8 Little Piggies went to Au Pied du Cochon

Au Pied du Cochon has been a longtime favourite restaurant of Jo-Ann’s.  She has visited there many times and has been working her way through the entire menu over the last few years.  So, when we were looking for a place to bring our team for a unique dining experience, Au Pied du Cochon was at the top of the list.

Opened in 2001 by chef Martin Picard, this restaurant celebrates ’snout to tail’ eating.  If you think I’m joking, the current menu features bison tongue, boudin noir (blood sausage), head cheese, stuffed pig trotters, and many more delicacies that have evolved over time out of the necessity of making use of every part of the animal.

So, armed with a healthy appetite, and a late reservation, we arrived at our destination.  You know you are in for an experience when the restaurant doesn’t even need to have their name on the front of their building!  Their reputation alone fills up the space every night of the week.

After waiting an extra 20 minutes for our 9pm reservation, we sat down to a complimentary plate of house made charcuterie and piping hot cod fritters.  The fritters were too salty for my taste (and I like salt) but the sampling of tongue, head cheese, boudin and aspic was lovely.

Between the 8 of us, we made every effort to sample the whole menu.  When the Bison Ribs arrived at the table, I felt like I was dining with the Flintstones.  They were juicy, meaty and were almost 18 inches long!

Another highlight of the evening was the ‘Duck in a Can’.  Containing braised cabbage, duck breast, and fois gras, then heated in a can, this meal was opened table-side, and the contents poured onto a slice of crusty bread smeared with mashed potatoes.  The presentation was unique and the meal was tasty.

The Seafood Platter for Two was beautiful to look at and full of vegetables including some lovely deep fried zucchini blossom, but quite honestly did not contain a lot of seafood.  There was a one crab claw and some whelks (sea snail).

We finished the meal off with a sampling of the dessert menu.  The wine flowed freely, and it was a beautiful evening.  Sometime after midnight we spilled out into the streets, happy and full.

Filed Under:  Travel, Uncategorized

Montreal Atwater Market

This past weekend the Red Apron team embarked on a trip to Montreal.  Our primary reason for the visit was to eat at ‘Au Pied de Cochon’, but that’s another blog post!  A group of us drove down on Saturday morning to spend a few hours shopping at the Atwater Market.

Flower Shop at Atwater

The Atwater Market opened in 1933.  The interior of the market is permanent home to many butchers and a bakery.  The outside market has farmer stalls where they sell both local and imported produce.  There are two cheese stores and a wine store that specializes in locally produced spirits.  You can also buy fish, flowers and seasonal items like Christmas trees in November & December

The Art Deco building is located on Atwater Street near the Lachine Canal and the Lionel-Groulx Metro Station.  It’s central location makes it popular with cyclists.  The market is easily accessed from Old Montreal by bike, metro, car or taxi.

Atwater is really the place to go if you want to buy meat.  There are many fine butchers on site, each with their own specialty.  If you are looking for sausage, you can choose from hundreds of flavours.  If you need charcuterie, there are a number of places that make this their specialty.  If you are looking for Boudin Blanc or Boudin Noir, it’s there too!

My favourite charcuterie stall is run by a group of women (they claim they have male employees too, but I have never seen one).  Their terrines are rustic and flavourful, their presentation is lovely.  They offer a number of items dressed & oven ready, including rabbit.  They make a selection of their own sausages, and will sell you a package of assorted flavours.  They confit their own duck legs and much, much more!  While we were there the proprietress was rolling pastry and making samosas, which we got to sample hot out of the oven.  They were divine!

We stopped by one of the fromageries and sampled cheeses.  Most of the shops are willing to give you a taste of any cheese you would like to try before you buy.  We were able to pick up a number of unique Quebec cheeses from our samplings to bring home.

Since we are at the peak of our growing season, fresh local produce was in abundance.  Local strawberries, Ontario peaches, wild blueberries and every kind of vegetable you could imagine, was on display and at it’s peak.  It was hard not to buy too much!

But one of the highlights of our trip was the warm, fresh from the oven, garlic bread stick from the Bakery.  I think this picture speaks for itself!

Filed Under:  Travel, Uncategorized

Salt Spring Diary

I had the great pleasure of traveling to Salt Spring Island this March Break to visit with friends and check out their ‘local food scene’.

Coming from the East, we have the perception that those living on the West Coast can ‘eat locally’ all year long.  The west coast was the home to the 100 mile diet authors Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, who spent 12 months eating only foods that were grown within 100 miles of their downtown Vancouver apartment.

Bruce's Kitchen on Salt Spring Island

While visiting Salt Spring I spent time with my good friend Bruce Wood in his new business, Bruce’s Kitchen located in Ganges Harbour.  Each Saturday night, Bruce hosts a farm-to-table dinner featuring a locally inspired menu using seasonal ingredients.  The Saturday night I was there we were enjoying morels & stinging nettles served with a house made, Moonstruck cheese, and the season’s first halibut served with prawns & mussels.

My Saturday & Sunday were spent visiting the island’s farmers & cheese makers, collecting local treats for a dinner Bruce and I planned to cook together on Sunday night.

Pauline picking leeks in March!

We had the pleasure of visiting Foxglove Farm, a 120 acre organic farm that grows strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, and a wide range of Mediterranean vegetables.  The farm also boasts fruit orchards where they grow peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, fig, chestnut & cherry.

The farm hosts a series of workshops for artists, writers, farmers and children.  On this cold wet Sunday we were able to pick lettuces and leeks for our farm-table dinner, as well as watch Pauline collect eggs from their flock of hens.

We visited both Moonstruck Organic Cheese & Salt Spring Island Cheese Company, where we were able to sample all of their lovely cheeses.

Feisty Crabs

We visited a sheep farm to pick up our organic leg of lamb and returned to Ganges where we sent the kids off to the docks to procure the live crab that would serve as our appetizer course.   The crab were so lively that we ended up chasing them around the kitchen until Bruce was able to corral them in a big bowl and put them in the fridge to ‘cool off’.

I can’t talk about this trip without mentioning the stunning breakfasts that we enjoyed at the Sky Valley Inn.  If you are looking for peace, quite, beautiful views, stunning gardens, and a breakfast that will knock your socks off, then this is the place to stay.

Baked Oatmeal with Fresh Berries & Cream

Filed Under:  Travel, Uncategorized