a delicious tour of montreal
July 26, 2008
Start in Petite Italie at the famous Caffè Italia. If you don’t look Italian, you’ll get stared down as you enter by the regulars. This place serves a very italian-style espresso, and looks like a hole-in-the wall. I think the mentality is ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’–so, delicious cappuccinos are served up in old seventies-style brown cups and saucers (despite having European lines, the cups were sooo dated). For $2.50 you get a small cappuccino that’s not at all bitter (ahem, Starbucks), and for another $2.50, you can get two big thick slices of wonderful Italian bread smeared with Nutella. It’s a decadent treat and the coffee complements it perfectly. Simply add an Italian friend to the mix and code-switch from English into Italian, and you have a delightful conversation.
Then walk a few buildings up, stopping in Anatol, the Middle-Eastern spice store. Spices, nuts, coffees, teas and dried fruits galore–sold at bulk prices. Walking in is like going to a different country as the air is thick with fragrance.
Then attempt to restrain your spending at Milano, the Italian-owned supermarket that has an extensive selection of anything that is an Italian staple–fresh house-made pasta, olive oils, olives, breads, imported cookies and candies, more canned tomatoes than I’ve ever seen before, and even Italian toiletries. I managed to spend $3.99 on a tub of piccholine olives and an extra buck or so for three Baci (the chocolate-hazelnut deliciousness).
Walk downhill along St. Laurent and admire the quirky furniture stores and boutiques. Stop in the train-car-now-turned-eatery called Patati Patata and pick up a small wooden basket (think 4 by 4 by 3 inches) lined in a bright green paper, filled with delicious skin-still-on fries and dip them in either ketchup or mayonnaise. You’ll need those plastic forks the people at the counter give to you. It is a savory treat for $2.
Walk and talk some more, and eventually you’ll end up by the Place Des Arts and near the Gay Village–both very colorful areas of town. Stop in for a tea-fruit-juice mixed drink at any chain coffee establishment and kick up your feet.
It is a very tasty 5k walk. Mmm.
