Another visit to Brooklyn ... an opera, a resto (Taperia); a new film & "Disgraced," a B'way drama

Just like everyone else in and around metro New York, we've been heading to Brooklyn periodically, of late, for various outings, restaurant visits, and to catch "local" events - both cultural (e.g.,the 9th annual Brooklyn Book Festival held late this past September) & culinary (for exemplary, interesting & reasonable eats). Just a few weeks ago (on Sunday, November 23rd), we returned to Brooklyn (St. Ann's Church, 157 Montague St., Brooklyn Heights), once again,

Cavalleria Rusticana - Sicilian church

for a performance of Pietro Mascagni's one-act opera, the storied, "melodramatic" Cavalleria Rusticana. The Mascagni operatic masterpiece was a joint production presented by (and with) the String Orchestra of Brooklyn (Eli Spindel, conductor, SOB) and Grace Chorale of Brooklyn (Jason Asbury, Choir Music Director). 

Sarah Heltzel - Mezzo-soprano

The performance - the music, the choir, the five soloists - proved especially strong, emphatic, unassailable, and memorable ... kudos to the performers, one and all! Tenor, Alex Richardson (Turiddu), and mezzo-soprano, Sarah Heltzel (Santuzza), were both operatic standouts in their respective roles, and both, indeed, vocally powerful, melodic, and appealing ... continually kindling interest, evoking sincerity, and maintaining the substantial audience's undiverted attention.

Evening view from Montague St.

Following the highly successful, simply staged & emotion-laden performance of the iconic Mascagni (verismo) opera - and after hooking up with a friend of ours who is a member of the choir - we meandered just up the street to Taperia (132 Montague, between Henry St. & Clinton; tel. 718/596-1800) to dine. 

Taperia - Heated patio (where we dined!)

We sampled a wide variety of tapas dishes, an excellent bottle of the recommended house white wine (a clos Dalian, white grenache; @ about $30) & dessert!  And Taperia turned out to be, well, a relatively undiscovered gem of a dining venue - 
unknown, surprisingly, to either of our Brooklynite companions. The restaurant, I should note here, is friendly, very attentive to needs of diners, plenty atmospheric, ethnic, quiet ... and our meal added up to near perfection in a series of 7 or 8 small plates (@ $6-10 each).  

At the top of our list were the Spanish chorizo cubes cut up & blended into a fragrant & appealing stew of garbanzos, onions & tomatoes (so

Spanish chorizo - in stew

appealing, in fact, that we decided on a second plate of this very same chorizo stew!); the mixed plate of empanadas stuffed with beef, chicken & spinach, and Manchego cheese; the "traditional" glass of ceviche filled with pieces of scallops, calamari & sea bass immersed in an admixture of lime juice, garlic, red onion, cilantro, jalapenos ... and served with white corn chips; and, finally, the ropa viejo (stewed, shredded beef, with white rice & nicely simmered red beans).

Flan - topped w/jellied fruit & whipped cream

Two desserts were selected (@ $6-8 each) - a bread pudding concoction and a silky-sweet Spanish flan topped with jellied fruit (apricot?) & whipped cream on the side - and we coupled the dessert plates with robust & intensely black cups of coffee (caffeinated, for one of our party, de-caf for the others). The two shared desserts neatly topped off a memorably filling combination of diverse savory small plates ... all presented with care & pride, in diner-oriented low-key comfort & toward our own great satisfaction & continual surprise! If you're in Brooklyn Heights - anywhere near Montague St. - you just might want to give Taperia a try - for entrée-size large plates, for soups, salads, for large orders of ceviche ... and, of course, for tapas!

NY TIMES - December 5th

In last weekend's New York Times / SportsSunday (December 7th), a bunch of staff writers & editors jointly contemplated the world without watching football in an article entitled "Who Needs Football?" (their starting point was here:  "... take a break from the ritual masochism ... anything you do will be less boring than watching a couple of lousy teams play ineptly against a couple of other lousy teams). And then they provided a batch of "suggestions for better ways to spend your Sunday."  Their suggestions included such possibilities as "Explore the City" (which we do, by definition, in each nybeat blog post); "Go to the Opera" (done, too, see above); "Eat" (we continually seek out & examine new restos & venues not yet fully known to us) ...

