U.S. Food Truck Laws to Follow Montreal's Lead?

The New York Times published a recent article, "Should Cities Drive Food Trucks Off the Streets?"

 With the Food Truck trend sweeping across the United States some cities are reacting. Restaurateurs are calling foul because the "competition [food trucks]literally drive up outside their windows."

Some of the proposed legislation is more moderate than banning the trucks all together and our city could get some ideas in regulating Food Trucks: designated parking areas or zones, specific distances from restaurants...

You can read the full article here

No Reservations in Montreal: Anthony Bourdain sightings

Anthony Bourdain was spotted this weekend in Montreal filming his TV show, No Reservations. Following Bourdain's Tweets we know that he was hanging out with Fred Morin and the Joe Beef gang. Bourdain also mentioned Schwartz's and of course we heard rumors that he was at his other regular haunt, Au Pied de Cochon.

We also have a confirmed sighting that he arrived, perhaps after a few libations, with his camera crew at Le Nouveau Palais (281 Bernard West) for late-night tacos. In case you did not know, the Green Taco food truck gang use, Le Nouveau Palais, Wednesday through Saturday from midnight to 3 a.m. for their food service. Shame Bourdain did not get to sample Chef and Co-Owner, Gita Seaton's regular menu.

We are also going to make the prediction, you read it here first, that Bourdain spent time with his camera crew and Montreal's Lardo Retardos, the dudes from Epic Meal Time.

Update (January 2012): The Capri Tavern as featured in Bourdain's episode of The Layover, was also featured in Montreal's dirty resto list with fines for rats and roaches.  Click here for more info.

Montreal Street Food: 3 Pig's and the NDG Sausage Party

What a summer for street food so far, the Balconville and rue Saint-Lauent sidewalk sales and now Monkland avenue in NDG. For a city that does not allow street food we sure have been enjoying ourselves eating in the sun. During the live blogging sessions of Top ChefCanada we discovered The 3 Pig's that serve street food every Saturday on the terrace of the The Italian Pantry (6132 Monkland Avenue). The pop up resto project is a joint venture between the owners of The Italian Pantry and Chef Shawn Dascal, a Cordon Bleu trained Chef that is part of the Epic Meal Time crew, who treated us to a gourmet hot-dog feast this weekend. 

Update November 2012: This page gets lots of traffic so we think it is worth mentioning that Chef Shawn Dascal is now full time at Cartel Street Food Bar on Fairmount Street. You can link to their website here.

The 3 Pig's menu changes every week, for updates and additional information you can follow the 3 Pig's on Twitter and "Like"their Facebook page "if you like pork."

Since street food is a rarity in Montreal it only makes sense that it requires some planning. This experience is the closest thing we have to a hunter-gatherer adventure in our concrete jungle. Besides food trucks another food trend right now is the pop up restaurant. Pop ups are restaurants that pop up anywhere and can take any form including street food. Remember Chef Ludo Lefebvre from Top Chef Masters? He is doing a pop up project called Ludo Bites. Lefebvre’s pop up project will appear on the television show Ludo Bites Back on the Sundance channel in the U.S. Ludo’s pop up caused protests in L.A., the capital of the food truck trend, when he featured foie-gras on one of his menus. Since street food is the a big thing in L.A., or is already so last year, it makes sense that people are taking it to the streets of Montreal despite the municipal sanctions. In the case of the 3 Pig's their food-service is carried out on the terrace of The Italian Pantry so they are not subject to the municipal by-law.

Korean Seoulfood: BBQ'd short ribs

We set out a few weeks ago (July 2nd) in search of The 3 Pig’s. Strolling down Monkland we had a stroke of good luck at the Korean restaurant 5000 Ans (5737 Monkland). A Korean church group was fundraising for a project in Africa and served us up a succulent platter of Korean Bar-B-Q'd short-ribs ($8). The restaurant was sponsoring the group and they cooked outside on their terrace. The rice served with our ribs was sweet and sticky and offered more comfort to the taste of our Korean Seoulfood. We found a different Korean church group earlier this summer at the Verdun sidewalk sale. The Verdun group had the best food on the block so we are more than happy to support these worthy causes.

The Italian Pantry: 2 words, Buffalo Mozzarella

No luck in finding the 3 Pig's this day, should have checked the Facebook page, but The Italian Pantry did come to our rescue with a table outside the store offering a variety of sandwiches. We were told to come back next week for The 3 Pig’s, there was supposed to be bad weather that day. We think they went to see Will and Kate who were at the I.T.HQ. that day. From the Italian pantry we enjoyed a tomato and buffalo mozzarella sandwich. We are very familiar with these ingredients but never thought about putting them on a sandwich because it is a really good idea. A nice, light, summery, refreshing, tasting sandwich. Despite not finding the 3 Pig’s we did find some street food so we left feeling satisfied mainly because we love Korean food.

