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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Oh Canada!

One thing that's for certain is that I need to drastically improve my foreign language skills.  I attempted to function in Quebec on the French that I learned in high school 20 years ago and that was no easy feat, particularly because I was in areas not populated by tourists.

The first thing I noticed about the resort was the size of the dishes...saucers, bread & butter plates, salad plates, and 8 oz bowls.  A clear indicator that our dishes, hence our portion sizes are out of control. I went to IGA and picked up foie de boeuf (beef liver) for breakfast for around $2.50/lb and cotelettes d'agneau epaule (lamb shoulder chops) for around $7.00/lb along with some staple items and dairy products.  

On Thursday we went to Vieux Montreal to visit the steak house we fell in love with on our last visit (3 years ago) and it did not disappoint.  From there we went to Petite Mahgreb where I had a strained conversation with an older Algerian woman in a combination of broken Arabic and French because that's all I could dig out of the cobwebs in my brain.  We ended our day at Marche Jean-Talon...an open air produce market that I wish we had in Philadelphia.  Greensgrow's prices are good but a central place for produce is just unmatched...and reading terminal does not count because it's not in the neighborhood.  

I was so tempted to stockpile veggies...10 lb bags of beets and onions for around $3...it was just ridiculous.  I settled on a kilo of multicolored carrots ($1.50) and a basket of ratatouille that filled two bags for $10.  

I've been wanting to make a ratatouille since I saw the movie, the vendor explained that there were two ways to make it...cook each vegetable separately then combine, or cook it all together...the only spices needed was basil, thyme, and salt.  I explained that there were only 4 of us so he said that we would probably be eating it all week.  We decided to purchase a big container to freeze half of it o that we could transport it back home...clearly we forgot we were American and would refill those little bowls multiple times during the course of our meal.

We had three burners going...a big roasting pan to combine everything; a pot in which we separately cooked the garlic, onions, and pepper (of course I added an extra onion); and a cast iron skillet in which we cooked the zucchini and eggplant.  We decided to caramelize everything for optimal flavor and I went with herbs de provence and herbes salee (my new go-to seasoning...really just a "fresh" version of  Herbamare) and I cooked the tomatoes down a bit before adding them to the mix.  It was ridiculously good and filling...I almost stopped by marche jean-talon on our way home to pick up another batch.  

Operating from a position that agribusiness in Canada is more transparent than here in the USA, we stopped at McD before we left and my son was ecstatic...