Latest news with #CanadianTravelOnlyinCanada
Toronto Star
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Take a nostalgic tour of Montreal's iconic foods, from a famous plate of lobster spaghetti to the battle of the bagels
Canadian Travel Only in Canada is a new travel series that acts as a love letter to the bucket-list destinations and experiences in our beautiful country. Look for the Only in Canada series every week. There's nothing precious about the presentation at Au Pied de Cochon, Montreal's legendary temple of Quebecois decadence, but there's a flair for the dramatic. The signature canard en conserve (duck in a can) arrives as described, a server cutting off the lid tableside and spilling out the goods: a half duck breast, hunk of foie gras, butter-braised cabbage and roasted garlic, in a puddle of balsamic demi-glace. Chances are you've heard about this place and this entrée, one of the city's signature dishes (as long-time Montreal restaurant critic Lesley Chesterman has proclaimed). Culinary tourists everywhere were tipped off by a 2006 episode of 'No Reservations,' wherein Anthony Bourdain declared chef Martin Picard 'a personal idol,' and Au Pied de Cochon one of his 'very favourites in the world.' This city has no shortage of dining destinations, and last week Michelin finally bestowed stars in Quebec for the first time. Montreal earned three one-star ratings (awarded to Europea, Mastard and Sabayon) — a frankly underwhelming tally that had the local press questioning if Michelin really gets Montreal at all. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Au Pied de Cochon's decadent canard en conserve. The ingredients are sealed in a can, then cooked in submerged water for 27 minutes. Au Pied de Cochon The better judges? Montrealers. You don't need a Michelin guide to know about Joe Beef, for example, which competes with Au Pied for irreverence and indulgence. (To be clear, both did make Michelin's list of 'recommended' places, akin to honourable mentions.) Joe Beef is widely recognized as one of the city's most influential restaurants, where diners clamour for the steaks and the cream-drenched lobster spaghetti, probably the most popular dish. If you want a taste of the places that reflect the city or helped define the food culture, look to the venerable institutions that are still going strong, decades on. And if you can, tour around with a passionate local. 'We have such a unique culture here that doesn't feel like the rest of Quebec and also doesn't feel like the rest of Canada. It has shared connections with Canada and Quebec, but there's a 'Montrealism' that's purely Montreal,' says Thom Seivewright, the guide also known as @montrealexpert on Instagram and founder of Tours Montréal. He shows travellers around town on themed or custom, private walking tours, highlighting places like Chez Tousignant (a decade-old 'tribute to Quebecois junk food,' specifically casse - croûte staples such as poutine and hot dogs) or the Jean-Talon Market, an impressive open-air cornucopia that dates back to 1933. 'It's a producers' market — you can't sell here unless you produce something,' says Seivewright. Like so many places in Canada, Montreal was transformed by waves of immigration. This was once home to the country's largest Jewish community, and you can credit this history for the Eastern European foods now synonymous with the city: smoked meat and the bagel. Schwartz's Deli is a Montreal institution that opened in 1928. Smoked-meat fans still line up for the brisket on rye. Eva Blue/Tourisme Montréal Particularly in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Jewish immigrants from countries like Romania arrived, importing their knowledge of preserving meat in this era before trusty fridges. Reuben Schwartz was one such newcomer, establishing Schwartz's Deli in 1928. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Reputedly it's now the oldest deli in Canada. The decor remains a blast from the past, the secret recipe has stayed true to the original, and the crowds keep coming for the piled-high brisket on rye. Céline Dion is a fan (and part owner). In nearby Mile-End, St-Viateur and Fairmount continue to vie for the title of Montreal's best bagel. There are duelling lineups, historical claims, celebrity endorsements. Fairmount boasts that it's Montreal's first bagel bakery, dating back to 1919. St-Viateur, opened in 1957 and once frequented by Leonard Cohen, brags it's 'the longest running bagel shop.' St-Viateur is one of the city's most famous bagel shops. It has a long-running rivalry with nearby Fairmount, another icon. Eva Blue/Tourisme Montréal Bagels at both are rolled by hand, boiled in honey water (unlike New York's girthy, more savoury style), and baked in wood-fired ovens the old-fashioned way. Fairmount's version tends to taste sweeter, at least sometimes, especially when eaten hot and fresh, depending on who's judging. 'It's so close, and I'm not just trying to be diplomatic,' says Seivewright, who runs a two-hour tour dedicated wholly to the Montreal bagel, complete with a blind taste test to decide the winner. Whichever way you lean, this may be the most essential Montreal food tradition of all: debating (and disputing) what's most delicious here. Wing Sze Tang travelled with some trip support from Tourisme Montréal, which did not review or approve this article.
