St-Viateur Bagels, Montreal

Tags

cuisine, Food, Jews, life, Montreal, Outremont

Montreal a metropolis of 4 million people, the second largest French speaking city in the World after Paris, has a Jewish population that has been part of the fabric of the city for over 200 years. Almost every neighbourhood of the city has a Jewish population with its businesses, schools, synagogue, restaurants, delis, institutions and the Jewish general hospital. As a child I lived in Snowdon where there was a large Jewish population, other neighbourhoods like Hamstead, Côte Saint-Luc, Westmount, NDG and Outremont all have their Jewish enclave and because the population has been there for such a long time, it has developed its own character and ways of doing things. Jewish owned businesses in Montreal, you always have service in French, English and Yiddish.

Montreal is known for the quality of its Smoke Meat and its bagels. I could not leave Montreal without a dozen bagels. So I went to the St-Viateur street in Outremont, the area has, for as long as I can remember, a large Orthodox Jewish population dressed in the famous black garb and fur hats. Outremont is a wealthy French speaking neighbourhood and the Orthodox Jews are simply part of the fabric.

Bagel St-Viateur  (since 1957)

263 Rue Saint Viateur Ouest, Montréal, QC, Canada

Ouvert 24h/24, 7 jours sur 7

(514) 276-8044

It is an institution in Montreal and a remarkable one at that, the bagels as you can see in this photo above are hot, fresh, just out of the oven. Even when they but them in a bag, you feel the heat and that wonderful aroma of just baked. A Polish Jew, Myer Lewkowicz who immigrated to Canada in 1946 learned the trade of making bagels from Hyman Seligman who was already in the business. Mr Lewkowicz explained that when he arrived in Canada, he knew nothing of bagel making, it became his lifelong trade.

The Montreal Bagel is different from the New York one, first it’s smaller, sweeter and the  hole is bigger. Quality ingredients go into making them, the pastry is hand rolled, they are boiled in water with honey, they are cooked on a wood tray in a wood oven, they are turned over once and taken out at just the right moment when crunchy. They make 3 dozen bagels per hour in the oven. A perfect bagel takes 20 minutes to cook, a slow process but what quality! Same family, same recipe and the original shop on St-Viateur.

St-Viateur Bagel is world famous and today in Montreal there is 2 bakeries and 5 coffee shops where sandwiches and salads are served just like in 1957 when they first opened.  WEBSITE http://www.stviateurbagel.com

 

 

 

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My recent trip

Tags

art., cuisine, Food, French, life, Travel

I travelled to Montreal my hometown for a week’s vacation away from PEI. Islanders will tell you that you need to get off the island especially between November and end April for mental health reasons. I did not listen to them and I should have, everyone I know goes away for a minimum of 2 full weeks in that time period.

I was born in Montreal and lived part of my childhood there from 1956 to 1960 and 1965 to 1974, only returning occasionally afterwards for family matters or to see friends.

I witnessed great changes in Montreal during the period of Mayor Jean Drapeau who had a grand vision for the Paris of the New World, Montreal is the second largest French speaking city in the World after Paris. It also was the metropolis of Canada until 1977 a title she lost to Toronto but regained as the other Metropolis after 2008.

The Metro system was opened in 1966, then we had the World Exposition in 1967, then the Olympics games in 1976. Montreal is also the seat of IATA and several international organizations, fine museums, art centres, great dining, etc.

It had been 4 years since my last visit when my father died and that visit was all about death and cleaning out my parents home, so not exactly a fun time.

I flew from Charlottetown on a regional jet (small plane) that is all that flies here to the island, the flight is 75 minutes so fairly quick. Montreal is a city of 4 million people and growing, construction everywhere, including the road system and a new bridge across the Saint-Lawrence river. People everywhere, traffic, very cosmopolitan and French.

I was staying with an old friend in the Côte des Neiges neighbourhood, near the Jewish General Hospital and the Université de Montréal. Montreal has 4 universities. The neighbourhood is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, though everyone speaks French and all signs are in French, you will hear a multitude of languages from around the world.

On Monday we went to a German grocery store which sells all manner of product from Germany and Austria but also has a great lunch counter with specialties as you would find them in Europe. It seems that many customers spoke German with the staff and French with everyone else. The food was very good, this business has been on the same corner of Queen Mary and Côte des Neiges for 60 years.

Then I went downtown, to look around and was very surprised at how much familiar streets where my parents lived and worked had completely changed to the point I could not remember what was previously there. The area around the old Windsor Station which is now a complex of tall stylish condo buildings, there is about 9 new towers. The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, my Mom’s favourite in Montreal has been completely redecorated for its 60th anniversary and it is very nicely done. The old Birks & Sons Jewellery store on Phillips Square is being remodelled into a luxury hotel but is keeping the famous jeweller on the ground floor.

