Qing Hua

Qing Hua

1676 Ave Lincoln
Montreal, QC
●●●●●●●○○○
7 out of 10

Maybe Dalian? From somewhere in China anyway...

There's one thing about this place that's really bothering me...Where in China does the food originate? China's huge and dumplings are ubiquitous. At first I thought it was from Qinghai which sits landlocked in the middle of China, next to Tibet. Then I thought it was from the south, then for about 10 seconds I thought it might come from Shanghai, then maybe Beijing, and now I hear it comes from Dalian, a coastal city in Liaoning Province to the Northeast, about halfway between Beijing and North Korea. So I have a lopsided triangle of dumpling-origin options on a map of the giant Chinese land mass.

Trying to detective dough through China is an almost thankless task. Only 'almost', because it fortunately results in some kind of dumpling or noodle even if you're wrong.

A million foodies and critics have written this place up already, so I don't need to tell you about some hidden gem where you just have to try the lamb and coriander steamed dumplings or the pork and cabbage boiled. They're tasty. Moving on...

What makes this place interesting is that the dumplings are home-made, there's apparently no added MSG, and you actually have to wait for your meal like the patient person that you are since your dumplings are made-to-order on a little counter visible from the dining room; magic hands shaping dough and fillings into carefully-wrapped bundles.


These are not wontons. These are not not dim sum steamed gauu. These are not Tibetan momos. These are not steamed Xiaolong bao buns, like the ones with curry beef and BBQ pork.

I was lucky to have a meal here with three Japanese gyoza connoisseurs, whose first reactions were emphatically that it was certainly not like gyoza. The dumpling wrappers were very thick and the filling was garlic-free. So I'm lead to believe these are Jiaozi, a generic term for wheat-wrapped dumplings, generally coming from the North of China.

At first I foolishly thought the restaurant's Chinese origins may be in Qing Hai. Maybe there was a spelling/pronunciation/translation issue between the name of the restaurant and the name of the region? I assume I'm wrong on this, but in a great reference book for Chinese food traditions, Beyond the Great Wall by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, they give a jiaozi dumpling recipe from Qing Hai that says that lamb and coriander is a common substitute for ground pork in this region. Turns out lambs aren't stationary animals and, at some point in the thousands and thousands of years of Chinese history, made their way all across the country, not just to Qing Hai province. So I'm a fool. Supporting my Qing Hai region of origin theory, however, was the fact that for awhile this restaurant was offering "Magic" Noodles, noodles stretched from one long noodle, like a seemingly endless game of cat's cradle. Back to my Chinese reference book...

These are called Uighur Flung Noodles and come from Xinjiang, which borders Qing Hai to the northwest. Close enough geographically to allow a little bit of food tradition transfer. But apparently the chef who used to make these noodles has left, and to me that shouts that he wasn't part of the restaurant family. So maybe he's from that area but the restaurant owners and dumpling-makers are not? I don't know too many Chinese who leave their family restaurants, then go across the street and teach another restaurant's chef (at Maison du Nord) to make your special noodles.


Okay, so then I thought Shanghai. The dumplings are innapropriately called "soup-dumplings". Yes, they burst with liquid when you bite into them, (which is both hilarious and disastrous. Messy is fine, but projectile soup is definitely for the adventurous. Not what you want to eat when you have something to look presentable for after lunch or dinner. Of course, you could turn it into a game and come to the restaurant regularly with you soup-spitting team to practice, just get team bibs instead of uniforms), but I saw the dumplings being made and there's no soup actually put into the dumplings. Nor are they served in soup. It's just a few teaspoons of meat mixture. In Shanghai "soup-dumplings" are made by adding gelatinized soup to the filling, so when the dumplings are steamed the soup liquifies. Thus soup in dumplings. Gelatinized soup...tasty...but I figured this was wrong because nothing else here shouted Shanghai and it killed the "North thick wheat-wrapper theory". Probably the filling is just incredibly moist from the meat and moisture in the filling. Lamb is fatty and when it's as tender as it is in these dumplings, the juices would definitely squirt out. The other fillings are probably just not dry. They're maybe tenderized before? Kind of in the way that meat is pre-marinaded to make it tender for other kinds of cooking. Any other theories?

So then I figured Beijing, since Qing Hua University is built on the site of Qing Hua Garden, an imperial villa in Beijing. Finally I read that the restaurant was officially "Dalian", a good ways east of Beijing. Oh, I don't know. It's north, so thick dumpling wrappers still applied. Lamb is everywhere, so that wasn't a deal-breaker. It's sort of close to Beijing and the reference to Qing Hua Gardens. Screw it. If the rest of the world can take Asian cuisine and combine it with way too many other things to call it "fusion", why can't Chinese people make whatever kind of dumplings and wrappers they want? Take flour and water and wrap meat in it. I mean, Indians call them samosas, South Americans call them empanadas, Italians call them ravioli, Jamaicans and Trinidadians call them patties or doubles. Variations on a theme. So Chinese cuisine has fused a little and as long as no traditions are lost, we, the eater, are the beneficiaries.