Toronto Star
01-05-2025
- Toronto Star
Want to slurp Canada's best oysters? Food critic Amy Rosen recommends a summer vacation in this province
Canadian Travel Only in Canada is a new travel series that acts as a love letter to the bucket-list destinations and experiences in our beautiful country. Look for the Only in Canada series every week. In Malpeque Bay, the water freezes over from December to late spring. During this time, the oysters hibernate, gathered together in mesh bags, snapping their shells shut for winter, much like the island itself. (While P.E.I. welcomes visitors year-round, some businesses operate seasonally.) Come May, however, it's time to travel to Prince Edward Island — home to the country's best oysters owing to the crisp, clean, nutrient-rich water surrounding the province — and get slurping once again. The island's history of oyster fishing dates back to the traditional harvesting practices of the Mi'kmaq but gained global fame only in 1900. That's when P.E.I. oysters travelled to the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair in Paris, where they were declared the tastiest in the land. Queen Victoria was apparently a huge fan. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW There was much celebrating in Charlottetown that year, but just over a decade later the majority of the island's oysters were killed off by disease. Those that survived were from Malpeque Bay and were used to seed the rest of the island. That's why, although they may boast names like Pickle Points and Avonlea Petites, all P.E.I. oysters — sweet, pure, briny — are considered Malpeques. Oysters at the Inn at Bay Fortune. People travel to the island just to eat at the inn's restaurant, FireWorks. Al Douglas Media Tyne Valley, a tiny rural community on Malpeque Bay, with a population of around 225 and its own oyster festival every summer, is an especially delicious place to start your shellfish-themed P.E.I. tour. At Valley Pearl Oysters, you can pull up a chair at Jeff Noye's oyster bar and restaurant, which he built by hand above the oyster processing plant overlooking the sparkling bay. Here, the champion shucker will assemble trays of the freshest oysters you'll ever have, just pulled from the shallows within view. You'll want to slurp them back as fast as he can shuck them, which is very fast indeed. Elsewhere on the island, culinary tourists can follow easy-to-spot signs dotting the coastal routes — it's almost impossible to get lost. The North Cape Coastal Drive, for example, is known as the Canadian Oyster Coast, and during a leisurely drive you'll spot oysters on the roadside markers, directing you toward a shucking great road trip. Chef Michael Smith, left, shucking during Oyster Hour at the Inn at Bay Fortune. Al Douglas Media For the finest-dining take on P.E.I. oysters, you'll have to plan ahead to snag a seat. People travel to the island just to eat at FireWorks, the extremely popular restaurant at the Inn at Bay Fortune. The FireWorks Feast, a singular farm-to-table experience held nightly in the summer and fall, includes a welcome toast by chef/proprietor Michael Smith that's like a prayer to the bounty and the night. Then the Oyster Hour begins, with fresh shucked oysters, incredible ember-roasted oysters with lovage butter, hors d'oeuvres and cocktails in the garden. Your one task is leaving room for the multi-course, live-fire-cooked dinner that follows, served family-style inside. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW For a more casual (but no less delightful) setting, Brackley Bay Oyster Co. is also well worth a stop. At the small market/fishery, you can learn the history of local oysters while tasting the island's best bivalves on a plate, then visit postcard-perfect sites nearby, like Brackley Beach and Covehead Harbour Lighthouse in Prince Edward Island National Park. The patio at Brackley Bay Oyster Co. Brackley Bay Oyster Co. Back in Charlottetown, more oysters await at the city's mollusk-forward restaurants, including Claddagh Oyster House and the iconic Water Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound. You can enjoy even more oysters at the Gahan House, along with the craft brewery's blueberry ale. Through it all, you may squeeze countless lemon wedges, use a few shakes of hot sauce and perhaps even spoon on some mignonette sauce. But arguably the best way to eat fresh oysters on Prince Edward Island is to leave them raw, naked and unadulterated. Because when something is this pure and perfect, it needs nothing but an open mind and a big old slurp. Come for the Food Fests Taking place this summer from July 29 to Aug. 3, the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival includes the Canadian Oyster Shucking Championship, where the country's best shuckers vie to represent the country at a world competition. Happening in Charlottetown from Sept. 18 to 21, the P.E.I. International Shellfish Festival is a massive celebration under a big tent. Expect shucking championships, an international chefs' challenge, live music, drinking and dancing till late and, yes, lots of oysters. Amy Rosen is a Toronto-based food and travel writer and author of the upcoming novel ' Off Menu.' She travelled as a guest of Tourism PEI, which did not review or approve this article. Clarification – May 1, 2025 This article was updated to clarify that P.E.I. is open to tourism year-round, and not closed for winter as the previous version implied.