This weekend (July 9-10) was the Monkland sidewalk sale. I know what you are thinking but this is a real small potatoes event, the street is still open to traffic. We set off again in search of the 3 Pig's, after a few weeks anticipation we started to feel like the big bad wolf in pursuit of his prey. In honour of the sidewalk sale, Lucille's Oyster Dive (5626 Monkland) was serving up street food with hamburgers, sausages and pulled pork sandwiches. We decided to give Lucille a go and opted for the pulled pork sandwich ($6) that was really nothing worth mentioning. The bun was not not even toasted or warmed up on the grill. As we sat down to eat our sandwich we understood why our server seemed preoccupied. A less than flattering review had appeared about his restaurant that day in the Journal de Montréal. You can read the full review here.

We hate to kick someone when they are down but it is probably not a good idea to rant into your cell phone about your bad review in front of your customers. We would have probably never known about this review had it not been brought to our attention by the staff. It is even hard to find in Google. The burgers and sausages at Lucille's looked really unappetizing almost as if they had been kept warm on the grill for way too long. The unappetizing look of the food might have contributed to our lack of enjoyment of our sandwich.

We finally arrived at The Italian Pantry and found the Bar-B-Q set up on their terrace. This week the 3 Pig's menu featured gourmet hot-dogs. As we have often pointed out hamburgers and hot dogs are only as good as their individual components and in this case we appreciate the attention to detail. First the wieners, hot dogs tend to suffer from super size mania with jumbo being sold as a premium over taste. We were happy to find small dogs at 3 Pig's. We prefer small hot-dogs for a few simple reasons. First, if it is small it will leave you wanting more. Second the big dogs can be too much of a bad thing. The small wieners at 3 Pig's were more like knockwurst than hot dogs. They also had really nice snap when you bite into them giving them an almost addictive quality when combined with food opiates like truffle oil, cheese and Prosciutto.

3 Pig's: Say Cheese

We sampled two out of the three dogs on the menu. While waiting for our food we were offered a taste of some home made truffle potato chips. As owners of our own deep fryer you can trust us when we say that that nothing tastes better than fresh chips. A splash of truffle oil never hurts either. First, the truffle mac and cheese dog, a very nice and dry (in a good way) mac and cheese was placed on our sausage with just a splash of truffle oil.

Prosciutto: Better than Bacon

Feeling full from our pulled pork sandwich at Lucille's, ear of Mexican of corn from 3 Pig's (garlic mayo, lime & cheese) we still enjoyed our mac ‘n’ cheese dog so much that we decided to order another - smaller is better. This time we opted for what we were told was the best seller of the day, the Prosciutto dog. Besides the obvious use of Prosciutto there was a condiment with the taste of roasted red peppers. Chef Dascal told us that he uses herbs from the garden of the terrace at the Italian Pantry in his condiments. The combination of the salty Prosciutto and roasted peppers was a perfect combination. We skipped the Bolognese Chili Dog only for reasons of sanity but are sure that it was as good as the rest. Next week we have been told the 3 Pig’s will be doing Bar-B-Q.


Like at Lucille’s we could not resist eavesdropping on the conversation on the 3 Pig’s terrace. The discussion of course had to do with hot-dogs and the best in town. This time. One individual boasted about being a "hot-dog sommelier," in his youth. Our sommelier also recalled picking up a Montreal ex-pat at the airport who insisted they stop at the nearest steamy joint. Naturally the conversation progressed into a debate between toasted versus steamed hot-dogs. Orange Julep and Belle Pros came up as a few of the fan favourites.

Le Classique: Chien Chaud Chez Belle Pro

With the demise of our beloved hot-dog joints on the lower Main (Saint-Laurent south of Sainte-Catherine), the Montreal Pool Room has moved across the street, there is an obvious need to protect our historic greasy spoons and famous hot-dogs. The lower Main has been declared a heritage site by our government and as such certain guidelines are to be respected when making changes to these landmarks. In this case developers have been given carte blanche with regards to the area with no preservation of the neighborhood's history mainly because it falls in the new Quartier des Spectacles. Depsite the business Frites Dorées would have drawn being in the Quartier des Spectacles we seriously doubt they could afford the neighborhood's new rent. Also, we doubt the festival organizers want a greasy spoon dive in their clean and controlled, sanitized site. Festival organizers control the food concessions on the festival sight even though they fall on our public streets. First our food trucks are illegal and now they are taking away our greasy spoons. Oddly enough, because it was on the festival site (a food concession) and obviously approved by the organizers, the green taco truck was spotted at the Jazz Fest this summer.


