December 20, 2005 Archives
This thing's like green-coloured crack. Like everyone knows, there was a common theme in the things I brought back: freakin' *tea*. And tea is not necessarily something I fetishize. This is some matcha, sushi bar style, and gotten from the single place where I had that variety of green tea in powder that I liked. I'm not sure why it's been so hard to find matcha, or sushi-bar-style tea (if both aren't the same thing, and I suspect they aren't) b/c it's so easy to make, and is such a clean alternative to teabags! And teabags for oriental tea? Pff, what a n00bish attitude...
Well, this is matcha, I think. Or not. B/c, and it took me a while to realize it, this powder tea from Genki Sushi (a conveyor-belt sushi place found in HK and Singapore - I thought it was HK-based, but I saw on their website that it was apparently Singapore-based, licensed from a Japan company, and has been around for decades?) has a clear smell of genmai-cha, or brown rice tea. Yes, and the powder is perfectly green. I don't know what it is (maybe this "sushi bar style" tea). Needs to be investigated. Gosh it's good. Hopefully there's another bag of it around.
Went to eat at L'Entrecôte Saint-Jean with Steph, another classic of the Montreal foodscape on Peel Street near De Maisonneuve. Not as famous as Schwartz, but as one review points out, while you won't see "SMOKED MEAT" in thick black pen on a white sheet of paper as the only thing on the menu (b/c it isn't), you could think of doing that for L'Entrecôte with the only main dish they serve: steak frites (a tender one, was really good when served raw). And basically, that was the menu: a "table d'hôte", which consisted of a Soupe du Jour (a heavily buttery carrot cream), a minimalistic lettuce salad with a light oil & vinegar dressing plus walnuts, the steak frites, and chocolate profiteroles to top it off (you get a "special entrecote" version for 17 something, which is the aforementionned, less the soup and dessert). The restaurant looks like what one of those French bistros looks like, complete with the light blue and white meshed pattern tablecloth and high mirror-covered walls. Full on a Monday night. $22.40 for the Table d'Hôte, before taxes and tips.