So try the mackerel ball soup. Mackerel and green onion balls doused in lemon (to get rid of the fishy taste), in home-made broth. Who knows where these balls come from? It's a big argument for Dalian because it was my only coastal option. Fish don't even have to walk themselves to new regions, though, thanks to salt, smoke and freezer trucks. Try the dumplings boiled, steamed and fried and see what you like. Don't judge them against anything else. They're not trying to be anything but exactly what they are.

A few notes: The cooks use clothespins to identify the steamer baskets full of dumplings. It would be an awful day spent not knowing which basket was which, since the dumplings seemed to be all wrapped the same.

The cooks could be from different places and were trained one way by the restaurant owners. It may not have been just the Magic Noodle man from outside the family or region of origin.


You can order for pick-up, or buy some of the dumplings frozen at half the cost. You have to buy them in quantities of 30, apparently.

The miso soup and salad that come at the beginning of the meal are...nice because you'll be hungry waiting for the dumplings, but nothing special. Bean sprouts were way too sweet and miso was not the greatest quality. I'm fine with this because the restaurant obviously spent so much more time, money and effort making the dumplings well and with good-quality ingredients, and it's a nice thought to try to provide something to snack on since so many people complained about actually having to wait for their food when this place first opened. Geez, try making polite conversation with your dining companion...or read a book, maybe it will open your mind to being more considerate. Lamb doesn't grind itself, wrap itself with magically-chopped coriander in dough that's been kneaded, stretched and rolled, and stick itself in an appropriately-clothes-pinned steamer basket, then deliver itself to your table hot, fresh and perfectly-cooked.

Price: $8-$14 for 16 steamed dumplings

Expect To Pay: $15-$25 to be absolutely stuffed

Hours: 11am to 11pm everyday!
(438) 288-5366
Credit cards and interac not accepted! Cash only!

Ristorante Sapori Pronto

Ristorante Sapori Pronto

4894 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC
●●●●●●●●○○
8 out of 10

Italian

After a bit of disappointment at Le Samuel de Champlain, I decided to take one more kick at the Montreal Highlights Festival proverbial can. Everything should be sold out by now...but it's not. When I called for a reservation for Happy Hour at Italian restaurant Sapori Pronto I figured I'd get a quick "Non, c'est complet", all booked up. Instead, I was asked if my party would be staying for dinner afterward...As the dinner menu was a $75 5 Italian course, 3 glasses of Portuguese wine and 1 liqueur (I assume port) affair, I opted for the $25 Italian "snacks" and 3 glasses of Portuguese wine Happy Hour. At least partly based on common sense. Mostly out of nostalgia.

Happy Hour in Italy is an experience. Bars and lounges throw open their unpretentious doors to anyone looking for a 7 euro drink to be accompanied by what's supposed to be a snack, but in some places more than constitutes a meal of bar-type food. This is not North American nachos and wings. This is polenta, bruschetta, tapenade, thin-crust pizza, rice salads, pasta salads, prosciutto, melon, foccacia, and sometimes pastries. It's more of a buffet. So I was really interested to see how upscale Sapori Pronto would present Italian snacks. I assumed they would have a bar or lounge area in the restaurant where all the Happy Hour guests would sample the wines and snacks together - a kind of party atmosphere.

I suppose there's a reason this is Montreal and not Italy. I suppose there's also a reason this is a restaurant and not a bar. The atmosphere is old-school Italian. For the music, think an Italian version of Star Académie or Canadian Idol if it was made in the 60's. The place was empty and we were seated at a table...alone. No bar. You certainly can't set up a buffet for three people.

Naive, I know.

Not that the food or wine was disappointing. Our waiter was from Venice, and as he poured the first glass of a fairly sweet white Portuguese wine, he admitted he knew nothing about it. From a server at a good restaurant, this was a bit shocking...I'm quite sure he would never have admitted it to someone who looked like they could possibly know anything about wine (aka not me). Like the older gentlemen with nice watches who walked in an hour later. About Italian wines, however, he was an expert. He did come from the Veneto after all, and he was more than accommodating in telling me the Italian origins of the olive oil and balsamic.

After the white, a dry rosé. Again, it didn't seem particularly important to know anything about it. Just to know that it went well with the incredibly thin-crust spicy tomato-sauced pizza. The Italian snacks were very well executed, and were certainly a step up from even most Italian bars. The half pizza-circle of tomato was complemented by a second half of spinach pizza with cream and the tiniest dusting of parmesan. The pizza was for the table to share, but the next course of appetizers (hurray!) was presented on large individual plate: Mozzarella di bufala on giant slices of tomato, grilled zucchini, two kinds of salumi (I believe soppressa and prosciutto with melon), olive tapenade on crostini, and two potato croquettes.

