Hometown favorites: Montreal

I spent last week in my hometown of Montreal. It was a week of good eating. I got to dine at a few of my childhood favorites but also two new highly recommedable places.

The souvlaki-pita at Parthenon, a small neighborhood restaurant less than a five-minute walk from the building I grew up in, is still the best I've ever had. It's a shame I supposedly ate only french fries there for most of my childhood! The tzatziki makes the sandwich--it's extra, extra garlicky and hence divine. The price is also right at $4.95 C for lunch.

Saturday morning, we headed to Kam Fung Maison, which is Montreal's primary destination for dim sum. Growing up, I ate at Kam Fung (at the old, more ornamental-less corporate location) with my family every Sunday after church. I supposedly ate only chicken feet here as a kid. Like every dim sum house, Kam Fung has better days than others. I found this visit rather lackluster. The turnip cake here is better than at Chicago's Phoenix. (I no longer eat chicken feet.)

The other childhood favorite I visited on this trip was Duc de Lorraine, my favorite patisserie in the entire world. I've never had as many pleasure synapses fire in my brain as when I take my first bite of a DdL tarte de citron--the fresh lemon and delicate crust! I take consolation in a tarte maeve from Chicago's Vanille Patisserie when I'm missing Montreal too much, but it's only as good as a substitute can be. It was my boyfriend's first time to DdL on this trip, and when we got to the counter, he ordered a chocolate croissant, a lemon tart, a strawberry boat and then four boxes of cookies. He then turned to me and said, "What are you going to eat?"

The two places I tried for the first time on this visit were Restaurant Daou and Kanda Sushi. At Daou (my boyfriend's pick from Frommer's) I discovered how flavorful and succulent and generally excellent Lebanese food can be. I guess I'd gotten used to being satisfied with my weeknight standby dinner of Pita Inn in Skokie. Our waiter at Daou was a little pushy. I thought initially he was just trying to make us forget that they were out of filet by the time we arrived, but he actually did know what and how much we should eat. Extra notable were the thyme pie on our vegetarian appetizer plate, the falafel which was richly seasoned and actually the color of garbanzos (why are falafel often green inside?) and the extra juicy chicken with horseradish(?) sauce we had as our entree.

The other new (for me) place I visited on this trip was Kanda Sushi--the Queen Mary location, also walking distance from where I grew up. This was my first seafood buffet venture, and despite my godmother's endless praise of this place, I had visions of large vats of day-old maki and cafeteria lines. Boy was I wrong! I had some of the best (a lot of superlatives on this trip) sushi I've ever had, all made to order in an intimate setting. For our "first course," we had shrimp tempura, deep fried scallops and some BBQ eel nigiri. I typically avoid scallops because I don't ever find them very flavorful and sometimes don't like the texture, but the deep fried version was a revelation. It had the most delicate breading, which seemed to draw out the flavor of the scallops. It was like I was truly tasting scallops for the first time in my life. We ended up eating five courses. The salmon was perfect that night, and I could have eaten my weight in sashimi. My final course consisted of deep fried clams and their "caviar submarine" nigiri. Wow! Our bottomless cups of green tea helped extend the meal, but I don't think I've ever wished as much to have greater stomach capacity! and what a bargain for $19.95 C per person! Final note on Kanda: skip the edamame. It was bizarrely over-, overcooked.

As my boyfriend concluded at the end of our trip, it's very, very easy to eat well in Montreal, and that's besides the $1 baguettes! (I think Red Hen might be worse, can't remember, but I maintain that the $3.99 baguettes at Food Stuffs in Evanston is a crime against humanity.)

Parthenon Souvlaki Rôtisserie
3543 AVENUE VAN HORNE
MONTRÉAL, QC H3S 1R7, Canada
(514) 738-5758

Kam Fung Maison
1936 boulevard Thimens
Montreal H2Z 1J5

Duc de Lorraine Patisserie Francaise
5002 Cote des Neiges Rd
514-731-4128

Restaurant Daou
519 Rue Faillon est
Montreal H2R 1L6
514-276-8310

Kanda Sushi
5200 block of Queen Mary