The Jewish influence on Montreal’s food scene goes beyond the bagels and into the realms of meat. Specifically smoked meat and there is no better-known place to get the smoked meat than at Schwartz’s, which has been making the stuff since 1928. Today Celine Dion weirdly has some sort of ownership in the place, but I went hoping this had little to do with the popularity.

The line to actually be seated was out-the-door crazy, but Schwartz’s has a to-go area with a few counters that we took advantage of. I went with the regular Smoked Meat Sandwich, which consisted of the meat, mustard and rye bread. Usually I would have ordered without the mustard because I’m just not a fan of the stuff, but keeping it just seemed like the right thing to do. When I unwrapped my half-pound of meat it looked pretty tasty. When I dug in, I was met with a pretty great-tasting smoked meat sandwich. The smoked meat, by the way, tasted kind of like a midway point between corned beef and pastrami and that midway point was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I really didn’t mind the mustard and the sour flavor it added.

It may be a touristy spot, but Schwartz’s is definitely worth a visit for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of cured meats or just to get a great Jewish sandwich in French Canada.

No trip to Canada is complete without at least one stop for poutine. Yes, even outside of the French side of Canada. The internet told me that Poutini’s in West Queen Street West had some of the best in town and I was eager to see if they could live up to the lofty expectations. Like other poutineriess, it had a few different options, but I was most intrigued by their Layered Poutine. This included an extra layer of cheese in the middle, and as much as I like bacon and other such things, this seemed best.

I ordered the regular size instead of their teeny weeny tiny, and watched as the lady behind the counter constructed a beautiful bowl of fries, cheese and gravy. After a few pretty photos, I took my fork to the pile of beauty and was impressed with what I found. The gravy was light without being too plain, and wasn’t too salty either, allowing the full flavor (or should I say flavour?) of the fries and cheese to do their own work. I was very happy with the extra layer of cheese, because more cheese is always good, although I probably would have still been happy with just the regular amount of cheese.

The only downside was that it got a little bit intense at the bottom of the serving. It’s to be expected, but still not ideal.

Nonetheless, I can safely say that this was the best poutine I have ever had (at least since starting up this blog, because I stupidly didn’t start until after going to Montreal). I’d recommend Poutini’s for anyone looking to take down that glorious blend of potato, dairy and meat drippings.

Somewhere in the wild blue yonder of the Great White North between Vancouver and Jasper in British Columbia is the town of Blue River. Little can be said of this town except for its potentially exciting excursions on bear safaris. There is very little food to be had and one of, if not the only restaurants in town is called Tony’s Grill. With a minimal menu that was made even smaller by either the lack of deliveries or large influx of eaters, I was able to find my way to their super cheap cheeseburger to see how Blue River did burgers.

I ordered without lettuce, tomato and onions, with fries on the side and evidenced by that picture, it looked pretty good. Sure it was about as basic as you can get, but quite often that is all you need. Unfortunately, the burger turned out to look a lot better than it tasted. It was cooked all the way through, which was fine because I was in a tiny little diner in the middle of nowhere, but the cooking had left it nearly as dry as a hockey puck. This was an issue that was much harder to handle than the burger’s general brown-ness.

The fries, however, were damn good. And I must also say that my wife had a Greek salad and loved it. So perhaps Tony’s Grill is worth a stop in the wilderness, just not for the burger.

Contrary to my belief based on visits to Canada from Detroit when I was a wee boy, the Great White North is not a cheap place. Gone are the days that an American dollar could be exchanged for a toonie. Instead, the US is now the place Canada looks to for cheap stuff, making it difficult for an incoming grad student on a road trip budget to eat. Yet, somehow we found our way to Joey Broadway in South Granview, a modern Canadian restaurant with a great-looking menu and Goldilocks-esque just-right pricing. Not to mention a killer patio.

And speaking of killer, they also had a great deal on Whistler Whiskey Jack Pale Ale, a beer from nearby Whistler, for $2.99, so for just about the only time on the our trip I indulged. I also indulged with my meal, a Lobster Grilled Cheese to end all lobster grilled cheeses. Stuffed with Atlantic lobster, brie and cheddar, this was a grilled cheese I have to admit I probably couldn’t have made in my toaster. It was also served with cocktail sauce and let me tell you it was nothing short of amazing. And I’m not even a big brie guy, but each bite I took only made me sadder that I would have one fewer bite to eat in the end. The bread was perfectly crispy, the cheese to lobster ratio was perfect and, well, wow.