It's really hard to avoid cheese in an Italian meal. I was bound to get sick. At least the cheese wasn't abused. It served its purpose and no more, to avoid masking other flavours. The pizza and the croquettes both had parmesan (though I was not warned about the croquettes...), and the mozzarella...well, I was given the zucchini as a replacement. The zucchini was heavily salted (I loved it...), grilled to perfection, and doused in olive oil, along with the otherwise bland, though meaty, field tomatoes. The fresh black pepper did spice it up a little. The kalamata olive tapenade was not too salty because it was diluted with so much calming olive oil, but the soppressa stole the show. The prosciutto was nothing special (though the melon was sweet and rich) ,and not worth more than a first bite, but the spicy flavour of the soppressa was absolutely perfect with the final red Portuguese wine offered (It came from Douro, the wine, but all the wines at the festival seem to come from Douro...so I'm afraid I'm of no help to anyone who would like to try this beautiful red). I very rarely eat pork, but this was worth it.

Oh, a note on Italian bread. It's not crusty baguette like France, and thus is not what you generally get in Montreal. It was a treat to have soft, creamy, fresh-from-the-oven small loaves brought to accompany the oil and balsamic. One of the meal highlights was our lovely Venician waiter pouring oil into little rectangular dishes for each guest, and topping them with artistic drops of balsamic vinegar. Kind of like if the server at a sushi restaurant lovingly poured each guests' soy sauce for them...but the wasabi unfortunately wouldn't be able to turn the result into an abstract work of Italian art.

This was certainly enough to have as a meal. For a grand total of $32 per person, three glasses of wine and a very authentic spread of Italian delicacies, this experience certainly would entice me to return the restaurant another time with a larger budget for what I'm sure would be an incredible evening of Italian gourmet from Chef Peppino Perri.

Price: $25 for 3 glasses of wine, pizza and antipasti

Expect to Pay: $32

Hours of Operation: Mon to Thurs: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m, Fri & Sat: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m, closed Sun
Payment: Amex, Debit Card, Diners Club, Mastercard, Visa, Cash

514 487-9666

www.saporipronto.com

Le Samuel de Champlain Restaurant: Montreal Highlights Festival

Le Samuel de Champlain
1, Place du Canada
Montreal, QC
●●●●●☺○○○○○
5 1/2 out of 10

Portuguese

It's nearly impossible to get a reservation now for any Montreal Highlights Festival restaurants, so I was surprised when I called Le Samuel de Champlain to make a reservation and I had my choice of lunches, dinners and happy hours. I crossed my fingers that they just had a big space, not that nobody was coming. The menu itself was supposed to be inspired by visiting Portuguese chef, Pedro Nunes, who had spotlighted at the restaurant the week before: 5 courses featuring seafood, both a Quebec and Portuguese specialty, and I had been told the meal would include octopus, lobster and lamb. To be fair, I went in looking to judge. I expected things to go wrong. It was in a hotel, so probably a big dining room with very formal service. The food would probably be alright.

The evening started off with a greeting from the host, who was a bit, well, creepy in a funny kind of way... I had to swallow a laugh when he placed the palate-cleansing sorbet (does this count as a course?) in front of me and whispered, "Sorbet!", then moved to my companion's right side, placed the sorbet and repeated for his sake, "Sorbet!". Magic! Voila!

Then there was the menu and the wine. The octopus was there with green apple salad, a few coins of chorizo and a line of balsamic reduction...because there's always a balsamic reduction (1), followed by the aforementioned magic(!) mandarin sorbet with sweet basil, translated from "sorbet" in French and Portuguese to "sherbet" in English (2 - but to be clear, sherbet is not sorbet...trust me, I've gotten sick enough to know), then red wine-braised lamb shank with smoked ham and turnip (3), and finally a mango mousse with 'chocolate delight' (4 - translated to 'moulleux au chocolat' which doesn't really make any sense since moulleux is an adjective, not a noun, and means soft and smooth. So what I imagined was a 'melted chocolate thing').

Hmm...

Wasn't there supposed to be lobster? Weren't there 5 courses? Did all the lobsters fall out of the bag and run screaming from the kitchen? I have it on good authority from a friend with much more lobster picking-up experience than I that this never actually happens. Their speed on land is very slow. No less terrifying, however, even when you think of them as ugly turtles.

The point is, how can you call it a seafood menu when the main dish is lamb? The octopus was actually incredibly tender, but the few thin pieces qualify more as an amuse-bouche than an appetizer. In fact, I have a feeling that it was meant to be the amuse-bouche and the lobster got bumped.

So the wine...there were two suggested wines, one red and one white, from José Neiva Correia (he had been at the restaurant himself along with Chef Nunes for the big dinner on the 18th on which this evening's meal was based). We tried both the white Arinto and the red Touriga. I was nervous because when you order what is supposed to be a glass of good wine, the server should hold the glass by the stem, but glasses of red were being placed on tables around us with paws wrapped around the bowl of the glasses. To a wine afficionado there would in effect now be no reason to taste the wine as the temperature and thus the flavour would be affected by the heat of the hand. For the same reason you hold a glass of wine by the stem when you drink (if it's a wine that you care about), it should be served from the stem as well. For the white I really wouldn't have cared, as it wasn't very good with the octopus anyway. I think it was supposed to pair with the escaped (magic?!) lobster, but it was too sweet, as my companion noted, for the mild octopus.

