Things I love about Montréal: food from different cultures, fantastic outdoor festivals, and hanging out with wonderful people. T’s aunt, E, knows of all these awesome places to eat and neat places to visit (and not just in Montréal). Here is our trip, in a nutshell.
La Carreta
350, rue St.-Zotique Est, Montréal, QC H2S 1L7
514-273-8884
La Horchata – interesting drink, taste like almond milk with spices (I tasted a bit of cinnamon). $3.75 for half-pitcher
Las pupusas – Salvadoran “tacos” (or taco-like). The salad and tomato sauce (see below) complimented the pupusas nicely. Crunchy exterior of pupusas, warm and delicious on the inside, topped with sour and spicy salad and tomato sauce (which gave the pupusas a kick). $2.00 per pupusa
Marché Jean Talon
On Saturday, we visited the Marché Jean Talon (farmers’ market) and bought some fraises du Québec. They were so flavourful!
We took some to the Jazz Festival to snack on and they sure didn’t last long!
An article about Quebec strawberries.
We also got some pomme Empire. Crisp, sweet (but not too sweet) and mouthwatering!
Arepera
4050 deBullion coin Duluth, Montréal, QC H2W 2E5
514-508-7267
Their Facebook page.
This place just opened a month and a half ago. Serves vénézuélienne food. Their specialities are arepas. Similar to pupusas and tacos.
The decor was very amusing. Someone siesta-ing above us.
They had excellent juices of the day. We ordered passionfruit juice and jus de sugar cane with lime. They were very tasty – not too sweet. 2$ per juice
Our appetizer: Chips de yuca con guasacaca (cassava chips with avocado sauce). It was very good. (I want to make the guasacaca later, it would go good with tacos.) We were really hungry by the time the chips came. Service was slow and I think because they didn’t expect so many people to come for lunch around 3 PM in the afternoon and perhaps they were still working out a system (since it’s a fairly new business). 3$
And finally, our arepas! T ordered Llanera – shredded stew beef in tomato sauce with feta cheese and avocado. E and I ordered the Pabellón – shredded stewed beef, black beans, plantains and cheese. The arepas were fully stuffed and one was definitely enough (for me)! The guasacaca and spicy sauce (which was fairly spicy, don’t put too much at once!) went well with the arepas. 7$ (most arepas were 7$ per arepa, dependent on the filling)
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
A variety of music, not just jazz!
The group: Novalima
http://www.novalima.net
Their music was definitely fun and good to dance to. We also learned about the cajón – Peruvian drum.
Bixi
And of course, a crucial part of our trip. Bixi bikes. They worked well, for the most part. A couple of things to keep in mind: (1) make sure the bike is in working condition before entering in the code – we took out one with a flat tire, was easily fixable but was a pain – there was a button to report damage to bike; (2) be prepared to ride around for a bit near centre of the city, especially during a busy weekend with a famous festival, to find a place to park your bike; (3) make sure to check the time on the code that is printed to you (sometimes some of the pieces of paper are left in the machine, so you might take a wrong one) … it’s not a big deal and can be easily rectified. Like I said, no major issues, just some things you can keep in mind.
Glad u enjoyed ur trip! too bad we couldnt hang out more 😦 And did i tell u about the arepera or did u just stumble upon it? its such an awesome place eh?
Yennies! It was a long weekend, which was short.
You might have told us about it lol.. but then you also mentioned other awesome restaurants… maybe a bit of both. We passed by it on the way back from the art show.
So good. 🙂 I am going to try to make it at home.
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