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(Editor's Note: This post is second in a series of reports on the food scene in Montreal, courtesy of The Rogue Chefs, special conributors to Relish.)
To say there is anything else like it anywhere is a gross understatement, and only a pilgrimage to this divine food Mecca can truly persuade one otherwise.
We are speaking of course of Montreal's Jean Talon Market. It is an encounter with food that stretches far into the realm of Zola's "Belly of Paris" and is without question as mesmerizing as it is accessible. As with Au Pied de Cochon, there is a unique sense of community and great pride that is felt as one meanders slowly through the kilometers of food poetry and exotic fare.
We discovered ground cherries (a cherry wrapped in a husk) mysteriously tomatillo-like in everything but flavor (above left), and this past year's récolte of maple Syrup (above right), maple candies, maple-cured wild salmon, maple-smoked pork tongue, maple everything! Amidst the wares and charcuterie of locals, or fresh oysters from bizarre regions with impossibly-foreign names, you might encounter barbequed bison ribs, or happen onto freshly-baked croissants with a "bowl" of cafe au lait.
The blueberries from the Lac St. Jean area were in such abundance it was impossible not to consume a pint of them before leaving. All in subdued splendor and with the typical Quebecois understated friendliness. Each stall more remarkable than the next in freshness, beauty, texture (morels and chanterelles, below right), all this in the heart of Montreal's north end. Do anything else in Montreal but do not miss the Market. Jean Talon Market.