Just one more quick note about sub-par things before I mention the things that were good: In a hotel that does so much formal service for banquets, it's normal for the servers to be trained to place every dish a certain way. The table is set precisely, the wine glasses have no water marks (the servers may actually be fired for not checking the glass before they place it in front of a guest), the plates should be placed so that each guest is faced with the identical positioning of a plate's particular design, as well as the orientation of the food and cutlery on the plate itself. Basically it's the perfect job for, and was certainly created by, obsessive-compulsive people. Now maybe you don't care about these things, but it's something that will differentiate a highly-trained server or serving staff from the rest. Think the Four Seasons or the Bellagio versus a Holiday Inn or the Tropicana. Anyway, the restaurant, situated in a Marriott hotel should have fallen somewhere closer to the Four Seasons, and sadly didn't.

Okay, good things. Octopus. Check. The sorbet was actually pretty good. It was fairly smooth and not too sweet, though it lacked the acidic bite you want from a palate-cleanser. The sweet basil (maybe an inspiration of the Vietnamese head chef?) actually tasted like basil, not like chewable green, which is always good.

Then the lamb. Simple, incredibly tender, ample braised lamb shank. The tips of the lamb were kind of cold, as was my companion's turnip...but it was awfully cold in the dining room, so the fact that the rest of the food was still warm was more impressive than the cool parts were disappointing.

So shank is a cheap cut of lamb, requiring it to be marinated and cooked for hours in an acidic sauce (often red wine) to make it delicious. And it was. There was really nothing complicated about the dish. It was just a half a turnip, a few luscious pieces of shank, a cabbage roll (a cabbage roll?) and a sprig of curly parsley. The dish was monotonously red as the turnip was cooked with the lamb and the cabbage roll was somewhere between red and translucent. This felt like a hearty, country meal. Not what I expected, but certainly not bad. Not what you expect from the Highlights Festival, though. And I'll repeat - a cabbage roll? To be honest I checked to make sure the lamb shank was traditional Portuguese fare and sure enough, braised lamb is standard, as is the red wine sauce, but no luck with the cabbage roll. It wasn't filled with rice or beef like a Polish roll, so maybe the fusion element of some kind of sweet bread and maybe ham inside justified its inclusion.

Dessert was cute. I got more sorbet. Not so cute. I like sorbet for dessert only slightly more than I like fruit salad, and I harbour a great resentment for fruit salad at a nice restaurant. The watermelon sorbet was nice enough, and I was happy to see that the only fruit were blueberries. My companion got the mysterious 'moulleux'. Two slightly-flattened timbit-shaped cakes covered in cocoa. It took us a long time to figure out what was inside, as you couldn't cut through the first one. After sawing into it, the inside turned out to be a pure piece of white chocolate. Not so moulleux (adjective). Oh! I understood! The white chocolate was supposed to be melted! Oops...

The second moulleux (noun) proved me right, as it was heated to the proper temperature and the inside was heated to a smooth and soft consistency. Microwaves are fickle things...

The most interesting part of the plate were the little multi-coloured pebbles upon which the ball of mango mousse sat. Now that I think about it, they may have been the colours of the Portuguese flag, and were actually composed of two different textures. The plain ones just soft sugar and butter and the coloured ones were crunchy (think the size and snap of pop rocks candy). That was probably the most imaginative food-type thing put in front of us the whole evening.

So, the meal was good, but certainly not as good as we had hoped. It lacked creativity and innovation, which is a huge part of what gets Montreal diners to splurge on expensive meals in the middle of the restaurant off-season. It's hard to get people out of their homes when it's cold outside, and offering simply-presented home-style cooking is not the impetus that cold Montrealers are looking for. The meal was fairly authentic Portuguese (there were only 3 green things - a sprig of parsley, a piece of basil, and a few pea sprouts on the octopus, but the fruity olive oil for the bread will make me dream of Portuguese summers).

This is not what Le Samuel de Chanplain will serve on a regular basis, and so Chef Thach-Ngoc Vo pulled off the actual cooking very respectably. Maybe on another day the service would have been impeccable, the presentation stunning, but wait until at least the end of the festival to give this place a chance. Perhaps by then the lobsters will have wandered back into the kitchen from the grocery store with a few, much needed leafy greens.

Price: $38 for Festival Menu, $10-$15 for a glass of Portuguese wine

Expect to Pay: Too much for just a decent meal ($65 a person including tax and tip)

Montreal Highlights Festival Review: The Perfect Wine and Cheese at the Micro Festival of Quebec Cheeses

It's days like this that remind me why I love this city. I can walk through an underground shopping mall and find 40 Quebec cheese producers snuggling up with a shocking array of Portuguese wines. Really there weren't that many wines, maybe 40, but what was there was of such high quality that Montreal and is truly spoiled right now.

