Auberge Saint-Gabriel

426 rue St-Gabriel
Montreal, QC H2Y 2Z9
(514) 878-3561

I will start off by saying, this is possibly one of the most elegant and stunning restaurants in Montreal. It is nowhere near pretentious like Europea or others in that class, but when Mr. Cirque  du Soleil bought this place over, he got a famous decorator to redo it. The designer is the same as Club Chasse et Peche, one of my favourite restaurants, from the food to the decor. The chef Eric Gonzales, once cooked for Bill Clinton and used to work for the amazing XO restaurant in the hotel St-James. Located in the always busy Old Port area, I knew I was walking into a gem. An extremely busy Thursday night in mid January had me me surprised by the immensity of this location and the amount of people present at 7:00 PM.

To start off I took the delicatessen platter (16) ( the whole pig from snout... to trotter). A delicious assortment of pork, or as I call it, a pig lovers paradise. Each different part of the pig was fantastic, such a wonderful assortment and a couple little dishes of vegetables and beans.

My favourite dish of the night was the homemade cannelloni au gratin(28), stuffed with braised beef cheeks, parboiled brussels sprouts, bacon onion and marrow.  A really divine dish on all aspects, from the visual aspect all the way to the taste.

The half free range guinea fowl legs(32), made with mushrooms, figs, artichokes, pistachios and spelt enriched with bacon and cream was another delicious tender dish.

The amuse-bouche that really stood out that night ( there was 3 or 4 of them) was the dessert, white chocolate, cashews and pineapple served in a small glass. A delicious mixture of white chocolate worked wonders with the salty and sweet of the two other items.

I must say, the best part of the night was the vanilla ice cream mixed with nuts and iced fruits(10). The saltiness of the nuts mixed with the vanilla ice cream and the frozen chopped fruits was another not to be missed dish.

Close to 5 hours later at midnight, it was time to go, I really did enjoy Auberge, but more for the atmosphere then the food. The food was good but it was not outstanding and not worth the price. The question is would I go back? The answer is yes I would, but I would be careful on which dishes I ordered from and not for along time...

Food: 7/10
Atmosphere:10/10
Location:9.5/10
Service:9.5/10
Price:7/10
Overall:8.5/10

Plaisirs Coupables

1410 Rue Peel

Montreal, H3A-1S8

514-507-5689

To start this off, let's decode the word Plaisirs Coupables; in english that would translate to guilty pleasures and in both languages it works. The slogan, cuisine cochone et gourmande or decadent comfort food works also. Of course the last thing that needs to work is.... the food. Oh boy, it does. This small two floor restaurant looks great on the inside and has quite a lot to offer on the menu. On a somewhat quiet sunday night, I and 5 friends decided to feast upon guilty pleasures. 

I started off with the poutine with truffle oil and foie gras(10) and lets just say that is damn cheap. Pied de Cochon charges 21$ for their poutine. Unfortunately this did not taste like that one. They used foie gras " en torchon" instead of a fresh piece that is pan seared. That would make the whole difference, as the piece began to melt and did not give off any flavour. I would love to see the piece replaced by a pan seared one and the price raised. Next was the poutine(10) with mature cheddar, lardon and dijon mustard. It did little to excite me and I must say that the dijon was way overpowering. The golden onion rings(7) in a parmesan crust were done to perfection with a nice crispy outside and a tender interior. 

The menu is quite extensive, with comfort food favourites, so it is extremely hard to decide what to eat next. " Le Brome" (15) is my kind of burger, a confit de canard topped with a piece of foie gras was possibly the best burger I have ever tasted. The confit de canard patty was just delicious and on this dish, the foie gras en torchon worked, as it melted all over the bun and gave it a buttery delicious flavour. My mouth salivates just thinking of this burger. At this point, I was pretty stuffed and I must announce, with my sadness, that this was the only main I had! A big fatty, heavy juicy burger with a plate of fries, combined with all those appetizers was taking it's toll. 

