We enjoy drinking absinthe. I appreciate its taste, and even more than that, I appreciate its strange (if not often-exaggerated) effects. It has a certain tingle that other alcohols just can’t produce.

However, we’re not often pleased with the selection available. We once found a great bottle, but for the past few years, its only been the swill that is Hill’s that’s been offered at the SAQ, and that really doesn’t have any of the warmth or tingle…it just gets you really drunk really fast. We recently read about a small influx of new absinthes that have reaches Quebec, these ones from Switzerland, the birthplace of the magical drink. This week, we picked up a pricey bottle of Clandestine absinthe to enjoy over the holidays.

We’ve sampled it, and it’s nice stuff. It’s got the tingle, it’s got the heat, it makes your cheeks flush and your toes vibrate. I think we made the perfect choice, though it’s hard to say after just a few sips. We’ll keep everyone updated once we get more…involved…

We also enjoyed a pretty beautiful walk through the snow to get it. Montreal’s gorgeous during the holidays:

The Eating Project posted a list of the 100 Chinese foods one should eat in one’s lifetime. I think I did okay, all things considered, but 50 out of 100? That’s a fail, and a long way off from the eating project’s list! Looks like I have some (really fun and delicious) work to do.

100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die

If you want to play along, copy & paste this list to your site. Put in bold the items you’ve already eaten and cross off the ones you would never try. Let me know your score by leaving a comment!

1. Almond milk
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy
5. Baijiu (chinese white liquor)
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar’s Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea
11. Buddha’s Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg
14. Cha siu (cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee
22. Conpoy (dried scallops)
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon’s Beard candy
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
38. General Tso’s Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly
42. Hainan chicken rice
43. Hand-pulled noodles
44. Har gau
45. Haw flakes
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
50. Hot Pot
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish
53. Kosher Chinese food
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r)
56. Lion’s Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
67. Pan-fried jiaozi
68. Peking duck
69. Pineapple bun
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu’er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon
77. Rose tea
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs (actually made these myself!)
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau)
94. Twice-cooked pork
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
96. Wonton noodle soup
97. Wood ear
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese

Here’s a quick post of some more of the local food we feasted upon while away on vacation. These two sandwiches are made with smoked seafood from Fumoir d’Antan, a smokehouse on the islands that specializes in smoked herring.

We went for the “tour” of the smokehouse, getting to see all the herring strung up over smouldering piles of wood. The atmosphere was great – very traditional and it felt like we had stepped back in time.

In the end, we bought all sorts of their smoked products. We brought back a jar of the smoked herring, and little tins of smoked mussels and lobster roe. We also bought some of their smoked mackerel, smoked salmon and a tray of smoked scallops. These were great to eat on their own, but even more fun to eat on sandwiches!

One lunch was smoked scallop grilled cheese, made entirely out of local products. We toasted up some of the amazing sourdough bread from the Madelon bakery, placed some of the smoked scallops on top, then smothered it with some of the unbelievable cheese from Pied-de-Vent fromagerie. Top with some black pepper and a little salt, and this was a great lunch.

Another day, we enjoyed this seafoody concocotion. Soli took some of the smoked herring and smoked salmon, tossed that into a bowl with fresh cherry tomatoes, two hard-boiled eggs, some chopped onion and a dollop of mayonnaise.

Mash it all up together, spread on some island baguette, and I was soon eating what soon became one of my most favourite sandwiches. Salty, smoky, fishy, and bright with the tomatoes – just perfection.

I loved eating these things on our porch. Who wouldn’t, when you walk out your front door and have this view?

Next post – the fishing trip! Until then, a few more photos from the islands:

We’re back from our Iles de la Madeleine vacation! We managed to miss the massive Montreal heatwave and instead enjoyed hot, windy weather and all the seafood we could possibly eat.

Soli did lots of cooking there. We had rented cottages with kitchens, so cooking up our own mussels and lobsters was easy. We only ate one small snack from one resto (a pretty pathetic lobster roll), and ate fresh, homecooked meals the rest of the time.

I’ll leave the cooking posts up to Soli…but until then, a small sampling of the things we got to eat that required no preparation or cooking.

Lobster Roll
While in Prince Edward Island, the urge for good seafood overcame us, and we ordered one sandwich with our beer. This was just way overdone with the Miracle Whip. We could barely taste the lobster, so we vowed never to eat at a resto during this trip again.

Snow Crab
We got these at a STEAL at one of the fish markets in Iles de la Madeleine. They were already cooked, so all we had to do was warm them up. We had them boiled, BBQ’d, and everything, and they were a staple in our island diet. Just heavenly.

Fresh Scallops
We made some friends while we were there (Hi William and Elodie!), who brought us down to the fishing harbour our cottage overlooked late one night to meet a boat that had just arrived with a massive haul of scallops. We bought about 3 kilos fresh off the boat and enjoyed them raw all that night and for breakfast the next morning (and then for a few days after). If you’ve never had a scallop fresh from the ocean, then you haven’t had a scallop!

We also bought some in their shells, which were also sooo amazing.

Pied de Vent Cheese
The islands have a fromagerie that produces some of the best cheese I’ve enjoyed. We bought curds that were still warm and enjoyed other cheeses with a chilled glass of wine.

