I met Soli six years ago! The “middle of March” is what I consider our anniversary…our first date was a sushi night, preceded by beers at Dieu du Ciel. It was a great first date, and the following six years have been wonderful and exciting, to say the least. They’ve been filled with food, but also many other adventures, so I thought I’d do a brief recap. Our life together has been full and happy, and I think we’ve made the right choices along the way.

In the past six years, I’ve lived in 4 1/2 homes. I was living in Verdun when I met him, but within a few weeks after our first date, I had taken up residence in his apartment on Parc, visiting my place only occasionally to wash our clothes and pay my rent. In less than one year, I signed for a very loft-like apartment for us to live in on Hotel-de-Ville while he was away on a ten-day meditation. We lived there for a few years, until we were asked to leave (someone bought the building and wanted to move in to our spot). We found a place on Brebeuf and spent a few more years there together, but eventually found it a bit too small and dark for our liking. This past December, we moved into a new home right off of Prince Arthur (one with a backyard and a basement!) and we’re planning on spending a few years here.

We’ve accumulated three cats. Kitin, the grey one, has been with me for about thirteen years now. We adopted Buuda (the black one) from a rescue network and Benedict walked into our Hotel-de-Ville home one morning and just never left.

We’ve travelled around a bit. Our first vacation, about eight months into the relationship, was a sleepless 10-day trip to Vancouver, eating sushi and riding motorcycles.

Our second summer together, I went to New York City for the first time. We started the trip with witnessing an abduction across the street and ended it with patching the axle of the car with bandaids.

The following summer, I took Soli canoe camping, fully expecting him to know how to canoe. We ended up going down rapids backwards in our canoe, losing an oar, and sleeping in a tent with only one dry sweater between the two of us to act as mattress, pillow and blanket. Once you can live together in a cold, damp tent with nothing to do but draw TV screens in the sand and paddle down a river with an oar made out of a tree branch and a trowel, you know you can weather any storm.

Next summer, we took a roadtrip to the Magdalen Islands, a journey through New Brunswick, and then a stop in Prince Edward Island where I insisted on throwing lobster shells out one mile down a dark country road.

Les Isles de les Madeleines? A ferry ride to the place where all beautiful seafood lives. Our bag of scallops and lobster tail snacks were the epitome of great food.

This past summer, we spent time in San Francisco. I thought California would be hot….it isn’t. We scootered around and ate everything we could.

But that was only after spending three weeks in Hawaii…first on Big Island, where we walked across volcanoes, climbed the “highest” mountain in the world (from sea level) and stuffed ourselves with kimchi crabs.

And then on Kauai where we flew in helicopters and I got sick on boats, hiked to waterfalls and woke up to a view of rainforest, dozens of waterfalls and rainbows.

Of course, there’s been a lot of food in between…but sometimes, life is more than just food.

Another year, another visit to the Au Pied de Cochon cabane a sucre done. This year’s was definitely the year to go; it was our third time, and it was definitely the best of the bunch. The food never stopped coming, and every dish we had was spectacular, making this the year to beat. I don’t think there’s a need to go into all the fatty, meaty, decadent details, (additionally, I didn’t take as many photos as I usually do, even not photographing some dishes at all!) so here’s the quick overview.

I sent an email to the sugarshack, requesting to be on their waiting list, as I had accidentally missed the December 1st deadline to call in for reservations. I got a phonecall from the sugarshack not too long afterwards, telling me they had room for a 5:30pm Sunday seating, so we borrowed a car and headed out of the city, taking a quick detour through the town of Oka, and arriving at the cabane a sucre right on time.

The table was a bit squished, and definitely chilly, but things started heating up when the food started pouring out. First, a pitcher of beer for the four of us, and Soli tried one of the custom drinks, which was incredible. I don’t recall exactly what was in it beyond spruce beer, but it was bright, a little sour, fresh, and actually had some pretty thick applesauce in it.

We waited a little bit while the people sharing our table started getting their food. We had arrived significantly later than they did, and so we had to wait for our food. However, it soon arrived, and once it did, it never stopped.

Tourtiere with foie gras, pork (extra $10 for ½ pie, $20 for whole pie) – This is my favourite dish. Absolutely heaven. It’s served with a housemade tomato chutney.

Crispy potato slices, topped with smoked herring and maple syrup

Creton terrine (sweetbreads, foie gras, black pudding) served with blinis (unfortunately, no photo here, but it was amazing.)

Sturgeon “sushi” – sweet, fresh.

Lobster and smoked meat soufflé. This year was so fluffy, with chunks of lobster throughout.

Vol-au-vent with foie gras, béchamel, cheese, and apple and watercress salad – so rich, so buttery, so perfect. One of the top favs.

BBQ pork flank/BBQ suckling pig, served on potatoes and cabbage

Roasted duck in pepper sauce

Baked beans with duck legs (this is the amount of beans we took home!)

Maple Skor blizzards, duck fat fritters (not pictured), maple éclairs, maple mini cones, maple buns, maple taffy

About the time the so creamy, so amazing vol-au-vent was being eaten, we realized we still had several dishes of food coming our way, and we had been full since the light and fluffly smoked meat and lobster soufflé. When we saw the size of the platters bearing the duck and crispy onion rings, the fatty, saucy pork, the bucket of beans bigger than my head, we knew we were in trouble. I’m pretty sure we each took about one spoonful of beans, a few pieces of crispy duck skin and about one slice of pork before declaring defeat. This time, the sugarshack was offering take-home containers, so we piled all the food in. After all, we did want to leave some room for dessert!

All the take-home containers, before piling them into a cardboard box!

Another stunning cabane a sucre experience at Au Pied de Cochon! Until next year!