Au Pied de Cochon, Fromages L'Île-aux-Grues, La Fromagerie Champêtre

Even at Au Pied de Cochon, we seek out cheese

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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.

As hyperlinks don’t show in captions, here are links to La Fromagerie Champêtre and Fromages L’Île-aux-Grues.

Today, we’re off to Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser to meet the man who launched the artisanal cheese revolution in Quebec.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs

Georgs Kolesnikovs, Cheese-head-in-chief at CheeseLover.ca, has never met a foie gras he didn’t like.

Au Pied de Cochon, Celtic Blue, Cheese curds, La Fromagerie Champêtre

Good cheese hunting: Day 7, in Montreal

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We had a reservation for dinner at famed Au Pied de Cochon, so we aimed to pace ourselves during the day, starting with a light breakfast.

Lunch in our hotel room is a store-bought Caesar salad with parmesan bits and a big chunk of delightful Celtic Blue from Glengarry Cheese.
At Au Pied de Cochon, we let it all hang out with fois gras poutine for a starter followed by pork four ways with mashed potatoes, gravy and not a vegetable in sight. The cheese curds in the poutine are divine, produced by La Fromagerie Champêtre.
At CheeseLover.ca, we're big fans of The Wild Chef, aka Martin Picard, owner of Au Pied de Cochon. He strolled through the restaurant while we were eating, but we were too shy to say hello.

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