Montreal!

i am vegetarian & feel pretty deprived when i walk past wilensky's. like walking past nice quietly majestic barber shops when you cut your own hair, the sadness of feeling ineligible. i could go get an egg sandwich & a coffee there but i feel like you need to be at least seventy five years old to make that order.

i've ordered an egg sandwich there, back in my veggie days! get a pickle and an egg cream with it and you'l be fine.

Fermé pour vacances ;_;

:(

ha i never knew you were a vegetarian, was your switch back to full menu eligibility the opening of the foodie floodgates?

i used to go eat whatever you could get vegetarian at katz's, sometime, & it would baffle the counter staff. nothin? not even ham? how'd you get your b12?. actually kind of into the egg sandwich & coffee deal, now. i will take a newspaper. when it's open again.

i was! in fact i'm working on a comic about how i stopped being a vegetarian now!

haha, i would like to see that. i have a lot of affection for lapsed vegetarians because i feel like the period afterwards is always so grateful & enthusiastic. my friend started eating fish & it's like a whole freed prisoner thing, just constantly renewed wonder at how bright life can be. vegetarianism has its own stockholm syndrome thing, like you are condemned to spending time with mushrooms & slow-cooked onions but you learn to love those things as a result of your captivity.

i still like mushrooms and slow-cooked onions :D

vege-paté, alfalfa sprouts, and baby carrots dipped in hummus, now that's another story.

ha ha, you know one of the things i am really enjoying about montreal is its broad range of sprouts. in grocery stores, in those green plastic trays. i think they have a lot at PA on Parc. there are so many! asparagus pea shoots, sunflower seed sprouts. am really into the baby onion sprouts, they have this deep-purple poppy seed stem, it's alluring:

http://www.jungleseeds.com/images/OnionSprouts.jpg

but i am also sort of aware that this could be a barren arena in which to seek pleasure.

I have pretty good childhood memories of Wilensky's and Deli Lester and then I became a boring vegetarian.

what do u guys think of this article?

http://maisonneuve.org/post/2013/04/6/orientalism-gentrification-and-irony-parc-ex-respo/

in response to:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/why-you-should-eat-in-park-ex-montreals-ungentrified-ethnic-food-paradise/article10682175/?page=2

?

i think the maisonneuve article is undergraduate garbage and i am smh-ing violently at everyone who's posted it to facebook

What is the result of all this? Primarily, the “magical” Parc Ex portrayed by Gollner is one erased of struggle and conflict, hardship and exploitation. It’s so much like an enchanted frontier, in fact, that it’s “almost un-capitalist.” This, in a neighbourhood where few dare to jaywalk, for fear of the omnipresent police cruisers waiting to scoop up one of the many undocumented migrant workers living in the area. This, in a neighbourhood that’s become infamous for its slumlords and deplorable living conditions; its apartments without running water and crawling with cockroaches. This, in a neighbourhood where almost 20 percent of the population pays 50 percent of its monthly income in rent, and where 81 percent of the total population are tenants, facing a high risk of displacement with the encroachment of condo projects and university residences.

feel like that is a very dramatic characterization of parc ex

ya and i don't really see what that has to do with the article either

ppl are really losing their minds about it

what dumb article.

this place is nice,
https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Tamalera-haute-cuisine-de-rue-mexicaine/149679951797182

i haven't found a lot of good mexican food here (though $2 taco tuesdays at cartel, in the same hood, are neat) & dug this place. it's new, v cute. i had hibiscus tacos.

yeah, i think s10cki and i both ate there this weekend.

good, cheap, "real" tacos, not hipster bullshit, at a taqueria on st-denis above mont-royal.

Is that new? I'm not great at paying attn to new restaurants... I have had good tacos at the place on Parc tho! I don't think they qualify as hipster?

place on parc looks good. that strip is generally v bountiful for casual eating imo, boris & resonance are both v good as well. tamalera is super new, i am trying to get in on the ground floor & one day be treated as a venerable regular, seated quietly at the back.

think i heard about the saint-denis place, will check it out, ty.

I was all excited about moving to a new neighbourhood because I've been in the same place (cheap rent!) in mile end for 8 years, but then a friend decided to move away and I am taking over his lease - it's like 3 blocks away...

on parc? do you mean Tachido, the mexican sandwich place? yum. didn't realize they do tacos.

wasnt crazy about tamalera. cute place, but i spent like $8 on three very meagre tacos and $4 on a jar of horchata that was approx three times the size i required.

tachido is a fairly reliable sandwich place.

Love Tachido sandwiches, but was pretty disappointed in the tacos. There's a little place on Jean Talon and Iberville called Petite Coin Du Mexique that has pretty great food all around.

i am vegetarian & k fussy so the novelty & yeah aesthetic of tamalera was p satisfying to me. if somebody says hibiscus in most any context i will pay $5+, they were real good. i still haven't had a good burrito since i got here :/

& yeah that jean talon place is neat.

the tamales actually seemed like a p good deal esp for take-out

Tachido is a lovely, lovely place, but I have a hard time leaving there with a full stomach. I wish they had actual side dishes.

