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Prato Pizzeria, Montreal

When I got in from errands today, my mother asked me what I had planned for dinner because she was in the mood for thin crust pizza and there was a well-reviewed restaurant in Montreal she wanted to try out.

So off we all went to downtown Montreal to Prato Pizzeria, located on the iconic Saint-Laurent Boulevard, known as ‘La Main’ (as in the English word main, not the French word hand!). The restaurant is nestled between chic boutiques, European-style cafés, big name fast food joints, and is just a couple of doors from the world famous Schwartz Deli.

Pizzerias like Prato are a dying breed because of environmental laws forbidding charcoal ovens. All existing restaurants are grand-fathered in. This restaurant was listed as one of the top three places to eat pizza in Montreal.

We ordered a pitcher of beer since it was super hot out and we had parked several blocks from the restaurant so we were feeling rather parched! A pitcher contains six small glasses of beer, so we had two each. We started off with the arugula salad, which had cherry tomatoes, Parmesan shavings, and a nice lemon vinaigrette. Very tasty!

They shared a pizza that had olives and anchovies (shudders) while I ordered my usual for this type of pizza joint, a Margherita, with Parmesan, bocconcini, tomato sauce, and fresh basil. The pizzas are considered to be sized for one person and are served on a paper-lined baking sheet:

This was pizza perfection. The edge of the crust was crunchy, the base was flexible, the edges were charred, the tomato sauce was smooth, the cheese was stretchy, and the basil was piquant. Yuuuuuum. I wouldn’t have been able to eat the whole thing, but had no leftovers since they took one slice to try it out.

For dessert, my mother and I each had an espresso (macchiato for me) and their Skor-chocolate mousse (excellent) while my step-mother tried the tiramisu (very good). The coffee was particularly good, being extremely strong and flavourful without being bitter.

We all agreed that the next time we’re craving good pizza, we’re going back to Prato!

On the way back to the car, we stopped at a Viennese-style bakery for bread and pastries for the morning. I don’t eat sugar first thing anymore, so I opted for a plain croissant even though the chocolatines were calling my name!

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I Wouldn’t Call This Progress

This afternoon, I went out to VR Expert to check up on Miranda. No work has been done. One of the techs is sick and vacationers waiting for their RVs have top priority. They are hoping to start Tuesday. I don’t feel angry so much as defeated and homesick.

There is one bit of ‘progress’ in that rather than coming back to me with a price on having the front over cab window removed, they decided to go ahead with the project and order a piece of fiberglass to cover the hole. I cannot wait for that window to be gone and I am probably going to use something I rescued from my old toad to make the newly acquired wall space more functional.

When I do get Miranda back, I won’t be able to move back in fully since I will have interior work to do on the loft. As long as they don’t mess the space up too badly, I should be able to insulate, panel, prime, and paint in a couple of days.

Speaking of paint, I stopped at Canadian Tire after to pick up some automotive primer and flat black spray paint. This weekend, my mother and I are going to figure out the best way to get the vinyl off the topper trim on the truck. I will then sand the aluminum, prime it, and paint it. After this, Moya is going to look really good even with the few rust spots I need to deal with.

This photo from the dealer clearly shows how the vinyl covering the aluminum trim is peeling and making my toad look less than lovely:

I find driving my truck in Quebec is harder than it was out west. It feels like roads in the west where most folks have trucks are built and proportioned for larger vehicles. Here, I feel like I am driving a behemoth! I know I will get use to Moya and that she isn’t that big. If I don’t have any transcription next weekend, I’m hoping to take her out for a few days of camping so I can remind myself of why I bought my lovely green beast. 🙂

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Changing a Headlight Lamp or Bulb in a 2000 Ford Ranger

There is little help on the internet for changing a headlight lamp or bulb in a 2000 Ford Ranger. All the videos I’ve found are for the 2001 or more recent models, which are not quite the same. The info I did find made the process seem very complicated as they mentioned going into the air filter and radiator assemblies. What?!

