DINNER August 7, 2009

I tend to be a bit obsessive at restaurants: scanning menus for long periods of time; taking notes; tasting the components of a dish separately; tasting them all together; discussing flavour and texture with the JJ. I admit it probably looks a little weird, but most of our friends have gotten used to it. On this night though, the JJ and I dined with a couple we don’t know very well and, as a result, I tried to keep my weirdness down to manageable levels and became involved in actual, pleasant conversations about matters other than food. The two weeks after this meal were hellishly busy and, as a result, I am sitting down to finish writing about Bar & Boeuf but it all seems a little hazy. It’s funny because I think this is how I remembered most of my meals before I started writing about food (which meant I had to really concentrate what I ate). I could tell you whether I liked something and could remember most of what I ate, but it was hard to explain why I felt the way I did. Things were just good or bad. Continue Reading…

DINNER August 5, 2009

Upfront I will admit that I view Rosalie with a skeptical eye. In all fairness, it would be hard not to, when it advertises itself as a French restaurant by Italian immigrants (I could not have made up such a great marketing ploy–I’m just not that funny). While there was time Rosalie could pretend to contend on the Montreal dining scene, those days are long gone. It was during those halcyon days when I last ate at Rosalie and was fed the most disgusting facsimile of a tartare I have ever encountered. They tell young chefs to taste their food and it would have been good advice on that night. No living soul would fail to be alarmed by half a jar of Grey Poupon in a beef tartare.

So how did I end up eating at Rosalie? Brasserie Brunoise was closed, notwithstanding a sign stating they would be open on nights there were events at the Bell Center. The police presence pointed to an event (a Lil’ Wayne concert it turns out) but we had to grudgingly admit that the slack-jawed dullards (the concertgoers, not the cops) milling about are not BB’s target demographic. Rosalie on the other hand was open and I felt like eating beef tartare. Considering my past experience with that dish, I agree that the logic at work is open to question, but the Gazette had just given Rosalie a harsh review and I thought it would be a lark to have another kick at the can (probably the same masochistic trait that makes people buy tickets to  Tom Cruise movies). Continue Reading…