It seems that there is a good reason Joey restaurants are popping up all over Canada. Joey has hit on something good and something to remember.

Oh and did I mention it came with fries? Yeah, those were good too.

Although traditionally a French-Canadian specialty, no trip to Canada can be complete without a trip to some sort of local poutinerie. Yes, a poutinerie is a place the dishes out poutine, that ingenious gravy, fry cheese curd concoction that was most likely devised as a way to survive the winter in the Great White North. And despite the beautiful weather, I made my way to Fritz European Fry House in downtown Vancouver to get poutine in me.

As an afternoon snack, I only ordered the medium and then asked the grumpy woman behind the counter if I should add anything else to the mix of fries, gravy and cheese curds. She begrudgingly told me Real Bacon (as opposed to bacon bits) was popular so I begrudgingly asked for some in my order. The result was some pretty fantastic poutine. The fries held their own against the onslaught of gravy and the cheese melted just enough to keep me happy, but not so much as to turn the whole dish into a sludge. I appreciated the bacon, but also didn’t feel that it was entirely necessary. Bacon never hurts, but in this case it didn’t necessarily help either. Poutine, however, always helps. And coming from Fritz it helps even more, even if the customer service could use a little work.

After Portland we made our way into the Great White North, although surprisingly Canada wasn’t quite covered in white in the middle of the summer. We began in Vancouver, and I found myself a Japadog stand to satisfy my hunger. In case you are unable to read between the lines, Japadog is simply a Japanese hot dog stand, serving up typical Japanese-style hot dogs and other interesting hot dogs with Japanese toppings on them. It’s been around since 2005 and is pretty well-regarded in the street food scene. At least it was regarded enough that I can say that I had heard of them at some point in my life.

After much deliberation, I decided to get their Three Cheese Smoky, a classic kurobuta pork hot dog with Swiss, Havarti and cheddar blended into it. In true Japanese style, a series of gashes were cut into the hot dog for a reason unknown to me, but it did feel authentic at least. I also ordered some shichimi (Japanese chili seasoning) and garlic fries to accompany my Japadog experience. I took a blurry picture of the dog, squeezed some ketchup out and then went on with devouring.

My initial reaction was that this was certainly a step up from the typical hot dog vendors in big cities. This wasn’t some boiled and soggy-bunned hot dog from a cart. This had taken planning and thought. Yet, it wasn’t so amazing that I felt the need to tell the world about Japadog. Surely, this could have something to do with the relatively boring order I made, but had the other hot dog options not been so laden with veggies things may have been different. Nonetheless, a Japanese hot dog cart is a cool thing and something I’m glad to have at least tried.

A few more beers into the night and not yet having satisfied my craving for poutine in Toronto, my drunken munchies search became a quest for poutine. The quest ended when we discovered Smoke’s Poutinerie in the Queens West area. This place was a chain, but still had the look of a greasy hole-in-the-wall style poutine joint. Their menu had a few different variations of that delicious treat, even one including bacon, but we decided that the traditional was the way to go. We got a large for 8 loonies and waited about 30 seconds for them to toss the fries, curds and gravy into a box for eating.

Now this was how poutine was supposed to be. The curds still retained their shapes and although the food looked deliciously sloppy, you could see exactly what you were about to eat. The gravy tasted different from any I’d ever had with poutine before, but not necessarily in a bad way. After a few bites, we decided it must have come from some sort of foul, be it chicken, turkey or otherwise. And it was delicious, chain or not. Each bite had the perfect mix of ingredients and there was enough gravy and curds in the box so that no fry went unflavored. Even though the gravy was thin, it didn’t destroy the fries completely. They definitely got a bit soggy by the end, but they retained their individuality and I never felt like they had been turned to mush.

It was the perfect treat to end a night of drinking in Toronto. Look out, French-Canada, it looks like I don’t have to travel all the way to your part of the country next time I need some poutine in my belly.

