Au Pied de Cochon: Montreal

When my husband, Brad, and I went to Montreal last summer one of the top items on our agenda was a pilgrimage to the renowned restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon. The chef/owner, Martin Picard, has nearly single-handedly elevated traditional Quebecois food to an art form. When we arrived in the city we stopped by the restaurant to try to make reservations for some point that week. We soon found out that it was only shear luck that we were able to get a table there at all without reservations far in advance. So take my advice...book ahead! The 3-hour-meal proved to be transcendent. The decor was warm, spare and modern...my kind of place. The open kitchen reveals an army of chic chefs that would seem to be as at home at a indie rock show. I was very impressed, and can't wait for our next trip. Au Pied has recently published a new soft cover version of their "Album" (currently on its way to our desk...will review very soon), which is more like a monograph than a cookbook. Check out what Anthony Bourbain has to say about APD in this clip from "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. Enjoy...try not to drool on your keyboards.

Montreal: Jardin Botanique de Montréal

The Jardin Bontanique, or the Montreal Botanical Gardens (for the non-French speakers), is a not-to-be-missed experience when visiting Montreal. With its collection of 22,000 plant species and cultivars, 10 exhibition greenhouses, some thirty thematic gardens, and teams of researchers and activities staff, the Montréal Botanical Garden ranks as one of the world's largest and most spectacular botanical gardens... and I believe it! The statistics don't fully shed light on how spectacular this collection really is. We spent the entire day walking in the many outdoor thematic gardens, some of which include the Chinese gardens, Japanese gardens, the Alpine gardens, the water gardens and many many more. The indoor green houses also had spectacular collects of flowering plants and succulents including an amazing number of orchids. We only spent one day there, mostly because that was what our ticket included, but we could had spent days there. It was beautiful! I have included a photo we took of the water lilly garden.



Here is their website:

Montreal Botanical Gardens