Garde Manger: A review

On Saturday, September 29, 2012, I went to experience the culinary experience known as Garde Manger.

Garde Manger is a restaurant in Old Montreal, which was opened by Chuck Hugues, a chef who has a show on TV.  This restaurant is very well known and takes reservations a month in advance and when you call and leave a message, they only call you back if they have room.  This restaurant features a constantly changing menu as it changes with the seasons and the types of ingredients that the chef can get their hands on.  Its specialties are seafood and Quebecois cuisine with a flair.  Items that are well known are the lobster poutine, the jerk crab leg and the risotto.  (Usually lobster)

I don't really know what the appeal is with this restaurant.  The food is good, but I find it ordinary.  I find it too salty and overpriced.  My friends started off with fresh oysters and fresh scallops (They were already eating them when I got there - and I didn't have any) and they started off with cocktails.  I didn't have any seafood.  I didn't start off with a cocktail.  We split a large lobster poutine as an appetizer for three as well as the jerk crab legs.  We each ordered a main dish.  We each ordered a dessert.  My friends knew that I am not working a lot, so they offered to fork out the wine.  However, when the waitress came with our bill, she just came with one bill.  $130 later...  (Which was a bit of a rip off for me as I didn't have any fresh seafood appetizers or cocktails - and it was only at the urging of my friends that I had wine, or else I would have gone without the wine)

They also charged us for sparkling water!!!  What the heck was that?  I don't recall seeing an sparkling water at the table...  Maybe the first bottle that they brought us, but seriously...  Sparkling water?  I think I will just have my Frappé Saint-Laurent please.  (Regular Montreal tap water)

So, I don't get why this restaurant is so appealing.  I would have much preferred to split $130 over a few meals...  Or just paid for my portion of the food ($70 - $75) which would have been the amount I would have spent at The Keg.  However, I would have probably enjoyed myself a lot more at The Keg.

Not impressed by the hype of this restaurant.  Not sure I will be heading back.  At this point in the game, only if I am dating Chuck Hughes.

Paranorman

On Tuesday, September 25, 2012, I went to see the movie Paranorman.

This movie is about a kid, Norman.  He's considered a freak by everyone in town, because of his special gift.  He sees deceased people and animals.  So, when he says hi to people, it appears that he's a bit loony and he's just randomly mumbling to thin air.  However, in reality, he's actually saying hi to all of the deceased who are still staying put because of some reason or another.

The town's history is about a witch who was accused of witchcraft and was put to death.  She then puts a curse on the town...  However, this year, on the 300th anniversary of the history of the town, something kind of goes wrong...

Does Norman succeed in saving the town?  Of course, he does - if not, we wouldn't have a movie.  However, how he does it, is a very smart and fun method.

Good job!

Yesterday, when I went to a restaurant to eat, I saw a poster that was advertising the red square meeting...  To celebrate the end of the increase of the tuition and neo-liberalism...

That's great.  So, you stopped neo-liberalism and got no increase in tuition, which is what is required to a certain degree anyway, at what cost?!!  The further reduction of rights on allophone and anglophone people in the province.

Good job, people, good job!  Such lack of vision.

And to all you English/Allophone people wearing the red square?  You've just really shot yourself in the foot.

It is incidents like this that make me...

My friend sent me this clip on youtube today.

As I watched this clip, I got really disturbed...  The long and the short of it is, essentially, it's a hard core Quebecois going crazy on Asians who are speaking English on a sidewalk in Montreal...  The killer?  The Asians who were just minding their own business, they don't even live in Quebec.  They are just in town to have some fun.

Is this what Quebec is about?  I hope not.  But I certainly also know better that this is only one person who thinks like that.  Does it make me angry?  Yes, really.  Who has the right to judge because you do or do not speak French on the sidewalks of Montreal?!!  No one has the right to judge, regardless of what language background they come from.

And the polls suggest a minority PQ government.  So, are we in for another four years of this type of mentality?

Take this clip and then put it with the bunch of stories all having negative spins on Asians...

1) The torso found in Montreal belonged to an Asian;
2) There was another Asian body that was cut up in parts in Missauga;
3) The brouhaha of Ms. China winning the beauty pageant;
4) François Legault's comments about Asians during the Quebec campaign;

I didn't think much about it, but then with this clip, I think that perhaps it might not be the best time to be Asian right now...

Perhaps alcohol was involved, but regardless, that should not be an excuse.

I'm very very disappointed, to say the least.