After driving for about 20 hours, then getting tossed about on a 5-hour ferry ride, we got to spend a week on Iles de la Madeleine, eating and exploring to our hearts’ content. Food isn’t the only reason to go; this place is one of the most idyllic places we’ve had the opportunity to go to, and here’s a couple of photos to prove it:

Just wait until you hear about the food we actually had to work for!

Two years ago, montcarte was born. It’s been a great and delicious two years and I’ve gotten so much out of keeping this blog. I’ve stumbled across so many talented cooks and bakers, communicated with them, learned a lot about food and food photography and overall, have experienced food in a completely different way than before.

So this post is to say, Happy Birthday!

Often, the things we’ve made and loved aren’t always the dishes that bring us the most visitors. So to celebrate two years in the blogosphere, I’m going to make two lists: the first is our top 10 posts according to Google Analytics and the second is my own personal top 10 favourite dishes of the past two years.

Montcarte’s Top 10 Posts
(according to Google Analytics)

1. Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon-Lime Curd Filling and Lemon-Lime Frosting

2. Greek Pasta Salad with Feta and Olives

3. Caramel Apple Cupcakes

4. Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

5. Eggs Benedict and Toasted Crispy Spinach

6. Chocolate Crackle Cookies

7. Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

8. White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

9. Blueberry Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze

10. The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

and now…

Montcarte’s Top 10 Posts
(according to ME!)

1. Asparagus and Mushroom Bread Pudding

2. Tomato Tart (or Tarte à la tomate)

3. Crepes Terrine with Spinach, Mushroom, and Smoked Turkey

4. Orange Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake

5. Baja Fish Tacos

6. Tomato-Basil Upside Down Bread

7. White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

8. Butternut Squash and Pecan Lasagne

9. Schwartz’s Smoked Meat Pizza

10. Low and Luscious Chocolate Cheesecake with Cappuccino Swirl

Thank you to all the readers – half the fun of this site is getting the chance to know you.

So…montcarte has joined the world of tweets!

I wanna see what all the excitement is about. I also want more people to follow, so leave a comment with your name.

Follow us on Twitter!

I just made my first attempt at making my own dill pickles. I won’t reveal the recipe I used until the pickles are tested.

I had a lot of fun making them. There was something satisfying about sterilizing the jars, stuffing them with fresh dill, garlic, onions and dried chilies…and then waiting for the telltale pop!

Now I just have to wait three weeks. Well, at least they’re pretty to look at.

Stay tuned for Spicy Dill Pickles – Part II!

Well, today was the first day back to work for Soli and I. He’s been off for the last two weeks, and I was fortunate to have the whole last month off. Neither of us were too happy as we slunk back the workplace, but we did have some nice time off and enjoyed it fully.

One of the highlights was our 4-day canoe-camping trip up in desolate Tremblant. The trip was ominous from the beginning, and continued on that path, but it made for a more entertaining, if not more uncomfortable, trip. I think the key words ended up being “scary” and “slightly damp.” All of our bags got wet on the shuttle waaay up the river, as it was pouring. We got in the canoe with questionable skill and zigzagged our way across the first lake.

After getting the hang of the thing, we enjoyed taking on the first rapids and had a great first night all alone in the first campsite. We amused ourselves with talks of potential axe murderers and watching the big sky filled with stars.

The next day, we got in the canoe backwards, and careened down another set of rapids facing the wrong way. We switched, and then lost one paddle and filled the canoe with water. 1km later, we reached a beach, where Soli crafted an oar for me from a branch, trowel, belt and medical tape. We went the rest of the way like that, with various other adventures along the way. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better time.

Of course, no vacation is complete without a BBQ in the park. Our best one included some marinated steak, mushrooms and zucchinis, a variety pack of sausages from a great butcher shop here, roasted tomatoes and corn, and of course, roasted marshmallows and s’mores.

Vacation may be over, but summer’s not! Here’s hoping to a few more BBQs to come.

I’m not sure what’s up these days, but it seems Soli and I have taken a little break from the cooking blogosphere. Not only have I not been keeping up with maintaining Montcarte, I’ve been extremely slack in visiting all my favourite food blogs as well.

I’ve been doing lotsa eating…just not a whole lot of writing about eating. With spring right around the corner, I’m hoping I can get back on track.

So my apologies to any of our readers, and to all the people who usually hear my enthused comments on the fantastic food they’re writing about. I’ll be back soon!

In the meantime, a little glimpse of some of the food Soli prepared for his work a few weeks back (I was lucky enough to get to sample some of it at home): all-beef hotdogs, crispy fried onion rings, and two mouthwatering homemade ketchups, one spicy-hot and one filled with basil. Wonderful!

We couldn’t just have one winner – we wanna share the wealth. So using a random number generator, we got ourselves two winners.

The first one is loyal reader, Noble Pig. She gets a jar of caramel, as well as some super-fantastic-incredible chocolates.

But I wanted to give more, so I randomly-generated another winner. Tracey, you get a jar of caramel as well!

Please send me your mailing address:
montcarte@umbrela.com!

Congrats! We’ll play again come 100,000 hits!