montreal journal - day 5

We awoke to sunny weather with plans to finally hike up to the top of Mont Royal Saturday afternoon. However, by the time we'd stepped off at our first metro stop, we were in the midst of the worst rain of our trip. Maybe Mont Royal was out of the picture for today, but a little rain certainly wouldn't stop us from eating. On the other hand, the fact that it was only 10 in the morning and we'd just finished breakfast might slow us down, so we headed to L'Oratore St. Joseph to see the view. The oratory is a massive church on the Western side of Mont Royal whose Romanesque exterior belies the spare, cavernous, and a tad dated 60s chapel inside. From the top of the dizzying stairs, there was an expansive view of the West, from which we could spot one of our later destinations (hint: it's big and round and orange).

Somewhat nonplussed by the architecture, we headed out to the more impressive landmark that we'd seen from the stairs. But first (because it was a decent hour for lunch) - a little Trinidadian pick-me-up after all the stairs we had climbed. Amidst car dealerships and chain thriftstores like Village du Valeur, we found Mister Spicee tucked away in a tiny basement storefront. Walking inside was like stepping into a foreign country, but not because of the Trinidadian heritage. Everything was in English! Wow, we had forgotten how easy it is when you speak the native language. We honestly spent a moment trying to decipher the menu from French before realizing we understood it. We both ordered "doubles" - two chickpea flatbreads sandwiching spicy curry stew, smothered with hot sauce and tamarind sauce. A got the chicken and potato and P got the goat and chickpea. We shared a ginger beer - the spicee-est either of us had ever tasted. It was a bit too harsh on its own, but it stood up perfectly to the spicy curry. Since we noticed that everyone who came in left with some coconut bread (cakey, nutty cookies), we made sure to get some on our way out.



Gibeau Orange Julep from stumptownpanda on Vimeo.

Gibeau. Apart from our love of foreign strip malls, this was the reason we'd traveled so far from the city center. It's like a giant orange was dropped from space sometime in the 50s just to bring us joy, but the taste of this drink was anything but alien. The Julep was like what you always wished an Orange Julius would be - pulpy, fresh juice and oh-so-creamy froth. In fact, maybe it was alien, because we both agreed it was totally out-of-this-world. Aw, snap. Plus, the teenagers who served us squeezed the drink from a silver tube that seemed to originate from somewhere in the giant orange overhead. A wanted to set up her home inside the orange and live our her fantasies of a citrusy future (A and the Giant Orange?). P was tired of sitting out in the wind and rain with a drink that was more refreshing than warming. Well worth the trip to what was basically Montreal's strip mall outskirts.

After getting back to the downtown, we thought a walk around the McGill campus might be nice in the torrential downpour. It wasn't. But we didn't stop. We passed a wedding on the way back and thought to ourselves, "Suckers."

Since the rain didn't appear to be letting up any time soon, we escaped into a bar to drink it off. Despite the fact that it was a Saturday afternoon (edging into the "happy" hour) and the weather was miserable, the bar was completely deserted. Le Cheval Blanc is the older sister bar to Bily Kun, which we had visited earlier in the week. The decor was a mix between retro 50's and Asian hipster, with formica tables and red, Chinoiserie lanterns. We enjoyed our cream ale and house amber (all the beers are so smooth here - where are the hops?) while listening to the lone bartender sing along to Bob Dylan and bluegrass.

Nap.

We went back up towards the Jean Talon market to Le Petit Alep, which we had passed earlier in the week and made a note to return. The hipper side cafe of Restaurant Alep, they served Syrian-focused Middle Eastern dishes. Many of the items were familiar to us (mezze, kabobs, etc...) but were inflected with unique flavors like pomegranate and walnut. We started with plates of moussaka (tomato and spice-stewed eggplant) and muhamara (pomengranate syrup, walnuts, cumin, bread crumbs and garlic), which was possibly our favorite part of the meal. For mains, A had a grilled pita stuffed with spinach and cheese and heavy on the garlic and P ordered the shish taouck - tangy grilled chicken kabobs between two buttery flatbreads. Over the course of dinner, we spoke more and more urgently about how much we both enjoyed Au Pied de Cochon and how we had barely skimmed the surface of their offerings. And that was how our plan began to form.