tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43511490155898601242024-03-13T10:19:14.161-04:00Walking SoloWalking around in MontréalStephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-39522871563772210732013-08-12T23:32:00.001-04:002013-08-12T23:32:38.692-04:00Cars Cars Cars and more cars!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've been out and about and this past month I have spotted quite a lot of awesome automobiles. Why would I pay for a car show when you have all these beauties parked on the side of the streets of Montreal?</div>
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First off, I spotted this beautiful Parisienne from Pontiac a few weeks back in July.</div>
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And then this crazy gorgeous red Cadillac convertible. No idea what model or yer though. If anyone has any idea, I'd like to know.<br />
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Another beautiful Pontiac. Still don't know what model or year.<br />
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A GMC Vandura! Fully equipped! They cost an arm and a leg to fill up and to drive around, but man it must be fun to travel in one of these! This one is a real beauty.<br />
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And would you believe it that right on the street where I worked, just a block away from a freakin' Tesla (I kid you not) I found this god damn Ford Model T convertible! It has wheels made of wood! I have no idea what kind of gasoline this thing runs on. I saw the man drive by with this thing and my jaw just dropped.<br />
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And finally, I spotted this old Valiant. For some reason, I always found this brand to be special. It's the name. I just remember as a kid seeing one and my dad telling me what it was and it made me think of Eddie Valiant, the private eye in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.<br />
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<br />Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-74144959144939188162013-08-12T23:16:00.002-04:002013-08-12T23:16:48.879-04:00Haha! Real funny!It's been another month and a lot has been happening. I haven't been able to go walk around much mostly because of the crazy weather. Check it out.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8jTZJzmuik/UfXi504N41I/AAAAAAAAkA0/UQnFr3HH3Ns/s1600/IMG_20130719_154305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8jTZJzmuik/UfXi504N41I/AAAAAAAAkA0/UQnFr3HH3Ns/s400/IMG_20130719_154305.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">First you see this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Then this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Then you don't see anything at all.</span></div>
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Mother nature's been crazy stupid lately. Thankfully, Montreal isn't short of entertaining during the summer. The last couple of weeks, the Just for Laughs festival has kicked off along with the Fantasia festival. (My favourite!)<br />
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Fantasia is a movie festival where for a couple of weeks, repertoire and obscure movies. Most of them are foreign, from Asia, but a lot are from many other countries from Europe, South America, even the U.S. as well as local movies. It's an amazing time to watch old Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies from the 70's on the big screen along with great Japanese animation movies and of course a ton of horror and really weird shit along with total crap B-movies. Last week, my friend which I always went to concerts with, invited me to see a Japanese movie called Shield of Straw. It was really bad. I was sad because I recognized one of the actors right away. He was the main character in one of my favourite Japanese movies called Tampopo. Anyway, Shield of Straw was about this man who is released from prison and who's a child molster murderer psychopath. He kills a girl a soon as he gets out of prison and the girl's father happens to be a gazillionaire and puts a price on his head. Anyone who kills him gets a billion yen. The guy turns himself in and the cops have to bring him to a large courthouse in another city and everyone is out the get the murderer, yet they have to protect him to try him in court. The movie could've been good, but some parts were just taking way too long and they totally blew the ending even though they had a chance for it to finish really well.<br />
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Anyway, one thing that was cool though is that the movie was presented in the Théatre Impérial. It's a beautiful theatre and I absolutely love it there. That's where the festival started originally, but because the theatre fell into disrepair and was eventually revamped and cost way to much to rent afterwards, the festival continued at the Concordia university theatre. This year they were able to go back to the old one and it's fantastic. We had to sit on the second floor balcony though because my friends were late getting there and it got packed pretty quick. Here are a few shots of the place.<br />
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Just for Laughs is the largest comedy festival in the world. It's really a big variety show festival focused mostly on comedy. So you have stand up comics from all over the world coming over to do shows such as Dave Chappelle and Russel Peters, some others from France as well, you have tons of live shows, acrobats, street performers, it's a really fun festival. Oh and while walking through the crowd one day I bumped into the super fabulous <a href="http://spandyandy.com/">Spandy Andy</a>! I got to say hello, but he was in a hurry so I couldn't take a picture with him. Boo!<br />
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Recently, there's another one that was started in parallel called Zoofest which also focuses on comedy, but for discovering emerging talent. I prefer Zoofest over Just for Laughs because there's a batch of fresh comedians with new ideas. The humour is also aimed towards a younger crowd than Just for Laughs where the comedians seem to target the baby boomers a bit more. The festival is located pretty much at the same place as any other festival, Place des Arts. Here's what they did with the place.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This is Victor, the mascot of the Just for Laughs festival since 1983.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I think he's ugly as hell and the festival is due for a new mascot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The crowds just sit in the stairs while watching</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">free comedy shows on outdoor stages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A restaurant/bar was set up next to the fountains at the top of Place des Arts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Some activities and shows were held in tents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A maze. Scared the shit out of me. Stupid green goblin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">An area was set up where people could play board games.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">On the largest stage, there are a lot of bigger shows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The night I was passing through, they happened to have a drag queen music show.</span></div>
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During the festival, a friend of mine was a special guest as a part of a burlesque show organized by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SublimesRondeursCDB">Sublimes Rondeurs</a>. I <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/03/bail-out-saturday.html">discovered them last March</a> at the Café Cléopatre. I also went to see their amazing sold-out geek themed event called <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/04/geek-burlesque-in-katacombes-of-doom.html">Burlesgeek in April at the Katacombes</a>. They were able to get a special tent with adult-only shows during the festival and did a bunch of gigs. I really like them because they have a very good imagination for their gigs and are very entertaining and funny. During the show, cameras are forbidden, but they let us take a few pictures of one of the girls for Facebook posting purposes. So there, it should give you an idea of what it looked like.<br />
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Another group I got to discover were the <a href="http://fivefootfingers.com/">Five Foot Fingers</a>. They are a bunch of dude from France with an amazing talent for comedy, entertainment and acrobatics. I guess these guys use to be circus acrobats? I saw one of their shows on the big outdoor stage where they did some stunts with ropes and giant ribbons and did a few silly acts. They were hilarious and I had a great time watching their show.<br />
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Also present at this Just For Laughs festival, was a food truck area. This year there has been a big boom in food trucks. Mostly because the city's administration has decided to finally permit food trucks in Montreal. Within certain limits, of course, such as you can't park your Chinese food truck next to a Chinese restaurant for example. Still, it's already an improvement and the food truck market is really booming thanks to this. Also, check out <a href="http://streetfoodmontreal.com/">this website, StreetFoodMontreal.com</a>. It's a blog about Montreal's street food!<br />
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I went around the area with some cash in my pockets and decided to try some of them out. For the most part, it was great. The first one I tried was a food truck called <a href="http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/index_e.html">Au Pied de Cochon</a>. That one is affiliated with the restaurant of the same name. The owner and head chef of that restaurant is crazy, but really amazing. He's all about cooking duck and foie gras. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD2HxJoCD54">Anthony Bourdain loves this place</a> and their chef, Martin Picard, is one of his personal idols. When I saw they had a food truck I had to try something just for the sake of it.<br />
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When I was around I only had a few bucks in my pocket so I settled for the <i>manchon de canard</i>. This could be grossly translated to a "small duck handle". It's basically like a chicken thigh cooked like chicken wing and it came with a sticky maple sauce. It was amazingly delicious.<br />
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I came back a few days later with some more cash and went around most of the food trucks. Some of them I recognized from last year. For example, Death Grill.<br />
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Les Brigands, who seem to be selling pies and pastries and other things.<br />
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Perogies, hot dogs and burgers! I <b>love</b> perogies!<br />
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Le cheese. They sold grilled cheeses. I had one just to see how good they were. I wasn't disappointed. The bread seemed like it was fresh bakery bread an toasted to perfection. The cheese was real orange cheddar cheese. It was rich and it was delicious.<br />
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More food tucks.<br />
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Eventually I spotted one of my favourites from last year, the Japanese squid balls food truck. They make little balls out of squid meat and dough and they fry those up in little round molds. They serve that with a drizzle of sauce, green onions and what looks like paper-thin strips of bacon, but it's actually smoked fish.<br />
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Then I saw Diner Express who had their menu in front of their truck. They had an interesting menu with a bit of variety. I mean it went from mac and cheese to wild game shepherd's pie, chili con carne to Thai curry and even braised beef with bacon and maple syrup. Yum!</div>
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Since I got there at the end of my round of food trucks I had just enough for the mac and cheese. So I got myself a small cup. The mac n cheese was very special. The cheese sauce was all at the bottom of the cup, I guess you were supposed to mix it? The presentation was so great that I didn't even dare. It was served with a slice of hot pepperoni sausage, a piece of shrimp, a leaf of basil and fish eggs! It was quite the mix and I must say that it was delish!<br />
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This was a very fun festival this year compared to other years. It just seemed like it was organized a little differently, and better! Though I haven't really seen many shows, other than the Five Foot Fingers and Sublimes Rondeurs, I really enjoyed myself this time. It felt more open and more accessible. I hope they keep this same formula next year.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-7963032869714248972013-07-14T18:57:00.002-04:002013-07-14T18:57:30.419-04:00Random stuff from the past couple of weeksI haven't had the time to go out much these past few weeks. I have been keeping pretty busy, especially since I found a new job! I have been working pretty hard at finding a job and I must say that it worked pretty quickly considering it takes most people a lot more time to find work. The new company is new and very small, but have a lot of potential. I think this might be a very good opportunity.<br />
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Earlier this month, while working at my parent's place on their new patio, my sister found a couple of large moths hiding in one of my dad's plants. Just a couple of days before that, there was one that was batting its wings trying to get into my apartment window. It was huge and I was surprised to find some more. And as weeks went by I've been seeing more and more of them. If I didn't know better, I'd say Mothra was about to invade the city with an army of its offspring. I mean look at it! It's freakin' majestic! Click on the images to zoom in.<br />
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Since this is a blog about walking solo, I did walk around town by myself a little bit too. I captured a few things on my camera, but not a lot. First of all, on Saint-Denis there was this bakery (<a href="http://www.dliche.ca/en/">D Liche</a>) that made a tray of cupcakes and decided to recreate Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night in frosting. If you know someone who really loves his work, then this would make an awesome birthday cake.<br />
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Also on Saint-Denis, a chalkboard has been put up with a bunch of chalks. It's a way to let the passersby express themselves. The board has a message printed on it and you have to fill in the blanks with whatever you feel like. The message on the board reads "I wouldn't want to die before having..." and people wrote what was really important for them. I was in a pretty lonesome mood and was about to write something, but then after reading some of the answers, I decided not to. I mean, my excuse would've been pretty lame next to "until I can beat cancer" or "until I can reach the age of 16 because of a disease". Though some others wrote "until I had sex with a porn star" or "killed Justin Bieber" or "become a gazillionnaire". It's times like these I wish I had a brilliant comedic mind so I could come up with something funny and witty. Maybe I'll pass by again and write "I wouldn't want to die before having - found something witty and funny to write on this board".<br />
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Last weekend was an amazing day. The weather was simply fantastic. We had been having a lot of rain and thunderstorms, which I guess is another reason why I wasn't going out as much. But, that time was just beautiful. It was sunny and warm and not too humid so we could actually enjoy the hot sun without feeling heavy and sweaty. So I grabbed a Bixi bike and rode into town. Riding along Rachel street, I decided to go through the Lafontaine park. It's a beautiful park and there's always fun stuff to see there. This time around, there was a gathering of Japanese Anime nerds. They gathered in the park, all dressed up in costumes to celebrate their geeky fetish for Japanese cartoons. I love these. Some people have great imagination and are really creative. Some of them come up with costumes that would make you believe the characters actually came to life. Some others, well, hardly try, or just want to get attention. (I'm looking at you, bikini girls - by the way can I get your number?)<br />
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Oh and I went up to Mont-Royal street to buy some summer shoes and came across this magnificent red Cadillac with white washed tires. Gotta love these classic cars.<br />
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Finally, last Friday I went for a walk to get my mind off my new job. I'm not stressed about it or anything like that, it's just that programming is like solving a puzzle. And when I have a puzzle to solve, my mind just keeps at it until I do something get my focus elsewhere. I walked around a bunch of places looking for a good home made iced tea somewhere and I was coming down Saint-Denis, I noticed that a section of the street between Mont-Royal and Sherbrooke had been yarn-bombed. All the lamp posts along the east side of the street were covered in patches that had been knitted together. It was pretty cool. Some dude was even hugging a post saying how good it felt to the touch. I say it's a plot against environmentalism by the conservative government who's bought by the energy lobby. Instead of hugging trees, people are now hugging lamp posts. So when they remove the trees from the street to make more room for parking meters, people won't mind as much because they'll be too busy forgetting about the trees. Everybody, open your eyes! It's a conspiracy! Ok ok... let me go get my tin foil hat.<br />
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Just south of Sherbrooke, the street was closed. All the bars and restaurants had their terrasse or patio set up on the street and there were performers doing all sorts of crazy artsy fartsy theatrical displays of self expression. You know, those plays where nobody says a word and everybody wears weird costumes and run everywhere, then fall on the ground then jump and do a weird face at the crowd and everybody's just going "what the fuck am I looking at" and "what is this supposed to even mean"? Yeah, well that kind of stuff. But a little further down, there was someone playing a didjeridoo. When I got to the source, instead of looking at the street, everyone was looking up. When I looked, I saw a man walking a tight rope. Thank god the winds were pretty calm that day. He was pretty high up there. He was already in the middle of the rope when I got to the show. And yes, he made it across safely.<br />
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You know, during the summer in Montreal, I almost feel bad when I'm not stepping out for a walk. Simply because you never know what opportunity you'll be missing. Maybe there's gonna be a gathering of really interesting people somewhere, or a street performance in another place, or maybe a big live show at Place Des Arts or a parade or a festival of some kind. This city is pretty awesome during the summer. Too bad it doesn't last so long.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-37790293199550991752013-06-24T23:45:00.001-04:002013-06-24T23:45:06.754-04:00Fringe 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Montreal Fringe Festival started this month. I only started hearing about this <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/06/fringe-fest.html">last year when I stumbled on it by accident</a>. This year I paid a little bit more attention to it and its show schedule. There were a few shows that I actually wanted to see, but it never fit with my schedule. Either they were too late and I had a job interview the next day or I had other plans like helping my dad build a new patio in his backyard. Either way, I feel like I missed out. But, I didn't want to miss out on going to the Parc des Amériques on the corner of Saint-Laurent & Rachel and just hang out and see what happens. Little did I know, I was in for a treat as you'll find out later.<br />
