Marché Jean-Talon

Back to my Montreal photos (of which there is still a sizeable few hundreds to go through!). I'm really aiming to go through as many photos as possible in the next 2 weeks since it's the last 2 weeks of my relatively hassle-free period of electives. After that will be a major reality check as I move on into final year. Absolutely dreading it with each day that passes. But in the meantime, I'm having a good time these days - baking a lot :D, attempting to increase my repertoire of dishes that I can cook (which is an easy feat, since it used to be close to zero), spending time with my mum and sis who both came back from their vacation just a few days back... I just wish I had more time for everything, you know? 


But back to the topic at hand. Montreal has 4 major public markets, all of which are great tourist attractions. :D The largest and most famous one would have to be Jean-Talon Market. When I was in Montreal from early March to May, it was still around the end of winter moving into early Spring, so unfortunately, the outdoor part of the market hadn't been set up yet. It took me a few weeks to realize that the outdoor market wasn't in full swing only because it wasn't the right season/weather yet, rather than because I was always there too late in the afternoon. (It took me one painful attempt at waking up early in the morning to go to the market to realize that fact!) Apparently, around the time that I left in mid May, they were just starting to open up the outdoor section of the market. SIGH. Next time, go when Spring is in full bloom!! 

 

Aren't the colors just gorgeous? :) I was so happy just snapping away and admiring all the vibrant colors of the fruits and vegetables for sale. Of course I looked like a typical tourist but who cares when there are so many moments to capture!

I love tomatoes. :D Especially when you can still the vines attached. I've come to realize that one of my favorite sensations is using my fingers to dig out the seedy inner pulp of a cold tomato that's just been taken out of the refrigerator. Just one of those things. Don't over-think it.






Left: The famous gelateria -- Havre-aux-Glaces. Every single Tourism-related website/blog with Montreal food recommendations will tell you to go here. They have a ton of unique flavors, and during that time they had maple syrup gelato of course! But I remember going for something else...citrusy. :) 
Right: A store next door selling a gazillion types of condiments. Let's think about the Ifs. If I spoke French/If I lived in Montreal/If I could go to Jean-Talon Market every weekend to get my groceries and go into this store to ask about the condiments/sauces/oils etc that I need... OH JOY. 





Left: One thing I really miss about Montreal is how it's such a bicycle-friendly city. :) If only Singapore could devote some money into create bicycle paths around the city. But I know it's so much harder to do with a city as densely populated with both humans and cars. Singaporean drivers are NOT friendly to cyclists. And the weather is too damn hot and humid to make cycling around enjoyable for the average, non-masochistic triathlete. 


Right: My gelato! :) A teeny cup worth. 



MMM. And one thing you absolutely have to do if you go to Jean Talon Market is to check out one of the Première Moisson outlets that's right outside the main market. It's one of the famous chain bakeries in Montreal and like a lot of the locals say, even though it's a chain, it still makes hell of a lot of awesome bread. Apparently their olive bread is really good but I only tried some of their croissants and tarts. This one above is a MAPLE SYRUP croissant. :) I assumed it was only available during that time because it was the sugaring off season. Plus, the lady behind the counter told me it was a crowd-favorite. I didn't really pick up much French when I was in Montreal (though it would've been the perfect place to learn!) because everyone was so freakishly/effectively bilingual, but I did learn to recognize that something with --> D'ERABLE meant that there was maple syrup inside. :D 




A great moment that day was simply sitting on a bench outside the market, munching on my gelato, enjoying the music played by these very talented buskers. There were quite a few people sitting around on the pavement, mothers with their children (some of whom were actually cycling around in circles! :D), elderly men and women taking a rest after doing their grocery shopping, teenagers just lolling around... It was a great feeling to be a part of something - something as simple as a group of people taking things slow and enjoying the little pleasures in life together. 