Benedict Cumberbatch / Alan Turing

So, what's new here; We've been not watching football for the past 35 or 40 years and have allocated our time to much more (in my opinion) interesting, enlightening, useful & enjoyable pursuits while exploring the NY metro area and even, occasionally, a somewhat further & wider "radius" (like that within and surrounding Montréal, Colorado, Wyoming, the Poconos)!  Which, rather indirectly, leads us to two more extremely worthwhile "cultural" experiences that I'd advocate for - and suggest you'd have a look:  

First, see (!) the new film,The Imitation Game, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch in a subtly brilliant performance as Alan Turing, the British mathematician, logician & computer wizard (father of computing/computer science & artificial intelligence), in his central role as the "morally dubious" cryptographer who solved the "Enigma code," the German strategic communications code during the 2nd World War, and, which, arguably (we are told) aided the Allies in ending the war some two years earlier than it might have otherwise lasted. 
 
More or less faithful to the book on which it is based - Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges - the film (directed by Morten Tyldum) focuses centrally on Turing and, specifically, on the intricate narrative details surrounding the sequence of events just prior to the cracking of the "indecipherable" German code. 

Carefully constructed (even "sculpted"), the film's components fuse together & unite the three unequal constituent threads of the film - replete with post-war revelatory scenes; flashbacks to Turing as a "difficult" young public school student; and, foremost, presenting the time frame (however condensed & intensified) at Bletchley Park, the UK center where the "team-building" & code-breaking efforts take place. That is, all three narrative strands merge - as a cinematic force - to depict the period, the war-time work, post-war difficulties with the "authorities," and Turing's idiosyncratic personality ... his genius, his temperament, his sexuality, his interpersonal skills (or lack thereof), and his analytical methods. 

Alan Turing / Bronze bust

And while the supporting cast provides the necessary harmonious acting ensemble (kudos to Keira Knightley) & theatrical backdrop against which the Turing character acts & re-acts, it is Cumberbatch as Alan Turing whose every movement absorbs & maintains our attention with a performance that is simply sterling - genuine, riveting, masterful, enigmatic (pardon the use of this adjective), and, at once, understated & powerful.

Ayad Akhtar - Playwright

The second - and, for the moment, final - cultural experience I'd advocate attending, and suggest you purchase tickets for immediately (!), is the Pulitzer prize-winning drama by Ayad Akhtar, now on Broadway, entitled Disgraced (at the Lyceum Theatre; at 149 West 45th St.).


Tautly directed by Kimberly Senior, the play, in four scenes (between 2011 & 2012), takes place in a stylish, commodious upper East Side apartment and explores the personhood, the personae - values, conscience, self-worth, hopes, desires, motives, depths, solidity - of one Amir (Hari Dhillon), a thirty-something Pakistani-American lawyer and his relationship(s) to his wife, Emily (Gretchen Mol), a nephew, Abe (Danny Ashok), an Afro-American colleague, Jory (Karen Pittman), and her husband, Abe (Josh Radnor), an art dealer. 

Hari Dhillon - Amir

At the outset of the drama, Amir, though of east Asian ethnicity, is a confident American corporate attorney who soon, he assumes, will become a partner in his law firm ... and who just happens to be of Pakistani origin.  But, as things progress, and muddy as they are apt to do, and as he interacts with the other characters - his artist (pro- or faux Islam-oriented) wife; his pro-Pakistani nephew; the Jewish-American art dealer interested in his wife's work (?) and his wife herself; his black-American corporate lawyer colleague (wife of the art dealer) - things, shall we say, become less & less routine and obvious to him, and he stands on less (& less) firm ground. 

At the end of Scene 4, when the play is about to conclude, and things in the apartment are both psychologically and

Three photos - from Disgraced

physically "packed up," we wonder ... and these are the central & perplexing questions about which the play is concerned:  Can Amir, will Amir, maintain his sense of American-ness, his American needs & cultural values; can he, or will he, maintain what might only have been his posture, a hopeful pose?  Or, might he travel (at least mentally, psychically, even physically) to Pakistan, toward more traditional roots?  Or, further, does he (can he), truly fit in and belong anywhere at all?