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First of all, I took a Bixi bike and rode all the way to the Parc Lafontaine then walked to Mont-Royal and headed west to get to Saint-Laurent. It was a pretty warm evening so I grabbed a homemade iced tea along the way from a local coffee shop and cooled down a bit. Parked in front of the Cruella gothic clothing store was this vintage Triumph motorcycle. As I may have mentioned before, those are my favourite motorcycles. Especially the classic ones. Their shape, the spokes in the wheels and just the style and simplicity of the machine itself make these vintage bikes so damn beautiful. Apparently though, these bikes are hard to ride, especially on long rides because they vibrate so much. After just a short time your whole body gets numb. But, that's just what some stranger said one the street as we were both admiring this beauty. He told me a friend of his built one and that's how he knows. I guess I'll take his word for it.<br />
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I kept on walking down Saint-Laurent and got to the park where the Fringe festival had their base set up. I went in and bought myself a beer and a jumbo hot dog and started collecting flyers in case I'd want to go see any of the shows being advertised. When I found as many as I could, I just sat down and sipped on my drink for a while and killed some time.<br />
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Then, a band went on the little stage beneath the cement arch in the middle of the park and started doing sound checks and getting ready. I stuck around to listen to them and see what they sounded like. Initially, they announced that their drummer was away due to a loss in his family, and they keep insisting that even though they are going to play their songs acoustically, they are not an acoustic band, but a true rock band and they usually rock out way more than this. I didn't know who they were so I didn't really care. But, when the show started, I was blown away.<br />
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Their lead singer had one hell of an awesome rockin' voice. She is an amazing singer and her voice gave me goosebumps! They played a few songs for maybe an hour or so and I really enjoyed their show. I had no idea who they were though. I don't know why I didn't ask anyone. But, a few days later I searched on the Fringe website and found out they are called <a href="http://thedamntruth.com/">The Damn Truth</a> and are from Montreal. Here's what it sounded like, but I ask you to check out their website and see their other music videos to see what their normal non-acoustic music sounds like.<br />
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Actually, here's what they usually sound like. Live. I swear they are fucking awesome live.<br />
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While I hung out in the park, I found out that as a part of the Fringe fest, graffiti artists painted murals around the Plateau. I thought I'd go and scope out the area and find out where they were and I found quite a few. So, here are a bunch that I shot with my phone camera. After that I went home. I was pretty tired that evening and decided to cut it short and just relax.<br />
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Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-88701282943026713102013-06-17T01:05:00.001-04:002013-06-24T20:15:23.160-04:00The Plateau, Mile-End and Park Avenue.Sometime this week I decided to go out for one heck of a long walk. I wanted to walk for so long my legs would feel numb. I was lonely and kind of in a funk and I just needed to get away from it all. Kind of trying to run away from my life problems for a little while y'know? Walking was my way of dealing with the way I felt last year, and it's helping me deal with the new problems I'm facing this year. Losing my job was tough. I loved my job; I loved what I did and I was proud of it too. The circumstances under which I lost my job were also very frustrating, to say the least. So, I was in need of a really good long walk to help me take it easy and chill.<br />
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I got off at the Berri-Uqam metro station and walked up Saint-Denis. Took a turn on Mont-Royal and headed west 'til I hit Saint-Laurent and went north. I thought I'd visit the Mile-End one more time. I've come to like that place quite a bit because of its neighbourhood feel and because it's still not as flashy and pretentious as the Plateau yet.<br />
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But, while I was walking around on Mont-Royal, I saw something incredible: a scooter. Yeah, but not <i>just</i> a scooter. It's the single most awesomest scooter I've ever seen. Here are some shots of the bike and let me explain just <i>why</i> it's so awesome. First of all, yeah it's an old scooter; looks like a classic Vespa. In the first picture, you notice how the owner added a whole bunch of mirrors and lights and horns on his bike, right? It's like the dude just went crazy and decided to put enough mirrors to simultaneously check out the booty of half a dozen chicks he just zoomed by as they're recovering from partial blindness caused by the flash of lights from all the headlamps. In the second picture you see the spare tires and extra chrome pipes going all around the bike. That was not standard on these bikes, nor was it available at all on any stock Vespa. But, the most crucial detail is in the third picture; the one where you see the back of the scooter. Notice, just below the brake light, there's a little bulls-eye symbol there. That is the Royal Air Force roundel. The genuine symbol of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(subculture)">modernist subculture, also called the mod subculture</a>.<br />
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The mod subculture originated in London, England after the second world war and became really popular around the mid 60s. Basically, the trend involved tailored suits, bomber jackets, listening to music from bands like The Who and of course, customized scooters. The Royal Air Force logo, I heard, became their symbol because a lot of the kids who followed that trend were from families that served in the second world war and whose father had served in the RAF. Also, the patches added a certain edge to their bomber jackets as well among all the other patches they would put on there. The term modernist though initially came from fans of modern jazz music. Originally it was all about wearing modern Italian clothes, but that changed a bit over time and in the late 60's the subculture was slowly taken over by skinheads. They weren't racist or white supremacists or anything like what we've heard of in the media or in movies. It was a new trend where people would get a really short haircut or shave their heads and where the fashion was inspired a bit more by the Jamaican rude boy street culture. Oh and lets not forget the Dr Martens boots!<br />
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How I became aware of this subculture is actually through a graphic novel that I bought last year called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadenders">The Deadenders</a>, written by one of my favourite comic book authors, Ed Brubaker and drawn by Warren Peece. The story has a lot of mod subculture references, especially among the main characters who are scooter-riding kids in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, stuck in permanent darkness because of an unexplainable dimension-altering cataclysm that happened in the past... or something. Anyway, I highly recommend that graphic novel. It's an awesome story with great artwork.<br />
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Anyway, I would've love to meet the owner of that scooter and have a chat. I'd be curious to know how he got the idea and what's his/her background.<br />
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A little further in my walk I came across a new graffiti that I hadn't noticed before. It's okay, but the whole stormtrooper-Darth Vader helmet thing is getting a little old. Ok, we get it, Star Wars is cool and it's funny to imagine one of those characters doing something else except getting shot by Han Solo or without a leather suit and cape, force-choking an officer. Seriously, try harder.<br />
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When I was walking up Saint-Laurent, I stopped at some point to check my phone for a message and as I was looking around waiting for something to load I spotted another graffiti. This one I <i>know</i> I've seen somewhere in a picture, but I could not put my finger on it. It's the weird mask-face-thing that I recalled from somewhere. I thought I'd take a pic and hope that someone could tell me where this could've been displayed before. It's a sweet graffiti what with the colours of the local hockey team and such. And the way it's drawn is very <i>street</i>, if that's any kind of adjective you can use.<br />
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I eventually reached up Saint-Viateur and turned on it until I reached Park Avenue, or <i>Avenue du Parc</i>. Then I started coming back down again towards downtown. I never really walked down Park Avenue long enough to take notice of anything particular. There's a great little cupcake bakery there that I <i>love</i> called Cocoa Locale held by this single young lady who makes the single most delicious dark chocolate and raspberry or orange cupcakes you'll ever have. (I'll walk by it and take pics and talk about it in a later post. Promise!) But, it was late and everything was closed so I thought it would be best to come back and take pictures during the day and talk about that street in a future post.<br />
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One place got my attention though. I was walking by this small place in a basement and it had really nice smooth classic jazz music, which I really enjoy and find most relaxing. Contrary to many other jazz places in Montreal like the Dièze Onze, the Upstairs Jazz Lounge or the House of Jazz which are a bit upscale and where I wouldn't go wearing just a t-shirt & jeans, this place was pretty laid back and casual. So, I stepped in to take a look. It was a little vegan café with a small stage at the back for jazz bands to play! It was a nice cozy little place. As I walked in there was the smell of spices like cardamon and curry mixed with the coffee. I decided to take a break and have a cup of coffee. Besides, I still had a long way to go to get back downtown anyway. By the way, they don't serve filtered coffee there; their regular coffee is freshly ground and made in a French press. Now that's my kind of coffee! It was also very delicious to a point that I drank it straight up black. I sat there and sipped on my cup and relaxed to the smooth sounds of trumpets, piano, bass and drums. The place is called <a href="http://www.resonancecafe.com/">Résonance </a>and is located on Park Avenue just at the corner of Fairmount.<br />
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After that I kept on walking towards the city centre along the mountain. The breeze was cool and smelled of freshly cut grass. It was very pleasant. But, not as pleasant as the view you get from the Montreal skyline on that street. It's the next best thing to climbing up Mont-Royal at night in my opinion. It was a great view and I enjoyed walking down that street very much.<br />
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Eventually Park Avenue turns into Bleury street and you end up at Place Des Arts. But, that night there was a live show for the Francofolies French music festival and it had just finished. So, I headed a little further west on Sainte-Catherine to the McGill station to avoid the big crowd in the metro and get in one station ahead and finally headed back home. When I got to my place I lied down on my couch for a while because my legs were numb from walking. In total, I walked 8km! That's one heck of a walk.<br />
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<br />Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-39373362821867492272013-06-16T21:52:00.001-04:002013-06-16T21:52:18.317-04:00Grand Prix weekend, or The Douchebags are Coming!Last weekend was the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. I love racing, but I really, <i>really</i> hate the F1 racing weekend in Montreal. Why? Because that one event gathers some of the worst people of this world into my city. Rich, opulent douche bags who come here in their high end luxury sports cars to hang out in pretentious bars and restaurants, flash their money and hire escorts and sex workers to cheat on their wife. Well, not all of them. But, a whole lotta them do. Actually, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/06/07/montreal-grand-prix-prostitution.html">it is a known fact that demand for sex workers increase significantly in Montreal during that event</a>. The worst part is that most of the time these customers will be rough and abusive and violate those sex workers because they're tourists and come from far away. Thankfully, all I had to deal with were a bunch of douche bags in muscle shirts and tribal tattoos and their girlfriends with huge fake tits from Montreal's equivalent of the Jersey Shore: Laval and Brossard.<br />
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So, last weekend I totally forgot that during the Grand Prix, Montreal closes up some streets for some activities. I got off at Place Des Arts and walked to Saint-Laurent only to find the street closed off to circulation north of Sherbrooke and a crowd of the aforementioned kinds of people. Actually it wasn't so bad. It could've been worse. It could've been Crescent street.<br />
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Anyway, as I was walking up I saw a few fancy cars. I thought I'd share a few. First of all, here's all the supercars; the Lambos and Ferraris and Austin Martins and whatever. And to think some people drove these things in the pothole-filled Montreal streets in heavy traffic. It makes me cringe just thinking about it.<br />
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Some others were brought there for show like this horrible camo Ferrari. Oh God, why?<br />
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However, there were some pretty classy vehicles from the past exposed there. It was a crying shame that they had to be parked out in the rain. Like this black 1948 Buick Super, or a white Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75.<br />
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My biggest surprise that night was seeing that there was some stuff happening on Mont-Royal as well. I was confused because usually they stick to Crescent and Saint-Laurent during the Grand-Prix. But, it was pretty empty. And on my way back down Saint-Denis, I spotted a nice motorcycle and a hot-rod. The motorcycle is a Triumph, my favourite motorcycle brand because they have some very good looking classic bikes. And the hot-rod is an old Plymouth Coupe, with the fenders "coupés", get it? Because "coupé" means cut off in French. Hahahaha! Oh I'm so funny!...<br />
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Well, that walk was pretty tiring. I hate large packed crowds. I always feel like I'm in survival mode and on high alert in those situations. Always trying to find my way to the nearest largest empty space so I can breathe. When I saw the barriers on Saint-Laurent, I should've taken another path, but I decided to cut through anyways. Hey you never know what you might see or who you might meet. Anyway, it wasn't <i>so</i> bad in the end. And I got to see some nice classic cars. I love those!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-75567683645739994842013-06-01T02:50:00.001-04:002013-06-01T02:50:06.222-04:00The Rent-a-Bike and the Ice CreamIt's been WEEKS since I last took a walk around town. I had a feeling that I was missing some exercise and some "fresh" air. (Or, however fresh the air can get in Montréal. Probably not so fresh.) I was very busy with all sorts of personal project and hobbies and socializing with friends. Well, now I have all the time in the world. Especially since <b>I just lost my job last week</b>. That's right. Turns out I couldn't work fast enough and wasn't a good fit. But, It's kinda hard when not only do you not get any training to the stuff you're working on, but also the subject matter expert never has any time to answer any questions you might have <i>and</i> your car gets wrecked by some tow truck on Christmas eve and you have to deal with the city's administration, the towing company, the garage, small claims court and all sorts of shit for months, among other things. With all these things to think about and all the stress, it doesn't matter how hard you try, you're bound to get a little distracted and lose some performance. But anyway, things could be worse.<br />
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Tonight there is an activity happening in Montreal called the <i><a href="http://www.feriaduvelo.com/en/feria/The-Montreal-Bike-Fest">Féria du vélo</a></i> or the Montreal Bike Fest. Basically, the city sets up a circuit for cyclists so they can literally bike all around the city. There's one during the day and one at night. There are a bunch of activities along the circuit with street performers and volunteers and what not. It's a lot of fun. The weather was perfect today for that too, it was hot but not too much. So, that gave me an idea. I hadn't done any cardio exercise in a couple of days since I played floor hockey with a couple of friends (I scored 3 goals! WOO!), and I needed to blow off some steam from all the shit that's been going on in my life so I got inspired by the bike fest thing and decided to get a <a href="https://montreal.bixi.com/">Bixi rent-a-bike</a>, hop on the bike path just north of my apartment and pedal all the way to Saint-Laurent street. The best part is, I got to pick the illest bike in town! A Wu-Tang bike, yo!<br />
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Also, I just recently acquired a Bixi bike pass key that allows me to quickly get any bike from any renting station. For an annual fee, I get 45 minutes of usage for free every time I pick up a bike, and a much reduced fare if I use it for longer. Since I can't store my own bike at home (it's still in my parent's shed), I can just use one of those. The best part is that they're available practically everywhere in the city center. I was supposed to use it to bike back home occasionally from work downtown, but I guess this plan's all gone to hell now.<br />
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When I finally got to Saint-Laurent, I walked into the nearest coffee shop and got myself an ice cold bottle of water to cool down. I walked up to Mont-Royal and turned until I reached Saint-Denis and went down again. I kinda felt like having ice cream on this hot summer evening and I knew <a href="http://www.bulleaucarre.com/le-kiosque.php">a place at square Saint-Louis</a> that has delicious home made gelato. But, on my way there, right on the corner of Saint-Denis and Rue Roy, I saw a craft ice cream parlour called <a href="http://www.lesgivres.ca/">Les Givrés</a> (The Frosted). I spotted a friend of mine from my dodgeball team on their patio so I stopped to say hello. After catching up a little, I asked him how's the ice cream and he said it was fantastic. So I went in and got my own. </div>
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Inside, I saw that they made their own cones. They actually had a machine in the corner, and they pushed the cones into this tube on the ceiling which eventually ended up behind the counter where they could pull them out and put them on display. It reminded me of Futurama, but with cones instead of people.</div>
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They had a pretty unusual selection of flavours that sounded really freakin' amazing. A couple that got my attention were one that was camp-fire-roasted marshmallows, and another one was banana-caramel-brownie chunks. That last one sounded amazing so I ordered one scoop on a sweet waffle cone. The first taste just blew my mind! The ice cream was really, really, like <i>really</i> good! One scoop was definitely not enough! And the waffle cone was just amazing. I'm gonna be coming back here often I think. Actually, I'll bike there so I'll have a reason to burn all those calories and indulge myself afterwards.</div>
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But, the ice cream is not <i>all</i> they serve. They also have sobets, cakes, ice cream sandwiches, pies and they even make their own marshmallows! Their menu includes a taste platter to taste different flavours of ice cream and sorbets in case you can't make up your mind and want to try them all. Heck, it's an awesome dessert place.</div>