Although I was stuffed, I could not pass up dessert. I started with the deep fried banana split(7), topped with vanilla ice cream, strawberries and a melting chocolate chip cookie. A decadent pleasure to eat this dish. A rich and moist caramilk brownie(7), topped with fleur de sel, vanilla ice cream, caramel and little pieces of caramilk really hit the spot. A combination of sweet chocolate with the salty caramel was a winner. Please have a look at their dessert menu, 7 items and each looks better then the last.

I truly enjoyed my night at guilty pleasures, for the sole reason that deep down, I am a fat kid. This restaurant is here for the sole purpose, and that is to state the following: " There are a ton of restaurants switching over to healthy, because of the new health trend, but here at Plasirs Coupables, we want you to feel ok about what you eat..." No thats wrong, its more like " We want you to indulge in your hearts primal desires, no holding back, no guilt, just pure pleasure".

Food:7/10

Atmosphere:7.5/10

Service:7.5/10

Location:9/10

Price:10/10

Overall:8/10

Sugar Shack Au Pied de Cochon

11382 Rang de la Fresnière
Mirabel, QC
(450) 258-1732

I have a little puzzle for you guys to figure out. Where do pigs go when they die? Well to heaven of course, no need to complicate things. Now for people who want to know where heaven is situated, look above, it's in Mirabel at the P.D.C. sugar shack! I reviewed a while back Au Pied De Cochon, a restaurant owned by stud martin Picard (it's a joke, he's nowhere near a stud!), from Food Network's own The Wild Chef. It's always great to see Canadians on the big television networks and even better to see Quebecers who cant speak proper english on them! I've been to his restaurant 6 times now and with plans to go back again and again. Now for his sugar shack, it was rated by EnRoute magazine one of the top 10 restaurants of the year. December 2009 is the first time I heard about it and I have been trying to get reservations there since!

Finally many many many months later a reservation for April 2011 and the countdown has begun. It's truly been a long time since I've wanted anything this badly. Our group arrived at 1:30 PM and this place is packed, every table booked and another 50-60 standing waiting for seats. 

By 2:00 PM we sit and the feast begins. We start off with a delicious pea soup with lard and foie gras. I have never really cared for soup, but this was quite delicious. Next is the salad with cheese and oreilles de crisse and I must say that the vinaigrette works quite well with all the ingredients. The "oreilles" gave a delicious crunch to the salad and a nice salty taste. A buckwheat pancake with sturgeon and sour cream makes a nice sandwich when put together. Of course a weird item for a sugar shack... Sushi! A delicious piece deep fried in a tempura batter and it tastes great with some maple syrup. Lastly oysters with maple syrup. Yes there are quite a few appetizers, and quite a lot of maple syrup!

For main course, an extremely tender pork shoulder with vegetables, smoked and baked in maple syrup. The outside skin was crispy and smoky with a hint of sweetness. Truly delicious! A fantastic can of baked beans with cottage cheese to go along with all these upcoming dishes. A lobster egg tart was next with a huge lobster shell protruding through the dish. A roasted chicken with beer gnocchi was next, and lets just say, I hope you don't mind head and feet. Once again very tender, this dish was a pleaser , but I must say that the gnocchi were the star. 

The dessert portion of the afternoon was the best for me, with a ton of variety. To start off a freaking amazing  warm tarte tatin (upside down apple pie), drenched in maple syrup with vanilla ice cream on top. This was one of the best dishes in my entire life! The mixture of warm tart, the cold ice cream, the sweet maple syrup and apples, brought me straight to heaven. Next was pancakes, very standard dish.... oh wait they were deep fried in duck fat and drenched in maple syrup! Another  phenomenal dessert. Then came " tire sur la neige", which was with ice and not with snow... Lastly an nougat ice cream coated in chocolate sauce with a maple cotton candy on top was to die for, the nougat ice cream was pure pleasure to eat.

Our brunch ended around 4:30 and boy was I stuffed. I could honestly say that the last 3 hours, were some of the greatest of my life. With bellies protruding, my once super baggy sweatpants now tight, we were glad to pay 70+$ dollars for a sugar shack. That might sound high to some, considering most are less then 20$, but for a feast containing; oysters, lobster, foie gras, chicken and of course very expensive and very delicious maple syrup. Their syrup was amazing, the whole table was pouring it onto our spoons and drinking it, straws next time please. The absolute best part of the day was the dessert and I think everyone else would agree. I shall be booking quite early for the next sugaring off season so if anyone else wants to overindulge and fly away to heaven, join me at P.D.C. epicly glorious sugar shack. 

