Poutine in Montreal, Day 1

Despite the border agent’s assumption that we were in town for the huge Osheaga Festival, we were here for… the poutine. And to see an old friend who is shooting a film here, much closer than his usual Los Angeles.  Plus I needed the road. Though my reoccurring case of wanderlust had been forcibly subdued due to wide-scale upheaval, it is still my summer and it was not too late to run away… very briefly.  Or, better yet, run away from and out of the country entirely. Besides all this, despite it being pretty close, I have never been to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  And that wasn’t sitting right with me.

First! the entirety of the New York Thruway and some really good vegan sandwiches.  I’m so glad that vegan game is being stepped up all over the place, like at this half antiques store and half coffee shop with a killer vegan breakfast sandwich in the cute downtown of Kingston, New York: Outdated Cafe.  That means that the rustic decor was all for sale.

Their vegan breakfast sandwich has tofu, tempeh, cashew cheese, almond mayo and sautéed greens. This is pretty much all the best vegan things in one sandwich.

It was packed with old school vegan flavor: nutritional yeast, Bragg’s, rosemary.  These things remind me of my early days as a vegan, but better.  

There were a couple of sandwiches to try along the way to our neighbor to the North, so we went halfsies and ate again about an hour later at Berben & Wolff’s, and all-vegan deli in Albany, New York.

We got their “Wing Burger:” housemade seitan, breaded fried chicken style and smothered in buffalo sauce, topped with shredded carrot, celery and ranch on a sesame seed bun. It had a great crunchy texture, was not too thick and dense, and lightened up with carrot and celery.  It was pretty close to sandwich perfection.  Some pickled component would have driven it above and beyond!

This sweet bite, a snickerdoodle cupcake, was a demand of the road gods. 

Once in Montreal, we had to decide where to have dinner.  There are so many vegan options to try in our brief stay, but LOV‘s menu stood apart from the rest.  It was a massive space, beautiful and stylish.  The menu, highly impressive.  They proclaim to be “botanical” cuisine, a concept that includes three principles: the majesty of vegetables, freshness, and the incorporation of vital superfoods.

Our plates arrived promptly. After a starch-heavy day, I chose the Pok’ai’, a fresh and delicious dish with compressed sesame watermelon, cucumber, avocado, green onion, ginger nage and macadamia nuts on a bed of cauliflower rice.  So much flavor and texture, just what I need after a long day of driving.  That and the kombucha mojito (not pictured). 

Poutine, which is fun to say and use in all sorts of perverted jokes, is a source of regional pride here in Quebec.  It originates from this area, though it is disputed where exactly and how exactly. But it’s french fries (Ok, you already got me.), cheese curds (In this case vegan of course. And there is vegan poutine a-plenty to try here in Montreal!), and brown gravy (In LOV’s case, miso gravy.) It was decadently good and ooey-gooey, a rarity in vegan cuisine.  This is a great take on poutine that I will use as a basis of comparison later.

The LOV Poutine was pretty darn delectable. Crispy fries topped with miso gravy, those vegan cheese curds and crispy kale chips.

Afterwards, finally with the opportunity to move, we walked through downtown to get to Herbivores Marche Vegétalien in Plateau-Mont-Royal, an all-vegan grocer with a very friendly staff ready to try their English out on you.  (Yes, everyone speaks French here.) We perused the Canadian vegan products all kinds of exciting French brands and the old American standards.  They also had a tremendous jackfruit on view at their made-to-order counter… which included, of course, their own vegan poutine. Will we have time to come back and try?  Hmmmm

I got some donuts for their portability and cuteness. They were made by DoughNats, a bakery created by Nathalie Kaspy-Shtern, aka Chef Nat, after she was bored after raising 5 children and starting a successful charity.

After heading back to were we would sleep, I pushed for another quick for excursion.  I fell in love with this cake from afar, back in Brooklyn, through pictures.  Its name was Viramisu and it was from La Panthére Verte, which translates to The Green Panther.  I added it to our itinerary hoping that the real thing would meet my high expectations.  What a fantastic slice of moist and delicious cake with all the flavors of tiramisu. 

We devoured it, delighted by each bite.  Well done, Green Panther!

It had been a long day of driving, eating, then eating more after driving, then doing some walking, then eating again… so it was time to hit the hay… especially if we were going to hit brunch tomorrow.  So I will leave you with a math problem.  If 1 kilometer is about 0.621371 of a mile, how fast was a driving in this picture?