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After I ate my delicious ice cream, I kept on walking for a while until my legs hurt and Saint-Laurent street was overrun by the usual obnoxious douchebag clubbing crowd. By that time, the metro system was shut down because it was too late, so I had to bike back home. Thankfully, it's all downhill from the Plateau to my place since that borough is at the foot of the Mot-Royal mountain. So, I didn't have to pedal much. Finally, I took a nice cold shower to cool down and crashed in front of my computer with the A/C full blast and wrote this post. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I spent my evening.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">P.S. I went by Old Montreal and noticed that the sticker with my drawing of Milou, AKA Dog Tintin was gone. I sincerely hope that the person who took it is who I think it is, otherwise my heart will be broken. I really worked hard and practised to get it right! :(</span></div>
Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-36055860087325027542013-05-22T23:36:00.001-04:002013-05-22T23:36:10.501-04:00One year anniversary!Holy cow! Has it been one year already? My <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/05/mic-check-1-2-1-2.html">first post dates back to May 21st 2012</a>. Happy anniversary to Walking Solo in Montreal! My God, so much has happened since then. Especially my frame of mind. I may have mentioned it in a post somewhere, but there is a reason why I started this blog. I was in a bad state. Following a bad break up, I was going through a very bad depression. It was consuming me and my thoughts to a point that I couldn't bare being by myself in my apartment. I had no appetite and I couldn't sleep. So what did I do? I walked.<br />
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At first, I walked as far as my body could take me. I wasn't in any hurry to go home anyways. I walked around the places I knew at first. Funny enough, now that I was just wandering around, I felt like I was rediscovering all these streets that I knew because I was noticing all these places I used to walk by, but to which I never really paid any attention. Oh how I wished I was still with my ex then, because I wanted to show her all these places and go on these little adventures with her where we went and tried out all these places and hung out like we used to. So, I took pictures of what I was doing and what I saw and started to post these things on this blog here as if I was describing to her all these neat things for her to go and discover on her own if she ever felt like it. That was my main reason in the beginning.<br />
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Over time, this has changed. Though I still try to write things as if I was sharing these moments with someone through my posts, the audience started to change. I shared my blog with my family at first. Then it was my friends. But, those who really picked up on it were my co-workers at my previous job. They encouraged me a lot and it encouraged me to keep going and venture into new areas of the city and finding more and more places. I still had trouble sleeping, so I spent my nights organizing my pictures and writing my posts.<br />
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I did a lot of hard work to climb out of my depression. I had some very good friends who gave me a kick in the butt now and then to get out of the house and do some activities such as yoga. Then I decided to go back to playing dodgeball again like I used to back in Ottawa because I remember how I made the great friends I have over there right now. And I had a hoot! My new team was fun and really helped me get back on my feet. I owe them a lot in my recovery. Then I went to some other events where I met more people and suddenly my circle of friends started to grow. Eventually I didn't feel lonely anymore. I felt much better about myself and I was starting to feel normal again.<br />
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Nowadays, I switched jobs, my new co-workers aren't as interested in what I write, my blog is getting less attention and quite frankly, I barely have the time to go walk around anymore. The frequency of posts has slowed down to several a week to just one a week at best. I have new hobbies that take up a lot of my time. I started working out again, but at home instead of a gym. I started a pretty good small collection of comics. I've read all the Walking Dead graphic novels so far, the Criminal series and many others by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips who write amazing noir stories. Several by an awesome artist by the name of Ben Templesmith of which my favourite one is Fell. And there are many others such as the Hollywood dark humour trilogy Blue Estate, Transmetropolitan, Saga, etc. I also intend on finishing my childhood collection of French Tintin comics. There's that and also a growing watchlist that I have created on IMDB with tons of old black and white film noir such as The Killing, Killer's Kiss, M, The Maltese Falcon and many other classics that I felt were just missing from my general movie culture.<br />
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Anyway, so as a whole year of blogging has gone by, and now that I am out of my bad funk, I'm afraid I won't have time to write posts anymore. Well, maybe I will, just not as often as I used to. There are still many cool areas to discover in Montreal that I have yet to write about. Some are still in drafts that I have left lying around in my account and which I need to finish. But, don't expect to see a new post every week anymore. Except for my cooking blog. Thought I have been extremely lazy of late for cooking food, I will keep on posting every new recipe that I whip up on there. If I don't post anything during a week, it's probably because I either didn't have time to cook, or I used one of my existing recipes.<br />
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You know what's funny? I look back at all my posts and I swear I can remember every single one of those moments. I look at the pictures and I feel like I am back there on the day I took it and I can still feel the air, the smells and this godawful feeling of emptyness I had in my chest. I am glad this is over. I'm going to turn a new page on my life now.<br />
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Keep on checking out my blog from time to time. I'm not done with it yet.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-40700609554944268202013-05-10T22:27:00.001-04:002013-05-10T22:27:23.614-04:00Saint ViateurBack in February, I decided to go<a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-mile-end-less-traveled.html"> a little further north on Saint-Laurent and walked all the way to Saint-Viateur</a>. I took a few pictures but didn't really go far since it was getting late and I had to head home. <strike>Last week</strike> About a month ago, (yeah, I've been busy ok? So sue me if this post is late.) I went back to Saint-Viateur and decided to check it out all the way to Avenue du Parc. I found another bunch of great little spots there as well. So here goes.<br />
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If you've ever been grocery shopping in Montreal, you probably saw some locally made bagels from <a href="http://www.stviateurbagel.com/main/">St-Viateur Bagels</a>. Just like the Fairmount bagels these guys have been on St-Viateur street since the late 50's. They have become a true Montreal establishment and their bagels are being sold across the city. Made fresh everyday, they don't last very long and they are meant to be eaten pretty fast or they go stale and become hard as a rock. My advice is to eat them within 3 days. But, they are simply delicious. It was fun passing in front of their shop and seeing all the historical newspaper clips and images. It also smelled like fresh baked bagels. Mmmm... Oh and for any of you 'Murricans reading this, they also ship to the U.S.!<br />
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This area seems to be all about the home made or locally made foods. Not too far from there was a little bakery that also made their own sorbet and gelato. Probably a great place to get ice cream during the summer. I will have to check it out now that it's warmer outside.<br />
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Just a few steps from that bakery is a French crêpe restaurant called La Crêpière. A small little restaurant where you can go and have a quick sweet crêpe covered in sweet chocolate syrup and fruits or a salty one wrapped around some meat and vegetables and cheese as a warm lunch or dinner like a crêpe campagnarde with ham, cheese and mushrooms. It makes my hungry just thinking about it.<br />
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And then right next door is an old super classic retro barber shop that looks like it just came out of the 50's. Actually, according to the very few comments I've seen on some consumer review sites, this place has been opened since the 50's as well, and the old man apparently gives great haircuts! I'm usually really fussy about my hair, but it would be such an experience to go there and get an old fashion man's hair cut. I don't think I would get a shave though. I don't trust anybody with one of those sharp shaving blades. And god knows how they disinfect these things. But, for a haircut I bet it'd be fun.<br />
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Just across the street from there is Café Local. Apparently this place is very popular. Especially with the locals. I also heard they have 40 different types of martinis and many local artists go to hang out. Their food seems to be getting good reviews. They serve a pulled pork poutine that seems like an absolute dream. The place has a friendly cozy environment that doesn't feel too pretentious. I have a feeling I will be stepping in there soon to try out that poutine of theirs.<br />
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Just a block from there is also the Café Olimpico. This place is one of Montréal's classic Italian café. Sadly, I didn't take a picture, but it is absolutely worth mentioning. This café probably serves one of Montréal's best espresso and best cappuccino. It's also the place you want to go to watch the FIFA world cup and want to cheer the Italian soccer team. This little sports café is a great little place to hang out with friends and relax while watching the game. There's also a nice little terrace on the side to catch some sun during the summer. If only I had taken a picture.<br />
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As any other Montreal neighbourhood, there is a lot of street art in this place as well. This has to be one of the things for which I absolutely love my city. Street art has a thing that some other art doesn't. Some kind of soul. It contains the very spirit of the city itself. I always like to stop and look at the works of art that we find everywhere on the walls in the many burroughs of Montreal, each representing the essence of that area.<br />
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Another little place that got my curiosity is this restaurant called Batory. They have home cooked meals on the spot and for take out. It's a little deli place that serves sandwiches and soups and a few hot meals. Sometimes it's just nice to have some food that feels and tastes like a home cooked meal. I bet this would be a good place to go for that sort of thing.<br />
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I also found another restaurant that specializes in breakfast and brunch called Restaurant B&M. Breakfast is probably my favourite meal of the day. This place seemed to have a great menu. The prices were a little high, if I remember.<br />
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On Saint-Viateur there's also a gigantic church called St-Michael Church. It's a Greek Orthodox church and it just seems massive! I've always noticed this place from afar, but never really got around to get close to it. It's a beautiful church and when you stand next to it it just seems even bigger. It's no Notre-Dame Cathedral, but it still dwarfs all the other buildings around it.<br />
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Among other things, places like the Mile-End, Plateau and the like all seem to have a large vegetarian or vegan population. (Compared to other areas anyway.) So to cater to these folks, you will always find one of those super-vegan ultra-organic restaurants for these granola-eating hippies. (I'm kidding, you guys are alright!) And this place here is <a href="http://www.lapanthereverte.com/">La Panthère Verte</a> (The Green Panther). A small little vegan café that serves delicious fresh vegan meals. Sometimes when I want to eat light, but still stuff my face, I like to go to one of these places and pig out, yet come out of there feeling like a cloud. It's fantastic. I also don't feel so guilty afterwards.<br />
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I know I wrote about this place before, and I'm pretty damn sure this is the place. When I used to work close by about 10 years ago (wow, time flies!) there was this little place held by an Italian couple that made one of the best damn New England clam chowder in Montreal. Their sandwiches were also off the freakin' chain. I will never forget how tasty their sandwiches were. The chowder though, they only made it once a week, and when they did, you had to haul your ass out early for lunch, otherwise you had to stand in line outside for several minutes before getting some. And often times, they'd run out within 20 minutes. Boulangerie Clarke is the place. I wonder if they still do their chowder...<br />
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Also, there are some new places that I hadn't seen before. Comptoir 21 is one of them. It's a small restaurant specialized in fish n chips. It looks like a nice place and I've heard good comments about the place from friends. My favourite fish n chips restaurant in the city is by far Brit n Chips on McGill street. But, I've never been to Comptoir 21. This is another place I'll have to try out eventually.<br />
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Finally, on the corner of St-Viateur and St-Laurent is the Bar Waverly. A very cool looking bar that had great music and seemed to be filled with lots of young people from the area. With Ubisoft right across the street, I bet this is a great place to hear about any secrets and gossip on upcoming Ubisoft games. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the place because there were a lot of people standing outside and I didn't want to be a jerk and take a picture of them all to post publicly. But, I guarantee the place looks really nice. I would love to go there to get a drink sometime.<br />
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Anyway, that was my walk along that street. There are a few more things there to see but, I only took pictures of the places that got my attention. The Mile-End is an awesome area with great restaurants, shops and some ethnic grocery stores as well in case you're looking for some special ingredients or foods. Frankly, I think I would love it there, but I need to have a big pharmacy and grocery store close by or else I feel a little stuck. That's mainly why I stay where I am right now in the good ol' ghetto of Hochelag'. With the Angus shops Loblaws and Provigo and Metro and Pharmaprix and Jean-Coutu pharmacy all within walking range or a minute away by car, I feel like I have everything I need at my disposal. And the rent is still cheap enough too. Mile-End? Not so much. But, it's still not as bad as the Plateau. Yet.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-82291338255319957492013-04-30T00:01:00.004-04:002013-05-01T07:47:55.173-04:00Drummer in the middle.Tonight I went for a quick walk around the plateau just to clear my head of recent events. And what do I see at the Quai Des Brumes? Kingsfoil was playing tonight. Who is Kingsfoil? It's a small pop-rock band whose drummer is none other than the famous child actor from Malcolm in the middle, Frankie Muniz.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">It's not very clear, but that's him on the right.</span></i></div>
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I hung around for a bit trying to see if my landlady was working there tonight. (Yes my landlady is a bar maid at the Quai Des Brumes!) Unfortunately, her shift was already over and she was on her way home. I stuck around for a little bit and saw a little tour van just down the street. And who do I see walking by me? Frakie. Freakin'. Muniz. I went up to him to say hi and he was a really nice and humble guy. I asked him about his racing career and he said he let that go and that now he was doing his drummer gig full time. He asked me if I was going to see his band tonight and I told him that I couldn't unfortunately. I felt bad, but I have work tomorrow. Anyway, he was nice enough to let me snap a picture of us together.<br />
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He's a pretty cool dude. And I was super excited to meet the star of the hit TV show that I used to watch so often. This was awesome!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-72976551504621236202013-04-29T23:52:00.003-04:002013-04-29T23:52:42.421-04:00The Authentic TaqueriaLast Friday, I went out again with my highschool buddy from last week. <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/04/record-day-on-mont-royal-avenue.html">Remember that taqueria I found on Saint-Denis on record store day</a>? I invited my friend there for dinner to try it out. It turns out the place is called La Matraca!<br />
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First of all, don't let the signage fool you. The moment you step in, you can plainly see that this place is truly authentic. Not some over the top three amigos with sombreros with wooden stick separators and Aztec carvings all over the place. No. Just a couple of televisions playing a Hispanic sports channel with futbol all over the place and some Latin music for the mood. Also, the place was packed with Hispanics. Call me racist, but if you were in Mexico and you were looking for a tasty poutine restaurant, you'd best go to the place where you'll find a bunch of French Canadians. Because that's most likely the best place to get your real authentic Quenecois poutine fix. Anyway, meanwhile in the back of the restaurant, there's an open kitchen where you can see the cooks preparing the food. I was pretty excited when I saw the kitchen. The whole layout and the way they were preparing the food, especially the meat, it was just like<a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/09/if-youre-going-to-san-francisco.html"> that place where I had the bet tacos ever in San Francisco</a>. It smelled delicious in there too!<br />
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When we sat down, we were handed a sheet of paper with a list of items and a pen. Basically, how it works is you write down the number of items you want in the squares, kind of like in an all you can eat sushi restaurant. The menu was basically to explain the items and it had a pretty good variety. Most of the items in there were not your typical white people Mexican restaurant. (For a lack of a better description) Dishes such as sandwiches and pretty well garnished tortillas and soft shelled tacos.<br />
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I was hungry for some tacos so that's what I ordered along with a bottle of mandarin flavoured Jarrito. I asked the waitress how big they were and she told me she usually orders 5 or more. They looked pretty big in the picture, but from what she told me, they were actually pretty small. So, I took her advice and ordered 5, one of each kind, with some extra cheese. My friend ordered three with a quesadilla and some kindof milky drink with rice. After a long while, my friend and I finally had our food.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I was missing one, but the waitress soon came back with another plate with the extra taco.</span></i></div>