Overall: 8.5/10

Overall for a sugar shack 12/10 ;)

  

Pecan Brownies topped off with Cookie Dough

All great recipes start somewhere. Mine usually start watching The Food Network, and this time it was on Chuck's day off. I might of stolen this recipe from him but he stole it from his mom! His recipe is already beyond decadent, the best brownie recipe out there. I have made them many many times and then one day decided that it would be great if I added cookie dough! If you add the cookie dough as soon as the brownies come out of the oven, it starts to melt in, a little bit, and then the flavour combination works terrifically. You can either make your own cookie dough, see previous cookie recipe for the dough or you can buy two packs of Pillsbury! This is a dessert sure to please all brownie and cookie lovers alike! 

Ingredients

Mom's Brownies

         1/2 cup good cocoa powder

         3/4 cup flour

         1/4 teaspoon salt

         3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

         1 3/4 cups sugar

         3 eggs

         2 teaspoons vanilla extract

         4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

         1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

         1 cup chopped pecans

         2 packs of cookie dough

 

Directions

Mom's Brownies

1. Stir together cocoa powder, flour and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until thick and lemon-colored, about 2 minutes. Blend in vanilla and chocolate. Slowly add cocoa-flour mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans, saving some pecans back for garnishing the top.

3. Generously butter and flour a 13x9-inch pan (33 X 23 cm).

4. Fill pan with batter. Dot with pecans.

5. Place pan in center of 350 degree oven (177 C).

Bake until wood pick inserted in center comes out moist from melted chocolate (not batter), about 25 minutes. The top will likely start to show some cracks – it is drier than the interior. Let cool completely on rack. Cut into 12 squares. Top with cookie dough when still very hot. 

Frozen Ice Cream Banana Split Sandwiches

I've been trying to think of the perfect dessert. I do love ice cream..I do love ice cream sandwiches.. I do love chocolate, bananas, nuts.. I could just say that I love all dessert and all junk. As the temperature in Montreal is FINALLY rising, it's time to bring out the big guns. By big guns I mean ice cream. Ice cream is beyond the perfect dessert for the summer, it can be eaten on it's own during a hot day, after a meal or on a very sad night....

I cannot take credit for inventing this, I must give it to the Food Network's Paula Dean. Thanks Paula, although I changed quite a few things in the recipe to make it the way I like it!

Use as much of the ingredients as needed, depending on consistency and flavour desired.

Ingredients: 

•   12 ice-cream sandwiches, unwrapped

•   3 medium bananas, peeled and thinly sliced

•   1/2 bottle of chocolate sauce

•   1 pack of milk chocolate chips

•   1/2 tub of neapolitan ice cream 

•   1 bottle of whipped cream

•   1/2 pack of nuts( pecans, walnuts..)

 Directions:

Line a baking pan with aluminum foil

Place half of ice cream sandwiches on the pan, completely covering the bottom

Layer with bananas , then top with chocolate sauce and add chocolate chips

Add top layer of the sandwiches, then add whipped cream and nuts

Freeze for at least 4 hours, then add neapolitan ice cream when ready to serve.

La Cornetteria

6528, boul Saint-Laurent
Montreal, QC H2S 3C6
(514) 277-8030

Social networking sometimes really grinds my gears;when it comes to useless people getting famous for being horrible( I will not mention HER name), or just for the fact that there are now 1,321,456 ways to communicate with social networking. One thing that I do love about it; learn about great new restaurants, see delicious pictures of food,  save money on food and restaurants etc etc. Almost everything I do online is food related, from restaurant reviews, to posting recipes, to helping people save money on restaurants and the countless more hours I spend on various other food related activities. I found out thanks to Lesley Chesterman, what a zeppola is, and were to get it. As soon as I laid eyes on the delicious looking pastry, I was in love, I had to have it. After over a hundred items ordered from La Cornetteria in less then a month, I knew I had found my place. 

