Just a quick post to say that I have safely arrived in Chambly, QC! More later, once I’m settled in. 🙂
Chambly
An Image From My Old World
Parts of Montreal’s South Shore along the banks of the Richelieu River, where I spent the bulk of my childhood, are under water. It’s so bad it’s turning into a scene I haven’t witnessed since the Ice Storm of ’98:
Photo Credit : Jean-Pierre Rozon
More images of the army marching into the South Shore on the TVA news website.
I lived through a flood in my childhood and I would not want to go through something like that again. An RV isn’t a guarantee of being able to evacuate, but it’s a fighting chance.
Falafel Heaven
I was out and about with my mother today. We were sitting in the horrible Montreal traffic at 6PM, heading home, and famished when she took a detour. I didn’t think anything of it until we stopped in a near-residential neighbourhood. There, she told me we were picking up falafel and baklava for dinner!
We entered a world I had nearly forgotten existed. A Lebanese bakery with racks piled high with sweets dripping with rose water and honey and a deli counter with all manner of manaeesh. The sandwiches are made to order and authentic; I can always tell that they will be good when their maker bosses me around and makes me take ‘everything’ even though I’m not crazy about the marinated turnips!
Oh, that falafel was like finding the oasis in the desert. Perfectly spiced, coated with sesame seeds, drizzled in tahini, and resting on a bed of parsley and mint then wrapped Lebanese style in a thin pita. I realised then that, for me, the concept of ‘home’ is intimately tied with food.
Everything I ate this week convinced me that the cuisine of western and northern Canada is generally bland. The teeming mass of mixed cultures in the most populated provinces, namely Quebec and Ontario, make for dishes that electrify the taste buds. I went to a restaurant on Saturday where an option was za’atar encrusted halibut. I haven’t seen za’atar on a menu in two years!
Asian dishes, like the sushi I also had this week, are the only thing I find ‘as good’ out west, and that’s because the immigrant population out there is pre-dominantly Asian. I’m not saying there aren’t any good restaurants out there, just that the savory cuisines I took for granted growing up aren’t as readily available.
My week in Montreal has come to an end (!) and it can best be summed up as a gastronomic journey. What did I do all week? I ate! 😀
Pointe-à -Callière (and random shots)
My grand-mother wanted to do something special with me this week and suggested we go to a museum. I hadn’t been to Pointe-à -Callière in at least fifteen years, so that’s what I suggested. This museum is built over the foundation of some of the oldest buildings in Montreal and the highlight is to go under ground and walk through the old stone foundations.
It’s been easy to see my grand-mother this week since she moved to Chambly and is now living a kilometre away from my mother’s house. I walked over this afternoon and she greeted me with a light lunch, then we headed to Montreal.
Pointe-à -Callière is located in the most scenic part of the island, the Old Port. Walking through the cobblestone streets is just like being in Europe. The whole area is slowly being gentrified and more new structures are springing up, but I don’t think we will ever lose the look and atmosphere of the Old Port.
Our tour of the museum started with an excellent multi-media presentation about highlights in Montreal history, from pre-history to today. I found it to be a little too upbeat and it glossed over the more negative issues like the French/English disputes, but I’m being a tad picky. For a twenty minute overview, it painted a pretty accurate portrait.
The special exhibit this fall is one about Rapa Nui, Easter Island, and I enjoyed it very much. I discovered that I knew almost nothing about Easter Island, such as the important fact that it is still inhabited today!
We then headed downstairs and and took a quick jaunt through the foundations, the highlight of which are the sewer systems that were way ahead of their times. This archaeological site takes you through more than 360 years of history, from a 17th century Catholic cemetery to an 18th century marketplace to the 19th century sewer systems. The whole thing is rather labyrinthine and we had to get directions back to the surface!
Merci pour la belle journée, grand-maman!
lunch was pretty enough for a picture!
my grand-mother’s balcony overlooks my childhood… only back then, in the ’80’s, there were only fields and trees instead of all those houses
my mother worked in that building for much of my childhood and we lived right across from it
Montreal skyline from the Champlain bridge
Old Port–contrast of the old and the new
more of the Old Port
Pointe-à -Callière
old foundations
more old foundations
in 1900, Montreal was Canada’s metropolis
the old sewer system
the old sewer system with a photograph showing what the exit would have looked like
more old sewage systems
walking out is like entering Europe
we walked out onto a movie set!
crossing the Victoria bridge, the first to connect the island of Montreal to the South Shore
Champlain Bridge seen from the Victoria Bridge
the ugliest building on the South Shore!!!
I love the street signs in Chambly because all the street names are explained; Lebel was named after a mayor
The Best Pizza in North America (or, at least, Canada & the US)
I think pizza buffs will agree with me that there is one pizza against which you measure all others. In all my travels across Canada and the US, I have yet to find a pizza has good as that offered by Tre Colori, a restaurant situated in my hometown of Chambly, Quebec. Imagine that!
Tre Colori’s pizza sauce is savory, but not, too pungent. The cheese is greasy and generous. The crust is what makes this pie stand out. Under the pizza, it is thin but not crispy, and at the edge it is doughy and yeasty. I like most pizzas with a lot of toppings, but Tre Colori’s has to be eaten plain.
the box hasn’t changed since I can remember
my half is plain; the other half has onions and mushrooms
close up of the texture
close up of the yummy dough ball they use to keep the lid away from the pizza
The restaurant has been in business since 1967 and I have eaten there all my life. It was one of my dad’s favourite restaurants, so I celebrated many milestones there, most notably my thirteenth birthday. The decor has changed over time, but the food is the same. They serve pasta and non-Italian dishes, but it’s only the pizza I crave when a wind blows me back into town.