xx

Carpenter and Cook

Last Saturday morning was awesome. :) I managed to sleep in and went for a fantastic brunch/lunch at Carpenter and Cook with a friend - a place I'd been dyinggg to visit after reading about it in the Business Times a couple of weeks back! (Yeah, to tell you the truth, my dad had been trying to show me another article but what I got out of that day's papers instead was the knowledge of this great cafe. :D) It's a vintage furniture store started by three very brave and enterprising women (and their supportive families I can imagine) that doubles as a cafe, with home-made sandwiches, tarts and other pastries. It's a unique concept, cosy, curated with one-of-a-kind furniture and vintage bric-a-brac, and comes complete with tasty treats. What's not to like?? So I dragged my friend, Feifan, there for brunch on their official opening day. 









Left: Check out their collection of very quaint tea cups. Makes me wish Singapore's weather was cool enough for weekly sessions of tea-sipping outdoors in a garden. But that's so not going to happen anytime soon. 
Right: Our pomegranate and oolong tea. :D If I remember correctly. I remember the combination being really good and healthy sounding.

It took ages to decide on what to order because everything looked so delish. After some recommendations from the friendly staff behind the counter, we settled on a quiche and ham brioche for the mains.



Funkiest table number? We spent a while examining it with our hands like curious kids.



My ham brioche was really tasty! :) I like how the sweetness of the brioche bun contrasts well with the saltiness of the bacon. And it's light enough for anyone to have room for dessert after (which is probably THE most important thing to remember).



Ham and mushroom quiche for Feifan.



I wish I could've ordered EVERYTHING for dessert because there were so many choices that all looked SO good. Above, earl grey cream, which was a super light, delicious dessert! I'd never tasted anything like that before and it's almost like an earl grey mousse. Very light, very palatable. Apparently we were lucky since it was the first time the chef was serving it to customers.



Lemon tart! It's hard to go wrong with this dessert. We had initially wanted to try the GRAPEFRUIT (edit: oopsie! I got the fruit mixed up ;p) PASSIONFRUIT MERINGUE TART because it was highly recommended by the staff. But as we hadn't reserved it/ordered it the same time that we ordered our mains, by the time we were ready to order our desserts, it had SOLD OUT. It's a major hot-seller apparently! So if you're there, I'd recommend nabbing one before it's all snapped up. :)







(Feifan, the budding seamstress, unearthing a gorgeous Singer sewing machine)

How cool is that Singer sewing machine? One of the things I really want to do after I graduate and have more time (that just sounds like an oxymoron to me) (but well, EVENTUALLY... after the initial crappy years) is take up sewing. :) It's a dream of mine to be able to sew a really pretty dress that fits perfectly and has a cool, unique (possibly polka dotted) print that I can wear everywhere that will be admired by all. And when they ask where I got it from, I'll say, I sewed it!! And wait for that look of disbelief. HARRR. It's good to have things to look forward to.


At first glance we thought that was a typewriter... but it's actually a really old cash-register, no? :) 


The best part about the day was receiving our tea on the house! :D It was part of their opening day promotion - anyone dressed in 'Vintage Chic' would stand a chance to get free coffee/tea. And actually I thought I'd sort of forgotten about that while ordering (rows and rows of freshly baked pastries does something to your brain) but after we got the receipt, we realized that tea had been on the house. That was probably the best bit. :DDD Looks like we dressed vintage enough!




I can't recommend this place enough for pretty much any meal of the day... breakfast/brunch/lunch/tea, you name it! Except for dinner, unless you don't mind eating something light like sandwiches/brioches/quiches for dinner. That said, maybe they have a separate dinner menu? :) I'd love to go back another time later on in the evening...SOON!  

Carpenter and Cook

19 Lorong Kilat 

#01-06 

Singapore, Singapore 598120 

Check out their website HERE.

