oh canada, you do it right

Happy belated Valentine's Day! Dan and I spent the weekend in Montreal as a little mid-winter treat for ourselves. I'm not completely anti-Valentine's Day (it's nice to have an occasion that reminds you to tell family and friends that you love them), but we've never celebrated much on our own. Valentine's Day from my senior year of college stands out for me, since we were apart and I remember receiving homemade heart-shaped cookies through the mail from Dan. He had piped "i love you" or something like that on each of them. For those of you that have visited or heard tales of "4010," the squalid rowhouse he shared in Philadelphia with 8 fraternity brothers (and a lair of mice between the first and second floors), you'll understand what a feat it must have been to bake in that kitchen (and why I probably risked my life by eating those cookies... it kind of makes me feel a little queasy just thinking about it.)

Anyway! We drove up Friday night and ended up finding a cool cafe for a late-night dinner (22% off after 22h00!) near our hotel. Our hotel was a really great find right in the old port section of Montreal. The hotel is actually a converted 19th century bank and keeps that period style. The rooms have 14 foot ceilings!

This trip was mostly about food, so forgive me in advance for a meal-oriented recap... On Saturday morning, we went for brunch at a little neighborhood corner bakery and had perhaps the best egg sandwich of my life: fresh baked flatbread grilled and stuffed with poached eggs mixed with scallions and goat cheese, tomatoes "confit," and gruyere. With an amazing almond croissant and big cups of milky latte, it might have been the perfect breakfast in the perfect quaint shop. (One thing I really love about Montreal is that you feel as though you've traveled to France for the weekend - French is absolutely the dominant language, although everyone is bilingual.)

We spent the afternoon exploring the city, walking through neighborhoods and stopping in to little antiques and "curios" shops. When we got tired of walking, we stopped at a brasserie for a beer and ended up staying for three (3!) hours, drinking our way through their incredible beer menu (a Vienna rousse, a smoky and dark Noire, a super-hoppy IPA, a Cream Ale, and a fantastic barleywine bottled in a really cool painted wine bottle). This tiny place brewed all their own beer on the premises. (Another thing I love about Montreal - the European vibe means that you are never rushed through a meal. You can sit at a brasserie for three hours, ordering beers and snacks as you go, for as long as you want.)

With our beer jackets on (a technique I learned in college), we made the cold walk back to our hotel and then were off to another late dinner at a French bistro, where I had the best steak-frites ever. Yum.

Sunday morning we went for another great brunch complete with big bowls of lattes in the French style, meaning you have to pick up the bowl with two hands to sip from it. (I love this - it is how I drank "chocolat chaud" every morning for six months when I lived in Paris.) After breakfast, we walked along the river, looking at the boats frozen in the harbor and watching people ice skate in the public rink.

Then we drove four hours home with our drivers side window broken and stuck halfway down, shaking with cold. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to forgive Denty for this terrible end to a fantastic weekend.

Places we went (for our friends in Albany who should absolutely venture north before they move on!):

Hotel XIX Siecle (a 19th century style hotel with excellent last minute rates)
Olive et Gourmando (for the best egg sandwich ever)
Reservoir (to drink your weight in beer and have delicious homemade snacks, like BBQ chips)
Holder (for a French bistro experience)
Le Cartet (for coffee in a bowl and a gourmet breakfast on Rue McGill in Vieux Montreal)