Montreal

Montreal is not a place I thought about much throughout the years. I knew some basics about it; that it spoke French; the Canadiens played there; and that they had the Olympics and Expo 67. However, it was always on my list of places I wanted to visited and in May I finally had the chance to go. It blew my expectations out of the water. If you want to travel to a city with great culture and food, this is the place to go.

Everywhere we went, the food was excellent, from the finest restaurants to places in tourists traps. Montreal was originally colonized by France and their influence shines in the cooking. This is the only place I have ever been where I saw tartar multiple times on the menu at different pubs (and while I have no doubt it was excellent tartar, I could not convince myself to eat pub tartar). When the most disappointing meal I had was airport food, you know things are done well.

The pastries were amazing, from hotel recommended little pastry shops to the supermarket beignets. Those beignets were soft and fluffy and covered in my weakness, cinnamon and sugar. I actually went back and got them a second time they were that good. Also, there are these delightful, probably horrible for you, desserts called the Beavertail from Queues de Castor which is a chain found in Canada and a few parts of the States. Beavertails are flat fried pastry, resembling a beaver's tail, which is covered in one of a selection of toppings. These things are addictive. I did not pay much attention to how they are prepared, but they are always hot when you get them which makes them even better.

The other thing that I adored was poutine. Similar to New Jersey's disco fries, poutine is french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. As you will be told when you go up there, a good cheese curd with squeak when you chew it and will not melt as quickly as cheese. Poutine is a very basic idea, but still delicious and I am not sure why the idea of throwing gravy and cheese on fries isn't more popular in the States. 

The one warning I will give about Montreal food is about two of the foods they are best known for, smoked meats and bagels. The smoked meats are good, but as someone originally from New Jersey, the smoked meats were about what you would find in a good deli. If you are from an area not known for smoked meats, definitely try it in Montreal. If you are, still try it, but do not be surprised if it tastes similar to the meats you are used too. The bagels were interesting, they are cooked with honey making it sweeter. Some people may appreciate that sweetness, but I prefer the New York style. 

Over all Montreal is an amazing city and I highly recommend people checking it out. I will definitely be back.