The place on St. Denis is called "La Matraca" and it's the best/most authentic one I've been to so far. I'm gonna try La Tamalera, though it looks a bit hipster-ish from the pics. No one in Mexico eats hibiscus tacos.

oh i've been to Petit Coin du Mexique! years ago (with a friend who had a car, haha.) It was good!
I like Tachido's tacos, but yeah, i eat meat and i like the mole. also margaritas in jar-glasses. i haven't tried the sandwiches.
i am hungry and wish i could eat tacos right now :(

i will def try la matracha.
i need to visit california soon just to eat tacos and burritos. and see friends, whatever, burritos.

you know what goes great with friends is burritos

its hibiscus juice doy

la matraca is pretty good, authentic-feeling, but not like... amazing

I can't take any restaurants on this block seriously bc the groceries are all so good.

greek post office also v charming

i post things there all the time.

so it's summer now i guess

this article is kind of like that maisy one i posted upthread except i agree that they are fucking up the food trucks thing with the permits but i don't really get what it has to do with poor people and immigrants

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/montreals-food-truck-plan-is-a-symbolic-fuck-you-to-poor-people-and-immigrants

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/05/12/travel/20130512-SURFACING.html?_r=0

henergy

Evoo is indeed amazing.

pretty crazy stuff in this court document by the city of westmount suing my ex-landlord

http://jugements.qc.ca/php/decision.php?liste=68811716&doc=C0F572EC5E0A350672108DC3CDBF7AC293A9FDE6E6BE5CF685FD0DCE5483ED28&page=1

[14] On October 23, 1998, Mr. Fattal wrote a letter to Ms. Joanne Poirier, Westmount’s director of urban planning.[1] He called upon Ms. Poirier to “cancel” the September court injunction and accused her of “malicious, painful and abusive activities” that wasted taxpayers’ money. Mr. Fattal stated that it was time for Ms. Poirier to end her “Gestapo style” behaviour.

[15] In the top corner of his letter, Mr. Fattal reproduced a Second World War photo of a Nazi officer, with his boot over the neck of a prostrate concentration camp prisoner. In the background, several other prisoners in striped uniforms hung from posts. Mr. Fattal signed his letter to Ms. Poirier, “Your Hostage”.

[16] Ms. Poirier was upset by the letter. Westmount’s lawyers wrote to Mr. Fattal, asking him not to communicate with Westmount officials and to direct all future correspondence to them.

[17] A further incident in the autumn of 1998 alarmed Westmount’s building inspectors. One day, Westmount’s employee, Mr. Michel Poulin, was performing an electrical inspection at the Saint Antoine building. Mr. Fattal suddenly appeared behind Mr. Poulin wearing a Saddam Hussein mask and brandishing a baseball bat. Mr. Poulin was frightened, but Mr. Fattal later called it a joke.

...

[24] Between 1999 and 2007, he faxed hundreds of pages of correspondence and photos to the City of Westmount and its employees. At times, the fax transmissions were so lengthy they choked the City’s fax machines and disrupted its communications. Often, Mr. Fattal faxed the same pages over and over again.

[25] On a number of occasions, Mr. Fattal faxed gruesome photos of himself, bare-chested and gagging. One photo showed a tortured Mr. Fattal, with bulging eyes, and an iron bar across his mouth.

[26] Mr. Fattal also wrote to Westmount employees at their homes, mailing large envelopes to them stuffed with letters of complaint, photos of a bare-chested Mr. Fattal in chains, and other offensive documents.

...

[48] In 2011, Mr. Fattal got an iPhone and discovered text messaging. Over the next two years, up until the eve of trial in February 2013, Mr. Fattal sent hundreds of text messages to Mtre. Banon, at all times of day and night, on weekends and holidays, including New Year’s Eve in 2012. In his messages Mr. Fattal repeatedly insulted Mtre. Banon, declaring that he should be ashamed to represent “gangsters” and “criminals” who were intent on ruining Mr. Fattal’s health. In one instance, Mr. Fattal attached a photo of himself and photos of several tombstones, clearly implying that Mtre. Banon and his clients wanted him in an early grave.

[49] Mtre. Banon repeatedly asked Mr. Fattal to stop communicating with him, but the messages continued unabated, sometimes at the rate of several a day.

[50] Mr. Fattal found other outlets for his anger. He created a website on which he posted derogatory remarks and photos of Mayors Marks and Trent, Mr. St. Louis and Ms. Poirier. He attached large posters to the front of his Saint Antoine building that bore similar statements and photos, as well as his website address. These posters are still on the building today. One of them identifies the building as the “Musée d’histoire d’harcèlement par Westmount”. Mr. Fattal’s building is festooned with City of Montreal flags, indicating his displeasure at being located in the municipality of Westmount.

wow

whoa. i remember reading some stuff about this guy a few years ago, but this is next level.

i haven't really been surprised by the direction mtl food trucks have gone in...
but yesterday i did see a guy wheeling a hot dog stand down the street! really! i was on my bike and didn't stop to ask wtf!

hot dog cart i mean

haha sweet, power to that dude

i sell ice cream out of a cart on the weekends for spare cash but it's technically illegal, apparently if you get a ticket the boss pays it tho