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So this is what real authentic tacos are like. I mean just <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=authentic+mexican+tacos&rlz=1C1FDUM_enCA481CA481&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=OzN_UdP3Me_iyAHRjYHQDA&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1076&bih=991">Google it</a> and that's what it is. A bunch of toppings on some soft-shells that you roll up and eat with your hands. (Notice the absence of utensils.) I added the sauces on there, rolled up and took a bite. Man, that was good. Those were some very tasty tacos The little salsa was fresh and tasty and sweet with a little bit of pineapples and cilantro. I had two kinds of beef tacos, two kinds of pork and one chorizo taco. The meat was not ground beef. It was marinated, grilled and hand chopped. It was absolutely delish. The sauces were very spicy too, and I mean it. I'm used to spicy and that was hot. Let that be a warning to you. But, I enjoyed it very much. Though I wish I had ordered more because I was still hungry.<br />
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The place was super busy that night. I mean it was packed! The waitresses had trouble keeping up and service was super slow. They almost got our order confused at first, but they were fine. Nonetheless, they did their best and kept on serving us with a smile. They were real troopers.<br />
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When we got the bill though, my jaw dropped. For 5 very small tacos and a soda pop, my bill went up to $20 just for myself! Quite frankly, for that amount of food, I didn't expect this kind of price. That was pretty much the only thing that bothered me with the place. Maybe next time I should try ordering something bigger and more filling.<br />
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Anyway, over all we were very pleased with our experience and we definitely want to go back there again. Additionally, you can buy a t-shirt that says "I *heart* tacos!". Who could refuse that?!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-70461110862555263692013-04-26T01:10:00.002-04:002013-04-26T01:11:10.045-04:00Record Store Day on Mont-Royal AvenueLast Saturday, I went to a little get together at a friend's place and ended up going home super late. The next day I woke up in the beginning of the afternoon, which is very late by my standard. I usually get up around 9 or 10 am in the weekend. By the time I was finally out of bed and in shape to do anything it was almost 3pm already. Sunday was about to pass me by and I wouldn't have the chance to take advantage of it? No way, José. I wasn't gonna let that happen. And I was <b>starving</b>! I wanted a big ass breakfast with eggs, saucage, ham, potatoes, fruits, pancakes, the whole nine yards. So I called up my good ol' friend I've known since highschool, you know, the one I always go to concerts with? I know this guy usually wakes up really late on his days off. I rang him up and invited him to my favourite breakfast place, La Petite Marche located on Saint-Denis, corner of Laurier. (Sorry, forgot to take a pic. I'll update this post next time I have one.)<br />
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We went up there and had an amazing breakfast. Every breakfast comes with bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes, fruits, mushrooms, bread and you can pick from a list that offers either delicious French crêpes, poached eggs on whatever, lox, etc. I picked a buckwheat crêpe with goat cheese, walnuts and maple syrup with two eggs. All this is $15 and it comes with a glass of OJ and unlimited refills of delicious coffee! It was another friend and co-worker of mine who introduced me to this place. He should know that I am really grateful for it.<br />
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After breakfast, my friend wanted to go check out this store on Mont-Royal avenue called 33 tours. 33 tours means 33 revolutions, which is the number of revolutions a vinyl record makes per minute on a record player. That's right, you guessed it! It's a vinyl record store! He mentioned that it was record store day and he wanted to check that place out to see if there was anything cool there.<br />
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On our way there, down Saint-Denis, I noticed a restaurant that I hadn't noticed before. A Mexican taquiera. Basically, a Mexican taco restaurant. The front said it was 100% Mexican and they seem to be very serious about the authenticity, even though the restaurant's signs were pretty washed out.<br />
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But, I'm really curious about the place. After I went to what was probably <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/09/if-youre-going-to-san-francisco.html">the best taqueria in the whole world in San Francisco last summer</a>, I've been craving a really good , fresh taco of the same kind. Carlos and Pepe and The 3 Amigos just don't cut it. If this place is as authentic as it claims to be, I'll have to try it out. Stay tuned!<br />
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When we turned on Mont-Royal avenue, we headed east for a while until we almost reached Papineau and we finally found the record store.<br />
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We stepped in and while there was a lot of people, it wasn't crowded. My friend and I spent a couple hours just going through vinyls. He pulled out some rare albums from some of his favourite bands such as a U2 album with a cover that had been banned in Canada for a while. My favourite section though had to be the soul/funk section. There were tons of awesome James Brown vinyls, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Betty Davis, etc. It made me wish I had a turntable at home. Then I remembered how small my apartment is and I said "Nope!". Besides, I enjoy the clear crisp sound of mp3s anyway without all the crackle and pop.<br />
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Anyway, I had never been in a vinyl record shop before and it was a great experience. We stayed in there for so long though that when we came out it was already past 6pm. We ended up not really buying anything because neither of us have a vinyl record player. Yeah, I know. What was the point of going there in the first place if we don't have turn tables right? Well we still got a chance to see some pretty cool collector's items in there and that was cool.<br />
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We walked around for a bit and hung out at a video rental store where we'd pick really shady movies and just make fun of them. One of them that made my jaw drop in disbelief is this straight to video movie from The Asylum movie studio called <a href="http://io9.com/5953033/hobbit-rip+off-age-of-the-hobbits-getting-sued-by-the-folks-behind-the-hobbit-hobbits">Age of the Hobbits</a>. Hobbits? Yes, Hobbits. Starring the Stargate SG-1 famous Christopher Judge. And the movie has nothing to do with Tolkien or the book The Hobbit. See for yourself.<br />
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After we had a good laugh checking out all the covers of B-movie grade DVD boxes for explosions and unknown actors, we walked out of the store. But, not without noticing an ad for a sweet motorized RV. Notice how it says <i style="font-weight: bold;">JMC Centurion</i> instead of GMC. That's because, in French, the letter <i style="font-weight: bold;">J</i> is pronounced "jee" and the letter <i style="font-weight: bold;">G</i> is pronounced "jay". Still, the brand name is written on the damn truck! And trust me on this one, the written French on this ad would make anybody with a literacy level of an elementary third grader cringe. But, damn that's a good lookin' camper!<br />
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Finally, before heading back to my place to watch a (good) movie, we passed by a laundromat with a classic Tetris arcade box! I had a nerdgasm right there. Now I know where to spend my quarters, and my time. (Actually, not really.)<br />
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We headed back to my place by bus, went to get some McDice (that's street slang for McDonald's, in case you're not cool enough) for dinner and watched the original spaghetti western that inspired Tarantino's many movies and of course his latest masterpiece: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Jango</a>, by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero.<br />
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And that, dear readers, is how I spend my last Sunday. If you're into vinyls and never heard of the 33 Tours on Mont-Royal near Papineau, make sure you go take a look. It's a pretty awesome store.</div>
Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-69998447851061734342013-04-15T02:10:00.000-04:002013-04-15T02:15:16.041-04:00Geeking out and a ramen surpriseThis weekend there was a small convention of all things geek called <a href="http://geekfestmtl.com/">Geekfest</a>. It's basically like a comicon but on a much smaller scale, no celebrities, and more about socializing with other geeks. The event was located in a shoddy looking little hotel at the corner of René Levesque and Guy called Hôtel Espresso. The hotel is not that bad a place after all. It's no Mariott or Sheraton, but it looks pretty clean and well kept inside.<br />
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The even was spread across a bunch of rooms. There was one in the basement where people gathered and played board games. I went to take a look to see if there was anyone I'd recognize. I hung out with a bunch of people last month, playing board games. It's a group of friends that gather every month and hang out like this. I was invited through an acquaintance and decided to go to meet new people since most of my friends are all married with kids and living an hour away in the burbs now. So, I went to see if any of these people were down there. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize anyone.<br />
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On the second floor is where all the action was. To much of my surprise, there were a LOT of people that decided to dress up as all sorts of characters. (Also called cosplay, for costume play.) They were all hanging out in the hall and chatting away about anime, cartoons, video games and such. You know, geek stuff. Some of them had great costumes.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">When I decided to take a picture of the cosplayers, they had all scattered. Boo!</span></i></div>
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I was passing by them to go to a room in the back where everyone seemed to be heading and I accidentally passed by the booth where you're supposed to pay for your entry fee. (oops!) I did go back, however, and paid for my entrance, but only about an hour and a half later after I was told I should get a bracelet before checking in my coat. Oh well.<br />
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In that room there were kiosks set up to promote various local comic book artists, geek apparel shops, the<a href="http://sosfantomesqc.forumsactifs.com/"> local Ghostbusters club</a> and <a href="http://501stquebec.ca/">Quebec city's 501st Imperial Legion of Star Wars costumers</a>.<br />
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The Ghostbusters club are fans of the franchise and they like to talk about everything Ghostbusters. Their website even has steps to reproduce the props from the movie. So if you want to build yourself a proton pack, they'll tell you what you need to get and how to put it together. Their kiosks were selling Hostess Twinkies! I thought those things were discontinued! Apparently,<a href="http://www.geekosystem.com/canadian-twinkies/"> Saputo owns Hostess' Canadian branch and they have decided to keep producing the Twinkie</a>! So this marvellous little cream filled cake will live on, thanks to Canada!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HfsM9WNZCt8/UWuGPCkSTJI/AAAAAAAAfAY/pIWsjpr0XJs/s1600/CameraZOOM-20130413141918640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HfsM9WNZCt8/UWuGPCkSTJI/AAAAAAAAfAY/pIWsjpr0XJs/s400/CameraZOOM-20130413141918640.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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As for the Star Wars 501st Imperial Legion, they're basically people who like to dress up as various storm troopers and participate in parades and show up in events. Their mission apparently is <i>"To promote interest in Star Wars. Facilitate the use of costumes. To contribute [...] through fundraising, charity work and volunteerism."</i> (<a href="http://www.501st.com/mission.php">http://www.501st.com/mission.php</a>)<br />
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Walking around the kiosks I noticed a steampunk studio that makes anything look steampunk. What is steampunk? Imagine a parallel universe where steam still powers our technology with retro-futuristic inventions and everyone still dresses in Victorian fashion with a kind of a wild west influence. Heck, think of the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120891/">Wild Wild West</a> with Will Smith. It's a sub-genre that people got into somehow. And basically, anything that has copper, lots of gears and steam pipes and top hats is now considered steampunk. By the way, if you want to read a really good science-fiction steampunk thriller, you should definitely read The Difference Engine, by none other than the famous author William Gibson, famous for his futuristic cyber-punk hacker novel Neuromancer. Anyway, here's what steampunk stuff looks like.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EsgmHg0FZf0/UWuJu35BcWI/AAAAAAAAfBE/Jh-eKwSgpkY/s1600/CameraZOOM-20130413151815247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EsgmHg0FZf0/UWuJu35BcWI/AAAAAAAAfBE/Jh-eKwSgpkY/s400/CameraZOOM-20130413151815247.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This may look like a mirror...</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">... but it's actually a computer monitor!</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top hats and gloves and glasses and such.</span></i></div>
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Some other kioks had local comic book artists promoting their work. One notable artist was Olivier Carpentier who participated in the comic book Le Front by publishers <a href="http://www.frontfroid.com/">Front Froid</a>. There are multiple volumes of that comic book, which is basically an aggregation of comics of different stories by several artists. His work was amazing. I had a chat with him and told him how much his art reminded me of one of my favourites, Ben Templesmith, creator of the detective story Fell. (A great graphic novel by the way!) He told me he was actually a big fan and that his work had a big influence. It totally showed. His story seemed to be about some bad ass Santa Claus and a psycho Tooth Fairy who protect children from something. Not sure though since I haven't read it yet, but it looks promising. So do the other stories in the volume. I can't wait to read it. I had it dedicated and Olivier drew an amazing picture of a monstrous evil-looking elf with sharp teeth, ink and all. Amazing!<br />
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Later, I learned there was a masquerade. Basically, a costume competition. People were introduced by a host and people would walk on stage and either just show off their costume or act out some elaborate scenario with their costumed friends. It was pretty neat, the hosts were terrible. It was their first time though, so I'll let it go. As long as everyone had a good time, that's what matters. There were many costumes, but one that got a lot of applause was this guy:<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Admiral "It's a trap!" Ackbar!</span></i></div>
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Admiral Ackbar and I are actually good friends and we've known each other for a while. We're like total BFFs. Though I tease him a lot and play a lot of tricks on him. During the convention, he was looking for the men's room and I showed him the way to the ladies room instead as a joke. He walked in and got yelled at and kicked out. I was standing outside laughing my ass off and yelled "IT'S A TRAP!" and he was all like "FUCK YOU Steph!" Good times man, good times...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJEG0fRfT9s/UWuapTbtvnI/AAAAAAAAfDU/himvbgq2emU/s1600/CameraZOOM-20130413173419709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJEG0fRfT9s/UWuapTbtvnI/AAAAAAAAfDU/himvbgq2emU/s400/CameraZOOM-20130413173419709.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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After the show, one of my friends showed me a room where some acquaintances were working on some artwork and presenting their paintings and mostly trying to sell them. I was impressed. I met these people before, but didn't think they were artists. Their work was pretty good. The one in the middle is C-3PO looking at the Emerald City of the Wizard of Oz through some kind of portal.<br />
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Afterwards, there was a video games room where some people had set up an arcade emulator with arcade controllers a couple of retro Nintendo consoles and the new Nintendo Wii U. I spent the rest of the afternoon in that room with some friends playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 on the arcade, Super Mario Bros. on the classic NES with a giant controller, but mostly playing Nintendo Land on the Wii U. It was tons of fun.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This thing is not easy to work with.</span></i></div>
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Finally, I had to leave a little early. A friend of mine, who just bought a house, was hosting a party to celebrate his new suburban home. Before I went there, I decided to get myself some dinner. What better way to end this than to go get myself... ramen. Delicious, filling ramen. I remembered there was a Japanese restaurant that had opened up on Sainte-Catherine close by called Kazu. But, it's nearly impossible to get a table without waiting for hours outside. I thought, you know, since it was raining, maybe there wouldn't bee that many people. WRONG! There were still a huge lineup outside the damn place. I said fuck it. But, I really was craving a hot bowl of tasty noodles. Especially in this cold wet weather. I remembered people telling me about another place around the Concordia area. I whipped out my phone and searched for ramen in Montreal. One urban food website mentioned a place on Bishop just north of Boul. De Maisonneuve. That was probably it. It was called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ramenmisoyamontreal">Miso Ya</a>. So I decided to check it out.<br />
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The restaurant is located in a basement and it was really hard to notice. I took a look at their menu and it looked like a pretty basic ramen place. Though the dishes looked well garnished with lots of food. Then again, it was the same thing at <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/02/chinatown-ramen.html">Sumo Ramen in Chinatown</a> and I was kind of expecting the same kind of portion and quality than Sumo Ramen, which was quite mediocre. But, you know, never judge a book by it's cover and all that, right?<br />
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The place was pretty quiet, but it was nice, very clean. The smell of the place was mouth watering. I could smell the smoke of the grilled pork coming from the kitchen and it was promising. I realized that this might not be such a bad place after all. I told the waiter I was by myself, so he seated me at the bar. Another good hint for guessing if a ramen restaurant is good is if they have a bar next to the kitchen at which to sit.<br />
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Getting a closer look at their menu, I noticed they only had one kind of broth. True authentic ramen joints in Japan usually specialize in one broth. It's their secret recipe and it's what distinguishes them from other places. Miso Ya offered a pork bone based miso broth that looked thick and milky. Pork bone broth is my very favourite kind of broth! I was getting excited now. Their #1 on their menu was the porc miso cha-shu with 3 pieces of pork. I was hungry and that was their biggest portion. So, I ordered that with some pork gyoza dumplings.<br />
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The service was super fast and I got my food very quickly. The dumplings were over stuffed with meat and green onions and came with a little cup of dipping sauce. They were super tasty.<br />
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But. The ramen... Oh LAWD! The RAMEN! Just look at this...<br />