It's a very friendly little independent establishment. The staff are enthusiastic and the one of the owners (and the chef's husband) even came up to chat with us a little. :) Which was nice. It's always so nice to go to a place that's personable and cozy. And they knew how to use a DSLR camera. BIG PLUS.  I hope enough people buy the vintage furniture and accessories though, because they were on the expensive side and understandably so, given that they're one of a kind items all the way from the UK. And some of the items that I saw are the sort that are only good for display at home because they don't actually work (think cool clocks/typewriters). Then again, given how great the food is, I have no doubt they'd be able to flourish even as a cafe alone. It's so great to have another cozy, independent cafe to visit. 

à la française: Home-Cooked French Cuisine - Week 3

Amazingly enough, I'm still going strong with this little weekly French dish project of mine. ;p Though I definitely feel myself gradually facing an uphill challenge because a lot of the ingredients for the quintessentially French dishes in Rachel Khoo's cookbook aren't readily available here. Either they are nowhere to be found, or if I do chance upon them in a more upscale grocery store, it's probably going to be pretty darn expensive. As a result, I've tended to pick more of the recipes for baked dishes (desserts/tarts/cakes etc) since they're much more manageable for me. 

So there were a number of reasons that led me to try the recipe for this Quiche Lorraine (Bacon and Egg tart). Firstly, earlier in the week, I had really wanted to bake a lemon tart in order to use up ALL THAT LEMON CURD which I had made for the Madeleines. (The actual amount of lemon curd used to decorate the Madeleines in that recipe was miniscule. I still, in fact, have a good jar and a half worth of lemon curd in the fridge up till now.) So I turned to this recipe of Jamie Oliver's for a nice tart base over which I figured I could simply pour my lemon curd onto. The tart came out fantastic. In fact, I had so much tart batter that I ended up making some of these mini lemon tarts late one night. :D 

(Recipe for the tart is the Jamie Oliver one. Recipe for lemon curd is the one in Rachel Khoo's recipe for her Madeleines)

These turned out well and were completely unplanned! Only problem was, my mum (who is the one reliable eater in the family, never mind that she consumes things literally at a snail's pace) didn't want so much lemon curd on the tart base. :( So there was no point in me making a whole lemon curd pie anyway.

(PSST. If you're making these lemon tarts, be sure to only put in the lemon curd if you want to eat it right then and there/ serve it to guests on the spot! I figured it out the hard way after piping all that lemon curd into the tarts, that it would be impossible to heat it up the next day to have it nice and warm without melting all the curd. -___-)

With all that leftover tart base, I decided to try incorporating it into the Quiche recipe. This recipe was a real mish mash, because I also made use of a recipe for a 'crustless mini Quiche' from Pure Green Magazine.



So incase you wanna know the ingredients I eventually ended up dumping in to make the filling (because the second recipe had more greens in it):

1. 4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks 
2. 150g of bacon (pan-fried) (I really couldn't bare to use lardons) 
3. 1/4 cup green onions, chopped 
4.1/2 cup baby spinach, shredded 
5.1 1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced 
6. 1/2 cup red peppers, diced 
7. 1/2 cup chedder, shreded 
8. 1/4 tsp salt 
9. 1/2 tsp cracked pepper

The recipe was pretty simple. :) For the filling, it was basically mixing all the ingredients together after the initial whisking of the eggs. After which, the mixture was spooned evenly onto the tart base on the tin, and baked for about... 25 minutes I think. (Longer because I had to bake the tart as well)



It actually turned out pretty decent. A couple of learning points though:

1. It's best not to mix recipes that are so different! >< The second recipe was for a Crustless Quiche which basically meant that it didn't involve baking a separate tart layer at all. The timing was total trial and error and after initially removing the quiche from the oven, I'd only realized that the tart hadn't been completely baked after cutting a slice out. So back into the oven it went. 2. A tart base for a SWEET dessert should not be used as a tart base for a SAVORY dish. That wasn't a huuuuuge mistake because I actually really liked the mild sweetness of the Jamie Oliver tart itself. But combined with the savory ingredients of the rest of the quiche... it didn't quite jive that well. Lesson learnt. ;p



That said, it turned out to be pretty tasty. :D And I think it's always good to just try out recipes to see what aspects of each one I end up liking. All part of the learning process.