Birks and Sons Jeweller on Sainte-Catherine street at Phillips Square under renovations.

A new Four Seasons Hotel is being built next to Ogilvy’s department store which is now amalgamated with Holt Renfrew. I thought of Dad when I saw this project, he knew all about it, it has been in the works for 10 years and is now coming to completion. My father opened the first Four Seasons Hotel in Montreal back in the 70’s, how he would have love to see this one, a tall tower of black glass.

I also walked by the former Mount Stephens Club which was the home of Sir George Stephens the builder with Sir William Cornelius Van Horne of the transcontinental railway in Canada in 1888.  Today the mansion has been restored preserving the rare and exotic wood panelling and original decor and is used as meeting rooms and bar, dining rooms  and joined at the back to a new hotel tower part of the Leading Hotels of the world collection.

Detail of the interior of the house, top is the former reception room panelled in Lemonwood or Degame, beautiful soft yellow colour. The other bottom photo shows the top of the staircase all in mahogany, the windows have Tiffany glass, it is very dark despite the very large windows, giving the house a very formal atmosphere.

Then on Sherbrooke Street I went to the Musée des Beaux Arts also known as the museum of Fine Arts to see what was on show. The museum has 2 new wings, one called Le Pavillon pour la Paix, a gift of Michal and Renata Hornstein and the other is the Pavillon Claire et Marc Bourgie, a gift of the Bourgie family, the premier undertakers for funerals of distinction in Quebec. The Museum was founded about 120 years ago by art lovers in Montreal on the same location it is now but with the years it has grown into a 7 building complex. What is interesting about its expansion is how organically it grew, incorporating other landmarks around it like the Erskine & American United Church with its 17 famous Tiffany Stain glass windows of 1897. I love this museum, the collections are superb and if you go to Montreal you really should make an effort to visit, even if just for one hour. The restaurant of the museum is also wonderful, I had lunch there and the food is very good as is the wine selection, I had a grilled octopus salad accompanied by a Pouilly Fuissé Chardonnay and then a Magret de Canard, very good indeed.

I return by Métro to my friend’s home, tired but very happy for this first day.

 

 

Just a quick one

Tags

Bach, comedy, life, Music, royal wedding

As you probably know by now there is a Royal Wedding happening in May of minor royal prince by now. In all the Official paperwork that needs to be done for this wedding, the Queen as Sovereign has to give her permission and the Great Seal must be fixed to said documents which are then kept by the Privy Council Office. In those documents you can read that the party who is to marry is called H.R.H Prince Henry and Ms. Rachel Markle. You will hear those names pronounced during the wedding service so do not be surprise.

It is quite late and I am listening to piano music on Radio-Canada.  It is J.S. Bach and I love to sit in the dark and just listen to the music. It is so relaxing and enchanting. Bach’s Partita no 4, played by Glenn Gould and recorded in 1963.

Here is a compilation tourism poster of PEI, the Season is just about to start.

It was a French comedian who said:

Speaking of oneself leads to an absolute dead end.  

 

62

Tags

62, Birthday, Election, life, Oysters, PEI, winter

Age is just a number, I think so. I cannot imagine feeling different at 32, sure you look older in the mirror but otherwise all is good. Yesterday was my birthday and we went to dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant in town, Claddagh Oyster House on Sydney street about 3 blocks from where we live. The owner is Liam Dolan, Irish from Galway. Claddagh is the oldest owned restaurant in Charlottetown, it was opened 36 years ago by Dolan and his family. The food is very good, they have a great selection of oysters from various bays around the island. The chef is great and it is very good value for money. He also owns the oldest Pub in town, the Olde Dublin. Charlottetown in 1983 was not the town you see today, it was pretty dreary and on the verge of huge transformation which have only accelerated in the last 10 years.

We started with oysters, they are very good at this time of year and champagne and then a rack of lamb it was wonderful. Lots of good conversation and laughs.

We made a mistake this Winter, everyone we know goes away in Winter for a minimum of 2 weeks to up to 2 months. The worst months are February and March, we should have gone away, anywhere for at least 2 weeks. So now I have an excuse to go away on 23 April to Montreal to see friends and to also visit the Fine Arts Museum and see a show by Don Andrus at the Gallerie Vu.

I have been on the campaign trail for 2 months now and I am going to take a break, its school March break now and Easter Week so the town will be pretty quiet. Just stay home re-organize the library, we have no plans for Easter at all. Don’t know what to do really. I am also planning to go to Europe in November after the Municipal election, even if just for a week, just for a break. I know I will need it, win or loose.

Music and the Season

Tags

Birthday, Easter, French radio, Johnny Mathis, JS Bach, life, Montreal, Radio Canada

Since we do not have a TV at home we listen to a lot of radio programming. Lately I have been switching from CBC to Radio Canada, it is very interesting to observe that the same Crown Corporation has such different programming for two very different audiences, might as well live in completely different countries.

The CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast all across Canada to all regions over 6 time zones. Most of the programming comes either from Toronto for the English service and Montreal for the French service. Some of the programming is regional like here in the Maritimes to cater to local taste and offer regional news.

But the differences are deeper, discussion topics are also presented differently, in English care is given to a politically correct approach in what is said and in the presentation. Different cultures and different mentalities, the two solitudes 60 years later and despite 35 years of official multiculturalism, these differences between French and English communities remain.

This morning on Radio-Canada being 18 March and with Easter approaching, the host of the Sunday morning show was explaining how Sacred Music had little place on the radio nowadays if compared with some 40 years ago. It is true that even at Christmas time radio stations including State Broadcaster have a tendency to stick to the more secular pieces, they may do Messiah but not much else. Radio-Canada will play more French Christmas music of European and Canadian tradition and promote French culture at the same time. So the host told us that he wanted to play the work of J.S.Bach, the Saint Matthew Passion, a very reflective piece on the theme of Easter. It was a beautiful recording with great voices. We are still a few days away from Easter Week and Good Friday so in modern terms it was early for such music but on a Sunday it was the perfect moment.  The CBC will also have Sacred Music on Sunday’s like Choral Concerts but may stick to a more restricted schedule of the actual Easter Weekend.

This does not mean that French speaking Canada is more religious not at all, it is more in the remembering of old traditions and how things use to be done or this is how the host of the program presented it.

The music of JS Bach’s sent me in a reflective mood again this being my Birthday week, I get like that each year.

On the other hand, in another completely different field of music, they were playing some Johnny Mathis songs last night and of course the 1957 hit Chances are came on. I can say that this is music for my generation and grew up listening to such music which I like.

 

 

 

I came to a realization….

Tags

age, Charlottetown, generation, Laurent, life, Me, PEI

Last night I suddenly came to a realization, we were at Baba’s Lounge which is upstairs from Cedar’s Lebanese Restaurant on Great George Street. Baba’s is an institution and is known by all musicians on PEI. Several nights a week they have music, on Thursday nights it’s Jazz night and last night Island Jazz was performing. The group is Ben on piano, Marlee on saxophone and Evan on bass guitar and Brandon Roy sang and what a wonderful voice he has. All are either music teachers or musicians and Brandon is a professional singer with that wonderful booming voice appearing in several shows here and in Toronto. The age group last night was between 25 and 35, the new up and coming generation, in this case talented, fun, full of energy, nice people.

This is not a pity me post but more a sudden realization that I am older now by about 30 years from that generation. I have turned a corner like you do at 20 or 50, life changes and you change. People also react to you differently, I hear references to being older meaning you belong to a different generation. We socialize with people more our age or somewhat older, though I do not necessarily share the same world view. This may have to do with the fact that I travelled around the world and my views are maybe more based on my own life experience in different cultures. If we meet with younger people I am very aware that we may not speak the same language because age can create a distance.

I had pictures taken recently by a professional photographer, the results were quite good, this has to do with a project I will speak of later, looking at them though I thought do I look this old now or is this what people see.

Maybe it is, by looking at pictures at another time in life I see a familiar face at a different time, this is where I am now. Maybe this is why I find the change so shocking in some ways, but then it happens to all of us.

I do not really see myself at 61, it just does not make sense to me. I do not feel older, just the same. I do think from time to time that I may have another 25 years to go, if I look at my close family relations and my parents, if good health holds then another quarter century is not bad. It’s just that everything looks shorter now in terms of time span. One might think that at 30 or 40 you can still think I got decades in front of me, but the reality is that no one can be certain of what they have left.

Maybe this is what comes with age, you know the past, you have experience and your life is shaped by all the years of living. Is this what is meant by, Life changes us, I think it does, we stay the same but life experience and time changes us. So maybe this set of photos are what I do look like today, just make the best of it and move on.

Looking at my readers

Tags

2017, 2018, Australia, blog, Canada., followers, France, Germany, Holy See, Italy, life, mexico, Netherlands, PEI, readers, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA, Vatican

I am looking at the stats for my blog and who is coming to read and maybe comment on my blog. Interesting stats, about 18,000 readers a year from around the planet, in some cases I wonder how they got attracted to my blog and why they would come back and comment or read again and again. I also noticed that those countries who do not appear at all on my list of readers are countries where either they have highly controlled internet (police state) like Belarus, Iran or are countries where the internet does not exist because of poor infrastructure and lack of reliable electric supply, like the Congo or Afghanistan. What intrigues me is readers from the Holy See (Vatican) which has a population of 921 people and is the smallest European Country totally surrounded by the City of Rome, must be some Cardinal no doubt. Then there readers from tiny places in the world like the Seychelles Islands, a group of 115 islands forming one republic in the North West corner of the Indian Ocean.