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THIS is what your typical ramen-shop meal is supposed to look like. Look at that broth. Look how milky it is. Look at the pork, it's been grilled to perfection. Corn and green onions are absolutely typical. And that thing in the middle is actually fried potatoes. I took a whiff of my soup and the smell was amazing. I filled my spoon with broth and took a sip. Oh sweet Jesus, I'm in heaven! I picked up a piece of pork and took a bite and it was absolutely perfect! There was a little bit of fat in there, but it was so soft and tender it just all melted in my mouth. Then I checked out the noodles and they were thicker than anything I've ever seen in ramen noodles. They were chewy and tasty and just perfect. I ate everything down to the last crumb and drank that broth to the last drop. This has been one of my best ramen experiences in a long time and I'm definitely going to recommend this place to my friends.<br />
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Dear God! Did I just find a place that serves ramen that's actually better than my usual spot, Ramen-Ya? I don't know. Ramen-Ya's ramen is very flavourful and delicious. It's very hard to beat. But, Miso Ya has some of the most authentic Japanese ramen I've ever had in Montreal so far. And it was absolutely dee-lish! I think this place might become my spot from now on. The prices were better too. I'll have to think about this.<br />
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Anyway, that was my day on Saturday. I should probably write something about the area that I call the Concordia area. There are a lot of very cheap restaurants in that sector. Mostly student dives, but some are still very good nonetheless, especially Asian restaurants. Keep an eye on my blog for a post about that area soon!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-48380859533809837692013-04-12T00:49:00.003-04:002018-03-05T18:19:56.383-05:00Geek Burlesque in the Katacombes of Doom!About a month ago <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/03/bail-out-saturday.html">I went to see a burlesque show</a>. It turns out that the girl who's the head of these shows is an acquaintance of a few of my friends. We got in touch and it turns out she was at it again. This time she was doing <a href="http://www.geekbecois.com/une-scene-de-jolies-dames-nues-et-des-geeks-bienvenue-au-burlesgeek/">a special show with a geek theme</a>. I got a chance to go and see it last Sunday with a friend of mine and it was nowhere else than... the Katacombes! You know, that heavy metal place turned weird hipster 80's turned heavy metal again? Here are some pics from last summer.<br />
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So I got to see the inside of that place after all. It's a bit of a small concert venue, but with a pretty bad ass feel with fake skulls and bones and tons of metal and pictures of evil dead things. Though maybe not as bad ass as the heavy metal / punk rock bar les Foufounes Électriques. (That's French for the Electric Buttocks.) Still, it was a cool place. I managed to get a shot of the place before the show started. It was pretty dark in there and a flash would've been useless, but here goes.<br />
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As you can (or can't) see, there are two floors. The ground and the mezzanine. The place was packed, but we were able to find a spot upstairs. So many people showed up for this show. And as it turned out, there were other burlesque performers from Ottawa, Toronto and even Japan that were there, and not just in the show itself, but in attendance as well. My friend and I had a conversation with one <a href="http://candyassclub.com/">Velma Candyass</a> who actually invited us to attend her show this Friday. If I remember correctly, we were watching movie clips on a screen before the show started and we got her attention when we were discussing Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish while watching a scene from Dusk Til Dawn where an exotic dancer played by Salma Hayek <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkaveikyikE&feature=youtu.be&t=2m17s">puts her foot in none other than Tarantino's mouth himself and pours liquor down her leg and into his mouth</a>.<br />
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Shortly after the show started. We got the chance to see performances by <a href="http://www.lululesbellesmirettes.com/p/home-page.html">Lulu les belles mirettes</a>, Sucre à la crème, <a href="http://www.burlesquestars.net/member/lady-josephine/237">Lady Josephine</a> and Cherry Typhoon among others. They put up a great show with sketches inspired by Mortal Kombat, The Legend of Zelda, Batman, Terminator, V for Vendetta, The X Files, Star Trek, etc. It was great! The people that put this together had a lot of imagination. There was also a live performance by a band that named itself after the original comic book gang, Archie, who played Sugar Sugar. Overall this was a great burlesque show and was tons of fun to watch.<br />
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Lulu les belles mirettes will soon be at another show with a group called <a href="http://sublimesrondeurs.blogspot.ca/">Sublimes Rondeurs</a>. The show is called <a href="http://sublimesrondeurs.blogspot.ca/2012/01/le-cabaret-des-bombes.html">Le Cabaret des Bombes - Hello Sailor</a> at the <a href="https://plus.google.com/113089539683066168343/about?gl=ca&hl=en">cabaret Café Cleopatra</a>.<br />
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While writing this and finding all the links to the places and performers, I realized that Montreal had a pretty big group of burlesque performers and a lot more shows than I expected. And a lot of, um, shall we say, alternative shows and parties occur at the cabaret Café Cleopatra which seems to have established itself for this sort of thing. So if you have an "alternative" lifestyle, I assume you already know about this. I learn something new about my own city almost every time I write these things.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-60696712718711346222013-03-30T00:45:00.000-04:002013-03-30T00:45:22.117-04:00Royale With Cheese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/08bzBAKCRlM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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All week I've been eating vegetarian food. It has nothing to do with Lent or Good Friday. I was inspired to <a href="http://cookingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/03/vegetarian-lentil-curry.html">make something vegan</a> for my lunches after <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/03/bail-out-saturday.html">eating out at Aux Vivres</a>. Also, I find that I feel a lot better after eating no meat for a little while. But, as good as my curry was, at the end of the week I couldn't even look at it. I was fed up with it. And I was craving a burger so bad. So I thought this might be the opportunity to try out this new place on Saint-Laurent called <a href="http://burger-royal.com/">Burger Royal</a> just north of Avenue Des Pins. The one thing that I noticed about this restaurant was that they actually had a burger called Royale With Cheese. What Tarantino fan could turn down an opportunity like that? So this Good Friday evening I decided to head on out and get my burger on.<br />
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I spotted the place a while back, maybe last fall. They were still under construction. Since then, I never really had the time to stop there to eat. Or maybe it's because I lost faith in the burger places in this town after The Meat Market restaurant closed down. The Meat Market had, hands down, the best blue cheese & walnut hamburger I had ever tasted in my life. Except, it was hard to actually eat there because they were closed half the time to cater to small groups who decided to make a little party in that place. When you close down your restaurant for an entire evening for about a dozen guests all the time instead of letting people eat in and leave and have a rotation of customers, you're bound to go bankrupt. Now, I mourn that place since it has closed down. R.I.P. best burger place ever.<br />
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So back to Burger Royal. The place feels big and empty even when it's packed with people because of the geometry of the room. It's just one big room with a tall ceiling and a couple of big tables where everyone has to sit together and a counter with stools in the front window and a bar at the back where the kitchen is. So the cooks basically prepare everything in front of you. I went in and sat at the bar so I could see how they prepared the food and to have a chat with the staff while eating.<br />
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Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to them much. They were very friendly, but they were in a rush because they had a huge table filled with three whole families with kids. As I was sitting there, I saw them prepare some small cups of mac n cheese that they popped in their oven. It looked delish! Their menu was written in chalk on a large black board near the cash register and it was a little hard to make out what was what. But, I spotted the Royale With Cheese. I asked the waitress what was in it and she said it's a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato ketchup and mustard. It sounded plain and I was very hungry, so I picked The Big Boss which is like the Royale With Cheese, but with smoked bacon, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms and house sauce. I ordered that with a small side of baked mac n cheese and a bottle of Stewart's dark cherry soda. (They didn't serve beer. Well not yet, but it's coming according to the waitress.)<br />
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One thing I'd like to mention is that whenever I eat out at a burger place, whether it's some McFastFood chain, a greasy spoon, potato shack or gourmet burger place, I can't help but order the biggest burger on the menu, regardless of the price. I don't know if it's my man genes, chromosomes, testosterone or just my ego, but it never fails. That is probably why I passed up the occasion to eat a burger that's actually called a Royal With Cheese and got The Big Boss instead.<br />
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As I waited for my order, I grabbed a newspaper and read for a bit while sipping on my soda. I got my mac n cheese and started to nibble on it. But, I wanted to keep it so I could take a picture of the whole meal. When they finally served me my burger, my eyes popped out. That thing is huge! (That's what she said.) And boy does it look good!<br />
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It took one bit. Just one. And I was convinced this was the best hamburger in Montreal. Forget Five Guys. Forget Frite Alors. Hell, forget any other fancy motherfuckin' burger place you've ever been to. That shit is da bomb, okay? The bread was awesome. That is fresh bakery quality buns right there. The bacon was smokey and delicious. The onions and the mushrooms took the burger to another level. And the cheddar cheese was fresh, strong cheddar the likes I never had in a burger before. But, the beef. Oh-My-God!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Burger Royal is where the beef is at, bitch!</i></span></div>
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The beef patty was cooked to perfection. It was tender, just a little pink and so, so juicy. The cook told me that they use organic beef with no additives, no hormones, no B.S. And to top it off, they grind it on site. That's right. They have their own meat grinder in the back where they grind their own beef to make sure that it's only the best cuts and that it's fresh. Now, THAT is dedication. Burger King ain't got nothin' on this royal hamburger. Then, a customer walks in and asks, and I swear he actually asked this, he asks how much beef they have in their hamburgers. Really? Are you that stupid, or did you just live under a rock on another planet for the past two decades? OF COURSE IT'S A QUARTER POUNDER! GAWD!<br />
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Seriously, I was not disappointed. This is a very high quality burger and I will definitely come back here whenever the craving hits again. The staff was pretty cool too, even though I didn't get the chance to talk much with them. Actually, the waitress kinda made fun of me when I told her about my vegetarian situation. She told me: "Of all days to pick to crave and eat a big hamburger, you had to pick Good Friday, the one day you're supposed to give something up in remembrance of Jesus's crucifixion." So I replied: "Hey, I made a whole week of sacrifice, okay? Jesus! Give me a break!" And it's only when I got home that I realized the irony of my answer.<br />
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That was a great dinner and definitely killed my craving. Kudos Burger Royal for making such amazing hamburgers.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-3158401992796445652013-03-27T23:32:00.001-04:002013-04-10T22:59:37.867-04:00Stanley cup of ramenLast Saturday I had a very bad craving for some tasty ramen. If you've been reading this blog and my <a href="http://cookingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/">cooking blog</a> as well, you will know that I am a big fan of this tasty Japanese dish. I firmly believe that it embodies the very essence of his noodliness, the great Lord and king of the Pastafarians.<br />
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For a while now there has been a big ramen craze and a bunch of new restaurants who specialize in ramen have opened up. Once, while browsing a display of digital cameras in Place Montreal Trust, the sales clerk and I were talking about my recent <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/09/if-youre-going-to-san-francisco.html">trip to San Francisco</a>. I told him how I regretted not having a real digital camera and having to take pictures with my crappy phone camera. He told me about one camera he had during a trip to Japan and I asked him if he had any ramen while he was there. Right away he knew why I was asking. He knows. It's delicious. And once you have the real deal, nothing compares to it.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">That's what her popular song was all about.</span></i></div>
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Anyway, I told him about my favourite spot in town, Ramen-Ya, and he said he didn't know about it. He took notes and he told me about the only place he knew which is <a href="http://www.infoapp.ca/hakata/index.jsp">Hakata Ramen</a> on Stanley street. It had been six months since then and I still never took the time to check it out, so this weekend I decided to go.<br />
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Before I talk about the restaurant, there are some interesting facts about Stanley street:<br />
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<li>The street was named after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Smith-Stanley,_14th_Earl_of_Derby">Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby</a>. (A.K.A. the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Smith-Stanley,_14th_Earl_of_Derby-1865.jpg">grandfather of neckbeards</a>) And the famous Stanley Cup was named after one of his sons, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Stanley,_16th_Earl_of_Derby">Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby</a>, also Canada's 6th Governor General.</li>
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<li>On this street there used to be one of the most modern indoor ice-skating rink of its time from 1862 to the 1920s. It was called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Skating_Rink">Victoria Skating Rink</a> and it hosted the first ever Stanley Cup playoff games in 189 with the founding of the first championship ice hockey leage, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, the precursor of the NHL. Today, the location of this skating rink is nothing but an ugly brown square building for National rent-a-car.</li>
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<li>It was the location of one of Molson's Banks, which, for a period of time, employed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_von_Ribbentrop">Joachim Von Ribbentrop</a>, the foreign minister of Nazi Germani during the second world war and close friend to Adolf Hitler. During his stay in Canada, Joachim Vom Ribbentrop also worked with local engineering firms on the construction of the Quebec Bridge in Quebec city. This bridge is known also for its collapse due to poor engineering and a lack of quality assurance. After its collapse, the Quebec Order of Engineers was created for the protection of the public and to preserve the credibility of engineers. Rumor has it that the pinky finger ring given to everyone who graduates from an engineering program is made from the very metal of that bridge. (That statement is false by the way. Trust me, I'm an engineer.) Joachim Von Ribbentrop did all this before the second world war, of course. When war was declared and Canada got engaged in the fight against Germany, he left and went back to his country to serve under the Nazi regime. He was later hung after the war when he was found guilty of crimes against humanity during the Nuremburg trials.</li>
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<li>Stanley street used to be Montreal's gay village during the 1970's. A couple of bars called Le Mystique and Truxx were local hot spots in the gay community. <a href="http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Montreals_oldest_gay_bar_to_close_its_doors-7419.aspx">They were raided several times by police on shady made up grounds and many people were arrested for all the wrong reasons, which lead to riots from the gay community</a>. Their voices were heard and later that year, Quebec added into their charter of human rights that it was illegal to discriminate against someone based on their sexual orientation, thus making Quebec the first place in North America to protect homosexual's rights in this manner. Eventually, the gay village relocated further east to its current location on Sainte-Catherine between Berri street and Papineau, but Stanley street remains hallowed grounds for the gay community.</li>
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Man, I should really do more research like this. This is turning out to be very interesting! At first I just wanted to talk about the Victoria skating rink, but my research led to so much more. I mean, wow! And it's pretty interesting to learn about this place being the old gay village and how a movement that started there lead to improve equal rights for homosexuals. Especially right now as the United States are debating the constitutionality of same sex marriage and whether married same-sex couples should have the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples. I'm also surprised to learn about that Nazi guy. I mean, wow! Talk about history! Why don't they teach this stuff in school?</div>
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So, back to my ramen craze. The restaurant is located between René Lévesque and Sainte-Catherine, next to the famous gentlemen's club (read strip club or cabaret) <a href="http://en.chezparee.ca/">Chez Parée</a>. The entrance to the restaurant is very small and barely noticeable. The entrance is a flight of stairs and the restaurant is located on the second floor.</div>
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Inside the restaurant, it looked very nice and upscale. The decor was inspired by Japanese art, but they didn't overdo it. From the look of the place, I was already expecting some delicious good quality food.</div>
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The staff was very nice and showed me to my table, which was right next to a trio of young, very well dressed students who, from what I overheard, just came out of some kind of office party, were still in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEGEP">Cegep</a>, and were discussing their plans to go to university. It was funny to hear them talk about what they thought university was like. They have no idea what's waiting for them.</div>