Man, that was a little lengthy. But the conclusion is, I think --> Give Jamie Oliver's recipe for the tart base a try! :D It's GOOD STUFF.

Cluny Artbar

An afternoon in Montreal that I'll probably never forget. 
It's also the afternoon I got majorly lost.




Left: Minestrone soup from Cluny ArtBar. 
Right: Passed by a random building on my quest to find the cafe. I do like the forest green color against the backdrop of brick-red. 


 I'd read online about Cluny ArtBar - this great cafe which garnered rave reviews for set lunches and brunches and which also happens to be connected to an exhibition hall that's all part of The Darling Foundry, Visual Arts Centre. I figured it would be an all-in-one afternoon; great lunch at the cafe, followed by a visit to the exhibition that would probably showcase some interesting artwork by contemporary Montreal artists. It's listed online as a popular spot for local office workers which is the perfect statement to make one think that it's probably in the middle of the business district to cater to office workers in the surrounding financial buildings, yes?? WRONG. It was literally in the middle of nowhere (to me at least)! I remember walking alone across deserted parking lots, hearing my footsteps echo resoundingly as my boots crunched into the bits of slush and snow that still covered most of the streets at the time, and traipsing past deserted looking buildings, along silent streets without seeing any other person. I'm sure it wouldn't have been so bad if my data plan hadn't run out that day and I wasn't relying solely on screen captures of the area from the Maps app. I do remember passing by some random guy who was looking at his iPhone and thinking, is he completely lost and referring his Maps app as well?? Looks like I'll never know.



Smoked Salmon sandwich. It was actually pretty average but it was also one of the few things left on their menu at that time. I'd gone on a Friday afternoon at around 3 or so and apparently they'd run out of their usual lunch sets. :( So I probably didn't end up trying whatever they're famous for. (Or so I hope)(So next time I'll give the cafe another shot if I ever go back to Montreal. Which I'm DYING TO DO!)









I think we tend to be a lot more forgiving of ourselves when we're on holiday. Perhaps it has to do with being away from most things in life that define us. Probably also because when we're on vacation we're away from whatever deadlines we tend to be rushing for. And when something goes awry, there's the feeling that so many other things take a toll as a consequence. 

If I get lost when on a holiday however, I'm not so harsh on myself. I take my time, fold my map up and place it into my bag. I take a good, slow look at my surroundings...and take a few more photos. People-watch. And it's all ok. Drifting, or so it's called. Moving along without a plan, taking in whatever Serendipity sends my way. 

xx

LOVES: The Head and The Heart

One of the BEST MOMENTS of my life happened when I was in Montreal. :) YES. I watched The Head and The Heart live in concert at La Tulipe, a gorgeous cozy theater/pub. Seriously, these guys are AMAZING. I first heard their song, Rivers and Roads, on the final episode of Chuck a few months back and since then I've been hooked. I was SO SO STOKED when I found out that they would be performing in Montreal the exact time that I would be there! SIGH. It was an amazing night. :)




Their music is incredible uplifting. It's got a strong acoustic background and really gorgeous, rich harmony from the three lead singers - Chastity, Jonathan and Josiah. Their voices blend sooooo well. Listening to their songs is like bathing in warm buttery chocolate. Can't think of any other description.

Isn't the stage set beautiful? I love how they made use of fairy lights and vines wrapped around the mic-stands. The entire feeling was cozy and personal - as if you'd stepped in someone's backyard for a get-together and a night of good music. 




There was such great energy from that performance. Almost everyone had to stand for about 3 hours (inclusive of the opening band before them) because there were limited seats but it was SO WORTH IT.



And one of the best parts of the performance was when Josiah did a solo for the song, Honey Come Home. :) He mentioned that he wanted to perform it closer to the way he had originally envisioned it when he had first composed it instead of the way it turned out in the album. A really sentimental song.