For a night in Toronto, I really didn’t have much of a clue about where to eat. Finally, a buddy of mine told me to check out the Mill Street Brewery. I am always up for a microbrewery since that seems to be a lost art in LA, so I looked it up. It turned out that the place was actually pretty easy walk from our hotel, so we headed to Mill Street to see what we could find. After a twenty minute walk through a mildly sketchy part of town featuring a homeless pirate watering plants with a two-liter of Canada Dry, we arrived at the Distillery area. This part of town was once some sort of huge brewery, but now had shops, restaurants, bars and people testing Smart Cars and Segway Scooters. Even before we started drinking, our goal was to take a drunken ride on/in one of these (no, we did not achieve our goal).

When we got to the Mill Street Brewery, we found that there was about an hour wait. No worries, we were at a brewery and needed some beer before doing anything else anyway. We sidled up to the bar and started to test out their beers. Before we were even seated, I downed their Helles Bock, Tankhouse Ale and Stock Ale. The Tankhouse was my favorite, although the Helles Bock was also pretty good. They had a good amount of options, including rotating taps, so I could definitely see myself returning and having a whole different experience.

After about an hour, the table was ready and we took our seats. A look at the menu revealed some good microbrewery food. Hoping to have a Grizzly Peak-style experience, I set my sights on their burgers. Of these, the Distillery Burger looked the best to me. It came with Mill Street Coffee Porter BBQ sauce, crispy pancetta, Swiss cheese and crispy onions, which sounded great except for those dastardly onions.

There was also something on the menu that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in Toronto: poutine. Poutine is definitely more of a French-Canadian specialty, so we weren’t sure if it would be any good, but we ordered it anyway as an appetizer. Mill Street had put a bit of bit of a brewhouse twist on the poutine, called Pulled Short Rib Poutine. It was made with fries, alfredo, Tankhouse Ale braised Angus short ribs, green onions, Ontario cheese curds and gravy, of course. I couldn’t convince my compatriots to get it without the green onions, so when it came I had to dig around with my fork to avoid them.

The poutine here was pretty good, but it wasn’t poutine in its truest form. The cheese curds were fully melted by the time it got to the table and the gravy was thick and had soaked through the fries so much that it was pretty much an amorphous blob of gravy, cheese and potatoes. The ribs seemed kind of out of place, although it tasted just fine.

When the main course came, I was glad to see it had been made without vegetables like I asked. You never really now how an unvegan is going to be received in a foreign country. Sadly, despite being free of vegetables, this burger could have used a bit of work. It was a bit overcooked and quite dry. This could have been somewhat compensated for if there had been a lot of BBQ sauce in between those buns, but there just wasn’t enough of that sauce on it. This was too bad, because if it weren’t for this patty, it could’ve been a damn good burger.

Mill Street Brewery was a cool place in a cool part of town, but go for the beer, not for the burgers.

While on the subject of Canada, it seems that a new report from the Great White North has some interesting insight into the power of delicious meats. According to the study, 43% of Canadians prefer bacon to sex. Is Canadian sex that bad or is bacon that good? I like to think that bacon is just that good.

There are many reasons to explain why bacon is good, and while the report really dives into the science of the thing, I have my own reasons. First off, you can have bacon in public. Second, bacon smells good. The same can’t usually be said for that uhhh other thing. I could go on, but it might get gross and offensive. The point is that while True Pheromones and sex is good, bacon is apparently better…at least in Canada. But then again, they would probably choose an ice cold Molson, hockey and curling over sex as well.

Now bacon and sex combined…that’s a million dollar idea.

(via The Montreal Gazette)

So the Olympics are over, but if they have taught us anything, we all know that Canada is a pretty sweet place. I may be partial to the country since I grew up an hour from the border and took advantage of the 19+ drinking age in Ontario. Or I may be partial to the country because I am half Canadian and am enamored by both curling and hockey. Whatever the reason, I’ve now discovered a new reason to love Canada and it is called “Body Break.”

“Body Break” was one of those fun little informational shorts from the ’90s that would appear during after-school programs. It featured two wholesome Canadians named Hal Johnson and Joanne McCleod. As part of encouraging people to live a healthier life, they made meat a central focus.

Check out their video below:

Not that anyone would be foolish enough to skip out on meat in a meal, but they even say, “If you don’t eat meat at lunch, you can combine two servings at dinner.” That’s a good unvegan life to me.

So for being part of Canada’s awesomeness and encouraging meat consumption, Hal Johnson and Joanne McCleod, you are true Unvegan Heroes!

(via The Cheap Seats)