On another sad note, a few weeks ago we set off to Beaver Hall Hill to grab a hot-dog at Victoire as part of this article, remember the lineups out the door and up the street at lunchtime? Victoire is now closed and we have also been told that a 5-Guys burger chain has opened down the street. Are you starting to get the picture? Our hot-dogs are in danger of extinction. Next they will be taking away our foie-gras. Support your small locally owned food business. You can start next Saturday by visiting the Italian Pantry (6132 Monkland Avenue) and then stopping for a bite on the terrace with the 3 Pig’s.

TCC Finale: Tous Ensemble: Chef MacKay Blows the Competition Away

No surprise with this Monday's outcome, Dale MacKay took the title of Canada's Top Chef. We blogged this in May when Chef MacKay opened his restaurant Ensemble in Vancouver (BC). Dale also looked extremely determined from the get go of the series. Remember the first challenge? The opening of Ensemble immediately piqued our interest as it was a high profile opening that was riding on the thunder of Top Chef Canada.

Prior-to the opening of Ensemble, they Tweeted some "under construction" pics of the restaurant. We requested some pics of the kitchen. "I'll post a pic up tomorrow!" Ensemble replied. We were surprised with a response, considering they were opening a restaurant, but we never noticed any kitchen pics on Twitter. We of course hoping for a glimpse of some GE kitchen appliances that are awarded to the winning Chef. The opening of Chef MacKay's restaurant, immediately after the shuttering of Daniel Boulud's Vancouver resto, Lumière, where Dale was Executive Chef, was a big blip on the radar during the airing of Top Chef. We bet it was a lot easier getting a table at Ensemble a few weeks ago.

As previously mentioned on our blog, Chef Rob Rossi's recent announcement that he was leaving Mercatto caused us some doubt about our long standing prediction that Dale would take the title. We were sort of correct with this thought because Connie DeSousa took third instead of second as we had predicted. We did not see the humoristic Rossi making any jokes after finishing second and losing to Dale. We felt a bit sad for Rossi because we did see Dale and DeSousa hugging family members at end of the show but where was the love for Rossi? We hope the show's Producers brought in some family support for Rossi and that this scene only ended up on the cutting room floor otherwise talk about adding-insult to injury. Rossi has demonstrated that he is an incredibly talented Chef with an impressive repertoire of technique and knowledge at his disposal. 

It is interesting that the two finalists represent the two current, and opposing, culinary trends. Rossi is comfort food, classic-style dishes and flavours. Dale or "fancy pants" MacKay, as he was dubbed in the finale, does deconstructed dishes that are very modern looking. During the series the judges kept using the word precious in describing MacKay's food. The finale was really a battle between modern and classic cooking styles. As a Chef, Dale's dishes are out of the box, just compare them to someone like Rossi ans his classic style. 

Chef Mackay's win comes with a bit of controversy as one of his courses (it was a 3 course challenge) was served on two plates. The Dalegate, or rather Daleplate, controversy focuses on his Surf and Turf dish that was presented on two plates. If Mac and Cheese had been served with a cheese sauce on the side (probably the worst choice for a Top Chef finale but makes our point) count as two dishes? DeSousa's dessert had three separate and distinct components but was served on the same plate. We really think the Daleplate debate is about presentation and plating. MacKay chose Surf and Turf and served it on two plates. Dale the deconstructionist took the dish so far apart it had to be served on two plates. As the judges pointed out it was a gamble that paid off but it could have gone the other way if one of the dishes failed.

We have had fun following and blogging Top Chef Canada. Some of the best discoveries to come out of this experience involves ousted competitors. The purchase of Rebekah's Pearse's Sweet Seasonal Desserts (available here on Amazon) was an unexpected surprise. The cookbook teaches you how to make easy and delicious desserts (not cookies). This is a fun and welcome addition to anyone's cooking repertoire. It is also our suggested reading for any Top Chef Season 2 competitors that want to add a few desserts to their bag of tricks and help ensure their survival on the show. Another great discovery is the $35 Dinner menu at Derek Bocking's (he is Sous-Chef) restaurant, Beaver Hall. This is  great dining bargain, included in the price is an appetizer, main course and half a bottle of wine. We are of course looking forward to the next season and finding out who will be Canada's next Top Chef competitors.

