(more) duck in québec

We visited Île d'Orléans in winter’s last breath, there’s no more ice on the ground, but cold enough to freeze you up if you don’t wear a thick jacket. Everything in the island is pretty much on reduced hours or closed. We went to a few venues, they were either on reduced hours or closed for an event.

preserved duck in vieux québec

Preserved duck. The image of duck jerky is conjured up in my head, it doesn’t sound appetising. Salted then drowned in its own fat. That sounds even more disgusting.

It’s quite a feat for French Women to not Get Fat. Considering how butter laden, fat drenched, delectable dessert aplenty French cuisine can be. Our guide for the Québec walking tour recommended to us the Bistro Sous le Fort, a modern yet cosy little bistro, where we ordered the beef spare ribs and the duck confit.

over-seasoned evening

We haven’t had a lot of bad luck with our choice of restaurants in Canada. So we were particularly taken by surprise when we had an appalling meal at Le Cochon Dingue (the crazy pig), a restaurant specialising in porcine cuisine.

snacking in vieux québec

Banane avec crème fraîche et chocolat - $7

With food, as with anything else, sometimes nostalgia can skew your opinion of it. The best crêpe I've ever had was from a sidewalk stall in Paris chinatown, batter was poured and spread on a hot plate when we ordered, Nutella from one of the numerous gigantic jars was smeared on the crisped batter, whereupon the crêpe was folded, tucked into a paper napkin and served warm and delicious. Depending on where we were at in Paris, the prices can vary to eye-gouging level. What was an injustice to me then, now through the rose-coloured glasses of time, I don't seem to mind the price anymore.

québec hospitality

When I told friends about my trip to Québec, a minority furtively said in a low voice, “Aren’t the French…. like….. errr… a bit rude?” Years ago, the same question and/or statement came up when I relayed my stories of my travels in Paris.

a day in québec's eastern townships

Instead of taking the straight and most efficient route from Montréal to Québec City, we decided to spend a day exploring the eastern townships instead. First we went for a duck brunch at Le Relais in Knowlton. The nearby Lac Brome is famous for its ducks.

smoked meat + mustard + bread = ?

During my research of what to eat in Montréal, the name Schwartz's came up quite a few times. To me, what was being described and pictured, seemed like slices of dry, salty, corned-silverside-like meat, wedged between two slices of dry bread that has been coated with mustard as an afterthought. I wrote a brief note on it on my list of must-go places, but I wasn’t interested and promptly put it out of my mind.

going bananas for beavertails

Beavertails, another iconic Canadian snack that even President Obama had to have on his visit to the country in 2009. He even got one named after him.

poutine at patati patata

If you are going to Québec you have to have poutine. That is what I’ve been told. I did my research on the internet to see which places near our accommodation have the best poutine.

a syrupy day at the sugar shack

Maple syrup is big business in Québec, supplying 80% of the world’s demand for this golden syrup. The syrup isn’t cheap, with prices of about $40 per gallon -- or about $10.50 per litre for those of us living in the metric world. A band of thieves clearly thought it was valuable enough to steal $30 million worth of maple syrup in late 2012 from a reserve controlled by a Canadian maple syrup quasi-cartel, which in turn inspired the late night shows to crack jokes at the so-called cartels.

I, for one, have not contributed much to the maple syrup industry. I’m a sorry excuse for a sweet tooth. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of sweets, I can only vaguely remember one occasion in my younger days when I had pancakes with maple syrup -- during a holiday trip to America (I think). But my lack of sweet-tooth-iness by no means dampened my enthusiasm for my then impending visit to a sugar shack.

a mouthful of dumplings

There's a small restaurant in a local-traffic-only street, opposite a university in Beijing that makes delicious dumplings. The restaurant itself is not particularly famous or outstanding, it's a dependable local restaurant serving food to mostly local residents and students, of which I was one such student. I bought a lot of takeaways from this restaurant. I vaguely remember a fried tofu dish with its crispy crunchy skin and its silky smooth tofu innards that was heavenly. But what I will never forget is their jiǎozi (dumplings, 饺子).