All the cheese is overwhelming, so here's some help: walk into Complexe Desjardins and circle your way around the cheese counters. The offerings run the gamut from soft, unripened goats milk to organic semi-firm thermised (heated to a certain temperature but can officially be called unpasteurized. It falls somewhere between raw and pasteurized, but is unfriendly to lactose-intolerant people, making the title "unpasteurized" a little deceiving to those who expect it to mean 'raw'). Of course, there were bries and blues all averaging about $5 or $6 a block, but the real thing to do here is to have a little cheese and then direct your attention to the wines. For $5 you get 3 coupons which can be traded for 3 wine samples. Fortunately most of the producers are more than generous and will give you several samples from their collection with just one coupon. This is depending on type, of course. They will not give you several red wine samples and a few ports unless you're incredibly charming. My charm topped out at a business card to interview a chef at the Restaurant Nuances and 2 glasses of red from Esporao. That's quite enough charm for one day. You sample from one winery, go have a bite of cheese to clear the palette, sample from another, repeat palette-cleansing, and then try a final producer's offerings. By then you'll know what wine you liked and you can buy your favourite cheese to take home. The beauty of Quebec is that you get one wine glass when you purchase your sample coupons, and this wine glass can trek with you all around the Complexe. You could make it to the metro and the security would be none the wiser. In fact they certainly didn't seem to care where anyone trekked. You're not supposed to take wine outside of the wine sampling area (which had a coat rack for those intending to stay awhile!) but your empty glass has full access to the cheese sampling area. So traipsing back and forth is encouraged.

To make this review a bit more fun, here's what I propose: My favourite wines, paired with my favourite cheeses (though I'm sure you'll try all the cheeses if you make it there yourself). With the wines it's hard to know where to start and what's worth your valuable coupons. If there's no cheese that pairs well, I'll recommend a recipe or food pairing idea.

Jose Maria Da Fonseca

Definitely try these wines. Their white, an Albis 2008 (A very reasonable $12) is mostly Moscatel with a bit of the Portuguese varietal, Arinto. It's light and fruity. Not sweet, you could have it on its own as an aperitif, but you may find it deceptively water-like after the intense fruit smell. In fact the smell is a little more satisfying, though the wine is lovely. To keep your post-sniffing disappointment at bay I think it would go nicely with Fromagerie L'Ancetre's Emmental, a slightly sweet but mild cheese.

Jose Maria Da Fonseca also offers a Moscatel ($15, fortified, like a light port) that lands somewhere between an iced cider, a honeywine and a glass of melted butter. It's not overloaded with sugar, and makes for a very good digestif on its own. I had a grand chat with the representative about soaking dried fruit in it. He had just had a discussion with two women about using it in baking and I laughed because that was also my first thought. It would be a great replacement for rum or amaretto. Even cointreau. Bananas flambé or Disaronno-Soaked Apricot Loaf. It you want to keep the alcohol and the pungency of the wine either keep a small glass to sip on the side while eating the loaf, or use it as a glaze without cooking off the alcohol. Or just drink the apricot-soaking liquid when you are too impatient make the actual loaf. The producer also recommended trying it over baked brie.

Then there was Verlente, Sempa Duoro whose Amantis (A white wine at $27) was much more acidic than I had expected. Both it and the estate's Dona Maria would go well with an unripened goat cheese or maybe even the camembert-like offering from Fromagerie Pied-de-Vent. I wouldn't want to drink them on their own, but it would certainly be an acquired taste.

Two other very nice cheeses were from Fromagerie La Station. Both raw, they were very similar, just the older brother had 5 months or so on his younger sister. There was a distinct taste of orange in the rind, that was confirmed by the producer. Being light, neither would go particularly well with the very dry reds from Esporao. The Monte Velho (the less prestigious and less expensive at $13.24 a bottle) would be wonderful in a braised meat dish or coq au vin. Using a mixture of trincadeira (think similar to madeira or a cooking wine) aragines and catelao, the wine would be a happily-accepted gift for a dinner party or more than respectable for a meal at home. To step up a level, though, the Esporao Reserva at $24 is almost too strong to drink on its own and begs for red meat. The price jump is completely justified in this 'grand vin', and this wine should definitely be tried. Very smooth, dry, and exceptional.

A few hours spent over a selection of incredible wines and cheeses, talking with people who care as much about them as I do...heaven. 3pm wine and cheese. If you live in Montreal you can have this experience any day for the next week. Enjoy!

Valentines Day Dinner Reservations

I love Valentines Day. I don't love anyone in particular, but I love the hallmark holiday of special treats for someone you care about, or the excitement of someone new. Basically the excuse for a romantic day or evening where you show in some way, big or small, that you care about someone else. Call me a romantic, or call me naive, but I really believe that any excuse to celebrate is one worth taking, so why not spend the day trying to make someone else happy?

Then in walks the prix fixe dinner concept. Take a restaurant (of whatever quality), concoct a special table d'hote, prix fixe, meal, and watch the couples come like moths to a flame. What a nice idea to have a special meal, maybe splurge a bit, they think. But a restaurant can sense a gullible couple in love a mile away.

There's a Montreal Company, the Antonopoulos Group, that owns a lot of restaurants in the Old Port. At 5 of these restaurants they are advertising prix fixe meals: Aix Cuisine du Terroir, Suite 701, Narcisse, Verses and the Vieux-Port Steakhouse.