The largest group of readers are from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Spain, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, France, India, Turkey, Brazil. I also have 225 followers of my blog.

I always find it interesting to see how many diverse followers I have to my blog. People like to read what goes on elsewhere in the world and try to imagine maybe how life is in parts of the world they have not visited.  I am happy for their readership and who knows maybe they will want to visit or read more about Canada’s smallest Province Prince Edward Island and its small population of 150,000 persons.

For the readers, you all know that I write mostly about my home and life in general, maybe some observation about something that strikes me as odd or of our time.

Now to the last few days of 2017 and onwards then to 2018 with all of its many surprises.

 

ROMA

Tags

Italy, life, memory, Rome

To think I lived in that fantastic city once not so long ago. Today September 2, the weather is sunny and 26C. Though this Summer has been far too dry and created a water emergency in the City. The images I recognize as the old places where I lived, funny to see those images as a resident of the City instead of a visitor, there is so much more to remember. Many of the shots at the beginning are of early morning at sunrise when there is no traffic and no one about.

 

We go from one to the other

Tags

allergies, bullies, dysfunctional, education, fashion, Food, kids, life, North America, parents

Back in the 1960’s at the time when Dr. Benjamin Spock was all the rage with parents and childrearing, a new term started to appear in school. Parents, I should say mothers, would say that little Johnny was sensitive and this is why he was not doing so well in class. The fact that little Johnny was indulge and a lazy bastard was not really considered, he was sensitive and schools started to pander to that affliction amongst school boys. That went on during the 1970’s and by the early 1980’s the fashion had turned to letting children choose what they wanted to learn. If in the elementary levels 1 to 6 parents demanded loudly a return to basics, writing, reading, math, in high school it was all about self-discovery and choice. Why would a 13 year old know what they wanted to do and what they should study or what was important to learn at an age when puberty reeks havoc and you have mood swings and changing taste from  one day to the next, is beyond me. I remember then that one popular conversation amongst my school chums was how all you really needed was a grade 9 education to make your way in life.

Then with the rise of the talk shows and all the TV experts, were they really experts? I somehow doubt it, we had a succession of maladies, first abuse in childhood, then dysfunctional families, then allergies like peanuts and all manner of other food allergies like newly discovered glutens, then bipolar disorders, currently transgender children, school bullying is also popular and equity in schools for girls, we are not talking about equality which is a 1970’s topic. What I find interesting about all these different social topics is that everyone is affected, everyone is bipolar and everyone has allergies or comes from dysfunctional families etc.. the list goes on. Remember Oprah came from a dysfunctional family, she had an episode of her show on the topic and the ratings went up.

Per example here in Canada now the whole transgender question is top of radio discussions or at least on CBC. We are told parents should look for signs in young children from birth. A parade of experts and activists give us their views, like it or not.

Having lived in many countries in various cultures, I am comparing and note that all these preoccupations are very North American, we say First World but no it is typically from our culture. Many activists see this as a way of advancing individualism to the extreme, then translate this into a Human Rights issue, the group, society, no longer matters, only the single individual and we must all conform or be denounced.

Peanut allergies do not exist or if it does it is not a fixation as it has become here. The concept of dysfunctional families does not exist as such, maybe because other societies are more conventional or deal differently with their societal problems. Same with all other questions. You certainly do not see the level of hysteria we encounter here. It has come to a point where you cannot have a mature discussion, everyone is riding their high horse and being sanctimonious.

I wonder where we are going as a society, if the so called youth is our future then I am very worried, the little darlings are not prepared for real life and its challenges.

1 May 2016 and today

Tags

art., Charlottetown, life, Music, Neighbourhood, PEI, PEI Symphony

Well it has been one year since we moved to Charlottetown,PEI. Last year when we arrived the weather was sunny and cool like today. We are well settled in our new home, busy with various volunteer jobs. Today I walked in the neighbourhood in late afternoon and took these pictures.

We should not forget that they too came with us and are now also well settled in their new home.

The Haviland Club on Dundas Esplanade which until 1919 was the US Consulate in Charlottetown.

The Government Bog in front of the Gates of Fanningbank, the Residence of the Lieutenant Governor.

Low tide in the bay at the entrance into the Strait of Northumberland.

The houses on West avenue

Today we are invited to Fanningbank (Government House) for the reception given by the Lieutenant Governor and PEI Symphony Board welcoming the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Maestro Alexander Shelley and violinist James Ehnes who came to Charlottetown for a concert to start the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Canada. I just hope they don’t ask me to do a tour of the house, since I volunteer as a docent.

Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra
Colin Davis conducting. Mozart, Magic Flute, the march of the Priests.