There’s a long standing statistic that says Montreal has the most cafés per capita in North America, and that we serve the most coffee and warm beverages south of the global 60 degree parallel. Actually, I just made that up because I can’t walk down the street without seeing some sort of cafe that serves fair-trade, local, organic, seasonal, homemade, cold-press, French-press, coffee shop, packed up the walls with jerkholes drinking a three-hour coffee mooching wifi, charging multiple devices and smoking cigarettes outside. If there’s one thing Montrealers do and do well (besides bitching and complaining about other people) is hitting up the cafe scene, supporting local entrepreneurs, sipping on dranks and watching people.
A big think you to all those who voted for CultMTL’s “Best of Montreal“, which saw Shut Up and Eat listed at Montreal’s top 5 Instagram feeds! If you’re not already following me; you can do so here: http://instagram.com/shutupandeatmtl. You are all awesome and terribly good looking…!
Being said, there is one popular category on this Best of Montreal list that is quite competitive, as all Montrealers have opinions stronger than trolling 15 year olds on the comment sections of YouTube videos – being, best portuguese chicken. For years there have been just a select few big hitters in the world of Portuguese rotisserie chicken and when you align with one team, your line is drawn deep in the sand. Defection will result in slander over the internet with the likes of which can result in you being called a lover of IGA’s finest “chicken” – the shit is drier than a summer day in African with the taste that rivals a BBQed Kleenex box.
I give to you my top three choices for Best Portuguese Chicken in Montreal.
So unless you’ve been living under a rock or in Valleyfield, there isn’t much left to tell you that you don’t already know about the Montreal food truck scene. Trailblazing and forging the way to make serving food from independent proprietors have been the once one and only food truck in montreal Grumman78… I mean if you don’t count the retrofitted canteen trucks that show up on construction sites selling microwavable, prepackaged sandwiches and burritos and stale Hickory Sticks.
I’ll be the first to admit that I love BBQ, grilling up some of God’s tastiest creatures slathered in sauce in great company epitomizes summer. I also like the “idea” of BBQ; blue skies, thermostat at 35 with the humidity but we chose to stand outside in the blistering sun to cook next to a box of raging fire emanating 300+ degree heat; this doesn’t make sense, but it does, and we do it. We do it, we love it, we enjoy it and do it in the name of summer. Take the BBQ out of this context, and I’m a raving lunatic bitching about the heat and weather.
(Image: Pastaga’s Facebook Page)
It’s been said that Montreal is definitely a city for foodies; our local chefs putting Montreal on the culinary map with their locally inspired and creative dishes. What we Montrealers miss out on are the culinary scenes of other cities around the country, so for the past few months Chef Martin Juneau of Pastaga (voted best new restaurant of 2012 accorting to enRoute Magazine), has started a great initiative to remedy this dilemma… with the Royal Canadian Mondays at Pastaga.
There’s this saying… “Sex is like cold pizza, even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.” What kind of self-loving forever-alone son of a bitch came up with this garbage? I’m not going to compare cold pizza to getting laid, why? If you’re satisfied lying down next to something cold, ridged, crusty and that was man-handled and felt up by some hairy dude with sauce on his shirt the night before… then you really need to get off the computer and meet new people.
Addiction is nothing to joke about or scoff at… unless it’s an addiction so close to obsession, then the first step to face your emotional and physiological dependancy is to man-up, face it and admit to it; My Name is Jason and I am a Puff-o-holic. What is a “puff” you ask? No, it has nothing to do with any narcotic that’s inhaled or smoked – well “inhaled” in a different sense of the word. Puffs are things next to Godliness; sweet, warm fried dough balls bathed in honey worthy of any ancient Olympian… and now citizens of the greater Montreal area.
I know I’ve made fun of Vegans before on my blog, don’t get me wrong, dietary choices are everyone’s right and freedom of choice and I’m not one to discriminate or judge ANYONE based on what they will or won’t eat… but c’mon… “VEGANS”. Bahahaha, man, I crack myself up sometimes. You can’t blame me for it, those idiots set themselves up for it sometimes. There are many kinds of diets and ways of eating that are observed, I, for one subscribe to a very personal and strict rules of dietary views; I’m on the all seefood diet, I see food, I eat it.
Tis the season where everyone gives the winter coats and snow boots a big middle finger and tell snowboarders and skiers to suck it. Spring has sprung and a soon prevailing winds will blanket the city in the aroma of manure from farmers planting their crops from south of the city. I know it’s gross but you know it’s spring when the first thing you that hits your face in the morning before your coffee buzz is stench of cow poop from 30 kilometres away. And what proceeds spring? Yes, your second grade teacher would be proud, summer.
This is one dish that I love to introduce people to; besides the tact that it’s tasty, but mostly not a lot of people who I take to dim sum have ever tried taro before… the kind you eat, not the thing with the cards.