Andrew, Alex, Annie, and I took a road trip to Montreal. Armed only with my GPS and a veggie platter, we headed to the food capital of Canada without a plan or timetable.
Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen
Our first stop was for lunch at Schwartz’s. It’s a tiny place, packed with with the heady aroma of seasoned smoked meat. Established in 1928, it’s a landmark in Montreal. I like to imagine that Moe’s Diner in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was based on a place like this, or maybe that Leonard Cohen frequented in his youth, and I was sitting where he penned the lyrics for his songs.
Architecture and Personality
The architecture of Montreal reminds me of a much bigger city than Ottawa. There’s lots of culture and variety in the buildings. The fashion is less conservative too, with people wearing great outfits of bristling colour and accessories.
Old Montreal, while beautiful, is a somewhat touristy place. Lots of art galleries, lots of cobblestone, lots of stores selling Canadiana.
Biodome
We made a quick stop at the Biodome, a building that houses animals in an open, interactive environment. Exotic birds walk amongst the visitors and aquariums windows wrap around huge viewing areas. In several parts it feels like a steamy jungle, and my lens kept fogging up. It’s easy to indulge your inner child when you’re in there.
Chinatown
And, of course, as the final stop in our tour, we hit up Chinatown for some decent Chinese food, since Ottawa is lacking in such things. Included in this city is a Chinese bakery that sells fresh pastries and tarts. Very yummy.
Ah, fabulous road trip. “Armed only with my GPS and a veggie platter,” that’s got to be the start of something great.
P.S. I loved going to the biodome, especially in winter.
It’s a shame that you didn’t try Le Piment Rouge… the ultimate in Chinese cuisine.
Montreal looks beautiful as always, it does give you a feeling of Europe, even their China town looks different from those of Anglo cities. No wonder they’re so proud of themselves. The bakery looks to be of the Hong Kong style. Oh yeah, in mainland China they like to steam, not bake.
Did you get by with your French? It’s said that they’re more willing to speak to you in English if you’re Asian.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm jeet gai.….…. I can’t wait for May when we go to Vancouver Chinatown.
I’ve never been to Montreal, always wanted to go. It’s much different looking than I envisioned. Somehow I thought it would look more ‘sixties modern. I guess the “pistol” qualifies.
Who’s that doing the handstand?
@Pearl — And the veggie platter was HUGE. I bet we could have survived off it for days if we needed to. Biodome in winter makes a lot of sense, since it’s so warm in there. It’s like being on another continent.
@Causalien — Noted. I’ll be sure to go there next time. If I have time to stay in Montreal for more than one day, we should go together.
@Uncle Joe — It was my first time in Old Montreal, and I find that’s where the European feel is. I’ve always felt that Chinatown is different in every city. It seems to depend on how intergrated the immigrants are to the city, and how much of their culture they want to keep. I’m guessing mainlanders like to steam because you can do it on a stove, which is more easily accessible and cheaper than an oven.
I didn’t have to use my French at all while I was there, and I certainly didn’t get any dirty looks from speaking English. Perhaps being Asian, it’s more forgivable to them if you don’t speak the local language.
@Xibee — Vancouver Chinatown is supposed to be well established, so I think you’re in for a treat. I guess downtown Montreal is more sixties modern, although I don’t really know anything about the sixties, so I can’t tell.
It’s Alex doing the handstand. Andrew has the easy job of standing there. :)
Re; “and I certainly didn’t get any dirty looks from speaking English. Perhaps being Asian.… ”
I was in Montreal with a couple haitian friends of mine when we went into a restaurant where a young asian guy asked us what we wanted to eat, in (haitian) creole (then i think we gave him a weird look).
Montreal isn’t the kind of place where people are going to look at you a certain way for not speaking french… they really seem to embrace everyone.
Sometimes i speak english there just to hear the gorgeous accents of the locals.
oh and were the bears out of hibernation yet at the biodome? i heard that they were late waking up because of the atypical winter we had.
I guess Montreal has enough multi-culturalism that different languages are embraced. Not like Ottawa (especially Ottawa U), where I’m treated completely different as an Anglophone.
And we didn’t see any bears. I had no idea that they were even at the biodome.
I stumbled across your blog by accident.…not even sure really how it happened. But I wanted to tell you that you have kept me entranced the past 4 hours. I wish I could be so eloquently spoken. And why is it I imagine that your voice is one I could listen to all day and never grow tired of hearing all the things you have to say? I plan on continuing my reading once I get home this afternoon as I have already spent the last four of my working hours reading your blog entries.…I look forward to reading more in the future
Thank you very much for your kind words.