Poutine Bananza at La Banquise

You know, despite being a self-proclaimed foodie and a Montrealer, I've yet to try the so-called 'greatests' that Montreal has to offer, such as La Banquise and Schwartz's. Yes, yes, ready your rotten tomatoes, aim, and fire. I had been meaning to try them for a really long time now, but the line-up in front of Schwartz's never fails to make me cringe, and La Banquise always seemed like a hassle to get to. Luckily for me, an opportunity arose when a few friends (with a car!) from out-of-town came to visit and wanted to check this place out.

Happy (belated) Mid-Autumn Festival! Mom's homemade mooncakes~

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all! 中秋节快了！And what better way to celebrate than with mom's homemade mooncakes?

Lamb shanks and meatballs and spices, oh my! - Khyber Pass.

It's back to school! Back to endless nights of cramming, countless boxes of take-out and empty cartons or instant noodles. Sigh. But before that, one more trip to the Plateau!

When my friend told me she was craving lamb, my first thought was: 'Oh, we're going to Fat Sheep or Kiss Grill again'. Never in a million years did I expect her to take a group of us to Khyber Pass, a quaint Afghan restaurant situated on Duluth in the Mount Royal region. To be completely honest, I had no idea what Afghan cuisine even consisted of before going to Khyber Pass, and I still can't really say if I do now. I don't know if the Afghan cuisine they serve in this restaurant is authentic or not, but what I can say is that the food is damn good either way.

Yuan, for all things 'un' of the Oriental sort.

So, as you may or may not know, I have some weird fascination for vegetarian and vegan cuisine, despite being more carnivore than omnivore. So when my friend told me about Yuan, a restaurant that serves Asian vegetarian and vegan cuisine featuring imitation meat, I was immediately intrigued. I had never tried imitation meats before, other than the good ol' fake crab, and was curious as to whether they really tasted like meat or not. The verdict? Read on to find out. (TBC... Dun dun dun!)

Chez Hwang to the rescue!

 



Heeere goes my craving for Korean food again. Luckily, many of the better Korean restaurant seem to be located in Westmount, so when I found out that La Maison de Seoul was closed for lunch on that particular day (I'm not entirely sure if they're closing down permanently), all I had to do was take a ten-minute walk to Chez Hwang, and voila! Craving abated, crisis averted.

Chez Hwang is another non-descript restaurant located a bit in the middle of nowhere and that offers the typical variety of Korean dishes, as well as some atypical Korean dishes (pig feet), and some Japanese dishes as well.

Burger de Ville, Burger de Ville, fresh juicy patties direct from the grill!

... Eating it will give you such a thrill! Burger, oh Burger de Ville~  (To the tune of 'Cruella De Vil'). Oh yes, I'm full of really bad and corny puns. Aaanyway, onwards to the intro!

Burger de Ville is a popular burger joint with a simple and straightforward menu that offers burgers with fresh (read: unfrozen) beef patties, a large variety of toppings, and a small selection of side dishes. While the menu and decor of the restaurant are simple, Burger de Ville proves that it doesn't need all the fancy add-ons by offering some of the juiciest, thickest burgers that I've had in Montreal.

Mooching off a friend on a rainy day... in HD!

Imagine this. You're planning to take a stroll in the Mount Royal region and try out some quaint restaurants, but it just so happens that the sky decides that it's high time to start dropping domestic pets on you - metaphorically, of course. So what do you do? Head over to your culinarily-gifted friend's house and mooch off her, of course!