Schwartz's smoked meat

now THIS place is yum .  de . la . yum . yum . for serious. YOU MUST GO HERE IF YOU'RE IN MONTREAL, NO KIDDING, ITS DELICIOUS. the place has been around for more than 80 years and you bet they have their skills down pat.





It's located at 3895 Boulevard Saint Laurent and you can tell it's a good place by the constant line that forms outside of the place! There's two sections to the restaurant - one is sit-down and one is take-out. The sit-down section is nice and cozy, with not too many seats. You often share a table with other people, which is sometimes part of the fun! When I was there I had some pretty nice conversations with random strangers who sat beside. The take-out is cool too. I mean, the smoked meat tastes the same so it doesn't really matter! There's "standing tables" in the take-out section so there's still a place to eat your food after you get it.


The food is basic.. two pieces of bread, with a smokin pile of smoked meat inbetween. you add mustard, and voila. don't know how to describe it but its just amazing. Writing about it makes me want to eat it right now. I tried a smoked meat sandwich at Nickels (a restaurant created by Celine Dion), and the smoked meat doesn't even compare to Schwartz's !


If you're in the mood, it's pretty popular to get a pickle on the side, and a cherry-flavoured soft drink of which i forget the brand. (The first time i was there, i looked around and this is what everyone else in the store had seemed to order so I tried it too!)


The smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's is simple yet should not be underestimated. It's $6 and is so worth every penny.

A plus tard,
yumdelayumyum

Next stop: Frites Alors

Frites Alors can be found at 3497 St. Laurent (and many other places around Montreal) and they sell Belgian fries. Apparently, these fries are special in that they're fried in horse oil. Me and a friend decided to try it out and we ordered fries with 3 different dipping sauces: Bearnaise, Pistou rose, and Frite alors.

We weren't really impressed. After trying all three of the dipping sauces, my friend concluded that the best dipping sauce for fries is ketchup. The sauces didn't really complement the fries all that well, and the temperature of the fries made a difference to which one we liked best. When the fries were hot, we enjoyed the Pistou rose the most, but when we revisited the fries after they cooled off, the Frites alors actually tasted the best. All in all, I wasn't so satisfied with these fries and would rather make a visit to Mcdonalds for fries with ketchup.

Yumdelayumyum

Yeh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the frozen yogurt place doesn't have THAT many exclamation points behind the name, but I got excited. Further up the street from Juliette & Chocolat, you'll find "Yeh!", a place that sells frozen yogurt and toppings BY WEIGHT! Exciting, right? That means for all you toppings lovers out there, you can get the tiny-est blob of frozen yogurt and TONS and TONS of toppings to go with it.

Here's how it works:

You start at the back, where you have 8 different frozen yogurt flavours to choose from (When I was there I got to taste test the flavours)

You take a cup and fill it with whichever flavours and however much frozen yogourt you desire

Then you move to the toppings bar where you'll find toppings varying from fresh fruits to chopped up chocolate bars to granola to dark chocolate sauce that hardens. It's a world of possibilities.


ET VOILA: the finished product

Mine's the one on the right (a slightly more healthy alternative to my friend's topping choices on the left). But it's a pretty decent sized dessert and I paid around $5 for mine. I would toooootally go back there, except next time I'd probably keep it simple (plain yogurt, strawberries, and chocolate glaze perhaps). I got a little excited my first time there and put 4 different frozen yogurt flavours and toppings of all sorts. Needless to say, the taste of the toppings pretty much masked any frozen yogurt flavours i had chosen, and I had so many toppings that some didn't complement each other so well. But now I know!


And for all those out there who don't know "frozen yogurt" as "fro-yo" yet, here's some new slang for you! Next time you are in the mood for frozen yogurt, you'll know to suggest to your friends "let's get some fro-yo at yeh!!!!!!!"

FRO YO and toppings,
yumdelayumyum

Juliette & Chocolat (and Mr. Steer)

Located at the intersection of Saint Laurent and Prince Arthur in the Plateau of downtown montreal, the adorable Juliette & Chocolat fits right in with the vibrant culture of the city.

