Authentic Traditional Bagel

 Oh it has been too long! Since I am back in Montreal, my main diet has been of the traditional bagels, with bagels bought at St-Viateur Bagel. Wolfie asked me what was my favourite food no later than yesterday and I pointed him to this. Proper bagel, cream cheese, quality smoked salmon, onions, tomatoes, capers. Better still: he tried the smoked salmon for the first time on his and loved it. So this is now a family tradition.

Whatever happened to the Veneziana?

Tonight, we went to Pizza Express for dinner, to meet my wife's friend who wanted to introduce her new fiancé to us. I always loved Pizza Express: the food may not be fancy, but the quality is always reliable. But recently, there is something that has been bothering me: the Veneziana, my go-to pizza when i go there, is no longer on the menu. The Veneziana has everything I love in a pizza: capers, olives, and well, that's it. They also give a discretionary 25p to the Venice in Peril fund for every Veneziana sold. Well, they still do, except for every mushroom pizza sold, because they don't sell Veneziana anymore.  My question is why? Why is it no longer on the menu? Because I don't care about mushroom pizza. I mean I really don't. And I am all for saving Venice, mind you, but I will donate to the charity directly rather than eat a mushroom pizza. In the end, the Veneziana allowed me to make a good deed while enjoying a dinner out. Since it is gone, I don't find the menu of Pizza Express so appealing anymore.

#NationalBagelandLoxDay

I learned from the Facebook page of St-Viateur Bagel that today is National Bagel and Lox Day. So a special day to celebrate the traditional way of making a bagel, with smoked salmon. There are many, many delicious ways to eat a bagel, but this one remains my favourite. Sadly, I am not in Montreal so I cannot have my traditional smoked salmon bagel, but I thought I would mention it here. Oh how I miss proper bagels!

Veneziana Pizza

Last week for my wife's birthday, we went to Pizza Express. It is a sort of almost acidental tradition for her birthday: we often end up there, even when we don't plan it. But Pizza Express is always reliable: it serves good food at decent price, Wolfie is sure to enjoy it and we are never disappointed in the meal. It is especially true for me, as I always go for the Veneziana, so I know exactly what I am going to have. It has black olives, capers, red onions and 25p is given to the Venice In Peril fund. So I feel like I do my good deed of the day every time I go there and order it. And my wife is happy because it means that I eat vegetarian.

Bagels for the hard times ahead

I learned some great news from the Facebook page of St-Viateur Bagel. Not for me as I am far away, but for my fellow Montrealers. Just learning about it cheered me up a bit. Anyway, the St-Viateur shops are still open and they will serve their customers, respecting of course all necessary safety procedures. With a steady and fresh supply of bagels, Montrealers and other Quebeckers (because they also supply grocers) are safe from famine. I know for sure that with a diet of bagels with peanut butter for breakfast, bagels with cream cheese, tomatoes, onions, capers, smoked salmon and a dash of lemon juice for the other meals, washed down with some Griffon Red Ale, I could get through any quarantine. Shame we don't live in Montreal.

Siciliana pizza

When I had my old job, in the last few months actually, my colleagues and I had a special pizza lunch once, I can't remember exactly why, someone's birthday or something. We ordered pizza from a restaurant owned by the family of a colleague of Italian origins. As a jest, I sent the menu to my wife and asked her to guess which pizza I would choose. Her answer: "You had the Siciliana. There are 24 pizzas so tell me I know you well! " she was right of course. What gave away the answer: the olives, the capers and anchovies. All things I love, especially in Italian dishes. Now they have 35 different ones on their menu, but she would have found the right one all the same. Anyway, her answer deserves to be a great unknown line. She does know me well.

Time for bagels

No time in Montreal would be completed without tasting proper Montreal bagels. We've had a few bagels already, particularly at breakfast, but we all wanted to experience it from a real restaurant and be served and everything. So today, the family had its first meal at St-Viateur. I had the traditional smoked salmon bagel of course, which you can see here. Wolfie stuffed himself and of course we had no baby wipes with us. I am going to miss Montreal bagels when we go, but there is hope for us expats: I learned that an expat has started a Montreal-style bagels shop in Scotland. St-Viateur influenced, no less. It's a bit far from where we live, but it will make me feel closer to home.

Time for a Veneziana pizza

My wife had a great idea about tonight: we should go to Pizza Express for dinner. She has some vouchers that we need to redeem there and tonight is as great a time as any. As I am a man of habit, I will order a Veneziana pizza. Not only because it is delicious, with everything I love in a pizza: capers, olives, onions and some other stuff that makes this one so unique, but also because 25p is given to the Venice In Peril fund every time I have one. Or you, or anyone. So yes, I am plugging it shamelessly in this blog. I did plug it before in 2013, but it is good to remind people about this, because the city is indeed in peril and I would like to visit it before it drowns. But charity notwithstanding we have not been to Pizza Express in a long while and I am in the mood for a Veneziana.