It is a tad far for me to go get pastries every day, so I usually go on a saturday and pick up a larger quantity. Wikipedia describes love as: "Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.^[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels.^[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion.^[3] Or as actions towards others based on affection", but I can sum it up in plain english, zeppole. This has easily become my favorite dessert and I am extremely saddened by the fact that the month is up.

The zeppole at La Cornetteria can only be described as a light fluffy deep fried dough ball, sugar coated, with a cloud like ricotta cream cheese filling that pleases all the senses. While being calorie dense, this pastry manages to be so light that I could eat half a dozen in a sitting, easy! Oh wait, I have done that!

Next up their "famous" cornetti. With flavours ranging from ricotta cream cheese, pistachio, chocolate  and hazelnut, their are enough flavours for all pallets. I stick with the plain and simple ricotta cream cheese. I do like this dish, but I have to say it doesn't wow me. The filling is delicious, but the outer shell, almost croissant like, is just ok.

Another item that I tried here is the cannolis, once again a delicious filling but the outer shell was too hard for me to truly say love,

I do suggest going to La Cornetteria and trying all these items for yourself, at prices ranging from 2.00-2.50$, this place is a bargain. I also suggest sitting down and having a delicious espresso with one of their grilled sandwiches(7) and then for dessert, have it all! In the end, it is really the zeppole that I adored, and maybe that is why everything else seemed good, but nothing better. I shall return to see how these items stack up without the fierce competition of the Z!

Overall:8/10

Les Delices Lafrenaie

58A Brunswick Boulevard

Pointe-Claire, H9B2L3

514-542-4242

When news first sprung that a new bakery was opening in the West Island, I couldn't help it, but smile. A smile from ear to ear and a loud grumbling deep inside my stomach. I heard they were going to carry items like; cannolis, zeppole, lobster tails, cakes etc... I was ecstatic, I recently learnt what a zeppole was (Commonly light, deep-fried dough balls about 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter, these doughnuts or fritters are usually topped with powdered sugar and may be filled with custard, jelly, cannoli-style pastry cream or a butter-and-honey mixture. Their consistency ranges from light and puffy, to bread or pasta-like)  and I cant stop eating them. Unfortunately most Italian bakeries serve them for a month or less out of the year, before St-Joseph's day. I must eat as many as I can in that one month... I easily had 30 of them that month! Orders ranging from 2 all the way to 72! As you can now tell, I am addicted to pastries, so light and fluffy, with a ricotta cream cheese that makes my heart melt. This was love at first sight...

Four days into Lafrenaies opening, I walked in to find a couple I know purchasing some zeppole and cannolis.  I purchased two different zeppole; one with whipped cream and one with custard. These did not look like my favorite zeppole, from my favorite bakery. To start off the outer dough layer looked harder and not soft and sugary, and the filling did not look as light. I was right, from the looks to the taste, this was one of the worst pastries ever to fatten me up. The custard tasted decent, while the dough had absolutely no flavor at all. Next up the whipped cream, it had no taste and the dough didn't either, I seriously could not stomach the blandness of these two, into the garbage. An indicator of how bad these were going to be should of been the fact that they serve them all year round...Cannoli, please be good. Nope, god awful also.  The shell was hard with a strange bitter taste to it and once again the filling was tasteless. 

On my second return, expecting absolutely nothing, I got an apple strudel and a lobster tail. The apple strudel was at best, decent and the dough was better this time, yet I was wanting more apple flavor. A little bit fake, the taste, if you ask me. The lobster tail was actually quite decent, with a much better whipped cream filling. This one was over filling with cream and that's what I really liked about it. I would actually return for the lobster tail.

I might be harsh on this newly opened bakery, but it is their 3rd bakery; St-leonard and Laval being the other two. Everything is shipped daily from St-Leonard, yet I somehow question the freshness of the items. They are truly known for their cakes but unfortunately i'm not the biggest cake fan, nor do I have an occasion coming up to buy a 40$ one meant for 10 people. Maybe i'll have to binge and see how much cake I can really eat! 

In the end, I am extremely disappointed, and now know to never return for pastries. Maybe one day, I shall return for the cake but I and many others alike agree, that the zeppole and cannoli taste just like dog food.

Overall:4/10