au pied de cochon!!!!, 7/4/07

It was the morning of the 4th and Jane and I were in my Chinatown apartment with no plans. She blurted out, "Montreal!," and we sprang into action. Jane got on the horn and booked a B & B and I sorted out the transportation. And within two hours we were on the road...the road to Au Pied de Cochon. I have been obsessed with eating Martin Picard's foie poutine ever since I got the Au Pied de Cochon cookbook the previous winter. These are some photos of our meal.



We found our B & B, dropped our luggage, and made a b-line directly to the restaurant. It was fairly early, 6pm, but we had no reservation and the room was booked. We implored a sweet hostess, who, after some deliberation, squeezed us into the bar. Jane, a fishitarian, looks a bit apprehensive in this temple of foie gras and offal.





It was hot and we were thirsty. A bottle of light provencal rose was just right and disappeared very quickly and put us in good spirits.










We made friends with a lovely couple from Montreal. They were in the biz and kindly wrote a list of must visit restaurants: L'Express, Schwartz, Joe Beef, among others. They got the huge plateau and it looked absolutely delicious.








Jane eats an impeccably fresh oyster.













Tomato tart.













Bison tartare!














Incredibly, Jane takes a bite of bison tartare after I describe the flavor as akin to that of tuna tartare.













From our vantage, at the bar, we could see all the action.













The fish entree: halibut with seabeans, veg ragout, and a buttery sauce.














Foie poutine.
Picard's insanely decadent take on this quintessential quebecoise dish. It was a grind!














The man, Martin Picard, entertaining guests.