Beaver Hall: Support Your Local Top Chef

Spoiler Alert! Coming soon to Jazz & Fuzy

Bulgogi Hot-Dogs

Top Chef Canada episode 12: Go Home Gallagher

We have reached a milestone in the Top Chef series because this Monday we will crowning Canada’s First Top Chef. 


Episode 12 of Top Chef saw smilin’ Dustin Gallagher go home. The Judges thought his angel hair pasta was a bit clumpy, his fish overcooked nut it was his fruit platter (dessert) that seemed to be the final nail in his coffin. The Judges thought that a plate of fruit was a poor choice at this stage in the competition. 

Gallagher's Fruit Plate

As you may have noticed during any of the Top Chef series there is always a problem with the Chefs and the desserts. Chefs auditioning for the next season take note, practice your desserts. Dustin Gallagher did win an elimination challenge in a previous episode with a dessert when he served up his girlfriend's strawberry shortcake, she is also his pastry Chef.  We wonder if perhaps Gallagher had used up his bag of dessert tricks. On the other hand this was a family style service so the idea of a fruit platter for sharing does have some logic. Perhaps some cheese, jellies and bread would have added to the experience.

Gallagher's winning shortcake is currently a featured item on the menu at Milestones. Unfortunately, or is it fortunately, there are no Milestones in Quebec but as part of our ongoing Top Chef coverage we did sacrifice ourselves with a trip to Ontario where we sampled a few of the dishes featured on the show.

You're about to get warned: do not order the croquettes

The Top Chef Canada menu items at Milestones have been designed for preparation in their kitchen where massed produced food items and profit margins seem to be the key ingredients in determining how a dish is made. When we ordered DeSousa's pork croquettes the waiter inquired if we have ever tried them because they were really “not good.” In describing the dish the waiter said, "freezer burned meat." Despite our killjoy of a waiter we ventured on thinking how bad can it really be and that we did come all this way to not eat the Top Chef dishes. All we can say is that the in general the food is bad at Milestones so you can only imagine what something must taste like if the staff says it is no good. The taste of the croquettes was like eating dried up old meat but they were not the worst item on the plate. Each croquette sits in an onion ring. The batter on the onion rings was dry and hard. I have heard of crispy batter but we do not think that they be crunchy and snap like a twig. Did we mention flavourless? The onion rings also had this quality. We suppose the bacon ninja could use these rings as some sort of throwing weapon in the Top Chef Kitchen. In all seriousness, if this is how Milestones choses to present the Top Chef Canada dishes they might consider featuring the losing dishes as a more authentic experience. We also had the spinach artichoke dip (not a Top Chef menu item) that tasted like paste (glue).

Pork Croquettes: Note the shape of the onion things... er rings

We also tried Dustin Gallagher's strawberry shortcake, our waiter informed us that this was a good dish choice. The dish was more whipped cream than anything else. A bit of strawberry compote, a pastry that was more crunchy than anything like cake and also a tiny bit of lemon curd that is the the twist on this traditional dish. The strawberry shortcake is nothing more than a big mound of whipped cream with a few other bites floating around. With strawberry shortcake you should think strawberries not whipped cream but once-again why trouble yourself with things like costly fresh ingredients that require lengthy preparation?

Not enough strawberries were harmed in the making of this dish

We stayed away from Francois' dish mainly because the main courses seem grossly over priced at Milestones. We noticed a neighbouring table that had ordered the Steak Frites that goes for close to $28 bucks. The dish consisted of a steak about the size of your palm and a massive pile of frozen French fries. Are they for real in charging these rates for Frozen fries? To put things in perspective we looked up the menu at Au Pied de Cochon that also offers a Steak Frites. The dish costs less at Au Pied de Cochon ($23) and instead of beef you have the choice of venison or bison. The French fries are also fresh cut with a larger portion of meat. All this to say we do not mind paying for good quality food but a $30 plate of frozen French fries and small steak is beyond ridiculous. Since they use frozen fries at Milestones the profit margin for this dish must be legendary in the annals of restauration dishes.

Getting back to Top Chef Canada. The final three are Rob Rossi, Connie DeSousa and Dale MacKay. We predicted some time ago that Dale was going to be the winner and we are going to stick with our pick mainly because he recently opened his own restaurant. Watch the judges face, especially the guest Chefs and Mark McEwan, when they taste Dale's food. Last week Chef Rossi announced he was leaving his current post at Mercatto and the Toronto press got excited predicting this was a spoiler that the Chef takes the Top Chef title. We would not be surprised if this is the outcome only because, as we pointed out months ago with the selection of the Chefs, the series is very Toronto-centric.