So there's probably no better way for me to describe this amazing band - just check out their website and videos on Youtube! Here are a few of my favorite songs: 


1. Winter Song (MY FAVORITE!) (I could play it over and over and over again.) (And I always get goosebumps when Jonathan (the second male voice you hear in the song) starts singing. X)

2. Down in The Valley - sweet and soothing, especially with the strains of the violin. 

3. Rivers and Roads - their famous song. The harmonies at the end are so good they give me goosebumps!

 

Whenever I think about Montreal I'll always think of this band as well. It just so happens that I was able to load their songs on to my iPhone so EVERYWHERE I WENT, pounding the streets of Montreal, cycling, being by myself on the metro... I was almost always listening to their songs. :) It's one of those things - when you have a song that you associate with a special experience and moment in time. 

xx

Montreal streetsnaps: St. Denis

One of the streets that I always found myself returning to in Montreal was Boulevard St. Denis (deh-nee). Parallel to St. Laurent, St. Denis is one of the main streets running North-South that are a must-see in Montreal. Chock-a-block full of unique boutiques, restaurants, cafes and brimming with street art around every corner, it's a stretch that's nice to walk down even if all the stores are closed - which was often the case for me. I had a hard time adjusting to the opening hours of the stores in Montreal. When I was there in March and April (I suppose it's considered late Winter/Early Spring for them), most of the stores closed at 6pm early in the week e.g. Mondays to Wednesdays. 6pm!!! I usually finished at the hospital by around 5pm and would rush down to one of the cafes on my list while they were still open, after which I attempted to get some shopping done but almost inevitably, the stores would be closed. So I ended up spending many occasions simply walking down the street, croissant/cupcake in hand, admiring store windows and making a mental note of the stores that I wanted to check out over the weekend. Yeah, major sigh there. 





 

In a way, it's funny how the things are never perfect. One of the things I like about Montreal is how laid-back and relaxed the people are. They know how to enjoy the simple pleasures of life - dinner and drinks after hours with friends, nature in all its abundance, material pleasures, but never overwhelmingly so (unlike certain cities like New York, which reeks of commercialism. But don't get me wrong, that's one of the reasons NYC is my favorite place in the world). But at the same time, while I admire their carefree attitude towards life (and envy it, certainly), a part of me missed the bustle of a city that's on the go 24/7. When I found out that the store that closed the latest was Urban Outfitters and closing hour was 8pm, it took ages for my jaw to come back up off the ground. Where are the shops that close late at night? What do people do after work/after dinner if they don't drink?! That was a question that circled round in my head continuously as I looked with resignation at all the closed shutters at the 'late hour' of... 6.30pm. That said, it's always a matter of compromise. The culture of any place has its pros and cons and I suppose if I were to immerse myself in a place that's a lot more relaxed and laid-back and generally less economically-driven all the time, I would really appreciate how much more sustainable it is for people, physically and mentally.

 

(coat and dress: Ruche, sweater: Sonia Rykiel, boots: Endless.com, necklace: Vamoose)

Not that I really had the opportunity to take outfit shots much, but here was one that my mum managed to help me take when she was still there with me very early on in my stay there. :) Being in such a cold place for 2 months definitely helped me learn a few things about dressing for winter -- 1. You really don't need to pack very much because 2. All you really need is a good coat, good sweater, good thermals. Because apart from those few essentials 3. You're really not going to be wearing very much else. BIG mistake on my part to have brought all my work pants/skirts (what was I thinking; SKIRTS?!) because I ended up just wearing the same thing day after day with minimal variations. 