Monkfish

This may be a sign of middle age, or at least maturity: my idea of a great meal for a very special occasion is not some meaty dish, but fish. To me more precise, in this instance, monkfish. Also known as fishing-frog, frog-fish or devil-fish, because it is that ugly when in the ocean. Alive, it is like a sea monster really. But as food, it is oh so good! So like last year, this is monkfish I had to celebrate my birthday, in the same local restaurant, the very same recipe in fact, with pine nuts, capers and olives. Olives and capers, and a fish that nearly has no bones to speak of, this dish was made for me. I am really developing a taste for monkfish. Even though I eat it very rarely.

This Good Friday feast that I will not have

As a tradition, this is what I usually have on Good Friday: bagels from St-Viateur, the very best in the world. (Yes they are, read this if you don't know why.) With smoked salmon, soft cheese, onions, capers, tomatoes. Taken one by one, separately as you see it on the top right picture, it may look like nothing, but as a whole, it is a true feast and a most sacred meal.

For years and years when I was living in Montreal, this has been my most sacred meal. I had started doing it here in the UK too, until I got tired of the cardboard donuts they call bagels and stopped... To start again when I brought back proper bagels from home. Well, sadly this year as I have been away from Montreal for a very long time we are out of bagels from St-Viateur. And it's just pointless buying any bagel here. So I have no idea what I will have tonight, but it will not be my Good Friday feast. It is sad, but I made a promise to myself that this will not always be the case.

Swordfish

Just to be nice to my veggie wife, I have decided to avoid meat for Lent. So when we recently had lunch at Côte Brasserie, I went for their grilled swordfish on their March menu. The dish was meant for me: it had ratatouille and a capers, black olives and anchovies dressing. All the stuff I love. And yummy, healthy, grilled swordfish, which I don't think I've had in nearly twenty years or so. It's just as tasty as a steak, if not tastier, but has none of the unhealthy content. And it has no bones. I have to confess, I did not make time to check its conservation status, my curiosity was too strong to risk feeling guilty, and in any case I like to fish because of its health benefits. And this swordfish tasted great.

Le retour du macaroni au fromage...

Bon, je ne voulais pas faire de billet gastronomique de si tôt, mais devinez ce qu'on a mangé récemment? Oui, le meilleur macaroni au fromage au monde (détails et recette ici). Le secret, ce sont les câpres et la moutarde de Dijon pour la saveur. Mais enfin bref, on avait décidé de le cuisiner pour de la visite (mon beau-frère, sa femme et notre nièce) venue voir le petit loup. Ils sont restés rien que pour un thé finalement, alors on a eu ça pour souper et pour nos autres soupers et c'est pas grave, parce que c'est aussi bon sinon meilleur réchauffé. Et c'est le temps idéal pour de la nourriture consistante. Morale de l'histoire: ils ont manqué quelque chose et vous aussi si vous ne l'essayez pas.

Monkfish, king of the plates

This is the birthday meal I had yesterday in a local restaurant: monkfish. I first tried it a few years ago, again on my birthday (I usually have fish on my birthday), in the same local restaurant and really loved it, so I could not wait to have monkfish again. Yesterday was my second time. Good things come to those who wait, I guess. In any case, it was worth the wait.

The thing you need to know about monkfish is this: as a fish, in the ocean, it's ugly as sin, even by fish standards. Do a Google Images search and you'll see what I mean: they are scarier than sharks. It has more fitting names: fishing-frog, frog-fish and sea-devils. It would not sell so well if you would see one of these names on the menu, obviously. But once it is cooked and on a plate, it is truly the king of dishes. It truly has no bones to speak of (bog enough to easily separate the fish from it), it has plenty of flesh and is absolutely delicious. Especially accompanied with capers and olives like this one was. I adore olives and capers, so this monkfish dish seems to have been made for me. One of my cousins told me his gastronomic theory about fishes: "The uglier the fish, the tastier it is." My experiences with monkfish proved him right, so it deserves to be a great unknown line. In the ocean, it may be the ugly duckling, but in a plate, the monkfish is king.

Tonight's meal for Good Friday

It is Good Friday and, more than any other Friday in the year, it means to me fish Friday. I will have tonight my traditional Good Friday meal: bagels from St-Viateur, which I saved from my last trip to Montreal, capers, raw onions, a slice of tomatoes and of course smoked salmon. I know, I have a rather strange way of fasting. But for me, any excuse is good enough to eat a traditional bagels meal. And I have been practicing this tradition since my first Good Fridays in Montreal. So this reminds me of home.