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I was browsing their menu and I was impressed. They have a pretty good variety of ramen dishes and a lot more. Something else that looked very interesting is their hot stone bowl dishes. Another thing I saw that I never heard of are omurice - an egg omelette stuffed with various kinds of rice, such as fried rice. They serve this with Japanese curry. There is a whole lot more on there that I could talk about, but those are the ones that stood out. To top it all, the prices were very reasonable. Most dishes cost around $10.00. I mean, that's cheap considering the look of the place, location and the type of food they serve. Usually, Japanese restaurants are pretty expensive because of their exotic side. But, not Hakata Ramen. The only let down I could find was that they didn't seem to have a choice of broth for their ramen soups. Then again, I haven't tried them all so maybe each one has its own. Oh and they also serve bubble tea, daiquiris and Japanese soft drinks, such as Ramune!</div>
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For my dinner, I first ordered a bottle of Asahi Super Dry beer and some pork dumplings, or gyoza. The dumplings were big, delicious and full of flavour. It came with a little cup of vinegar dipping sauce. It took a while to get them, but was well worth it.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I had 5 originally. I couldn't wait to eat one.</span></i></div>
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For the main course, I ordered the tonkatsu ramen, or breaded pork ramen. The soup was a little smaller than what I expected, but they made up for it by serving it with two huge, thick breaded pork chops and a small salad. The ingredients were definitely fresh and of high quality. The salad had a little vinegrette in it which was delicious. The pork was so juicy and tender. The noodles were amazing! Cooked just right and a little springy, they were some of the best I've had so far. The ingredients in the soup were definitely fresh. There was some zucchini corn, green onions, seaweed and a soft boiled egg, all sprinkled with some sesame seeds. The only bad thing I have to say about the soup was that I found was that the broth lacked some flavour. It was miso broth and I thought it was a little bland. That is too bad because the broth is what gives the soup its body. If the broth doesn't have flavour, then your soup won't taste like much. Otherwise, I definitely enjoyed my meal and I still thought that overall it was very good.</div>
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Finally, even though I was stuffed, I waited for a while before my waitress came back to pick up my empty plates. I eventually decided to go for some dessert. They have nice little Japanese desserts, but I opted for something small, so I picked the ice cream mochi. That's basically balls of ice cream wrapped in a flavoured glutinous rice paste. They had two kinds: sweet red beans and mango. When the waitress saw that I couldn't make up my mind, she offered to bring me one of each. I agreed. It was delicious. This was a great ending to a great meal.</div>
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The bill went up to $37.00 with tip. But, that's because I went all out with a beer, appetizer and dessert. Othewise, at $10 per bowl of ramen, I could've eaten there for a lot cheaper. Besides, I left the place full, satisfied and very happy. I would definitely go back there again.</div>
Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-8373539206614851912013-03-20T00:37:00.002-04:002013-03-20T00:37:26.846-04:00Fairmount streetWednesday of last week, I decided to check out one of the streets I walked by <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-mile-end-less-traveled.html">when I went all the way up to the Mile End</a>. So, with my Ray Ban glasses hiding my true human appearance and with a vintage leather coat and some tight jeans and Chuck Taylor Converse shoes, I was able infiltrate hipster territory without being noticed and observed them in their natural element. Haha, I'm kidding. Actually, they saw me coming a mile away. Chuck Taylors and Ray Bans are already way too mainstream. Though they still accepted me thanks to my old worn out leather jacket that I've had for over ten years, which totally passed as vintage.<br />
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Hipster jokes aside, the first street that I crossed that night was Fairmount, just west of Saint-Laurent. It was getting late though so most shops were closed, but I still got a pretty good feel of the area and saw a few very interesting places. There were many cute little neighbourhood restaurants and cafés, some art galleries and interesting little shops and a couple of very interesting bigger and specialized restaurants that I would love to try.<br />
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The first place that I walked by was a Japanese paper shop. That's right, a store that specializes in Japanese paper and paper-related arts and crafts. When I looked inside, they had different kinds and colours of paper for all sorts of uses. They also had books that covered your typical traditional origami stuff to instructions on how to make lamps and build your own Japanese paper wall. That's pretty neat! Maybe I should go get myself equipped and change my ugly red curtains that separate my bedroom from my living room and replace that with a Japanese paper wall! Though, I don't really have any room to build one of those either. I guess I'll stick with the curtains...<br />
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Next was an old little deli shop called Wilensky, after its owner Moe Wilensky. It had this really old classic look you'd find in a place right out of the 50's. The owner really kept the place looking nice after all this time. I would love to try that place out just for the experience.<br />
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Another block further and I found one of Montreal's first and one of the best bagel bakeries in town, <a href="http://www.fairmountbagel.com/">Fairmount Original Bagels</a>. According to their website, this little shop has been there since 1949 and was founded by one of Montreal's first bagel bakers, Isadore Shlafman who used to sell his bagels in the back-alley of his home in 1920's. Along with Saint-Viateur bagels, Fairmont Bagels makes some of the best Montreal-Style bagels you can find. This place is definitely worth a stop during the day. When I was passing by, there were trucks getting loaded to ship these bagels in grocery stores all over town. All these bagels and they are still being made in their original locations from all the way back in the 50's!<br />
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After that there wasn't anything else for a while on my side of the street. I went past Avenue du Parc and when I saw that there was nothing really interesting anymore, other than apartment houses, I was going to turn around and walk back along the other side of the street. But, I noticed this one restaurant whose name rang a bell. It's called <a href="http://restaurantrumi.com/">Rumi</a>. I went closer and I saw what it was. It's a middle-eastern cuisine restaurant. I've heard of it before and I've heard really good thins about it too! Their menu was quite impressive and it looks like they have some high quality food there. If ever I'm in the mood for some good kibbeh, chicken or an authentic tajine dish with couscous, vegetables and aromatic spices, this would be the place to go.<br />
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On my way back, on the other side of the street, I didn't notice anything really worth mentioning. There were a couple of beauty, pedicure, manicure salons and some quaint little local cafés and diners, but nothing that quite got my attention. Maybe except for this croissant shop. Maybe it's the French in me, but I loves me some fresh butter croissants! Especially with a large bowl of cafe au lait! One of my favourite places in Montreal has been Croissanterie Linda on Sainte-Catherine near Saint-Marc. But, I like to have variety and to try new places and compare. So, I was very happy to discover another croissaterie in town. I should try this place out one morning for breakfast and see how their croissants compare.<br />
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Not until I got back to the corner of Saint-Urbain. There I found what I think was the discovery of the night. A restaurant called <a href="http://www.cartelstreetfood.com/">Cartel</a> that claims to be a street food bar. The place looks beautiful inside. I looked at their menu and it was very interesting. Indeed, they served street foods. The kind of stuff you would usually get off food trucks like <a href="http://grumman78.blogspot.ca/">Grumman 78</a>. It was mostly Mexican and Asian. They also serve larger dishes with steak, duck, chicken, etc. But, the one thing that caught my eye was the lobster rolls. I remember the lobster rolls I ate in Old Orchard Beach last summer and suddenly had the urge to get some. I still do. I need to go back there and get my lobster rolls on!<br />
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Fairmount street is your typical quaint little Montreal neighbourhood street. Along with its old fashioned deli and cafés and typical old apartment buildings and small art galleries, you find a true Montreal Icon: the original Fairmount Bagels bakery. If you really want to experience Montréal and its soul, I think this is a good place to go to get a good feel what this city is really all about. Or a good part of it at least, because the spirit of this city changes from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. And that's what makes walking around in this town so interesting.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-17428605267211112352013-03-13T19:52:00.003-04:002013-03-13T19:52:53.742-04:00Bail out SaturdayWell Saturday was off to a bad start. What was supposed to be a nice afternoon and dinner with my family and an evening with some friends ended up with me spending most of the day by myself.<br />
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My mother and my sister were keen on going to see an art exhibit in <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/10/montreal-underground.html">Montreal's underground complex</a> because a part of it featured pieces made by artists from Barcelona. My sister spent six months this winter in the capital of Catalonia as a foreign exchange student and my parents went to visit, so they were looking forward to see some <i>objets d'art</i> that reminded them of their beautiful journey there. That particular part was exhibited at the Complexe Desjardins, so that's where we plan to meet. My mom, dad, sister, her boyfriend and my little cousin all showed up around 1pm. When they saw what the <i>oeuvres d'art</i> were all about, they were severely disappointed. It turned out to be just a few booths with video projections of artsy fartsy crap that don't make sense. Like watching a bunch of shadows move in the light reflected off of a bunch of steel balls. Another was a video of someone filming the ground as he walked and some captions talking about how a close up view of moving pavement looked like canyons and valleys (it didn't). When they saw that, they decided to cancel out on the whole art exhibition thing and go to Chinatown instead.<br />
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Walking in Chinatown I discovered a brand new ramen place. Apparently, they make their own noodles. But, after my experience at Sumo Ramen, whose ramen noodles are also home-made, it doesn't mean that it's actually good. It'll be worth a try. Maybe I'll go for lunch sometime.<br />
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In Chinatown, my folks wanted to go to a tea shop. They came out of it and my mother suddenly felt queasy. She's been ill for a while and the doctor told her to stay home and get rest. She thought she felt good enough to go out but it turns out she was wrong. So they turned back and decided to go home. My poor mom has been working way too hard lately and it finally affected her health. So, I understand it was best for her to go get rest. I invited my sister and her boyfriend to stay with me and hang out downtown, but they rode in with my parents and didn't want miss their ride home. Besides, my sister's boyfriend went to a rock concert the night before and his head was still ringing from the noise. So everybody left.<br />
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I tried to call a bunch of people to hang out, but it was already late in the afternoon and most people had made plans already or were too tired from partying the night before. So, "screw it" I said. I decided to go have dinner somewhere and enjoy the rest of the day by my own damn self! On that day, there were a couple of cool events happening. First, there was a <a href="http://mtlrollerderby.com/">roller derby</a> somewhere in Montreal Nord with the three local roller derby teams doing a round robin. Later, there was a burlesque show happening downtown. I knew there was another roller derby happening some time soon, so I opted for the burlesque show. But first, dinner.<br />
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I walked up Saint-Laurent until I reached a restaurant I found no so long ago. I talked about it <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-mile-end-less-traveled.html">when I walked in the Mile End</a>. It's a vegan restaurant called Aux Vivres. A friend of mine highly recommended it and said it was his favourite restaurant. So I decided to try it out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to turn vegan anytime soon. Hells no! I'll eat bacon every god damn chance I get.<br />
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It's a little place that looked like it was under renovation. They sat me down at a table and handed me the menu. I was a little uncomfortable at first because there was nothing with meat and I was afraid I might end up paying for a meal that's going to leave me on my appetite. Their soup of the day was a sweet potato, carrot and ginger soup. Their specialty seemed to be some kind of big bowl filled with veggies and tofu or big pratha bread sandwich wraps. Their pratha bread is made from scratch too. I decided to go with the wrap. It had a slice of grilled seasoned tofu, pickled carrots and turnip and lettuce and a really great Thai peanut sauce. And the thing was motherfucking huge! I really had trouble finishing it. I was completely stuffed. When I was done with my plate, I paid and left and I didn't feel too bad. You know that stuffy bloated feeling you get after a big meal sometimes? Well I didn't have that. It was great!<br />
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I went home for a bit and tried to call some people to accompany me at the burlesque show, but it was too late. Nobody could come. So, again, I went by myself and felt like an idiot to go see something like that alone. But, I didn't want to miss it. I'm sure glad I didn't because it turned out to be a cool show. It was happening at the Café Cléopatre on Saint-Laurent at the corner of Sainte-Catherine. The old red light district. I went there just before the doors opened up and stood in line.<br />
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When we were finally let it, we went up the stairs to the cabaret. 10$ entry fee. It was a nice little place. The show turned out to be pretty cool. The show was sponsored by <a href="http://www.toutounesatomiques.net/">Les Toutounes Atomiques</a> (The atomic chubbies) which is a cool retro pin-up style fashion store for plus size ladies. The girls are members of a group of performers called <a href="http://sublimesrondeurs.blogspot.ca/">Sublimes Rondeurs</a> (sublime curves) and they do burlesque cabaret shows like this regularly. Also, it just so happens that one of the girls is a mutual friend of a bunch of friends of mine. The show that night was called French Kiss and mostly had a French theme, though there were some cowboy and lumberjack scenes. The host of the evening was a drag queen and was able to get the crowd cheering and applauding. The ladies gave us a good show and were very entertaining. Overall, I had a great time.<br />
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I had quite a few drinks and ended up taking one of the last couple of metro trains of the day to head back home. When I got home I just crashed and went to bed. And that was my Saturday.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-59730110877632324642013-02-27T23:44:00.001-05:002013-02-27T23:44:56.635-05:00Daily double, wet n sloppy snow.I'm just going to write one more small quick post here just to talk about how I haven't been walking out much lately. Quite frankly, I'm just getting real sick of winter. And since spring is coming soon, the weather has warmed up just a little bit. And by warmed up, I mean that it has gone from a frigid hell-freezing cold of -40 degrees Celcius (that's actually -40 in Fahrenheit as well!) to 0 C (32 F), but the humidity is unbearable.<br />
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Today, just as I thought we would start to have some warm dry weather again with most of the snow melted off the sidewalks and the streets, mother nature decided to have snow diarrhea and shit up a wet sloppy snow storm. I mean, it really was big wet floppy snow that was falling from the sky in large clusters and it just stuck to everything. And since it was pretty warm, it melted the second it touched the ground, but at the rate it was falling it eventually piled up in this gross sloppy mush. Even my super-ultra-mega-forever-dry North Face winter boots were no match for this sloppy shit.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ugh! God, it's everywhere!</span></i></div>
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I still went for a walk though. I had to go outside and move after being stuck on a chair at work for so long. But, I soon regretted it when I came out the metro. Just a couple of minutes outside and it felt like a thousand ice pigeons were taking a cold shit on my face. It's like I was being repeatedly spat on by old man winter, that gross bastard. Eventually, because it was so sticky, it just accumulated everywhere and soon fell from branches and light posts in huge semi-wet cold chunks onto the heads of passer-bys.<br />
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Still, there is one advantage to this kind of snow. Because it's so wet and sticky, it's great for making....<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">SNOWBALLS!</span></i></div>
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That's right! Snowballs! Just grabbing a handful and it all just stuck together. And I'm sure you've heard of the snowball effect? Ever wondered why it's called that? Just start with a snowball as small as the one pictured above, and just roll it in the snow on the ground and next thing you know, you have the bottom part of a snowman! Roll up two more and you can make the full snowman! But, by the time you're done, your clothes will be soaking wet and you'll soon suffer from hypothermia if you don't go somewhere dry and warm.<br />
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Anyway, I haven't gone out much lately because the weather is shit and cold and wet and I'm sick of it all. I can't wait for spring to come. Especially the maple season with all the sweet, sweet maple goodies!!!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-4251617785678803182013-02-27T23:26:00.003-05:002013-02-27T23:26:44.878-05:00Chinatown RamenThose who know me know how much I love Ramen. That's why <a href="http://www.restaurantramenya.com/">Ramen-Ya</a> has been my favourite restaurant in Montreal for so long. It has been pretty much the only place that served ramen in Montreal for a while as far as I know. Recently, this dish started to become increasingly popular. New restaurants that specialize in that dish started to pop up here and there. I've been paying close attention and I've found a few places through word of mouth from the most random people. One of them, located on Stanley street and that I have yet to visit, I heard about from a sales guy at a digital camera shop in the Place Montreal Trust shopping mall. He told me he tried it for the first time in Japan and had been looking for a good place here that served it and that was his spot. I think I might go try it out sometime soon.<br />
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Another place that I heard about through god knows what source is a restaurant in Chinatown called Sumo Ramen. I have been meaning to go there for a while and last weekend I decided to stop by for a quick meal before spending the night at a friend's place. My impression was already made before I even got there. I thought that it wasn't going to be authentic. I mean it's called Sumo Ramen. It sounds cheap and cliché as hell. Also, if my experience eating in cheap cliché restaurants in Chinatown has taught me anything is that the food is going to be pretty mediocre. But, you can't judge a place before trying it out. Sometime, you can get pleasantly surprised.<br />