The play, in short, is about Amir's fall, his dislocation, his disorientation, a crisis in his identity, resulting, ultimately in loss - of a job, a partnership, an American wife, his American friends (the black & Jewish couple), and a way of life as an American, an American professional. You will, indeed, formulate your own serious questions as you view the play and, certainly, afterwards, after you have chewed over & digested  what you have just witnessed.

So, once again, as The New York Times editors formulate the question for us:  Who needs football?  Come on ... get serious ... Really!

Late fall in Manhattan: Odds & ends ... art, design AND eats ...

If you find yourself wandering around lower Manhattan (on the west side of town, in the Tribeca vicinity) - seeking out the Fountain Pen Hospital (@ 10 Warren St.; tel. 212/964-0580) for a new pen, special refill, or repair; visiting The Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren St.; tel. 212/587-1011) for its wide variety & depth in detective fiction & mystery novels; or attending an event at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center (@ 199 Chambers St.; tel. 212/220-1459) - and, if you grow

Hard boiled & noir

hungry, you will do no better for creative Chinese eats than visiting the Lotus Blue Restaurant and Bar (to be found @ 110 Reade Street; tel. 212/267-3777), which offers a menu uniquely rich in what they call "modern Yunnan cuisine."

And by that phrase they mean a Yunnan cuisine inflected with, and accentuated by, the rich flavors & ingredients of Burma and Thailand mingled with the more traditionally spicy, pungent flavors & piquant delicacies found "tucked away" in Yunnan Province.  Or, in their own more elaborate description ... their Yunnan eclecticism results in a cuisine borrowing "freely" from neighboring areas and using spices such as lemon grass, mint, purple basil and cilantro ... amidst such traditional ingredients as cured beef, ham & mushrooms (e.g., "stir-fried" trumpet & shiitake).

Lotus Blue - Dining room

Within their extensive menu, you will also find tropical flowers & fruits (like mango), "banana blossom salad, lemongrass herb rub ... used in ... 'grill' sea bass  and baby back ribs, and a coconut tapioca pudding ... topped off with edible flower petals and rose petal syrup." And, while the food offered is "recognizably Chinese," their use of "local ingredients in distinctive combinations ... [results in] full-flavored refreshing dishes that make dining at Lotus Blue a unique [!] experience."

Crispy scallion pancake

Lotus Blue - external view

On the occasion we (recently) visited - my first, my wife's 3rd - we aimed to eat relatively lightly, just an appetizer (a small plate) and two mains, or large plates. Beer prices were reduced (just $5 for each bottle we quaffed of Singha & Sapporo) as we showed up during their happy hour time frame. We began with a crispy scallion pancake (@ $8), accompanied by both aloe honey sauce & lime soy sauce. The pancake proved plenty big enough to share and was perfectly done, golden brown and, indeed, crispy-crunchy in texture.

Next came our two large plates ... one (my own), the flank steak trumpet mushroom stir-fry - composed of sliced flank steak and, yep, trumpet mushrooms in a Sichuan

Dali specialty chicken

peppercorn sauce ($20) - was nicely prepared, nicely "peppered," and the beef tender, tasty & succulent, throughout the stir-fry! The second (my wife's plate) - fresh caught clams stir-fried in mushroom sauce ($18) - proved to be unique in both content & texture. Consisting of fresh clams in their shells "tossed" with basil mushrooms & garlic sauce, this appealing, somewhat spicy dish "connected" emphatically with both of us (oddly, but especially, with my dining partner, because of her general lack of interest in clams or oysters in their shells). 
 
We'll certainly return to Lotus Blue, this comfortable gold-mine of a "modern" Yunnan resto, for there are, indeed, considerably more plates - large & small, noodles & soups, rice dishes & sides - yet to identify & sample. I have my eye right now on the Dali specialty chicken (a large plate of crisp-fried chicken with special tea tree mushroom sauce; @ $18) ... AND the spicy cumin lamb cubes (a stir-fry dish comprising cumin & spice salt marinated lamb; $22).