Chercher la puttanesca

J'y ai pensé aujourd'hui: ça fait un bail que je n'ai pas blogué sur la puttanesca, ça fait aussi longtemps (mais quand même moins longtemps) que je n'ai pas mangé de puttanesca. Cette photo date de la dernière fois où j'en ai fait une. Je la fait plutôt à la philistine: je mets d'habitude des sardines plutôt que des anchois. Et les pâtes qui accompagnent la sauce sont rarement des spaghetti (oui, je ne mets pas de s à spaghetti, c'est déjà un pluriel, bon). Je songe donc à en manger dans un futur proche. Mais comme je suis un peu vegge, je songe, au lieu d'en faire une philistine, d'aller m'en commander une dans le meilleur restaurant italien que je puisse trouver. Je vais me lancer en quête de la meilleure puttanesca au monde. Rien que ça.Je pars parfois dans des quêtes gastronomiques comme ça: le meilleur hamburger, les meilleurs fish and chips, le meilleur pouding chômeur, etc. Cette fois, ce sera la puttanesca. J'irai dans les bordels napolitains, s'il le faut (non c'est pas vrai). Ou en tout cas, je pourrais saisir l'occasion pour enfin revoir l'Italie.

Homecoming meal

I am back in Montreal since yesterday. This is the meal I had yesterday evening: traditional bagel from St-Viateur, smoked salmon, capers and all, with a soup on the side. The perfect homecoming meal for a Montrealer. I cannot express how delicious it was, how good it felt and I thought I would taunt you with it.

The world's greatest mac and cheese's growing popularity

This is a picture of the macaroni and cheese by Rose Elliot we made my wife and I during the Christmas holidays for my family. It was not our best take on it, not enough pasta or cheese, but my family enjoyed it all the same. You can find the recipe here. The secret ingredient to make it utterly delicious is Dijon mustard. Oh and capers of course. I am blogging about it because it is growing in popularity among my readership: I know of at least of two bloggers here who tried it. I hope you all do.

The world's greatest mac and cheese

Well, this is now official, the macaroni and cheese my wife found out in a Rose Elliot book is really the greatest macaroni and cheese in the whole world. Well, I am exaggerating, what I mean is that we made it during the Christmas holidays to my family and they loved it. It was strange, because we didn't do it so well on that occasion. But it impressed my parents enough to try it for themselves. We had given them the recipe, which you can find on this post. My mum used Cracker Barrel cheese on top. Anyway, for no better reason that it now crossed the Atlantic and it was a roaring success in the family, I am plugging it again, with a picture my father took of their version. This is, in my opinion, the world's greatest mac and cheese.

The St-Viateur Experience

Today, my wife and I went to St-Viateur Bagel on Mont-Royal Avenue for lunch. It was packed with people. And I do mean packed: there was a very large queue that ended at the entrance of the restaurant. And this was not counting the people coming to buy bagels at the counter. I don't remember ever being there when it was that busy, even though St-Viateur is one of the most popular café/restaurant on the Plateau. So we waited. I wouldn't have wanted to eat anywhere else. Not today, not any day. When I crave bagels, I cannot consider eating anything else. Anyway, we didn't have to wait long: it certainly rolls fast At St-Viateur. The service is both efficient and friendly, as they always are. So I had the usual: the traditional bagel with smoked salmon, capers and so on. With a soup on the side (beef and barley). Unfortunately I forgot to ask for the bagel to be toasted, but it was delicious nevertheless. The clientèle was mainly French speaking, among them French persons, with a few English speakers, including the odd Brit (brought there by me). This was, in sum, the St-Viateur experience.

The best macaroni and cheese

I recently blogged about the very best macaroni and cheese I ever had, in a French post, which had a lot of success. Ironically enough, it was a success among my English readers. It is a recipe from a Rose Elliot book, my wife is quite fond of her cooking. As it is the first Monday of November, thus a doubly dreary Monday, I thought I would plug again the macaroni and cheese and give the recipe, a courtesy of my wife, who wrote it all in a blog comment last time. The secret is, I think, the capers and especially the Dijon mustard. They really make the recipe stand out. Anyway, here it is:

350g macaroni
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 pint of milk
150g boursin cheese with herbs & garlic or black pepper (optional)
1-2 heaped teaspoons of Dijon mustard
2-3 tablespoons of capers
250 g strong cheddar cheese, grated
Freshly grated nutmeg
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
Salt and pepper
1. Cook pasta

2. Put olive oil in another pan, add the flour. Stir for a minute or two, until smooth, then add milk, a quarter at a time, whisking after each addition to make a thick sauce.

3. Remove from heat, and add the Boursin, cheddar (leaving a handful), mustard, capers – and then the cooked, drained macaroni.

4. Season with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, then gently stir in the cherry tomatoes.

5. Put it into baking dish, adding cheddar over top. Cook for 30 mins at gas mark 6/200 C until bubbly and golden.