In terms of other predictions it looks like they are bringing back some of the eliminated challengers to assist the Chefs in the kitchen. Once again we think the Chefs will be from Toronto. It also looks like the final takes place in Niagara wine country and will be somewhere like the Inniskillin vineyard.

Next Week: Meet Canada's Top Chef

Happy Canada Eh?

Insane Canadian Clown Posse in Ottawa 
Who says Canadians are not fashionable? 

Top Chef Canada Ep. 11 - Street Food Fare: Gagnon goes goodbye

This week we saw the Chefs face off in a street food elimination challenge. Street food seems to be a big trend these days with food trucks being all the rage in L.A. Living in Montreal we can only look at this trend with envy because food trucks and street food are prohibited under Montreal municipal bylaw. Because street food is a trend we keep expecting this issue to come-to-light. We think that the prohibition of street food has had an impact on Montreal's food culture because small time businesses exist but in different forms. Street food enterprises are in operation but they just appear in different forms.

Rumour is that Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau outlawed food trucks because they were an eyesore. This coming from the guy responsible for the Olympic Stadium. If you think about it Montreal's climate does not really lend itself well to outdoor food culture. No wonder the food truck trend is popular in L.A., al fresco is possible all year round. We have just spent the last two weekends visiting the street sales in Balconville and the Main where street food was bountiful. These food celebrations are exceptions to the city's food scape making these events more festive. These are events that we can look forward to and are worth celebrating.

Top Chef Canada: Street Food Challenge

The combination of municipal prohibition and climate has lead to the creation of a multitude of hole in the wall tiny sized joints. Think of $2 chow mein on the Main. Dollar pizza slices, Buns Hamburger House, Picks, Thali, Patati Patata... These closet size operations offer street food fare. In addition to these closet operations you can find some small time operators in food courts. Buffet Maharaja is a now a resto complex that boasts an adjoining hotel but started out as a food court stand in the Eaton Centre, their butter chicken still tastes the same. 

One of our favourite food court stops in the Downtown area is Poulet Torino. Located in the Simons food court (977 Ste-Catherine West) they specialize in Mediterranean grilled chicken. The menu offers chicken dishes in every variety, shape and form. Dishes include traditional brochettes (on a pita or a platter), grilled chicken breast, club sandwiches and chicken poutine. Also worth mentioning is the garlic mayonnaise that we love for having so much bite. They also make a delicious tangy hot sauce that is mild in taste and only adds to some of the best chicken in town. Their couscous and the hot sauce is absolutely addictive.

Torino: The Science of Chicken

On Top Canada the Chefs were challenged to create fusions street food dishes after randomly choosing countries. Francois Gagnon was voted off after getting China and Vietnam. Gagnon served up a Pho with dumpling and duck in a rice wrapper. The winning dish was Rob Rossi who served up a chorizo sloppy Joe and a grilled cheese with serrano ham.

There has also been a bunch of Top Chef rumours this week. Todd Perrin posted on his blog something that alluded to a television show. If you think about it a Newfoundland cooking show is a great idea that has yet to be tapped. Besides being interesting Canadian food programming it could also serve as a way of promoting tourism for the Rock.

Chef, Rob Rossi announced he is leaving his current position as head Chef of Mercatto group. No word of what the Chef has up his sleeve next but Rossi has thrown a bit of cog in the wheel of our theory that Dale takes the win because of the opening of his new restaurant. Naturally the online buzz is that Rob might have taken first prize but we will pose another theory. When you are voted off Top Chef it can be a time of getting some press for a new project. We are curious to see if the Chef gets voted off in the upcoming episode and what announcements will follow. Rossi has gotten a lot of camera time in the series. We heard Mark McEwan on CJAD last week saying that Rossi seemed mild mannered in person and was surprised with the Chef's behind the scenes fuuny comments when he saw the episodes on television. All this to say that perhaps the Chef also has television plans in his future.

Weekend Nosh: Saint-Laurent street sale

This weekend was the Saint-Laurent Frénésie de la Main. The St. Laurent summer sidewalk sale means street food and people watching. The best food sampled was the Cajun BBQ'd drumsticks from Lac Brome Ducks proving once again that local fresh ingredients are the best.  

