never even see. Whelks, Periwinkles,atlantic sea urchin, Quahog and Cherrystone clams, Blue Crab, Rock Crabs, Nordic Shrimp, Abalone - you get the picture. Here are the feasts going on with a look left and a look right from where we were sitting. There was a serious party going on !
OK - enough of them - back to ME.
Said "friend" DAVE ordered the Lobster Roll. This ain't your usual Lobster Roll - for those of you who have never been to New England - the regular Lobster Roll is a delicious fresh lobstermeat salad sandwich, with just a little mayo on a soft, slightly sweet hot dog style roll/bun. Its a foundational food experience - transformative - the cockroaches of the sea turned glorious. So this place - along with everything else - has to hit the cover off the ball. They start with a freshly baked Brioche roll (yes - freshly baked in their wood fired ovens for YOUR order - you pig!) . That is then split while still hot, stuffed with fresh Atlantic lobster tail and claw meat, lightly tossed with a mayo based dressing ( I assume), and then - just to add decadance to happiness - topped with several slices of - you guessed it; Foie Gras and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar reduction. I've got a chubby just thinkin about it. See what I mean ?
By this time - I am starting to feel the effects of 60,000 calories. As I am want to do - I wanted to maximize my experience - so I called in the ultimate for the next couse; Foies Gras Poutine. Now for those of you not in the know, Poutine is a regional specialty, local to Eastern Canada. Basically - it is late night drunk food - if you are eating this - you should have already been home in bed, tucked in safely by your loving Mum. Its Canada's version of White Castle. So - what the hell is it ? Take a base of deep fat fried french fries, add to that - a glob of cheese curds (any questions so far?), and then top that off with GRAVY !. You gotta love these guys. Well at Au Pied De Cochon - let's take that a step further and first fry the potaotos in DUCK FAT, and then add a couple of slabs of - yep - fois gras (buuuuuuurrrrpp):
Any questions ?
An extra course of fried fresh zuchini blossoms - Yum-f-ing YUMMY !
So the rest of the experience gets a littel bit blurry. I remember kissing a waitiress, trading business cards with a pregnant wine guzzling cigarette smoking chef's counter neighbor (NICE), buying T-shirts with the cool Au Pied logo on it - below - and then stumbling out into the night with DAVE.
Let it never be said that our PIE-HOLE author is not all about experiencing all there is to be had - in any given spectrum, in any given medium, in any given city, in search of excellence and the pursuit of PIE-HOLE fillage, anywhere - any time. Long story short - DAVE and I decided to walk home to our hotel (6-8 miles) in our drunken fugue state, and along the way - felt the need for more POUTINE !
As I recall - barely - the deal was; a jumbo Coke - with 2 hot dogs and a small trough of Puotine for silly little money. Its basically the White Castle scenario again - when despite the fact that you've just spent $500.00 on dinner, you're so hammered on the way home - that a bag of sliders - or in this case - Poutine - sounds like a grand plan. So yes - after the gallbladder busting experience at Au Pied - we garrffed down hot dogs, and more poutine on the way back to the hotel. Oh, yeah - along with your Poutine (fries, cheese curds and gravy) they give you a side of FRIES. See below;
EVIDENCE:
2 fingers = 2 hot dogs EACH.......
Can you feel your arteries hardening ? Looks like my small intestine....
Here's a couple more fun photos from Montreal. Didn't eat here this trip - will for sure next time:
This was my lunch the first day in town. It was listed on the menu as a "smoked meat sandwich". No further explanation was ever offered. Pretty good though - I think it was beef. A local Quebec specialty.
A spooky Church at night. Those damn Catholics - always tryin to scare ya....