26 hours in Montreal, Quebec, Canada – Day 2

Photo of the day: Poutine @ La Banquise. Photo credit: Aaron.

St.-Viateur Bagels

After a late night last night, we decided to slowly get out of bed just in time to check out of the hotel. We drove over to St.-Viateur Bagels for some classic Montreal-style bagels. We picked up two sandwiches – the smoked salmon, cream cheese one on a sesame bagel, as well as a smoked meat sandwich on a rosemary and sea-salt bagel. They had in-house seating with pretty good looking salads to make it a meal, but it was a nice day so we took our sandwiches over to a bench at Parc La Fontaine. This reminded me so much of my days as a student here, when I would bike through this park to pick up bagels on the weekend. My bagel sandwich was quite disappointing. The meat juice has soaked through the bagel and made it very soggy. At the same time, the parts which were soggy were very hard and dense. The meat itself was not as good as the ones we had yesterday at Schwartz’s. Aaron’s sandwich, on the other hand, was nice and soft with quite generous amounts of cream cheese. I’ve realized that Kettleman’s Bagel in Ottawa is actually quite comparable in quality so it’s a great alternative for those who do not want to drive the 2 hours for Montreal-style bagels.

Le Moineau Masqué

After breakfast, we walked around the park and checked out the neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal before stopping at Le Moineau Masqué for some coffee. This was a very cute cafe with a lovely outdoor area with bean bags, a nice cushioned bench and even a cat to hang out with. We are not sure if the cat is a store cat but nonetheless, it stayed there on our table the whole time we were there. I quite enjoyed my iced matcha latte, which was nicely unsweetened; however, I will pass on the shortbread cookie here next time.

La Banquise

We were not too hungry at this time but figured we were in the neighbourhood so we must check out the popular La Banquise for some poutine. Our friends tried to come here yesterday but gave up because the line was too long. When we arrived today, around 4pm, the line was not too bad. In a matter of minutes after we joined the line though, another 10-20 people appeared behind us. The wait itself was not bad, especially if your phone is already preloaded with podcasts for your road trip. We decided to just split the regular-sized classic poutine and I tried a bottle of local Bec Soda, sweetened with maple syrup. I chose the lime-flavoured soda and it was an interesting twist on a Sprite-like soda. It is less sweet and does have a very distinct taste, which makes it not as easy to drink as any regular soft drink. The poutine itself definitely lived up to its name. The potatoes were nicely sweet and seasoned, the gravy not too salty and the cheese curds were nice and “squeeky”. If you prefer the soft, melted cheese curds though, you will not find them here. See photo of the day for a visual representation of this deliciousness.

Old Montreal 

Before we headed back to Ottawa, we decided to stop by Old Montreal for some exploring. There seemed to many events happening here including a poutine festival as well as a cultural festival called Orientalys showcasing many different cultures, from Moroccan dance performances to an animated wood sculpture craving show by a man from France. Aaron really wanted to do the zipline across the Old Port, so we paid our fees, donned our gear and hiked up the metal scaffold to the top and experienced maybe <1 minute of zooming across the sky. For those who have done ziplining previously, this is not too exciting but it’s a great chance to experience it for those who have yet to do it.

After our mini aerial adventure, we walked by a truck called M Churros Mme Banane selling churros and you know Aaron had to stop for one. It was a clever concept. They only sold 2 items on the menu here – churros and frozen bananas. These can both be customized with your favourite filling/coating. It looked like both items were equally popular and most groups bought one of each. We just got the original churro without any filling and the frozen banana with milk chocolate and peanuts. The churro was pretty average while the frozen banana was quite a delightful way to end our trip to Montreal!

And this marks the end of our 26 hours spent in Montreal. It was definitely food-heavy but we’ve both been here in the past to do all the touristy things. I should really be renaming this post “26 hours of eating in Montreal punctuated by minimal exploring while digesting our food”. Till next time!

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