It’s sugaring off season in Quebec and after a scoop of tire à l'érable ice cream from Bilboquet earlier in the week, Andrew and I had maple syrup on the brain. We woke up late on Saturday morning and decided that the best way to kick off the weekend would be a traditional cabane à sucre lunch. We did a little bit of Internet research to avoid a place teeming with bus loads of people, that wasn’t too expensive (because face it, whether the meal is $15 or $25, we knew we were going to feel ill by the end), that wasn’t too close, but wasn’t too far. So, Erablière La Tradition in the Lanaudière region it was.

A traditional cabane à sucre meal is not for the faint of heart. Especially the vegetarian faint of heart. We settled into one of the long benches and started tucking into the food.



Soft rolls spread with cretons (let the pork begin!). Packaged rolls are kind of gross, but occasionally we get cravings for them.


The only flash of colour in the meal came from the pickled stuffs.


The lightest course: pea soup and coleslaw.


Pork rinds, fèves au lard and whole roasted potatoes. Despite my love of fried, horrible foods, pork rinds are just a little too much for me. Andrew happily chowed down, though.



More pork! Oddly mushy and unattractive sausages that I strangely enjoyed, especially drizzled in syrup, ham, and eggs.


Just in case you're still craving pork, a nice porcine stew.

And don't forget desert! Fried dough with maple syrup and maple tarts (the tarts not pictured).


When we left they were just preparing the tire sur la neige, which we ate despite full bellies.


With all that food in our systems we were ready for a day of chopping wood or heavy farm work, but instead we drove back to Montreal and napped until it got dark. Whoops!

Dame Tartine (1652, rue Ontario Est): I live a short walk away from a long stretch of tattoo parlours, piercing places, a big Portuguese Catholic church, a hydroponics supply store, thrift shops, laundry mats and seedy bars. Oh, Ontario Street! Foodwise there is not much to choose from this side east of Papineau – mostly a disappointing flurry of Lafleur’s or shady looking pizza parlours – but there are options, like the decent Mexican restaurant (La Guadeloupe, 2345, rue Ontario E) and one of my favourite French bistros, especially on snowy Montreal nights when we don’t want to attempt digging the car out of a snowdrift (Au Petit Extra, 1690, rue Ontario Est). One recent Saturday morning, looking for a quick breakfast and wanting to stick close to home, we ended up at the charmingly named Dame Tartine with its cutesy cartoon rendering of the dame herself on the sign and poem on the back of the menu with pertinent details of her life, starting with her home (a castle made of butter). The place was big enough that we got a table right away, but what was supposed to be a quick breakfast ended up an hour and a half affair, waiting endlessly for our meals, and finally just paying up at the counter instead of waiting even longer for the bill. But okay, I generally enjoy drawn out meals, and even though we were on a schedule, we were flexible. If the breakfast tasted good, I wouldn’t mind as much. But… I wasn’t particularly impressed. I was excited by the prospect of my French toast breakfast sandwich (Two pieces of French toast sandwiching a fried egg, tomatoes and ham) – what a high calorie, eggy, but awesome combination! When it came down to it, I would’ve rather just had a regular breakfast sandwich and forsaken the extra eggs and syrup (More on syrup below..). Andrew had the self-titled Dame Tartine eggs benedictish concoction, and it was similarly uninspired. I might give the place another chance on a snowy winter morning but for now I’m neutral on the whole thing.

The Maple Syrup dilemma: Say you order crepes or French toast, you just assume you’re going to get syrup with it, right? Obviously. But what about when you’re asked if you want either the regular (I guess "fake") maple syrup or the fancy REAL maple syrup? Do you spend that extra $1.25 to get a small paper cup of the real stuff? And if you do (because REAL maple syrup just sounds and tastes better), do you feel resentful at having to pay that extra dollar? Even if it’s just $1.25 and you should get over it already? Because admittedly, I am. I don’t expect free, real maple syrup at the diner around the corner, or in Texas, or in London, England, but I don’t think it’s much to ask for from a place that specializes in breakfast, especially in Quebec, where over 75% of the world’s supply of maple syrup is produced and where you can easily buy a $5 can of the good stuff at the grocery store down the street. I wholly support paying premiums for good, hard-to-get food, but sometimes it doesn’t seem reasonable.

