Apologies for not having accents on letters. Very difficult typing in French on an English keyboard.
As part of the Montreal En Lumiere Gastronomie program, tasting stalls were set up on the 2nd floor mezzanine level of the Jean Talon Marche. These tastings were free and samples of products were given out. Products such as Rise kombucha, Molasses cookies, Urban honey from hives all around Montreal, organic maple syrup in fancy tins, garlic, wild mushrooms, seeds and a variety of legumes (made into the tastiest vegetarian salad I have ever had) - were all on offer. Some were available for purchase at the markets others were not.
There were also free cooking demonstrations in the room next door to the tasting stalls and also a competition to win a food hamper.
The event attracted quite a number of people and the atmosphere was buzzing.
Photo attached of Jean Talon Marche below as viewed from level 2 mezzanine
Photos attached of the tasting stalls on level 2 mezzanine of the Jean Talon Marche
Next stop - to find a Fromagerie - yes I love my cheese even being lactose intolerant! I purchased 3 types of low lactose cheeses from a fromagerie at Jean Talon Marche - it was good that the store offered free try before you buy sampling. I purchased a low lactose gruyere, low lactose cummin seed cheese and some low lactose gouda.
I wish I could eat cheese curd but it has one of the highest levels of lactose as it is fresh cheese. The more a cheese is aged or matured the less lactose it contains hence hard cheeses only - no brie or other soft mouldy or stinky cheeses for me.
Onto the fruit and vegetable section of the marche - since I did not know where the nearest supermarche was from the HI Montreal , I had to do all my grocery shopping today at or near the Jean Talon Marche therefore I grabbed some bananas,cucumber, shallots, onion corriande ( this is what Montrealers call corriander and not cilantro),
coloured carrots, garlic etc. It was not a complete shop of fruit and vegetables that I needed but a start until I could find a supermarche close to the Montreal HI. One stall had plenty of fruit and vegetable samples to taste so I tasted quite a few fruits and vegetables - pear, pineapple, cucumber, tomato etc
All the fruit and vegetables looked fresh but when I took them back and placed them straight into a refridgerator it was a different story - within a day or 2 they started to rot which does not happen back home in Sydney.
Final stop at the marche was to find sources of protein of some sort ie poultry, meat or seafood - there was a awful lot of beef and pork products around but I wanted some lamb as I am not keen on both sources of protein. To get this I had to go to the rather expensive gourmet butcher outside of the Jean Talon Marche. This butcher had an awful lot of expensive handmade sausages mainly pork and beef varieties again - no duck, chicken or lamb sausages. Here I purchased a rather expensive piece of lamb neck which was for slow cooking only.
After I had had enough time at the markets I decided to try and find a local supermarche - there was a Metro supermarche very close to the Jean Talon Metro (subway station).
Here I picked up some grapefruit juice, eggs salmon, water, cape gooseberries,advocado and a few other things. I did not purchase any oil, butter, brown bread etc as I had these already or the HI Montreal provided them at breakfast - boiled eggs were provided too but I don't enjoy eating Canada's bleached white eggs they look and taste like fake Chinese eggs when boiled - far too firm to be a real egg therefore I purchased half a dozen brown eggs which I preferred scrambled rather then boiled. Orange juice was also provided by the HI Montreal for breakfast but I like juice with my dinner therefore purchased a large tetra pack of Tropicana grapefruit juice which advises on its packaging is not from concentrate like so many other juice brands are in general - eg Minute Maid - always wondered why it was called that!?
Time to head back to the HI Montreal located close to the downtown area with my heavy load of groceries - it started to pour with rain and I got very lost yet again. I got on the subway at Bonaventure Station but apparently the closest station was around the corner from HI Montreal therefore alighted there but did not know which direction to walk as soon as I reached the entrance/exit of the subway station onto street level - subways are deep underground. I had to ask so many locals how to access the closest subway station and which train in which direction I had to catch to get to Jean Talon Marche. I walked through several creepy tunnels in the incorrect directions , was incorrectly advised by someone of the direction of the train on the orange line I was suppose to catch towards Jean Talon Marche and purchased a day ticket instead of individual train tickets which wouldn't even tap to get me through the gates on several occasions.
Soaking wet by the time I got back to the hostel. I dumped my groceries in the kitchen refridgerator only to find HI staff had to move everyones food into 1 refridgerator as the other had broken down completely!
A hot cup of Australian tea and a few blackforest tim tams was what I needed.
End of my 2nd day but 1st full day in Montreal . So tired wet and cold.
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