BBQ'd Duck

Chips Fried in Duck Fat

Street Food Menu: no sandwiches on this board

Drag Queen Races

Schwartz's smoked meat

Street Art: Work in Progress

The People have spoken: we feel like chicken tonight

Cowboys & Chefs

Oodles of Noodles

Makeup: Fringe Fest Performer

Oysters

24hr Poutine People: La Banquise kitchen staff

Top Chef Canada News: Chef Dale MacKay Blows a Gasket

Dale Mackay's new restaurant Ensemble (Vancouver B.C.) has been forced to close after a hot water heater burst causing damage to his restaurant.

And now the good news, the closure of the restaurant comes on the heels of a 4.5 star review in the Vancouver Sun. You can read the review here.

Dale & the Deluge

Surrealist Cinéaste To Open Le Club Silencio

From Eater.com, David Lynch is set to open the Club Silencio in Paris. The Club, based on his movie Mulholland Drive, will feature, a bar, concert hall, library and movie-theatre.

No word yet if Lynch is planning to open a chain of Double R Diners from Twin Peaks but we can only hope.

David Lynch Cooks Quinoa

No More Nicholson: Top Chef Canada Episode: 10

This week it was Chef Andrea Nicholson, from Great Cooks on Eight in Toronto, who was sent to pack her knives on Top Chef Canada. The Chef seems to be taking it all in stride, Nicholson was in the press today as the Chef responsible for creating the official birthday cake celebrating the 35th of the Tim Horton’s Timbit. The four-foot cake, link to picture and article here, featured more than 1,500 Timbits.

Chef Nicholson is also organizing a Top Chef competitor’s dinner at her restaurant on June 30. The event, that includes Nicholson, features the talents of 4 other ousted Cheftestants, Mike Stauffer (Dundas), Patrick Wiese (Toronto), Steve Gonzalez (Toronto) and Todd Perrin (Newfoundland). The all-star event featuring wine and a 5-course tasting menu costs $175. A portion of the ticket sales ($50) will go towards the establishment of the Great Cooks Young Chef Fund that will help support young Chefs with their schooling. For more information click here.

We were a bit disappointed that Chef Nicholson never pushed out a pizza during the competition. Nicholson is a certified pizzaiuoli, a true maker of genuine Neapolitan pizza. Next week’s street cart challenge would have been a perfect opportunity. We also found Nicholson’s description of Chef Dale MacKay’s epicurean speeches as “food bombs” to be hilarious.

We really enjoyed this week’s episode because there was finally some focus on regional Canadian cuisine. We were also a bit surprised to see Nicholson go home at this point in the competition because thought she would make it to the final four. On Top Chef, Nicholson demonstrated that she was a really fierce competitor, “It is not Top Team Chef.” All the Chefs in the competition have incredible skills so it really boils down to competitive spirit and focus during the competitions. As Chef Derek Bocking blogged “one mistake is all it takes on Top Chef.”

If you have been watching Top Chef Canada you may have noticed that ex-ballerina turned Chef, Connie DeSousa has been carving out a legendary reputation for herself. Chef Chris Kanka compared her to a samurai and Chef Todd Perrin dubbed her the bacon ninja. You may have heard the story that the “ballerina butcher,” Judge Shereen Arazm’s moniker for DeSoousa, can de-bone a pig’s head in under 5 minutes and now you can see it for yourself. A ballerina ninja that can butcher a pig's head in record time sounds a bit like a twisted revenge sequel to the Black Swan made by Quentin Tarantino.

With back to back victories on this week’s episode DeSousa now has some major momentum at this point in the competition. Last week DeSousa was in the bottom for the first time causing her to have a bit of a meltdown but this setback seems to have caused the Chef to push herself even harder.

DeSousa was warned by judge Mark McEwan not to make any more sausages in the competition but next week is a street cart challenge so her choice of sausage, as seen in the traile,r makes sense. We know that DeSousa's restaurant Char Cut does street food, something called alley-burgers, so we think DeSousa has a bit of an upper hand in next week’s competition. There have also been some online rumors that Char Cut is working on a Food Truck project. Chef Dale MacKay is seen in next week’s trailer complaining about having to make street food. We think he does have a bit of a disadvantage because of his cooking style but then again he did have a winning pulled pork sandwich in episode 9.

As we keep saying, unless we have a major kitchen meltdown we think MacKay is going to take the competition in a head to head battle with DeSousa. As Judge Mark McEwan pointed out this week Dale is "thinking outside the box," in other words he is on another level.

Next week on Top Chef Canada: Street Food
Note the horrified look on Rob Feenie's face below

In heaven they have no beer that's why we have the Montreal Mondiale de la Bière.