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I got there pretty quickly. The restaurant is above some sort of souvenir shop and the entrance wasn't very big. If it wasn't for the signs on the sidewalk I would've totally missed it.<br />
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I went up and asked for a table. I sat down and looked around to check out the decor and the customers. The place looks alright. It was bigger than I expected but, it felt very crowded because the tables were all close to each other. The decor was obviously inspired from a traditional Japanese house, but it wasn't too much.<br />
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As for the crowd, I just found out where all the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku">otaku</a> nerds go for dinner on a Saturday night. You couldn't miss them. Teenaged, greasy haired anime nerds with Totoro hats and t-shirts with characters from Ano Natsu de Matteru or some unknown anime that no one's ever heard about, talking about the latest episode of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto">Naruto</a>. (Naruto is okay though, I watch it every Saturday morning with my breakfast right before I watch Adventure time.) So yeah. This was it. The place where all the anime fanboys and fangirls go to eat the favourite meal of one of their<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto_Uzumaki"> favourite anime character</a>. For the record, the first time I heard about ramen was back in the late-90's while watching a Japanese repertoire movie called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/">Tampopo</a>. I heard about it way before it was cool. So I'm the ramen hipster.<br />
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Seriously though. If you can get your hands on a copy of the Tampopo movie, I most highly recommend watching it. It is the most fascinating foodie movie you will ever see in your life and I guarantee that at the end you <b>will </b>be hungry.<br />
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So I was sitting at my table and looked at their menu. It had a good variety. Especially for the appetizers. They had lots of tiny little servings of finger foods to share with friends. As for the ramen, they had only three kinds of broth: soy, spicy and miso. They had three home specialty ramen bowls that you could choose from or select your ingredients to make your own combination. One thing I was really excited about was that according to the menu, the ramen noodles were home-made. So, I picked some fried pork dumplings (gyoza) as an appetizer and the volcano ramen. The volcano ramen is a miso soup with noodles, spicy ground pork, corn, green onions and mushrooms. Sounds good.<br />
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After a while I got my dumplings. I was a bit surprise because they came all stuck together to a ribbon of what I could only imagine could be fried rice paper. The dumplings were good, but lacked flavour. A little while after I got my soup. At first sight it looked pretty plain. I mean even I made intant ramen soups that looked way better than this. Also, the smell is very important. I know what <i>good</i> ramen should smell like, but this one kind of just smelled like bacon.<br />
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I started by tasting the broth. It was surprisingly good. Actually, I've never been a huge fan of miso, but this one was delicious. The pork, like the dumplings, lacked a bit of flavour. It could've used just a tiny bit more salt. The most disappointing part though were the noodles. They just looked, tasted and felt like spaghetti noodles. Anyway, I was a little disappointed in the quality, but overall it was alright. It was a good soup and I ate the whole thing to the last drop.<br />
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I've heard people say this place was authentic, but I strongly disagree. I've been to the very famous <a href="http://www.ippudony.com/">Ippudo</a> in New York which is famous for having the best ramen this side of the hemisphere and, frankly, Ramen-Ya is, so far, the closest thing I've ever tasted to the real authentic stuff. Sumo Ramen was what I expected after all. It's not bad, but it's not excellent either. I might drop by sometime for a quick lunch since I work close by, otherwise I'll stick with my usual spot.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-80663248080189000752013-02-24T22:01:00.001-05:002013-03-03T23:19:05.645-05:00Fun in the coldFor a couple of weeks now there have been stage crews around Place des Arts. They were building something, but it wasn't clear at first. This Friday, I finally found out what was going on. There was yet another <a href="http://www.montrealenlumiere.com/home.aspx">Montréal en Lumière</a> festival. I was walking back from the comic book shop And heard a buch of music and saw some lights, so I though I'd pass by and check it out. The first thing I saw was that they had set up this laser machine that projected on a building wall. People would draw something and the laser projector would draw it up on the wall. That was pretty cool! I managed to shoot a video of someone writing a love message in Chinese.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Then again, a week later someone wrote <a href="http://i.imgur.com/ekJtvKT.jpg">this</a>.<br />(It says: "we're looking for pot")</span></i></div>
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The night wasn't too cold and the snow wasn't all melting wet and gross all over. The area was all lit up with bright colourful lights everywhere. A couple of stages were set up where bands and DJs were playing music. Albeit, not really good music, but some people seemed to enjoy it and it made it all the more festive.<br />
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Some fireplaces were set up where people could huddle and warm up. Some of them even sold marshmallows on a stick that you could cook over the fire. That is super awesome! There were also some stands set up that sold alcohol in case you wanted to warm your guts with some liquor.<br />
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Further up Jeanne-Mance street, some heated futuristic plastic bubble domes were set up with bars in them where people could walk in, sit down, get their drink on and warm up while still be able to look at the pretty lights outside. There was also a ferris wheel in the back where you could hear the wussies screaming their heads off. Jesus, it's just a ferris wheel, not the super jumbo mega death roller coaster of ultimate doom 2000. Get a grip!<br />
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One thing that Montréal has been working a lot on is trying making the city visually more attractive. Especially around the new Quartier des spectacles (entertainment district - and by entertainment I'm not talking about hookers. Though the area used to be a popular spot for that kind of stuff) the city has been investing a lot in visual projections on buildings. I don't know if you can see a little bit here in the video, not just the little projection on the white bubble dome, but also in the back on the UQAM college building in the back, what it looks like.<br />
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Finally, as I was heading towards the metro station, I had to walk on a little overpass that goes over lit up ice slide where people were just zooming by on little plastic sleds. That looked like a lot of fun! This little festival was pretty cool and apart from the booze that they sold on the site, they also had a bunch of cool little activities and also the traditional maple taffee on snow which is perfect for kids.<br />
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Montreal always has a festival almost for every season. In the summer, they even overlap each other because of how many there are. This city is great for that. And this little festival they set up really helps light up the mood at a time when people are getting completely sick of winter.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-22258148766936361392013-02-15T00:36:00.003-05:002013-02-15T08:51:34.898-05:00Valentine's day and the jazz singerIt feels like I haven't been going out much at all in the past few weeks. Much less even write about it. Today, I decided to make up for it and go for a long distance. I thought I'd do the same as <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-mile-end-less-traveled.html">I did on Saint-Laurent all the way up to Mile-End</a> and walk up Saint-Denis this time as far as I could. So I took the metro and got off at the Berri-Uqam station.<br />
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Saint-Denis is a really nice street. Unfortunately, I found that once I got past Laurier there wasn't much left. Even past Mont-Royal it got pretty dead. There are however a few good restaurants, some art shops and designer clothing stores among other things, but it's not quite as dense as what you get between Mont-Royal and René-Lévesque. Speaking of which, tonight was Valentine's day and it was easy to spot all the loving couples walking up and down the street. The restaurants were all prepared to welcome them with pink and red heart shaped decorations and little cupids everywhere. Occasionally, some girls had a rose in their hand from the gentleman accompanying them. So cute. I was happy for them. What else can I do? Sulk and be all sad about being by myself on Valentine's day? Pfff! Fuck that. At least I don't have to fear any disappointment. For once, I've been starting to feel happy about myself and my life. I haven't felt like that in a long time. And who needs a girlfriend anyway? Bitches be crazy! Am I right guys?<br />
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Anyway, like I was saying, I walked up Saint-Denis. Past Mont-Royal the street is a little darker. There are more apartments than businesses and therefor less bright lights to shine on store fronts. Frankly, I took almost no pictures. I didn't really see anything worth taking a picture of except for a couple of places. First, there's the Pizzaiolle at the corner of Gilford street. The restaurant is set in a really nice chrome wagon-style diner.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of a kind in Montreal.</span></i></div>
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I think it's a real shame that such an overpriced pizza restaurant bought the place. Call me a purist, but I feel this completely breaks the tradition of the diner. Still, I feel like I should go eat there just once to see what it looks like inside, because the place is beautiful on the outside. I'm even surprised it still looks this good with the weather we have here.<br />
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Close to that place, just a couple of blocks north, there's one of my favourite breakfast spots. You want to go out for a brunch on the weekend and get a delicious full breakfast? Forget Chez Cora, La Petite Marche is where it's at. For around $15 you get a big ass breakfast with a small glass of OJ and unlimited coffee. Their food is delicious and I have never been disappointed. The staff is also very friendly and there's always room to sit. I highly recommend it.<br />
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Other than that, I really didn't see anything interesting. It was boring even. But, I kept on going. I wanted to go as far as I had been on Saint-Laurent. And I did. Even more so. I actually walked all the way to Rosemont boulevard! That's a long way from Sainte-Catherine. From that point, if I wanted to walk over to Saint-Laurent, I had to go on an overpass to cross over some railroads. It was interesting. And kind of scary because I there was not another soul on that overpass and it was pretty long as it spans over several blocks. I did however get a nice view of the Mont-Royal mountain from there and the iconic Saint-Laurent warehouse with the water tower on its roof. Yep, I was crossing over to Mile-End.<br />
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Eventually, I reached Saint-Laurent and the overpass kept on going, but there were stairs to go down to the street. When I got down I saw some really cool graffiti under the overpass. I love street art and I was happy to have made this little discovery.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Heh, we need more of those to hold up the bridges around Montreal.</span></i></div>
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Speaking of street art, on my way back down Saint-Laurent, I spotted a designer furniture store that had what looks like an original graffiti from a famous female artist called <a href="http://www.missvan.com/">Miss Van</a>. That is pretty fucking awesome. Sorry the picture was so bad, there was a lamp right in front of it in the window, but we can make it out. Also, I forgot to check the store and take a picture. Damn! But you can actually see it in her collection of <a href="http://www.missvan.com/street-painting/">street paintings here</a>. This looks genuine. I'd have to go back in the store and check it out.<br />
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Coming back on Saint-Laurent, I was actually further than where I had been a couple of weeks ago. I noticed some new streets going west that looked mighty interesting. I think I know where I will be exploring next. The Mile-End looks like a really nice area with tons to offer, but I never really hear anyone talk about it much. It's alwasy "the Plateau this, the Plateau that". Well I'm checkin' out Mile-End from now on.<br />
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When I finally got to Mont-Royal, on my way down the street I spotted this van. A GMC Vandura, Gypsy edition. We don't find many of these old vans anymore these days. I remember they used to be popular back in the 80's what with The A Team and all. They're pretty awesome vans and I bet they're perfect for road trips.<br />
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Making my way back down I was also back to running into all the couple coming out of restaurants and heading back home. Though it wasn't so bad. But, I kid you not, the entire area smelled of wine! There were some lonesome people walking by themselves, heading home, like me. When I was walking by some of the girls, they had this look in their eyes. A look that said "I wonder if he's gonna be the next one!" Truth is, I probably had that same look too. I mean, it's Valentine's day. People hope for a miracle to happen and to meet "the one" on that night by chance. Or maybe it's just me and I'm just imagining things. Anyway, there's no point in hoping for anything to happen or else you end up disappointed at the end of the day.<br />
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At some point I started hearing some music. I passed in front of a restaurant that was all decorated for Valentine's day, of course, with red table cloths, heart shapes dangling from the ceiling and couple sitting at small tables all looking at the jazz band that was playing in the corner, next to the window. It was good music. Very calm and soothing. There was a girl singing too and she had a very nice voice. I stood there for a minute to listen to the music and as I did, I guess some people noticed me and the singer turned around and looked at me. I just smiled at her like an idiot. But, she smiled back. She was very pretty. She turned to face her mic and the crowd and I could see her audience laughing inside. Then she turned again and smiled again. I think I might've broken her concentration. Everyone was looking at me inside and laughing. I was so embarrassed that I left. But, I laughed. I also thought what would've happened if at that point I just went inside and sat at the bar to have a drink and listen to the music. Maybe she would've come and said hello in between songs. Or maybe not. I'm dreaming. Who am I kidding. Everyone noticed me anyway and I would've probably made a fool of myself. Still, she noticed me. And her beautiful smile gave me hope. Hope that maybe I won't be walking "solo" for a very long time.<br />
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On second thought, maybe I should've gone in for that drink...Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-45702390056906840602013-02-04T01:44:00.003-05:002013-02-04T01:44:58.458-05:00The Mile End less traveledDuring my walks I've been mostly hanging out either on Sainte-Catherine, walking on Sainte-Catherine or Maisonneuve from the Concordia university area all the way to Place Des Arts, or walking up Saint-Laurent to Mont-Royal and coming back down Saint-Denis. Occasionally, I'll walk on Notre-Dame from Place D'Armes all the way to the Little Burgundy and the Atwater market and head up the street of the same name until I reach Sainte-Catherine again. But, that last one is rare. It brings back too many memories.<br />
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Recently, when I got to the corner of Saint-Laurent and Mont-Royal, I thought "you know, I never really go north of here. I should probably do that sometime and check it out." I used to travel up there every day when I used to work as an intern for an open source software consulting company ten years go. This week I decided to go and take a look to see what's changed. To be honest, not a lot has changed, other than the fact that there are some new ugly modern condos whose facade doesn't fit with the local architecture and heritage of the neighbourhood. But, what can we do when the city is going on an all out condo construction rampage where they build more condos than there are actual people to live in them. Anyway, enough with the rant.<br />
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Wednesday night was fairly warm. Like, spring weather warm. It was 10 degrees Celsius. (50 F) The snow had melted everywhere and the air was moist. The city smelled like a gigantic wet dog. I drove downtown and parked around Place Des Arts. I know a spot where there's always free parking available after 9pm. I got out of my car and walked up Saint-Laurent. On my way up I stuck to the west side of the street since I always walk on the east side. I spotted a cool little sore that sold Montreal memorabilia. T-Shirts, mugs, posters, hats, etc. With all sorts of prints from famous spots around the city like the Farine Five Roses flour manufacture neon sign, the big orange from Orange Julep on Decarie boulevard. That's kind of cool, I guess. Especially if you want to represent Montreal wherever you go.<br />
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Other than that store, I didn't take any pictures until I reached Mont-Royal. My objective was to take a few shots at what is further north. And when I did, the first place that I thought was worthy of talking about is a vegan place called <a href="http://www.auxvivres.com/">Aux Vivres</a>, which translates somewhat to "to foods" or "at the foods". It's basically a small restaurant and grocery store where everything is 100% vegan. I'll be honest. I am a meat eater. But, there are times when I want to eat a good meal that's easy to digest and the best thing for that is vegetarian/vegan food. Looking at their menu, it seemed very interesting, but it's pretty much the same as any vegan place. Most of the items are inspired from Asian cuisine and, other than the burgers and a couple of dishes, there didn't seem to be a lot of hot meals. I'd probably go there in the summer instead for a light dinner or something. Overall, it seemed like an interesting place.<br />
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Further up, there was another place called <a href="http://robindesbois.ca/">Robin des Bois</a>, which is the French name for Robin Hood. It's a nice looking restaurant with a special twist. It's a not for profit organization. From what I read in their window, the restaurant is supported by volunteers and they donate all profits to some charitable organizations that "<i>help fight solitude, social isolation and poverty</i>". That's pretty noble of them. Their menu seems quite nice too with a lot of variety and some awesome dishes too. To my understanding, the menu is organized by table d'hôte and how much you are willing to pay. So you have a $20 dinner, another at $35 and for groups you have shared dinners at $50+. They also received many awards for being a great place to go to the guide Debeur, Zagat Rated and others. I think this would be a great place to try out some time.<br />