We followed dinner with coffee (Pike's roast) at a nearby Starbucks just prior to our trek further downtown to The Museum of Jewish Heritage (Edmond J. Safra Plaza / 36 Battery Place; tel. 646/437-4202) for a 92nd Street Y @ MJH joint program ... a "book release" event: an interesting & poignant conversation between author, Sarah Wildman, and June Thomas of Slate Magazine. Centering on Ms. Wildman's just now published book entitled Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind (Riverhead Books, 2014), the conversation involved how, exactly, she shaped & developed the ensuing narrative after her grandfather's death, having discovered a collection of his letters to his lover, Valy. Apparently, Valy remained in Austria throughout the 2nd World War - and during the Nazi occupation - while he was able to escape to the United States ...  and survive.

It seems that Ms. Wildman became obsessed with Valy's, and her grandfather's, story and details how she spent years traveling the globe attempting to unravel the complete story & uncover her grandfather's lover's fate. You'll simply have to read the book in order to find out any further solidifying details about the ultimate resolution (?) of her journey - both concrete (real!) and literary.

Earlier this month we scampered uptown & east (once

Helena Rubinstein

again) to visit The Jewish Museum (5th Ave. at 92nd St.; tel. 212-423-3200), specifically to see a couple of newly mounted exhibitions: Helena Rubinstein:  Beauty Is Power (thru March 22nd) & From the Margins:  Lee Krasner and Norman Lewis, 1945-1952 (thru February 1st). 
These two "must see" shows, while relatively comprehensive in depth & scope, are concentrated enough to be seen and absorbed in a moderate space of time, in, perhaps (depending on your sense of "completeness"), a single visit, a brief few hours on a weekday afternoon. 

Portraits of Helena Rubinstein

The Helena Rubinstein show, or so the curatorial / PR information explains, is "the first museum exhibition to focus on the cosmetics entrepreneur" and reflects, of course, much of her self (her personal & professional lives) & her commitment to the worlds of cosmetics (commerce!), "art, fashion, beauty, and design." And, what's more, according to the museum staff, her "innovative business" ventures - and her ideas on style - "usher in a modern notion of beauty, democratized and accessible to all." 

Picasso caricature / sketch

On view, one is confronted with a wide variety of works, including: colorfully realistic & naturalistic portraits of "this pioneer in the world of beauty"; a wall full of caricatures of Ms. Rubinstein done (with a sardonic eye & critical strokes of the pen) by her "friend," Pablo Picasso; photos & artifacts from her grandly diverse, exquisitely furnished & richly decorated apartments (in New York, London, Paris); works of art & design (i.e., paintings, jewelry, sculpture, gowns, etc.) that she collected ... by Matisse, Miro, Kahlo, Max Ernst, Warhol & Nadelman; select items from her intriguingly "iconic collection" of African & Oceanic sculpture; works of primitive art; a display of her "miniature period rooms"; and much more in the domain of unique & "fascinating personal belongings."

Helena Rubinstein, 1872–1965 (Catalog)

During her long & industrious life, Ms. Rubinstein, states the New York Post (in museum publicity material), "defied anti-Semitism, stalked Picasso and built a first-class art collection." And with a diligent, emphatic concentration on beauty & commercial ventures - on things fashionable, beautiful & stylized - her life is certainly, ultimately, a statement on the power of beauty, on beauty as power ... or, as The Jewish Museum curators conceived it, "Beauty [that] is Power." Much to see here, to learn & to reflect upon, indeed!

Norman Lewis - Twilight Sounds, 1947

From the Margins provides equally interesting and enticing creative fare. Via selected & representative "paintings by ... [two] artists, this exhibition offers a revealing parallel view of two key Abstract Expressionists." Lee Krasner (a.k.a., the "missus" of Jackson Pollock) and Norman Lewis - a woman and an Afro-American male - "each experimented with approaches that joined abstraction and cultural specificity. Their work similarly [in this exhibit, reciprocally] brims with gesture, image, and incident, yet was overlooked by critics in their time." [my italics]

From the Margins - Gallery view

These two painters tended to express themselves primarily through abstract images and "used simplified shapes, exaggerated lines, and powerful color to create imaginative works of art."

The works are alluring, at once muted & quiet, and stunning, vivid & colorful; and, as displayed together in three (or so) museum galleries, they are striking & memorable ... particularly so in the purposeful exploration of their distinctiveness & similarities.