Aix Cuisine du Terroir is my favourite French restaurant in Montreal currently, Suite 701 is the ultra-hip lounge upstairs that serves generally less expensive meals out of the same kitchen. In this kitchen the lamb is cooked 5 hours. The gravlax is smoked in-house. I dream of these things. So when I found out there was a special menu for Valentines Day I got really excited and wondered where I could pick me up a date. Except the menu is pretty much exactly the same as the normal menu, thus negating the need for a significant or insignificant 'other' this Valentines...The smoked salmon is there as an appetizer again (though it's just the salmon this time. No arctic char and smoked scallop to go with it like normal. I somehow don't think the accompanying vodka vinaigrette was quite as much work to make...). The one vegetarian appetizer option is still in place (quinoa and goat cheese mountain stack, except they're calling it a salad now), and the veal sweetbreads are back, minus the incredible fig spread that usually accompanies. The amazing lamb is still one of the mains, served simply with roasted squash. Aix Cuisine's normal 3-course $45 prix fixe of pretty much the same dishes is a lot of money as is, but the food is so good...It's a good place to go for a very, very special occasion. The only real difference between this and the Valentines $65 prix fixe, however, is a grand total of one Quebec cheese course (or optional champagne and pineapple ice) and $20. That's a very expensive palate cleanser. $20? Really??

So you think you'll save a bit of money if you go upstairs to the Suite 701 lounge and order their prix fixe, right? Same kitchen, same high quality. There you get a three-course meal (EXACTLY the same menu, but with fewer options) for the low, low price of $50. But that's still a $5 mark-up from the fancier restaurant's everyday prix fixe of $45!

Taking advantage of happy couples is a sad, sad thing. They'll spend the extra money, either because they don't think there's a choice, this is what the restaurant is offering, or they think that it's a good deal. They're going to a fancy restaurant and it's a special occasion, so it's justified. You should be ashamed of yourself, Aix Cuisine and Suite 701. In fact, just a few weeks ago, there was a winter special on for their everyday prix fixe for $35. Same lamb. Winter's a slow season for restaurants. Valentines Day is the exception. So now there's a $30 price jump on pretty much the same meal. And you know you're going to want at least 1 glass of wine, maybe a bottle (it is a special occasion), and this is certainly not included.

So that's my favourite restaurant crossed off my Valentines Day wish list. What about the other restaurants' options?

Vieux-Port Steakhouse: You better like Clam Chowder, because you don't have a choice. You're getting it. This $45 prix-fixe just doesn't compare with Aix Cuisine's usual $45 menu. A plain salad of diced tomatoes and onions to start? Not exactly on par with foie gras...The only reason to go here would be for the surf and turf or the grilled meat shared platter. Very romantic to share a big plate of beef, lamb and shrimp with your loved one, also to stuff yourself on a steak AND a lobster tail. Gluttony is very attractive.

The most affordable of all the meals, at ONLY $35 for 3 courses, is Narcisse. You get a salad with raspberries, a decent choice of filet mignon, duck or shrimp (this will really depend on how good the chef is), and a molten chocolate cake. It's probably going to be fine, and it's probably actually an okay deal, but it's not fine-dining and the quality will not be as high as spending the same amount of money on a different night at a better restaurant.

Finally, Verses. This looks like an incredible restaurant. The menus are always stunning, and I'll admit I've never been there, but would love to go. Here you will get the house-smoked scallop I waxed poetic about at Aix Cuisine, as part of the 6-course $68 prix fixe. It's a gorgeous menu involving black truffle oil, cherries confit, tahitian vanilla, a sweet potato brandade accompanying porcini-mushroom coated cod, buckwheat risotto, rabbit stuffed with chorizo, and accompaniments of exotic chili sauce and garlic, butter and parsley croquettes. Who knows what a garlic, butter and parsley croquette is, but either it's mostly garlic (not a Valentines big-seller) or it's mostly parsley, and anyone who can make a croquette-like thing out of one of those is ingenious.

But for $68?? Plus wine, tip and tax...

You're not going to find anything affordable in terms of upscale Valentines Day restaurant dinners, but if you're looking for a unique menu that you can only take advantage of this one day in all the year, Verses is not a horrible choice. A much better idea would be to wait an extra day and then go to Aix Cuisine du Terroir, save a ton of money (it's all relative...), or get yourself a nicer bottle of wine, a digestif, and a lot more menu choice. Better still, braise your own Atwater market-bought Kamouraska rack of lamb for 5 hours...now that's a gesture. Of love? Maybe. Sorry, vegetarians. "Quinoa and goat cheese?" says Aix Cuisine.

The Montreal Highlights Festival

Once a year Montreal goes from being a place with great food and restaurants, to absolutely busting at the seams with haute cuisine. From February 18th to 28th the tastes of the Eastern Townships will be somehow combined with Portuguese wines, New Orleans spice, 40 Quebec artisanal cheese producers, table d'hote dinners, lunches, cooking demonstrations and happy hours across the city, all under the direction of guest Portuguese chefs and our own local culinary miracle-makers. It's basically like the joy of Christmas has come again in the form of the most gourmet food and talent the city can offer or import, without the stress and ridiculous knitted sweaters.

