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|    Chef Michael Smith and friends: Chef Anna Olson, Bob Blumer, Chef Christine Cushing, Kevin Brauch, Chef Robert Rainford, and Chef Jason Rosso. One night for a very good cause. Please click here. The True Story of The Goats Wines... Click here.  There really are goats on the Fairview Estate Click here.  |
 Eric Vellend was a Toronto-based chef for ten years before trading in his knives for a laptop. He is the food columnist at the City Centre Moment, and his work has appeared in City Bites, The Globe and Mail, and The Toronto Star. He is currently saving up for another trip to Spain, where he can resume his Iberian alter-ego "Jamón". Read more Vellend at Gremolata including: Is Vancouver the Next San Francisco?, I'll Eat Manhattan: 24 Hours in the Big Apple, Table for One: A Barcelona Tapeo and Go East: Prince Edward County | ||
| A Foot In The Door by Eric Vellend
There are few cities I enjoy visiting more than Montréal. It has New York’s edge, European flair and a unique style all its own. Spend five minutes in this exciting town and you’ll understand why "joie de vivre" was coined by the French. In the past, I have always come to Montréal to visit family or friends. This time around, I was on a pilgrimage of sorts. Every city has a restaurant that chefs make a b-line for the minute they roll into town. It’s not necessarily the "best" place to eat, but it’s usually the most interesting and always a blast. Vancouver has Vij’s, London has St. John, and Montréal has Au Pied de Cochon. When Au Pied de Cochon swaggered onto Montréal’s dining scene six years ago, it instantly became the city’s most talked about table. Loud, rambunctious and without peer, it would be hard to imagine another restaurant as dedicated to carnal pursuits as this festive bistro. While states and municipalities ban foie gras, chef-owner Martin Picard devotes an entire section of his menu to it. He puts it on poutine, stuffs it into pig’s feet and sears giant slabs for his foie gras "burger". The fatty liver also comes in the form of a bite-sized cromesquis, a cubic fritter that releases a gush of liquid foie gras and is the best $3.50 you will ever spend. The menu should have a disclaimer: Portions are huge, vegetarians not welcome. Beyond a few appetizers and one fish entrée, every plate is piled high with the flesh of beasts. I started with the assiette de cochonailles, a rustic charcuterie platter that put most renditions of this trendy appetizer to shame. A warm slice of smoked sausage, a sliver of pickled venison tongue, and half a hardboiled egg joined three pâtés: classic Québéc creton, spiced pâté de campagne, and "pig’s terrine", a gamey quilt of everything but the oink. From their pantry of homemade preserves, a tangy corn relish provided the cherry on top of this carnivorous sundae. French onion soup gets a PDC twist while maintaining its bistro roots. Sweet caramelized onion swam with cubes of bacon in an amber broth made from beer and pork stock. Its gooey roof of Gruyère was so thick that the strapping Picard could have walked across the bowl without falling in. There were some uncommon choices among the mains: blood sausage, duck in a can, and venison liver, to name a few. One of their more popular entrées is the PDC potée, a Québécois spin on bangers n’ mash. Arriving in a bright red cast iron pot, a link of juicy saucisson (think haute dog) sat snugly beside fluffy blood pudding that was delicately spiced and not as livery as traditional boudin noir. If this weren’t enough, succulent slabs of roast belly and shank took care of the rest of the pig. But the pièce de résistance lay underneath: mashed potatoes whipped with cheese curds, a salty, stringy and buttery affair that warmed my soul and nearly stopped my heart. Dessert? Forget about it. I had consumed so much pork fat that I couldn’t see straight enough to read the sweet card. The cacophonous, celebratory atmosphere at Au Pied de Cochon was like a party bordering on anarchy. Young servers ran hither and fro; cooks moved frantically to keep up with the orders; glasses smashed; cutlery dropped; and the Falstaffian figure of Martin Picard could be seen pulling draught one second and searing foie gras the next. Obviously, Au Pied de Cochon is not for everyone, but if you plan on going, skip lunch, take your Lipitor and get ready to eat, drink and be merry. Au Pied de Cochon [Editor's note: Martin Picard's Au Pied de Cochon: The Album (the English verison, with Anthony Bourdain's introduction), can be found in Toronto at The Cookbook Store. Click here for more info.] | ||
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