Shwartz Deli: Smoked Meat...a meditation.

I went to montreal, with only one real demand: Eat Shwartz's Smoked meat.
And I recieved just what I wanted:
A chunk of medium fatty brisket: brined, pickled, smoked, steamed, carved, and piled onto a plate.
a pile of good rye bread.
and a Cherry Soda.

this is my kind of food, the food you can just EAT, it's flavored and spiced meat, it's Smoked meat! I have tried other people's and other place's attempts, but NOTHING and I do repeat NOTHING can replace the genuine shwartz experience. It's the little but busy deli, it's the smell that makes your mouth water, it's the languages, and the tastes. It's even the wait.

This food cannot be described, I won't bother even trying, nothing can do it as much justice as the experience of being there and eating the sandwich. It's a love at first smell, taste, texture, sight...and hell, even sound....I'm going back there, hopefully more than once on my little Quebecois sojourn. Because some experiences that happen so infrequently MUST be repeated.

Quebec City: An Introspective.

First I want to say, Right Here, Right Now, I am by definition NOT Quebecois. French Canadian: yes. Quebecois influenced: yes. But not officially Quebecois...even though there have been some days where I've wanted to be born here. It's not neccesarily that Vancouver, or even my beautiful British Colombia are neccesarily bad...it's very much instead that when I'm here I get my biggest inspirations for the SIMPLEST of good food ideas.

I think it was my first dinner here that forced the need to write this, and I think it demonstrates my point before I go all food geek on you people over what you're missing. My favorite Quebecois dessert, Tarte Au Sucre, best translated as: sugar pie. Yes, you essentially make a caramel out of maple sugar and place it into a pie crust. So sugary, but oh so fucking good! It's a dumbstruckingly simple idea, but it seems that only the Quebecois seem to think of it. Probably for the same reason that I've been eating dessert with my family for every lunch and dinner, people here like to eat sweets, and I'm not talking a candy bar from the corner shop, I'm talking something like a cake with maple icing, or a fancy cake with mousse, basicly any number of higher quality sweets, and fresh fruits. I'm in dessert heaven around here because people acctually WANT to eat dessert around here, and most people are satisfied by a "small" but excellently made and thought out dessert.

Furthermore: Cretons, a breakfast Paté. You heard me, BREAKFAST PATÉ. Yeah, ground pork + cream + onions equals something ungodly good and fatty. It's something that cannot be described accurately, it's a meat spread that fills you up and lets you know that you've had a damned solid breakfast. It's a savory and comfortable thing that when you try it I swear unto you that paté is not the first word you'd think of.

Lastly: Poutine: a Retrospection.
It's Fries, Cheese Curds, and Gravy...what's not to like?
And it's enjoyable, but I always seem to ahve the biggest problem with one thing about it, no-one within a 100Km radius from Quebec seems to be able to make it properly. aqnd it's always the same thing time and again: cheese curds. I've tried many Poutines and I can tell you that none taste the same as the original because cheese curds have such a unique texture, I don't think it's reproduceable.

Tomorow I'm going to a nice restaurant with my family at Ile Dè Orleans, Quebec city's answer to the Oakanagan. I intend to write my opinion on both the food I eat, and the Fruit wines I intend on sampling.