The Caffeinated Tourist

It's hard not to compare NYC to your vacation locations. Case in point: Kitty and I just returned from a long weekend in Montreal. It's a gorgeous city. The streets are clean. The people are friendly. The food is fantastic. At certain times throughout the trip, we had to stop ourselves from making absurd comparisons to our local neighborhoods. Rather than bore you with comparisons, here are some highlights of the trip:

1. Market Jean-Talon

This could be one of the best public markets that we have ever been to. Our samples included: wild boar sausage, the freshest local fruits and veggies, Moules avec sauce e frites (Mussles, steamed in white wine & herbs with a dijon sauce and french fries), Chocolatine (a perfect chocolate croissant) and hemp seeds (to improve your memory).

It wasn't just the food. It turns out that Montreal has a tradition of "foodies"- people with an insane love for not just local food, but home grown, organic, REAL food. They don't count calories, they just eat smaller portions. They don't watch their fat, they just don't go nuts at buffets. Being around foodies is great because they always know the food that is in season and consequently the best tasting.

2. Notre Dame de Bonsecours

This great little church is in the heart of Old Montreal. It is peaceful and has beautiful murals. Best of all, they don't charge you $8 to walk through the front door (like a certain similarly named church).

This was our favorite part of Old Montreal. The rest of it looked all classy and stuff, but looking closer, you could see that it was just a way to try to artfully separate a tourist from their money.

3. Sandwich Heaven

Titanic is a small cafe in Old Montreal. It is in the lower level of a more modern building. We stopped for lunch and shared a baguette topped with a thin layer of hummous, 1 slice of swiss cheese and a few leaves of basil. It was elegant and delicious. We then shared a slice of their perfect chocolate cake.

Resevoire at 9 Duluth is a great little bistro that serves a variety of beers. We each tried a local brew and shared a grilled cheese a la Montreal. In this case, it was a baguette, with chevre, onions and figs.

I'll keep adding to this post as I reminisce with Kitty.