We spent this afternoon enjoying another Spike & Palacio tour, this time the “Non-Touristy Food Tour“, taking us to Latin America, Italy, Syria, several parts of Quebec, and, of course, chocolate made in Montreal.
We had to take the Metro to get to the tour (well, we could have walked for two hours), but we did some sightseeing on the way to the train, beginning with a stop at Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican).
In the 1980s, the Cathedral sold part of its property to raise money – including the space beneath the Cathedral, which is now a shopping mall. It was interesting to visit, but not at all picturesque.
We met our group outside our first stop, Los Planes Pupusaria and Restaurant, in the Quartier Latin-Americano. There were eight of us (including a couple from Hamburg who’d been on yesterday’s tour) and our guide Mel (a French (her mother) French-Canadian (her father) from Vancouver), all ready to enjoy food beyond the traditional favorites (bagels, smoked meat, and poutine), like the pupusa and horchata at Los Planes which was our first dish.
Mel took us on a walk through the Quartier and talked about the its history and the people who lived there, and then we continued into Little Italy for “the best canollo in town” at Patisserie Alati-Caserta.
We walked by one of Montreal’s green alleys on our way to Marché Jean-Talon, the largest producers’ market in North America.
We only had time to visit a few of the stalls at the market, but we covered a lot of culinary ground.
After we left the market, we stopped at Caron et Fréres for coffee or lemonade (not very picturesque, but enjoyable). We saw a former church which had been converted into apartments as we left Little Italy en route to our last stop.
Our final stop was “état de choc”, a bean-to-bar chocolate maker (they also sell gourmet chocolate bars from all over the world). We had a tasting of four of their bars and a spoonful of their answer to Nutella – pistachio chocolate spread.
We only walked a bit over a mile on the tour, so I doubt we walked off the calories we ingested…but it was well worth it.
We were finally hungry again this evening and walked back to the Quartier des Spectacles for dinner at Le Central, the food hall we’d visited yesterday. We had lamb chops and wine as a starter at Buvette Clark (their motto – small plates, big wines) and dessert at La Brasserie des Artistes (no motto, just good food and service).
And now it’s time to pack; we leave Montreal by train tomorrow.