A food market you can count on
By now the holidays are upon us, and panic has set in. If you’re the one in charge of the food preparation and want to make these days special, why not head to a real farmer’s market to scoop up all your cooking needs? Somehow the sterility of a supermarket does not evoke the nostalgia of past holidays compared to meandering through the stalls of an old-fashioned real food market.
We are fortunate in Montreal to have two big ones (Atwater and Jean Talon www.marchespublics-mtl.com) which could cover all our needs, but the Jean Talon Market is much bigger and has a special feel, with its combination of rusticity and sophistication. Jean Talon Market is like a little city square, with its four encircling sides lined up with food delectables. More food stores and other related businesses ooze out from the square as well, and the whole thing spills into Little Italy with even more eating options. Started in 1933, it sits between Jean Talon St. to the north, Belanger to the south and Casgrain Ave. and Henri Julien Ave. to the east and west.
To get you started I have chosen a fish monger, a poultry specialist and a cheese store for your basics, and then I threw in one just for fun – full of Quebec homegrown gourmet goodies. As you circle the square, you will bump into just about everything else you need – veggies, meat, by-the-pound basics, bakeries, herbs, sausages, chocolates and even a cookbook store to help with recipes.
Poissonnerie Shamrock, 7015 Casgrain Ave. at the SW corner of the market. Phone: 514-272-5612. Hours: Sunday to Wednesday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you sell at the Jean Talon Market, (and they have since 1959), then you had better be up to snuff, since the restaurateurs and shoppers who come here are going out of their way to get the freshest ingredients. The one way traffic down the middle of this narrow shop first passes the prepared fish dishes like tilapia marinated in orange and salmon in brandy or lemon/pepper/dill, then goes past the fresh fish, lobster tank and the showcase of sixteen kinds of caviar. There’s beluga, of course, but also tabikko for sushi making. The wall of frozen fish and seafood has advertised specials. Look for the enormous easy peel shrimp or the scampis, both four to six per lb. Some highlights: octopus or seaweed salads, smoked yellowfin tuna, lobster oil, squid ink, stuffed escargot and good old salt cod. For your holiday meals, you can serve salmon tournedos, stuffed sole or oysters Rockefeller. Other location: Marche Maisonneuve, Fillets Express.
La Fromagerie Hamel, 220 Jean Talon St. East at Casgrain Ave. Phone: 514-272-1161. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.fromageriehamel.com This cheese shop, open since 1965, is always bustling. About five hundred cheeses are stocked from France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Hungary. Some special cheeses you can serve for the holidays might be: Stilton with port, a “winter” cheese (made only from November through March) called Vacherin Mont’or, or Cabriolet, a goat cheese from the South of France. Cheese gift baskets can be ordered too (at least two days ahead), and can have other items added, such as wine, crackers, chocolates, oil and vinegar, jam or pheasant terrines. Other locations: 2117 Mont Royal Ave. East. (514-521-3333); 9196 Sherbrooke St. East. (514-355-6657); Repentigny, 622 Notre Dame St. (450-654-3578).
Zinman Chicken Market, 7010 St. Dominique St. at Mozart St. Phone: 514-277-4302. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Located one block outside the market and open for the last ninety years, this poultry market sells to at least three hundred local shops. They sell all the specialties you may want to serve for your holiday meal: rabbits, quail, ducks, hare, guinea hens, turkeys, pheasant, Cornish hens, partridges and pigeons. Their chickens are prized, as they are fed no mineral supplements, just old fashioned corn and grain, which might make them cost twice as much as the supermarket variety, but then they taste twice as good.
Le Marche des saveurs du Quebec, 280 Place du Marche du Nord at Henri Julien Ave. Phone: 514-271-3811. Hours: (This week only) Daily 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until the 24th). Regular hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This airy bright jewel in the Jean Talon market brings you gourmet flavors, but only from Quebec. The tastes run from foie gras ravioli, to peach coulis or wild mushroom mustard. Some flavors for your holiday table might be dandelion or wild cherry wine vinegar, pheasant pate, smoked emu, rose jelly, oignon jam or carrot confit. They stock Quebec wines, and if you’re dying for some – caribou soup. This week there will be two to three tastings a day from some of their suppliers. Le Verger du Clocher will show off their apple muste products. The apple reduction is a yummy syrup good on salads, meats and fresh fruits. Nutra.fruit will showcase their cranberry treats: a cranberry confit d’oignon, sesame oil with cranberry, rosemary and garlic and a cassis and cranberry oil.