Just spent five days in Montreal taking my son back to college, focusing on cheap eats, though all food can get pricey quickly in Montreal. I very much wanted to go for items not easily available in my area but should be interesting in Montreal. I went out of my way for Moroccan, Haitian, and Ivoirienne. And deli.
The single best item I had was the chopped liver at Chenoys Deli. In fact, I went back the next night for it. This is only the third time in my life I’ve done that. No amount of shmaltz was spared in creating this rich masterpiece. Plus it is topped with a generous portion of heavily caramelized onions. Served with some raw vegetables and sliced bread.
I also liked the matzoh ball here. It is an enormous ball, sliced in half, and covers the entire bowl of soup. The broth is nothing special, but the matzoh ball was very good. Don’t expect something light and fluffy. However, I get the idea that their large menu is filled with plenty of bad choices. I had the smoked meat served on top of spaghetti, and both the meat and the spaghetti sauce were flavorless.
For Moroccan we went to Maison Lahlou. The couscous with lamb was bland, and so was a special of stuffed artichoke. despite the kefta inside. The saving grace was the stuffed chicken which was a big hit. Spinach, kefta, and cheese inside, and covered with a load of mushrooms and a cream sauce. On the side, rice and a zesty red pepper sauce with a ton of green olives.
For Haitian, we went to Griot Plus because it promotes their use of charcoal grilling. Limited menu of steam table items. I am not certain it matters which Haitian place you choose. Griot is a dried pork that is very chewy and saved by a ridiculously rich sauce. The chicken was good, also helped by the sauce. Fried plaintains were dry and worthless, but the surprise was golden fritters that brought back memories of Trini poloughrie, usually made from chickpea flour. These were the utopian ideal. I could eat these all the time, and I think they are called madelienes (but not the cookie!). The savory version.
For Ivoirien we went to Le Platana in Mile End. They were out of most of the menu, and had shrimp beignets (actually just panko-crusted shrimp), yassa chicken, and sauce gombos with picali. Yassa chicken is always a good choice, as you can’t go wrong with mustard and onion. Nice flavor, but the chicken here is served shredded, not on the bone, which is too genteel for my taste. The sauce gombos is with beef, which was too plain and chewy, and the sauce was slimy, probably for molokhiya. The picali is in the same realm as foufou, a starchy blob. It was served quite hot, which makes it a pleasure going down the gullet.
Part of the Mile End is a huge Hasidic community. So it’s great for people watching. The bakery there, Cheskie, has all the Jewish classics and is open until 11pm. On the back counter they have chocolate filled pastries, like a cross between a rugelach and a babka. Nearby, Cafe Depanneur serves an excellent macchiato and musicians are playing there almost all day.
Just south of Mount Royal there is a collection of Asian restaurants. At Chicha, they make their own mille crepe cakes plus I had an earl grey cake that, upon ordering, the server covers with a thick layer of salty cream. It was awesome.