Lee Krasner - Untitled, 1948

I know my wife & I were both moved by the work of each of these painters ... the design, the, well, architecture of their works - the forms, the shapes, the unique beauty of the bold & muted tones of their colors. Thus, owing to this comprehensive, sensitive, and meticulously arranged show, neither Lee Krasner nor Norman Lewis can, in my view, be labeled "forgotten" abstract expressionists any longer!

Gina La Fornarina - Inside view

Following our rather intense museum visit, we were both in the mood for dining on something new:  something both light and, at the same time, something consequential. We chose Gina La Fornarina - one of four informal Italian restos in a Manhattan "chain," serving well-prepared "traditional" Italian food & luscious, exquisitely "constructed" pizza - at the location just around the corner from The Jewish Museum (26 East 91st @ Madison Ave.; tel. 212/828-6800).

Delirium Nocturnum

We quickly ordered a large "summer special" kale salad (with chopped onions, shaved Parmigiano, lemon & extra virgin olive oil vinaigrette; @ $14.95) to share, and a Pizza Tirolese (blending toppings of cream of mascarpone, prosciutto "speck" & white truffle oil; @ $22., including "extra" mushrooms), and doused the (just) "fired-up" pizza with two bottles of a special Belgian brew ... Delirium Nocturnum (@ $9./bottle), a strong, robust ale brewed by Brouwerij Huyghe, a brewery in Melle.

All of the food we managed to consume here at Gina La Fornarina proved extremely satisfying, melt-in-your-mouth tasty ... especially the silky pizza and its soft, minimally crunchy, somewhat chewy crust!

And don't forget, there are four Gina La Fornarina locations to dine in - three on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a fourth at Amsterdam & 73rd, on the West Side: All locations convenient to at least one museum, or gallery, or "arts" & culture venue (e.g., the American Museum of Natural History, the MET Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y) you might want to visit ...

September/October "doings" beyond NYC: A trip west to Cody, WY + Boulder, CO (& nearby national parks) AND to Montreal, Quebec!

Yellowstone "geyser" scene - Photo:  R. Gartner

September and October, 2014, proved to be an abnormally busy period of time for this (generally)  moderately busy blogger.  Thanks to an invitation from our ole friends (and, ultimately, hosts), Haya & Rick Gartner, it was finally time to head out West to visit Colorado and Wyoming and a few of the major national parks &  towns located therein - like Grand Teton (entering from the town of Jackson, WY); Yellowstone (exiting the park at Cody, WY); and Rocky Mountain (in Colorado) where you will find some terrific spots to visit in the vicinity of the towns of Nederland (the wooden animal carousel of "happiness"!) & Estes Park, CO, way up in the mountains ... a short drive from Boulder and the University of Colorado. 

Grand Teton range - Photo: R. Gartner

 If you visit the area, be certain to visit Jackson, the cute little tourist town in Jackson Hole that serves as a gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. You can, depending on the season - weather permitting, of course - drive straight through the ominous, snow-capped Teton range and into & through Yellowstone, seeing the omnipresent natural sites along the main route: both flora & fauna ... and snapping as many photos of the natural beauty of the region as you are able to, from all sorts of vantage points within the two parks.
 

Yellowstone bison - Photo:  R. Gartner

Throughout your visit, you'll   likely encounter herds of elk, bison, deer, the occasional moose or large brown bear, a mountain lion (AKA puma, panther or cougar), a pack of wolves, a porcupine, or a quick & "sly" reddish-brown fox. You'll focus your gaze, too, on hot gases or vapors emanating from numerous volcanic pools, ice-cold lakes, rough & rumbling rock-filled rivers replete with cutthroat trout, high country pine forests, and isolated owls, hawks, and, perhaps, a relatively rare peregrine falcon & other birds of prey ... or, simply, stand still & witness - marvel at - the stark beauty of the various sections of this huge national treasure!


And then, before you know it, you'll be on your way to Cody, WY (the home of the Buffalo Bill Center & Museums),

Outside Buffalo Bill Center - Photo R. Gartner

exiting the park while moving through steep, spectacular canyons - still passable by car or SUV or motorcycle in mid-September ... without occlusion, just yet, from the annual, daily (weekly?) snow squalls & impending large snow drifts that would close roads such as the short one en route to visiting Old Faithful. You'll also see more than the occasional waterfall and odd colorful (or so you would imagine) bird flying toward you and then arcing away.
 