After salivating for days over the event schedule, crying at the ridiculous prices, sighing over the impossible array of options, and analyzing how to make the most of the event, here are my festival top picks:

Dinner at Restaurant Julien Feb. 18th or 19th ($50, or $57 including a glass of wine)
Lunch at Europea Feb. 18th, 22nd-26th ($29.50, including a glass of port)
Tapas at Vertige Feb. 18th or 25th ($35, or $49 including wine pairing)
Brunch at Cocagne Feb. 21st or 28th ($45, or more with wine)
Cooking Class (Non-participatory) at Europea Feb. 18th-26th ($35, including a glass of wine)
Happy Hour at Pullman Feb. 18th or 19th ($45)
Bargain Lunch at Restaurant Douro ($13, or more with wine)
(Tax and tip not included)

Don't see what you're looking for? Here are a few more options and a bit more information on the choices above:

For Everybody (Complexe Desjardins)
1. Micro Festival of Quebec Cheeses (Feb. 17-20th). 40 Quebec cheese producers set up shop surrounded by Portuguese wines. Expect long lines, but delicious samples.

2. The Crossroads of Flavour (Feb. 23rd-27th). Local producers and artisans kick the cheese-makers out, or into the milk store. Featuring a bakery, a boutique, a specialty liquor store, milk and milk products store, and a general store (reminiscent of a quaint Quebec village) alongside tastings and and culinary workshops.

For the Big Spender: Festival Feasts
Yes there's a $300 grand dinner...ridiculous.

For diners looking to splurge a little: Festival's Finest Tables
No dinners at the festival are really affordable, but here's a list of the top picks under $60 (not including wine, tax or tip). See below for lunch or brunch options, but the stars shine at night. These restaurants are set to impress with special evening meals (not Sunday/Monday) featuring invited chefs, mostly Portuguese, French or local cuisine, and Portuguese wines.

Bistro Le Repertoire Feb. 18th-17th. 6 courses of Portuguese standards.

$45 before wine, $65 wine included

Reservation: 514 251-2002

La Fabrique Feb. 22nd & 23rd. Guest chef Danny St-Pierre only had to come from Sherbrooke, not Portugal, but he's a guest and should be treated well as such. He's also got the CV that demands attention. French-trained, he worked at Toqué and Laloux, so if you can't make it to his home kitchen, Auguste, in Sherbrooke, now's a good time to check him out.

$45 before wine, $75 wine included

Reservation : 514 544-5038


Bu Feb. 23rd 24th. Skip the tasting menu and buy something à la carte to accompany your six carefully chosen wines. Bu is all about the wine anyway.

$34, sampling of six Quinta do Portal wines with the purchase of one dish


Chez Queux Feb. 26th

An even better deal, depending on the quality of the wines, the owner of the Dona Maria estate in Alentejo, Portugal will be in attendance to serve tastings of his own vintages.

$Free, with the purchase of dishes à la carte! I assume this means the tastings are free...not entrance to the restaurant and watching this man is free.

Reservation: 514 866-5194

Au Petit Extra - 25th Anniversary. Forget about Portuguese cuisine and go to a French birthday party.

$37.50 before wine, $64.50 wine included

Reservation: 514 527-5552


Le Jolifou - Sri Lankan Night Feb. 18th-27th
One of the only non-Portuguese dinners, but it looks like one of the most interesting.

$55 before wine, $85 wine included

Reservation: 514 722-2175


Decca77 Feb.19th. The deal includes five shared dishes (Shared with who? Tapas style? Or big plates buffet-style? If you go, let me know what this means...)

$30 before wine

Feb. 27th Oyster buffet, but the wine will probably cost a fortune (It just sounds too good to be true):

"After winning the 2006 Créativité Montreal award, the restaurant is opening its wine cellar and inviting you to partake of a buffet of oysters from near and far."

$20 before wine, who knows how much after

Reservation: 514 934-1077


DNA Restaurant Feb. 27th

What would happen if the Sommelier took control of the kitchen (because he's Portuguese) and the chef took over the wine pairings? This could be interesting. It could also be just decent, and not worth the money...but that's what makes it fun. It's apparently for diners "with a sense of adventure":

$45 before wine, $85 wine included

Reservation: 514 287-3362


Le Samuel de Champlain Feb. 22nd-28th. 5 courses, Quebec and Portuguese seafood

$38 before wine, $50 one glass of wine included

Reservation: 514 878-9000


Les Cons Servent Feb. 23rd. New Orleans cuisine!

$55 before wine, $95 wine included

Reservation: 514 523-8999


Les Deux Gamins Feb. 18th-20th

Pan-fried black cod, La Belle Excuse sauce vierge, braised veal cheeks, Porto reduction... France and Portugal emulsified in seven courses!