That said, after all the complaints about the weather, I wish I were over in Montreal now that it's summer. SIGH <3<3<3 

à la française: Home-cooked French Cuisine - Week 2

It's more like Week 4 now rather than Week 2 since I've started my little French cooking project. But I'm glad to say that I've managed to keep on track with at least one French dish a week! I'm definitely taking advantage of the relatively relaxed schedule that I have now. In a way, it's a form of self-imposed relaxation. I know that I won't be able to have so much free time once the next school year starts...in just about 1 month and a half more so, funny as it may sound, I'm trying my hardest to not really study so much now but rather, just enjoy whatever I free time I have with my hobbies/interests. I'm starting to feel rather anxious though, since a ton of my classmates are busy mugging away in anticipation of not having enough time to revise all the stuff before our finals next year... But the more anxious I feel, I tend to distract myself with other activities. So it's cooking and baking for now. I find it definitely takes my mind off worries. And it helps that most of the time, there's always something good (and edible!) that comes out of it. 


So for Week 2, I decided to bake Madeleines! :) After trying a freshly baked one at the French restaurant, Brasserie Gavroche, a couple of nights back (and it was served fresh from the oven, complimentary! :D), I had such a huge craving for it. Fortunately, it's also a recipe from Rachel Khoo's cookbook. And trust me when I say this, but this recipe is PRETTY DARN PERFECT! The Madeleines came out so well during my very first attempt that when I sunk my teeth into my first hot crispy Madeleine, I was so happy I very NEARLY wanted to cry. That was when I realized, MAN, there's no feeling like creating something so delicious with one's bare hands.




I bought this Madeline tray at Lemon Zest, a baking store at Chip Bee Gardens at Holland Village. In case you're looking to get one too, there are a number of stores that sell it and it was only through trawling through a few stores and calling up some places that I managed to find this out. So apart from Lemon Zest, there's also Shermay's Cooking School , Phoon Huat and ToTT that sell them. It's amazing how there are 3 stores selling baking supplies on the exact same stretch of road at Chip Bee Gardens (Phoon Huat, Shermay's and Lemon Zest). When I went that day though, Phoon Huat had run out of them (good to call whichever location you're interested in going to beforehand) and the one being sold at Shermay's was a good $10 more expensive than the one at Lemon Zest. So while it was still a little pricey, I figured, this is a pretty good investment since it's something I can bake on numerous occasions. :) And from the way things have turned out, I'm definitely going to be doing so!
  



A trick I learnt from my dearest grandma from those baking sessions at her place. If you don't have a piping bag, you can always use a large ziplock bag. Fill it with the batter and then snip off a small corner to create the opening. 




Et voilà ! :) The Madeleines actually taste really good with the raspberries. Jobbie, my food connoisseur friend, insists that Madeleines should be eaten plain and should never have any sort of filling (blasphemous!). ;) But I do think the tartness of the raspberries adds so much in terms of flavor to the light buttery taste of the Madeleines. A combination I would definitely recommend. 




And just to show some of the variations that are possible. I did a couple - plain, with raspberry on top, with raspberry AND lemon curd (as was the case in the recipe), and because of a request from my mum, some with blueberries on the top. The blueberries definitely don't really go that well with the Madeleines though, so I'd say stick with raspberries and you can even spread the lemon curd over it to eat. :D Her recipe for lemon curd is EXCELLENT, btw. 




I think in the past 2 weeks, I must've made at least 3 or 4 batches of Madeleines. The batter is incredible easy to make. (I ended up baking a fair bit on a number of midnights, to give my mum something to munch on for supper ;D.) According to the recipe, Rachel Khoo recommends that the batter be refrigerated overnight. But there was one afternoon when I was in too much of a rush so I ended up using the freshly made batter instead. It was definitely a lot more liquid-y but it rose really quickly and actually ended up tasting a lot smoother than the ones made from overnight batter. I think it's because if you leave it overnight, it gets heavier/lumpier and doesn't rise as homogenously. So for my subsequent attempts, I'm just going to do away with the whole refrigeration thing and bake it straight. Best part of all, is that there's a video that shows you how to do the whole thing!

It's really manageable for beginners. :) And I love how it's different from the typical sugar cookies/choc chip cookies that are a dessert staple. Why not learn to make something a little more unique and surprise everyone at parties instead? 
xx