By the way, before you enter the national parks out of Jackson Hole, WY, you'll find a variety of eating places throughout Jackson (the town) at every price point - high end, moderate, and low end.

Across from The Wort Hotel - Dalia, moi, Haya & Rick

One spot worth a look - with both a moderate menu of steaks & burgers and interesting soups and salads (in the large bar area) and higher end dining as well - is The Wort Hotel ("Silver Dollar Bar & Grill"), where we all had top-notch French fries, and elk or buffalo burgers, along with specialty soups or salads, conjoined with a few medium-size steins of cold local draft beer ... or a tall glass of lemonade. Prices were reasonable for the hearty food they offered and, specifically, the burger plates three of the four of us scarfed down. The best - most tender, largest, most "well-accoutered" - proved the buffalo burger plates with salad & fries all cooked to perfection. 

Incidentally, "lodge" restaurants, "lodge" dining  rooms, grill rooms & cafeterias provide lots of choices to meet the needs of hungry travelers trekking throughout Yellowstone.

You know who - Mr. "Buffalo" Bill Cody

And the breakfast (coffee) scene is solid and available at the other end of the park, along the main drag in Cody ... to fortify (to satisfy) those interested in spending serious (and worthwhile!) time at the Buffalo Bill Center & Museum.

An utterly fantastic trip to Yellowstone, Jackson (Hole), Cody, Cheyenne, Laramie, and Boulder (the University of Colorado) & environs ... like Louisville, CO, for an introduction to Sweet Cow ice cream!

Lake Champlain view - from Amtrack, club car

On the other side of the North American continent, north, & just west of, of mid-town Manhattan - and nearly 2,000 miles (back) from Boulder, CO, stand the New Jersey Palisades, the Hudson River, the Hudson Valley, the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain & New York's "north country" ...  and Montréal, Quebec. 

Yes, we took to the rails via Amtrak and traveled that perfectly, iconically, scenic route - apparently one of the ten most scenic rail travel has to offer - from Penn Station to the Gare Centrale in Montréal where we dined & walked & toured through just about all of Montreal centre - from the Old Port & the Old City to the Quartier Latin; Mont Royal (the huge Olmsted park overlooking the entire island city); to the underground "city," McGill University, the St. Denis shopping/resto/cafe area, and Chinatown ... all the while benefiting from this year's beautiful, balmy "Indian Summer" mid-October clime. 

Qing Hua Dumpling resto - Street view

And while we'd been to Montréal before (twice, pour moi), we discovered much we hadn't seen or done on prior visits, including dining at Qing Hua Dumpling restaurant (1019 Boul. St.-Laurent, Montréal, QC; tel. 438/288-5366) where we (two) consumed a few local beers, a large bowl of hot & sour soup and two orders of "mixed" varieties of fried dumplings (30 dumplings in all!), stuffed with such mini-concoctions as beef coriander, pork & onion, pork & mushroom, curry beef, chicken & mushroom, and shrimp with zucchini & mushrooms or zucchini & egg.

Guess what?

Dumplings by the dozens(+) - steamed or fried - are, of course, the specialty of the house and proved to be absolutely enticing: extremely fresh, delicate, and, as we always enjoy them, very lightly pan- (or wok-) fried ... perfectly browned & golden! Qing Hua turned out to be an excellent choice, and so were two others. The first, one of the city's few remaining traditional restaurants Français, Chez Queux ("au coeur du vieux Montréal"); and the second, a much more contemporary French-inspired establishment, Restaurant Europea. Lots of showcasing, here; a theatrical event as much as a dining experience - where we explored, in toto, "la finesse de l'Art culinaire!

Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle / Ring of fire

In continuous operation since 1973, Chez Queux (housed @ 158 rue saint-Paul est; tel. 541/866-5194) serves the very finest in traditional French fare, offering both a la carte and table d'hôte (3-course, prix fixe; $47. Can.) menus at reasonable price points given the high quality of food preparation and the particularly affable, attentive & professional service. Traditional dishes are carefully created & plated and, overall, memorable. Indeed, there are very few restaurants that we have come across, of late, that include ris de veau ("sweetbreads") at all, no less being listed on both appetizer (with arugala salad, citrus & truffle oil) and main dish (served with braised morels!) menu sections!  (And the wine we selected - a light & fruity French Pinot Noir, Les Jamelles, 2011 [$33.] - paired well with all of our mains, including my plate of sweetbreads.)