$55 before wine, $85 wine included

Reservation: 514 288-3389


L'Inconnu Feb. 19th-20th. The Sherbrookian "bistronomy" of Geneviève Fillion's Le Bouchon takes over the unknown kitchen.

$55 before wine, $85 wine included

Reservation: 514 527-0880


Restaurant Julien Feb. 18th-19th. BEST deal on Louisiana cooking. This guy, Brian Landry has served multiple Presidents at his home restaurant, and won a slew of US Cooking Awards)

$50 before wine, $57 one glass of wine included

Reservation: 514 871-1581

Tapas
Vertige Feb. 18th and 25th

Six tapas per person in two courses. A mixed bag of appetizers and then another mixed bag of appetizers. Cross your fingers. It could be good, especially since the wine is relatively affordable.

$35, before wine, $49 wine included

Reservation: 514 842-4443

Brunch

Cocagne Feb 21. The most decadent brunches you've ever eaten...

$45 before wine - "Fish and Seafood"

Feb 28
$55 before wine - "Truffles and Foie Gras"

Zawedah - Lebanese Brunch Feb. 21st 11:30am at the Best Western Ville-Marie Hotel (because the restaurant isn't big enough). Though it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Portuguese and Eastern Townships focus of the festival, a Lebanese brunch is an experience not to be missed, and it's a better deal than the festival lunch special at Byblos, which, while very good, is very similar to their regular menu at a slightly reduced price.

$32 before wine, $43 wine included

Reservation: 514 288-4141

Lunches:
La Porte Feb. 18th-26th
4-course French/Portuguese meal including a glass of wine.

$32, one glass of wine included

Reservation: 514 282-4996


Europea Feb. 18th, 22nd-26th (selling out fast because it's one of the best deals around). A 5-course portuguese lunch

$29.50, one glass of port included

Reservation: 514 398-9229


Cocagne Feb. 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th

$25 before wine, and while tax and tip is not included, an aperitif is! You just have to trust the chef...and have no food allergies and not be a picky eater, because it's a set menu with no exceptions.

Reservation: 514 286-0700

Cooking Classes:
Italian Cooking Class
Sapori Pronto - Feb. 22nd & 23rd. 5 courses with Portuguese wines, but you're paying to watch your dinner be made. Kind of like an open kitchen where you get play-by-commentary and can ask questions. If you're just there to enjoy the food, wine and company, it's not such a great deal.

$55 before wine

Reservation: 514 487-9666

Dessert Workshop
Europea - Feb. 18th-26th 10:30am, 2:30pm, 4:30pm. Watch award-winning pastry and dessert chefs craft Portuguese and International delicacies. Includes a glass of port and goodie bags. Just watch the creating, though. Don't play. This is not participatory...

$35 including a glass of wine

Reservation: 514 398-9229

Happy Hours!!!

Ristorante Sapori Pronto Feb. 22nd-27th. The festival's most affordable happy hour features 3 Portuguese wines and Italian snacks. I'm not sure we're talking polenta diamonds and tramezzini triangular tea sandwiches here, but you never know.

$25, wine included

Reservation: 514 487-9666

Koko Restaurant and Bar Feb. 22nd-24th. Wine aficionados can have a relatively affordable glass of wine by a highly-esteemed wine maker. He'll apparently be around to pour you the glass himself.

$10 for a glass of wine. Hope you don't get hungry.

Feb. 25th - Want something stronger? The wine maker will leave on the 24th and in comes the Port.

$12 port wine cocktails

Reservation: 514 657-5656


Le Samuel de Champlain Feb. 18th-28th. 3 course meal or happy hour tapas...your choice. This seems more like a meal with a $5.50 glass of wine, but it's listed under the Happy Hour category of the festival.

$24.50 before wine, $30 one glass of wine included

Reservation: 514 878-9000


Pullman Feb. 18th-19th. Wines from the Quinta do Mouro estate. Tapas included.

$45 for an undetermined amount of wine. This is probably not about the tapas. As usual at Pullman, focus on the alcohol.

Feb. 20th-27th features other wineries, apparently worth $5 less in quality??

February 20 and 27: Port, from savoury to sweet
February 23 and February 24: The Douro Valley
February 25 and February 26: Vinho Verde

$40 for 3 wines and tapas

Festival's Lunch Menus: Feb. 18th-28th. This is different from the lunches that are part of the Festival's Finest Tables. They're the only representatives (Besides Lebanese...?) of cuisines that aren't either French, Portuguese, Quebecois, Italian or Cajun. The festival could almost justify it as places upon which the Portuguese had some influence, and where their cuisine and culture has been fused into traditional dishes. Really, it just shows that the whole festival is only using Portugal and the Eastern Townships as a loose theme to the good food in the city for a few weeks. These lunches are also a whole lot less expensive, and still not always worth it. Here are the the places where you're getting a good deal on a $13 prix fixe meal, even though you're free to go at any other time of the year for a very similar culinary experience:

La Khaima (North African/Moroccan), Ong Ca Can (Vietnamese), Restaurant Douro (Portuguese), Mogador (Moroccan), Rumi (Middle Eastern)

$13 plus tax and tip (no wine).