Gastronomic Journey - Montreal

Please!! And I mean it; Please do not be fooled by the picture shown above. I did not make any of them. I know people sometimes can go the extremes with what I can do, but for God's sake I did not make any of it. I mean look at it, there is vegetarian biriyani, palak paneer, butter chicken and don't know the rest. I can take any kind of allegation but this one, I mean do you really think I can make that?? pffff

So its been close to 18 months in Montreal and according to reports coming in, my gastronomic journey has not added even a kilo of weight extra to my body from what it was when I landed here. Now is this the problem of the food I ate or it is the way the food gets settled in my body..hmm a tricky question indeed.

At the very onset of the prospect of cooking, I must admit that there was a lot of excitement attached to it. We always think that we could at least by luck end up making things that at least look like the picture above but then over time it fizzles to the point where you say; "Is there anything to eat today?" :-)

I will not say that I am getting sick of eating the sambhar, dal and rice everyday, because I will be in trouble if I said that and I think that my room mates have are slightly bigger build than me and I don't think I can take any aggression from them now.

Now coming to the reason I started the blog, I actually wanted to write my journey through the variety of cusines that I have had during my stay. It will not be huge, but local friends are suggesting new ones already.

Let me start of with apna Indian food in Montreal.
A variety of restaurants dot across various parts of Montreal which goes to prove that Indian food is much liked by Canadians, which is good to know. I myself have tried a whole lot of them and have concluded that these are a much more customized versions of Indian food than the actual ones. No offense to anyone, the food in most places are really good. But for example look at this following conversation.

Customer: "Can you get me 1 chicken tikka masala, a chicken vindaalooo and 4 naan's?"
Waiter : Of course Sir. Would you like it to me very spicy or medium spicy or mild?


Now I knew that every dish that we see in India has a flavor of its own and it does not get changed in spice to adjust to people. I mean quantity of spice defines the dish.
Anyways thats customization at its best. For us the smile on our face tells them all. Very spicy!!!

Overall I have liked the food and its not been very disappointing anytime. Some of the good ones are listed below.
1. Indian beau Village (http://indianbeauvillage.com)
2. Pushap (http://restomontreal.ca/portal/pushap/index.php?lang=en)
3. Maison Indian Curry (http://restomontreal.ca/portal/indian-curry-house/index.php?lang=en)

4. Le Taj (http://www.restaurantletaj.com/)
5. Buffet Maharaja (http://www.buffetmaharaja.com/)
6. Al Safa (Jean Talon)- Pakistani restaurant with the food being the same.


Chinese food







I must admit that I was really wary of the Chinese food before I actually gave it a try. Thanks to Charmaine, I have started to like it now. For beginners, the Chinese Dim sum would be an ideal start because it kind of gives you a peek into a variety of Chinese delicacies which you may not get if you are going for particular dishes. Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese Tea. In India we tend to associate Chinese food only to noodles, which is not wrong to an extent but to be true Chinese food is much more than just noodles. I also tried Crab for the first time here.

The places I have visited in Montreal are the following

1. Kam Fung restaurant in China town.

2. Beijing restaurant in China town.

Lebanese food

Lebanese food comes very close to Indian food. I say this because they use a lot of spices in their food. The spices do match some of our flavours. They do use chilly sauces also like us. The Falafal(the spherical ball in the picture) is my favourite. The best ones in town is Restaurant Amir, which has a lot of branches in the city.

Italian food

The first thing that comes to mind with Italian food is Pasta. I have taken a particular liking for pasta these days. You can try a lot of flavours of pasta and with different fillings. One of my favourite places for pasta in Montreal is Pis Pistol on St Catherine street. Never tried the other delicacies in the restaurant but will make it a point to cover some more before I go back to India.

Peruvian food

I must admit that I never would have tried this one if Jean would not have invited me for a lunch. Thanks to her, I would never regret the experience. Peru has its own food history as evident from the time she spent to explain me about each of the dishes that came on the table. Peruvian food has a lot of similarities to food from Kerala. A lot of root delicacies are part of the cusine here as with kerala food too. Particularly tapioca(kappa) and sweet potato. Anways I enjoyed the experience.

Vietnamese food

Again an unknown commodity for me, Vietnamese turned out to be a surprise. I won't be able to name out the dishes here but it has a flavour that makes it different from even Chinese. The sweet sauce served with food was awesome. There are many Vietnamese restaurants in downtown montreal near China town. Thanks to Jean and team again for the treat.

We create all these inhibitions inside us that stop us from exploring the good unknown. Once you get to know it, it is bliss then. This is not just applicable to food alone.

I will make it a point to explore some more new cuisines before I go back. May be I will update this same blog then. I need to have a back pack to hold all these wonderful experiences with me.

Special Thanks to Jean, Charmaine and my friends here for making the whole experience, one of Gastronomic proportions.