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Further up there was another place that seemed a bit mysterious. Or maybe it's just me. Whenever I see a a really nice looking place that's completely empty, it just seems mysterious. Why would such a great looking bar/restaurant be empty? Well it was on a Wednesday night after all and it was kind of late. Maybe I should swing by on a Saturday around dinner time and see if it's still the same. But, I digress. The place is called the Sporting Club Montreal. What's weird is that it doesn't look like a sports bar. There were no TVs! It also said it is a <i>Bar à bouchées</i>, which means something along the lines of finger food bar or food bites bar or something. That makes it even more mysterious. A sports bar with no TVs that serves what I could only imagine would be tapas, a European Spanish cuisine thing where you serve various finger foods for dinner. A little googling revealed <a href="http://www.nightlife.ca/sorties/le-sporting-club-de-montreal-un-nouveau-bar-fine-bouche-ancre-dans-l-histoire-de-la-boxe">an article in the Nightlife magazine</a> that his is basically a nice tapas wine bar with a decor inspired from the glorious boxing days of old. The article also mentions that it's an awesome place if you want to sit down, taste different kinds of wine and match them with the various bites that their cook comes up with. It sound like the kind of place for a great tasting adventure.<br />
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And right next to it (I swear, they must share the same kitchen or something) is a small restaurant with almost the same decor. It's called <a href="http://www.frenchconnectionmontreal.com/">The French Connection</a> and it's a restaurant, like we say, <i>du terroir,</i> which means from local sources. Looking at the menu, as if the name of the place wasn't a big enough hint, this is definitely a French restaurant. It looks good, very fancy, but expensive.<br />
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Just across the corner from that place, there was another restaurant called the <a href="http://www.restobiarritz.com/">Biarritz</a>. It looked really nice inside. The menu was very interesting as well and very original, but limited. You can tell they are very specialized. The prices were quite reasonable too. It looks like a cool hangout and I would definitely like to try it out eventually.<br />
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Just a few more steps down the road and there was yet another wine bar. This one, however, is a deli wine bar. It has, apparently, been named one of Canada's best new restaurants. The place is named <a href="http://comptoircharcuteriesetvins.ca/">Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins</a> which means <i>The Counter, deli and wine</i>. This has nothing to do with the famous Schwartz's or Dunn's smoked meat deli kind of place. This is a swanky restaurant that prepares and serves deli cuts in all sorts of extravagant fashions, coupled with matching wine. If you like small, expensive portions of food, this is where to go.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sorry I didn't take a better shot, I didn't want to photograph their patrons.</span></i></div>
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After walking for a bit with nothing that stood out, there was a bar with some loud music and a very... lush... front window. I couldn't see inside from all the plants, but there were a lot of people coming in and out of the place. The place is called <a href="http://www.casadelpopolo.com/">Casa del Popolo</a>. From my Latin French background, I can assume this means <i>The house of the people</i>. Looking at their website, I realize it's a cafe/bar/concert venue. And they seem to be associated with the <a href="http://www.casadelpopolo.com/contents/node/25">Sala Rosa</a>, which is literally across the street from them. That place is another cool spot with a Spanish restaurant serving tapas, paella and other dishes as well as its own concert venue as well. Since my sister just spent 6 months in Barcelona for school, maybe I could take her there and see what she thinks of their Spanish food. The Casa del Popolo and the Sala Rosa look kind of underground. I know I passed in front of them before, but never really noticed them. It's probably a real hipster hangout and if I talk about it to any of them, they'll be all like "I used to hang out here before it was cool" and I'll be all like "Calm your tits and loosen up those jeans Mr. Beanie McBeardo. Nobody cares." Anyway, if there's good food, good drinks and good music, it's worth it. I oughta try it out some time.<br />
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Further north I found a burger place. There are two types of food that I absolutely LOVE. The first is Japanese ramen noodles and the second are hamburgers. Montreal lacks good gourmet burger places that don't cost an arm and a leg because the restaurant owners pimp out the place and turn it all into a luxurious fancy dining restaurant with wild bison filet mignon burger or some other expensive crap. They're hamburgers! It's like charging $50 for some fancy fried fucking chicken! Come on! Anyway, the place is called Burger de Ville (city burger) which doesn't really inspire me. It sounds like it's made from ground rat meat and stale burger buns found in a dumpster in the alley. Or maybe something along those lines:<br />
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Anyway, <a href="http://www.burgerdeville.com/">Burger de Ville</a> is the name of the place and if I can has cheezburgers, I checks it out. The menu was a standard diner menu. Burgers, fries, poutine, steak, salads, etc. From the big flashy sign and the good looking interior (from angle I saw anyway), I was a bit disappointed. There wasn't any big variety of burgers or anything special. Nothing worth calling the place Burger de Ville anyway.<br />
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Finally, I walked all the way up to Saint-Viateur where the local Ubisoft headquarters are located. I actually have a couple of friends and a cousin who work there. I know one is a sound designer and my cousin's a sysadmin who manages a shit load of important gaming servers. He keeps them up and running so you guys enjoy your online gaming. I find that pretty fucking awesome in my opinion. Like I mentioned before, I used to work in that building for another software consulting company.<br />
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Saint-Viateur was where I was going to stop. I kind of knew this area back in the day and there wasn't much to see north of that street. But, on that corner there were some pretty awesome eateries and it just seems like there are a couple more that popped up. There's a deli shop on a corner there and it's owned by an old Italian couple I think. They served freshly made sandwiches during the day. I swear to god, I have never had a tastier sandwich in my life thus so far. And, I recall that they used to sell some kind of soup. I think it was a clam chowder. They served it only one day of the week and there used to be a looong lineup all the way outside onto the sidewalk to the corner of the block to get some of that soup. If you didn't get there early enough, they would run out and you'd be shit out of luck. Fortunately for me, I had the privilege to have a couple of bowls while I worked there. I remember that the soup was extremely delicious. I'd very much like to get some again eventually.<br />
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Right next to it, a fish n chips place opened up called <a href="http://comptoir21.com/">Comptoir 21</a>. They have a simple menu with various fried seafoods. The place is small and has this really nice neighbourhood restaurant feel to it. It's a great place to grab a quick meal. I'm a big fan of fish n chips, especially since I discovered <a href="http://www.britandchips.com/">Brit n Chips</a> last year. But, Comptoir 21 looks interesting and I'm very curious to try their fried fish and see what it's like. The restaurant opens late, 'til 11pm. Maybe I'll stop by sometime and grab a quick dinner before walking back down to go home.<br />
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At that point I turned around and started to walk back down the Saint-Laurent boulevard and get back to my car. Walking up the Plateau all the way to Mile End was a long walk, but definitely worth it. I made some pretty good discoveries that night, some I didn't even mention here as there were a lot more. But, most of them were excessively expensive and exaggerated. One place served French cuisine and there was not a single dish on the menu that was under $25. And that's just for one plate, not a table d'hôte or anything like that. That's a bit too much for bite-sized servings of raw meat with a couple of leaves of greens if you ask me. Oh! And on my way up to Mile End, I met one of my friends who works at Ubisoft. He told me he liked my blogs, especially the one with the recipes. I was really happy to hear that! You know, it's hard to tell how much of an audience you have when only very few people comment on your posts. Anyway, I don't care too much about having an audience. I like doing this because it keeps my mind off of the other crap that happens in my every day life. And the original purpose of this blog was to keep <i>someone</i> up to date with my life and give that person some advice on where to go if ever they wanted to get to know this city better and all that it has to offer. But, I'm just glad there are others out there who enjoy what I write. At least this is not all for nothing.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-44184608150937022072013-01-23T00:28:00.002-05:002013-01-23T00:29:51.937-05:00The Freaky Candy ShopLast Friday I went out with a friend. We went out and had dinner somewhere on Saint-Laurent boulevard. After dinner, we went out for a walk even though it was super cold. Were walking north on the left side of the street and we noticed this really colourful display in a store window. We stopped and saw that the inside was in fact filled with candy and toys!!! I don't know why I never even noticed this place before. It's probably because I always walk across the street when I go walk around the Plateau. Also, the window has these big figurines. I must've thought it was another art store that sold some artwork from local artists. But, lo and behold! It's actually a candy store! It's called <a href="http://www.freaklunchbox.com/">Freak Lunchbox</a> and apparently it's a Canadian chain of candy and novelty toys store.<br />
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We went inside and it was glorious. The sweet smell of sugar filled the air. The first thing that we noticed coming in was the giant selection of Pez dispensers that was available and the awesome variety of Jelly Belly jelly beans available by bulk! They also had some giant motherfucking jawbreakers, wax lips and lots of candy you never find anywhere. Not even at other candy store I've been to like <a href="http://www.sugarmountain.ca/">Sugar Mountain</a>, Sucre Bleu or even <a href="http://www.oscar.qc.ca/">Oscar</a>, which I wrote about before <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/05/spending-money-feels-good.html">here </a>and <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/06/los-luchaores-de-la-plaza-saint-hubert.html">here</a>. This place has a great selection of American candy.<br />
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When we turned around, we found out that the other wall was a glorious wall of junk, covered in useless, yet cool toys and novelty crap. I found things like, whoopee cushions, fake moustaches, squirrel underwear, those switchblade-like combs and tons of bacon-related objects. Further back we also found a great collection of bobble heads, giant Pez dizpensers and loads of other cool stuff.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">When does the narwhal bacon? Only a few know.</span></i></div>
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While browsing the toys I came across this little fellow. Actually, there were many others. All in different wrestling poses. I couldn't help myself. I had to get one. So I did.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yeah! Headlock that beer cap into submission!</span></i></div>
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Another great novelty toy that I got is a jaw harp. What's a jaw harp? It's those metal twangers that cowboys used to put in their mouth and flick repeatedly to make a song. Here, lemme show you.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/t0YTwlpHvkk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Boing! Boing! Boing!</span></i></div>
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Now watch this guy and laugh at how lamentable my demonstration was.<br />
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The counter at the cash register and a portion at the back had an amazing selection of chocolate bars. I'll be honest. I L-O-V-E chocolate. It's my favourite thing in all the world. I like to try new chocolate bars from time to time, but this place had too many for me to explore. I couldn't make up my mind. I mean, they had orange flavoured Aero bars. I remember seeing those when I was a kid. I had one from a local convenience store (or dépanneur as we like to calle them) and thought it was delicious. When I went back a few days later to get some more they were gone. Anyway, their selection at Freak Lunchbox was crazy.<br />
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Some items caught my attention. One of them was a jar of Cadbury milk chocolate spread. Oh my god how awesome this must be on toast. Or, imagine stuffing a croissant full of this. Man, I just drooled all over myself just now.<br />
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Another awesome thing: they had a fridge filled with various bottles of rare soda pops so you could wash down whatever sugar you just ate with some sugar water. I mean they had some fucked up shit. like Bacon soda. or Peanut Butter and Jelly soda. (Really?) BUT! The most awesome thing is that they actually sell RAMUNE!!! Now I won't have to drive all the way to NDG to the <a href="http://montrealkoreanfood.com/">Korean Japanese grocery store</a> to get me some! (Good luck translating their website) By the way, you can read all about that <a href="http://walkingsolomontreal.blogspot.ca/2012/11/ohaiou-gozaimasu-montreal.html">here</a>.<br />
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Then my friend was surprise to find a stand full of bags of Australian chips and told me how all their chips are meat flavoured down under. So here we had Roast Chicken and Smokey Bacon as well as French Fries. At first they just looked like regular Lays chips. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were actually Walkers. Then it dawned on me. I want you to say "Lays" with your best Steve Irwin impersonation. Go ahead. Say it. What does it sound like? It sounds like he's saying Lies. "Yeah mate, I'm eating a bag of Lies! They're shrimp on the barbie flavoured." That doesn't sound very good. I guess their marketing team fixed this before selling on the market down under.<br />
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Behind the counter, I saw they had some signs up. It looks like in the summer they sell milk shakes! I wonder if you can get any candy you want ground up and mixed in your milkshake? Imagine that. Pick any candy you want and get chunks of it in a nice vanilla, strawberry or chocolate shake. Mmmm mmmm!<br />
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Finally, I was wondering out loud whether the place carried the oh so rare Cow Tales. My friend asked me what it was and I said that it was this long stick of soft caramel filled with creme at the centre. The store clerk was passing by when I said that and he said "Oh! Do you mean Cow Tales?" I said "Yeah!". So he showed me what they had. Holy fucking sugar cubes! They had them! The real motherfucking thing! And not some stale-ass hardened stuff. No! They had fresh ones! They were nice and bendy and squishy. They carried them in two flavours: regular and strawberry. Too bad they didn't have the apple flavoured one or the chocolate one. Those are like the supreme most awesome Cow Tales flavours of all!<br />
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I grabbed a couple of Cow Tales along with my luchador bottle opener and my twangin' jaw harp and went to the cash. We both paid for our stuff and exited the store. The next day, in the afternoon, I opened up the Cow Tales and had me some. They were really good. Very fresh. Nice and chewy and soft and tender and filled with delicious vanilla cream. I swear, if you find any of that stuff anywhere else, you gotta buy them by the box full because they are hard to find.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mmmmm! Delicious candy goodness!</span></i></div>
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This was a great discovery! I'm really happy to find such a candy store that sells this kind of candy an junk that are so hard to find anywhere else. I'm definitely gonna go back there sometime soon either for more candy or for more junk to spread around on my desk at work! Hell yes!Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4351149015589860124.post-3863171812929644652013-01-10T23:11:00.002-05:002013-01-10T23:11:40.174-05:00The Acadian CarLast night I went for a brisk walk. The weather was nice and warm, considering we're in the middle of winter in January, when it's supposed to be the coldest and with the most snow. But this week, everything is melting. So walking around was great. There was almost no snow or ice on the sidewalks and it was easy to get around. It was very wet though with a lot of slush everywhere. You had to be careful not to step in a deep puddle. As I was going around the Plateau Mont-Royal, there was a car on Saint-Denis that stopped me dead in my tracks.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">What the....!!!</span></i></div>
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I couldn't believe it. I had heard of those before. I used to have a collection of file cards with pictures of automobiles from all around the world and many different eras on them and their specs and everything. And I remember seeing this one, which looked pretty sporty, and was Canadian! The car was built in New Brunswick. It's an Acadian car! And no, I'm not referring to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevette">Pontiac Acadian</a>. (or Chevrolet Chevette depending on where you were from.) I'm referring to the Bricklin <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricklin_SV-1">SV-1</a>. What the fuck is a Bricklin you say? I know. They were produced for two years between 74 and 76 before the company went bankrupt. The story goes that they couldn't build them fast enough for the demand and the cost to build one car was too much compared to the sales they were making. That's why they are so rare! And SV stands for <i>safety vehicle</i>. Yep! The plan was to make the safest sports car on the market. But, because they tried too hard, it added weight to the car to a point it had trouble pulling it's own weight.<br />
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The car had a couple of neat features for its time though. First of all: gullwing doors. Everyone remembers the DeLorean DMC12 right? From Back to the Future? With Doc Brown and Marty McFly? Well the Bricklin SV-1 had them before they were cool. Even better: they were ELECTRONIC! You had NO door handle. Instead you had a button next to the door that you pressed and the door opened up or closed by itself. That's right! You never had to touch the door to either open or close it!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">See what I mean?</span></i></div>
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Other than that, the car has a pretty sporty look. But, when you look closer, you notice that the thing is built of some kind of plastic. It looks super cheap. What do you do if you have an accident in one of those and need to do some bodywork? Do you have to get another piece of moulded plastic? The doors on this one looked like they didn't quite fit in their holes. It was a bit off. The owner of that car obviously didn't care much about it. I mean who would drive a rare car in the middle of the winter? No matter how crappy the car is? I wouldn't! It's a real shame I tell ya. Anyway, I'm pretty happy that I got to see one up close. It's really surprising the amount of special cars I get to see around this city.Stephanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09460851667138068515noreply@blogger.com2