The decor of the place is comfortable and relaxing, and it really feels like you're in an elegant chocolate shop when you're inside. The menu includes chocolate drinks and desserts. While I was there, I wanted to try something more unique, so I went with the Balsamico brownie and my friend got the crepe with milk chocolate and fruits:

The Balsamico: Bitter chocolate, raspberries, and sweet balsamic vinegar reduction

The balsamico brownie was really good! I wasn't sure what to expect, since I had never had a brownie with balsamic vinegar in it, but it was actually very tasty. Not only did I enjoy the flavour pairing of the raspberries and balsamic reduction drizzle, but the texture and sweetness of the brownie was JUST RIGHT. It was kind of gooey but not TOO gooey, and the amount of sweetness was to the point that I could enjoy the brownie without having to gulp down large amounts of water. This made me super happy, because a couple days before having this brownie, I had a dessert brownie at Mr. Steer (1198 Rue Saint Catherine Ouest) and the brownie was wayyy to sweet. While Mr. Steer has great burgers (I tried a steerburger and it was delicious!), their dessert brownies are FAR from the calibre of brownies at Juliette & Chocolat. Below are pictures of my burger and dessert brownie at Mr. Steer:

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I would definitely recommend the balsamico brownie to anyone who plans on going to Juliette & Chocolat. It's unique and tasty, with just the right amount of gooiness and sweetness. If you're not a fan of balsamic vinegar, I'd go for any of their other brownies. The Cranberry-Pistachio one sounds amazing too. As for the crepe, I had a taste of it, and it is VERY chocolate-y. It's probably just as much chocolate as there is crepe, and if you like that much chocolate on your crepe, then you would probably enjoy this! As for Mr. Steer, the burgers are really really good (they claim to have the best burgers in the world), but I'd go somewhere else for dessert.

Salut,

Yumdelayumyum

Montreal - Food in le Plateau

MONTREAL, a place with EPIC foods. Here in this post I provide you with a list of the restaurants I've tried in the le Plateau area of Montreal (there is a LOT of good food in that area)! The coming series of posts will be an expansion and description of each restaurant and my review of each.

Starting from south to north:
Juliette & Chocolat: Saint Laurent and Prince Arthur
Yeh!: 2804 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Frites Alors: 3497 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Schwartz's: 3895 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Patati Patata: 4177 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Rotisserie Romados: 115 Rue Rachel Est
La Banquise: 994 Rue Rachel Est
Boulangerie Premiere Moisson: 860 avenue do Mont-Royal Est

Stay tuned!
Yumdelayumyum

Cool toilets (Part 2)

The following isn't exactly about how cool the toilets themselves are, but about the decorations in the bathroom. I was at an amusement park in Japan called Fujikyu Highland, and to my surprise, the most amusing thing there was actually the bathroom.

You walk in and you see this:

And then you go to the toilet:

Apparently everyone who needs to go to the bathroom at this amusement park is in a rush to get there.

Then you close the door behind you and the back of the door is even more ridiculous:

You leave the stall and go to wash your hands, and they do a pretty good job of boosting your self esteem as you leave:

There you have it - my toilet adventures in Japan.

Until next time,

Yumdelayumyum

Cool toilets (Part 1)!

As you might recall, the first restaurant I wrote about in my blog was Modern Toilet in Hong Kong. I'm now revisiting the good ol' toilets cause after all, what goes in must come out! The advent of toilets and sinks for hand-washing played a big part in increasing life expectancy by providing a means of sanitation.

SO in this post I'll be showing you some cool toilets in Tokyo, Japan from my visit there. As much as the sushi and fish were very fresh, I think i spent more time on my trip capturing pictures of toilets rather than food. Here goes:

 The toilet in our hotel room: check out the fancy buttons on the side

A close-up view of the side panel -- You can change the temperature of the seat, wash your bum, and I can't remember if this toilet does this, but I saw one where you can actually make the toilet play flushing sounds so that those shy pee-ers don't have to be self-conscious.

And this one was in a restaurant. Pretty neat concept for water conservation! When you flush and the toilet bowl refills, this toilet actually pumps clean water through a sink at the top before that water goes into the toilet bowl. That way, you can wash your hands with the clean water and the soapy greywater will be flushed away with the next flush.

Keep checking back for Part 2 of my toilet adventures in Japan!

Until then--

Yumdelayumum