Chez Queux

Palais des congrès (et moi)

But the pièce de resistance - and, for me, the most memorable dish offered at Chez Queux - is the salade César (for two) created and mixed table-side, one portion (as requested) containing chopped anchovies, the other not. The salad proved absolutely scrumptious, abundant, and, well, a bit of perfection itself ... so painstakingly & accommodatingly prepared by our waiter!

Restaurant Europea

Restaurant Europea, on the other hand, is an interesting, whimsical establishment where Grand Chef Jérôme Ferrer whips up distinctive culinary creations with "finesse" ... serving superior food ... not at all traditional in any strict culinary sense. Located in central ("downtown") Montréal (@1227 de la Montagne; tel. 514/398-9229), Mr. Ferrer serves great food, brought, at times, rather idiosyncratically "plated" to the table. And he provides various surprises (we four diners recall, for example, the chef's "book" of infused, "smoking" salmon!) throughout the dining experience - from initial amuse bouche(s) to the wealth of desserts laid out at the end of the evening adventure. 

 Europea - A portion of the drama

All this theater-laden culinary art is, however, carefully presented a la table and the creations are generally successful - of show-stopping high quality conceptually and exceedingly tasty, as well. During evening hours, Europea offers three menus - a la carte; table d'hôte (@ $89.50 Can.); and a multi-"course" (several item) tasting menu, or menu dégustation signature (@ $119.50).    

Beef jerky on mini-clothesline

Two members of our party of four chose mains from the a la carte listing; two chose the table d'hôte. Thus, many of the items (e.g., the risotto) could (and would) be shared and all four of us would, of course, receive the numerous ancillary "surprises" pour les bouches!

Sea bass filet

A pricey but excellent & extensive wine list is available for your pleasure; and a knowledgeable & fun sommelier, for your consultation. Once again, we selected a Pinot Noir (Burgundy / Les Ursulines, Jean-Claude Boisset, 2012 @ $60.) which was tasted, and ratified, by the house wine maven on duty that evening!  A number of items that we consumed - along with our Pinot Noir - were tasty, refreshing, memorable. 


Those "dishes" - large or small - that we felt were, somehow, etched in our memories included the following: lobster cream cappuccino with truffle purée; creamy mascarpone & burrata risotto ... with sautéed mushrooms & asparagus, green pea mousseline & tendrils, and Béarnaise shelled egg & crumble; a sea bass filet cooked in a hay-lined pot, beetroot spaghetti, sorrel leaves poached in a grapefruit juice & blood-veined sorrel; and the lapin / Stanstead rabbit confit Yazu, cavatellis (small pasta shells) with parmesan cream, and fresh thyme gremolata & lemon peel.

A bit of dessert

Desserts, "sweets" & coffee followed, not too quickly (no rush whatever!), but, when delivered, full of diversity - from a bag of mini-Madeleines to a tray of mixed flavored macaroons (see photo) to delicate bowls of berries and perfectly sweetened crème fraîche. Dark, rich coffee proved much needed after this elongated but stunning culinary experience, a veritable performance ... not to be forgotten!
 

Centre-ville, Montréal (Hilton Garden Inn, center)

While there are many (many!) things for the tourist to partake in on a visit to Montréal, this particular visit was scheduled to be a short one (just a few days), so we pretty much decided that  our key activities - and the mild & sunny weather solidified this decision for us - would be strolling around town (veritably inhaling the diverse areas of the city) ... and dining!  

Centre de design - l’Université du Québec à Montréal

We certainly did those two things in spades and even got to the Design Center / Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) for a private look at their current exhibition. Indeed, in a short period of time, a couple of night's stay, we managed to do a great deal and see much of the city from our comfortable, exceedingly guest-oriented & hospitable "home base" at the Hilton Garden Inn, Centre-Ville (380 Sherbrooke, Ouest) ... Montreal!