While I did curse a little doing this job (hint: do NOT drop your new bulb (no harm done, though!)) and found the instructions in my manual to be vague at best, changing a headlight lamp or bulb in a 2000 Ranger is messy, but super easy! I especially like that there are no tools required, unlike the last time I had to change a bulb in a toad.

I had to change the passenger side lamp so the following pictures show the headlight assembly that is ahead of the air filter assembly.

I am looking down between the headlight and air filter assemblies on the passenger side.

In the above photo, you can see a black wire conduit. It rests over a plastic ring. Trace the wire into the ring and gently pull. This will unplug the lamp.

By twisting myself and using my Pentax‘s wonderful microscope mode, I was able to photograph this part of the assembly to give you an idea of what you are pulling on:

Next, twist the plastic ring to remove it; I believe it is clockwise. Set the ring aside.

You then need to grasp the end of the bulb and gently tug it out. It has a rubber seal around it to hold it securely, so you will encounter some resistance. Just pull steadily and it will pop out.

Insert the new bulb with the flat end facing upwards, like so:

The new bulb should slide in more easily than the old bulb slid out. Give it a firm push to make sure it is well seated. Then, twist on the plastic ring to secure the bulb. Finally, plug in the electrical connector.

Test your assembly before closing the hood. All done!

I’ll admit to leaving the store wishing that a guy would have offered to install it for me at no charge, but I am so glad that did not happen. Doing little maintenance things like these is very empowering.

Oh, and the new lamp was $9 and change with tax at Carquest Auto Parts for those who care about such things.

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Windshield Wiper Blade Treasure Hunt

Yesterday, somewhere between the sushi place and my mother’s house, Moya mysteriously lost a windshield wiper blade. I discovered this just as I pulled in last night. It was pouring rain by this point and getting dark, so I was not going back out for it.

It poured hard again today, but finally cleared after dinner. I decided to go for a walk to retrace my route last night to see if I could find the darn wiper. I did!!! And then I had to install it. What a learning curve all over again!

Tomorrow, I have to see about changing that burnt out bulb, if I can find one in Chambly. I haven’t been able to locate an auto parts place in less than a 10KM radius, which is way further than I want to drive with a burnt out headlight, especially on major roads.

Research tells me that the switch out of a headlight bulb in a Ranger is easy peasy, but I had a look under the hood tonight and, um, no. My assembly looks nothing like those in the videos I’ve seen. This could get interesting…

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Entering a Dreary Stretch

The heat wave didn’t last long. It’s been a little cooler every day. I awoke to a very damp world yesterday but the daytime rain held off till tonight. Blech. But it’s not like I could be out enjoying the sun anyway; I have way too much work to do!

I did make a brief escape tonight to grab some more sushi from Hiro. Parking there, I discovered that Moya has a burnt out headlight! I hope that putting in a new one is easy and that I can find one here in town. I don’t want to drive anywhere but a place that sells automotive lights next time I get in the truck, and I am going to have to wait for full sun to do so. I’m just lucky I didn’t get pulled over this evening.

As for dinner, I decided to be lazy and cheap and order a special where the chef makes the choices. I did ask them for no tempura, no cream cheese, and no avocado and was told that was fine.

Behold dinner:

This was a pretty good selection! That said, I’m ordering à la carte again next time. For one thing, I would rather have had octopus than shrimp and the dark red fish.

I have no idea what that dark red fish is. By process of elimination on the menu, it is izumidai, which is tilapia and not red, but the translation the restaurant gives is rouget, which is goatfish or red mullet, which makes more sense. So colour me confused except for the fact that I didn’t like it; it just didn’t taste as fresh as the lovely salmon next to it.

There is also kappa maki, which are cucumber rolls. Nice and crunchy! Finally, the big rolls or futomaki, don’t appear on the menu and were absurdly delicious in that they featured lettuce and red pepper! Very nice, I’ll admit, but they seem like a slippery slope to eating cream cheese with my rice and nori! 🙂

For $13, this was an impressive spread and Hiro has lived up to its first impression.

I’m off to spend some time in the garage with my cats.