This weekend was The Grand Prix, and The Mondiale de la Bière in Montreal. Fast cars and beer, what else do you need? Think about the imagery in a typical beer commercial and the answer is obvious - easy women. The standard beer commercial prop besides cars is women. The idea of pimping your ride works on several levels when pimping your beer and this is evident at Montreal’s Beerfest.

The festival is a microcosm of beer culture so marketing campaigns are heavily reflected. Since there were no cars at the beer festival there is only one obvious option left in attempting to draw attention to your product. With over 609 beers available to the public, 253 of which are making their first appearance at the fest, competition is fierce. You have seen the women in beer commercials so you know what we are talking about. Using women in trade shows is apparently common practice. Remember the boat show scene in Showgirls? The beer companies must feel very comfortable and in their element in this environment.

Typical Beer Ad

You can really tell a lot about a company in their front line marketing. On the festival floor the big beer companies stick with the proven formula mentioned above. The micro breweries focus on their product, the quality of the ingredients and artisanal manufacturing. This is no fault of the big beer companies. Great beer marketing campaigns are rare and it takes a real genius to create a campaign like Rolling Rock's VP of Marketing Ron Stablehorn.

Guitars, Cadillacs, Hillbilly Music

Microbrasserie, À La Fût, located in St-Tite, has found a winning formula by combining the best of both worlds. Link to their website here. A micro brewing company that has figured out how to put the word “tite” on a beer bottle. They also use cowboys hats and dudes with big handle bar moustaches as part of their schtick. Campy western brewpub that is a joint venture of engineers, we love it. We sampled La Sir Wallace, a scotch ale at 8% alcohol, that was a deliciously dark and intensely flavoured black beer.

Welcome to Paradise

We arrived early at Beerfest because the crowds in the evening are legendary. Holding the festival at Place Bonaventure might be a smart move by the festival's organizers not only because it is a massive area but because there are no windows. If you have ever entered a Las Vegas casino you know what we are talking about. What to have for breakfast? As we entered the festival we found ourselves in a faux beach installation known as Le Plage des Biertotters. We are talking about a full size, beach volleyball court with sand, tiki bar and sandy square surrounded by beach chairs. People observe that your choice of alcoholic-beverage says something about your personality so what can we say about this area? The main vendors at the beach were Mojo, Sol beer and a vodka spritzer offered by the SAQ called Palm Bay. This was definitely meant to be the extreme fun zone. Palm Bay is available in two flavours pineapple with mandarin orange but we opted for pink grapefruit because we thought it sounded a little more like breakfast. We found it to be a light, refreshing soda pop, sweet tasting with 5% alcohol and just a little fizz. We then moved along to Mojo station. Mojo is an alcoholic-beverage with guarna for energy. We opted for a new product, Mojo shots, available in big bottles at déps but also in cool shot glasses for the bar crowd. The shooters clock in at 11.9% alcohol. Two flavours are available sour raspberry and a blue coloured sour lime shooter. If you have ever tasted sour puss liquor then you are familiar with these types of alcoholic-beverages that are both sweet and tart at the same time.

Beau's Beer

In strolling around the fest floor one stand caught our eye. First because we love B-movie posters and second because the signage said "a family run, D.I.Y. business using organic products." Welcome to Beau's All Natural Brewing Company. Link to their website here. No false advertising here these are some amazing products. We were lucky enough to speak with Steve Beauchesne who co-founded the brewery with his father Tim in Vankleek Hill, Ontario (between Ottawa and Montreal).

Tout est beau Chez Beau's

Steve started out our morning on the right foot with their Winterbrewed Amber Ale that is infused with organic Nicaraguan coffee. Beer companies often boast about the coffee notes in their dark beers but this ale has a genuine coffee flavour and 5% alcohol. According to Beauchesne their Brewmaster worked closely with their coffee provider's (fair trade) Roast Master in the creation of a perfect blend and balance of flavours. All we can say is good to the last drop.

Secret Ingredient: Bog Myrtle

Next from Beau's was Bog Water Gruit Ale (6.6% alcohol) that instead of hops uses a unique ingredient called Bog Myrtle that was a very popular beer making ingredient in the Middle Ages. With the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 the ingredient was no longer used as the law stipulated the only permissible ingredients were water, barley and hops. No wonder big brewery beer all tastes the same. The twigs from the plant provide a woody taste, the leaves some bitterness and the cones add a little peppery taste. Overall the flavour is a combination of fruity (plum like) and bitter notes. When we tasted this beer we could only think about how good it would taste with steak. We have been craving this flavour and combination since tasting this beer. Next up was the Bog Monster that offers more intense flavours of the Bog Water beer. The fact this brewery uses such high quality ingredients really comes through in the taste of their products. These are amazing and unique flavoured beers and a perfect example of how small breweries focus on the quality of their ingredients unlike the big companies that need a gimmick.

