We are in Quebec for the cheese, but who can resist at least one meal at Martin Picard’s Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal?
Have no fear, there is cheese in this petite poutine! Delicious cheese curds from La Fromagerie Champêtre are buried in the potatoes fried in duck fat and smothered with calamari and a black squid-ink gravy.Let's see, how shall I have my foie gras today? Let's start with a buckwheat pancake, add slices of potato, bacon, aged L'Île-aux-Grues Cheddar, eggs scrambled in a maple-syrup reduction, and the foie gras. Voilà, that's Plogue à Champlain at Au Pied De Cochon!
As Sarah Jane, our helpful waitress explained, plogue is a buckwheat pancake, made without eggs and butter and fried on one side only, popular in northwest New Brunswick. The maple syrup comes from the Chef’s own Cabane à Sucre aka Sugar Shack.
The Champlain in the name of the dish is not the early explorer of Quebec, rather it refers to Champlain Charest of La Bistro Champlain, famed promoter of fine wine in La Belle Province.
A taste of Oka more than 50 years ago—when the Trappists still made it—sparked in me a lifelong love for cheese. That love has ripened into full-blown passion as more and more mouth-watering cheeses are being churned out by artisan, farmstead and specialty cheesemakers across Canada. I’d like to share that passion by making CheeseLover.ca an informative and entertaining meeting place for all who love cheese, especially #CDNcheese. Be sure to sign up for notification of new posts via email in the upper right of each page. Let's stay in touch! —Georgs Kolesnikovs