Sandwich Timatin vs. Egg McMuffin: In the rest of Canada, the breakfast sandwich that Tim Hortons introduced a few months ago is called on the menu, imaginatively, "Hot Breakfast Sandwich". In Quebec it's called a more pun-y "Sandwich Timatin" (C'est fun, non? Oui. Which is why I only refer to Tim Hortons breakfast sandwiches as Timatins). I have already publically proclaimed my love for the classic Egg McMuffin **, but now that I've had a few Timatins to compare it to, let's make it formal:

- Reason why I have had more Timatins than Egg McMuffins in the past few months: Tim Hortons makes their breakfast sandwich available until noon on weekends. McDo stops at eleven. While I can always easily make the noon cutoff for a Timatin, eleven on a precious weekend morning is cutting it close. 1 point for Timatin.
- The Timatin doesn't come with any frills attached - no hash brown, no orange juice. This means you can order decent coffee to go with it. Or a cafe mocha with extra whipped cream. Or a Coke. Or a side order of Timbits. The opportunities are endless! But, do you really want extra whipped cream with your breakfast? Or donuts? Because I don't, really. The hash brown in a paper sleeve + orange "juice" is such a classic, infaillable sidekick. 1 point for Timatin, 2 points for the McMuffin.
- The egg in a Timatin is scrambled. McDonald's is more poach-y. I like the clear distinction between egg white and yolk - it's prettier and somehow feels less greasy. 1 point for McDonalds.
- I was impressed by the little kick in the Tim Hortons sausage. There's like, pepper in it or something. Nice job! 1 point for Timmy.
- The combination of egg+sausage on a biscuit is so heavenly and decadent, but I remember travelling down south in the United States and being vaguely disapointed by the biscuits - they would always disintegrate; their crumb isn't strong enough. But the Tim Hortons biscuit is a solid cake, dry, but it never breaks. How do they do it? In theory, biscuits will always trump English muffins. 1 point for Timmy.
- For a long time I was very against ketchup on any breakfast food other than homefries. But I eventually realized that the ketchup is such an important part of a breakfast sandwich experience - the precarious balancing of the sandwich on my knee as I try to squirt the ketchup on cleanly as Andrew pulls the car back onto the highway so that we can continue on our journey to wheverever we happen to be going. And it tastes good. The Timatin biscuit seems to absorb the ketchup like a sponge - I don't know where it goes. And I don't feel like searching around the paper bag for a fresh packet. So, 1 point for McDo.
- On the whole, the Timatin is much less greasy than the Egg McMuffin. You don't get that slick of oil staining the paper the sandwich is wrapped in the way you do at McDonalds. Comendable. 1 point for Timmy.
- The cheese is gross on both, but necessary. No points each.

Based on that list, Timatins are narrowly beating Egg McMuffins by 1 point. But, on a pure taste basis, it's pretty hard to beat an Egg McMuffin. 2.5 points McDonalds.

Winner: McDonalds!

(Although it should be noted that I've had better, more satisfying egg + sausage + cheese + muffin/biscuit experiences at non-fast foody places. One of my most sublime breakfast experiences, for instance, was just outside of Charleston, North Carolina, eating a sandwich made at a corner store before hanging out at the beach for the rest of the day.)

** Okay, I suppose technically the classic Egg McMuffin has Canadian bacon instead of sausage, but who orders those? In my culinary dictionary, the true classic Egg McMuffin is one made with sausage, or the "sausage Egg McMuffin".

McDonalds (various): Not a very inspired choice, but there are times when there is nothing more satisfying than an Egg McMuffin, a hash brown and a paper cup of orange drink eaten straight off your lap in your car. To eat this breakfast at an actual McDonalds franchise would be depressing, but to eat it as sustenance for a road trip is sublime. Make sure to get extra napkins in case you spill any ketchup, and try to stop as soon as possible to throw out the greasy wrappers - the smell lingers in a bad way. If you're down south you can even get your eggs on a buttery biscuit, which is decadent, but messier. Perhaps the only meal at McDonalds where you believe that the food you're eating is actually real.