Another zone at the Beerfest featured DJ's with beats in a club type setting. Fronting this club was a giant bar featuring Boris beer products. Boris seems to be going for the hipster crowd by making their servers wear nerdy glasses. When asking ourselves about this target audience we thought of this video...

Boris Beer: 20/20 Vision but just an empty pair of frames

Alexander Keith's and Unibroue both went with serving-wenches. Sleeman's kiosque left us scratching our heads a little because they had girls dressed up in flapper style outfits. They also had a photo booth with gangsters and someone dressed up like Jack Sparrow or Captain Morgan. We obviously do not watch enough beer commercials because we later saw that this was part of their "Notoriously Good" ad campaign that features their product in the prohibition era in the company of Al Capone. The people behind this ad campaign have obviously watched Boardwalk Empire but we have not figured out the pirate. Maybe he was at the wrong stand and looking for the serving wenches.

Serving wench

Seeing Double Chez Unibroue

Al Capone's Guns don't argue

Within this menagerie of colorful characters you do meet some interesting people.

Beerfest Mascot: We think his name is Sloshy and is BFF with Tipsy McSurly

We ran into Brewmaster Gary Lohin, Red Racer brewery (Vancouver, B.C.) who was also one of the Beerfest judges. In talking with Lohin we had a revelation, when we said that we were not beer drinkers. Lohin asked if we liked wine, of course we do, and said that beer can be paired in the same manner with food. In talking to Lohin, and tasting some of the fine micro brews, we realized we just do not like beer from the big companies. We have realized that all big brewery beer tends to taste the same, they even have the same type of carbonation. Micro brew beer can be like a fine wine with complex flavours that we have come to appreciate.

Denis Caciuc with students

We spoke with Denis Caciuc who teaches restauration services at the École Hôtelière de Laval. His students said he was the best teacher at the school and considering he takes his students to the Beerfest they have a point. The school should make an add with the Beerfest. We asked Caciuc for some of his recommendations and he said he was very impressed with the cider, mead and maple products that were also on tap at the festival. From Vinerie de Kildare we discovered Esprit d'Érable (14% alcohol). This is a beautiful tasting product. A very light and slightly sweet apéritif with maple notes. So light on the palate it seemed to dance and open up your palate a bit like tasting green apple. We also sampled a McKeown cider that was infused with cranberries and seemed to add to the tartness of the apples (6% alcohol). We would love for one of the cider producers to team up with one of a black beer producers at the festival because we have recently discovered Black Velvets. Guinness beer is poured on top of apple cider where it dances and creates a layered effect. We were also very impressed we the fine selection of meads from Miel Nature. Once-again these lovingly locally made artisanal products are outstanding.

elBulli Beer commercial with culinary students - no joke

We also took in some of the food at the festival. Montreal might boast about it's smoked meat at every possible occasion but what about Magnan and their roast beef? Magnan is long reputed to have the best roast beef in town. Magnan's was at the Beerfest offering a full range of items including an incredible roast beef sandwich that tasted well...iconic. There was also a giant shrimp cocktail that should have been called steroid shrimp cocktail and a delicious lobster roll.

We experienced a culinary first at La Face Cachée De La Pomme, another Quebec cider producer. As an attention grabber La Face Cachée was doing a culinary display with liquid nitrogen. Egg whites were whisked with their cider (12% alcohol) and then dipped in liquid nitrogen to create a "snowball" that also makes steam come out of your mouth. We have seen lots of cooking displays with liquid nitrogen on television but this was the first time tasting anything prepared in this manner. Like all Canadians, as children we have eaten snow and it you have ever chomped a tightly packed snowball it was an eerily similar experience. The outside was crisp like a meringue but when you crunch into the outer shell it was soft in the middle.

Oddly the best beer promotion that we saw that day was not at the Beerfest but on Boulevard St-Laurent that was closed for Grand Prix festivities. Sapporo beer was using image and movement capturing technology to project your likeness on a wall in the form of a giant sumo wrestler. Your reward for being sumo wrestler on their giant billboard was a free beer at one of the participating bars on the Main.

Until next year: Bangkok Psychobilly