If you think you like Montreal “barbequed” chicken, then you’ve never had Portuguese barbequed chicken. Start with the BBQ in that sentence. In the Montreal variety, chickens are impaled on a spit and  roll around on a carnival ride to cook through. The Portuguese method bbq’s the marinated chicken on a smokin’ charcoal grill where it winds up with a crispily seasoned crust and smokey flavored meat. You can get it spicier on request (I watched one slathered in chiles and cringed – but have it your way).

You’ve probably heard of the famous Romados on Rachel est with its line-ups (secret: you can order ahead and avoid the wait). However, there is more than one way to skin a chicken. The rest of the Portuguese community know about other flavourful spots to score this addictive meal. I was introduced to Portugalia by the “Montreal piano chicken pusher” across the street. He and his Dad restore and sell beautiful pianos at Montreal Piano (61 Rachel ouest).

You cannot expect to go in and just walk up and buy a take-out chicken ($11). Here it’s so busy, it’s like the “soup nazi” of BBQ chicken . You  have to call and place an order 1 1/2 hours ahead during the week. On the weekends though, it’s best to order the day before or at the very least 3 or 4 hours ahead. There are no line-ups here because if you walk in without having ordered first, you’ll be given a card and told to call.

It is possible to dine in the attached restaurant and you will get your chicken in normal restaurant time.

Portugalia Location: 34 Rachel ouest
Corner: Clark
Phone: 514-282-1519
www.rotisserieportugalia.ca

Adonis is a very complete Mid-eastern market (Lebanese origins), including a butcher shop and bakery. The butcher, besides cutting to order, has shish taouk and shwarma marinating and ready to cook or already done.

You can discover kasseri and kashkaval and twisted cheeses, frozen or canned stuffed grape leaves, pickled vegetables in bulk, fig and flower jam, pickled wild cucumber, dried apricot paste and almonds by the bushel, fresh dates and figs.

New location: Place Vertu
Phone: 514-904-6789
Other locations: 2001 Sauve Ouest (514-382-8606)
4601 boul. des Sources (514-685-5050);
705 Cure Labelle (450-978-2333);
www.adonisproducts.com

With an original recipe of the pasteis de nata handed over from the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, Bela Vista retains the true old style taste that the monks created. You might cheat and try the chocolate version or the pasteis feijao, a treat of almonds and chickpeas, the mimosa which has no dough (almond flavored gel) or the delice a l’orange. They still make the tijelada (like a baby omelette) in the traditional earthenware cups. There are, of course, the crusty Portuguese corn breads, some Latin American empanadas for the neighbors and a large selection of Portuguese coffee.

Location: 68 Pins est
corner: Coloniale
Tel: 514-849-3609
Hours: Mon-Wed & Sat  7-6, Thurs & Fri 7-8
Other  location: 6409 Papineau (514-227-1777)
www.pasteldenata.ca

With their own smoker (and no MSG or phosphates!), this West Island shop has been able to cook authentic German and Swiss specialty sausages, smoked pork chops and veal roast, smoked ham, bacon and smoked pork hocks. La Bernoise’s butcher counter sports the meatloaf, air-dried sausages, knockwurst, lamb sausage, schublig and air dried beef, which you can eat with sauerkraut and squeeze-tube mustard along with rye bread made with muesli. Homemade whole wheat and 6-grain bread are available as well as groceries: dumpling mixes, Kuchen Meister cakes, Knacke brot plum butter, Lindt chocolates and even German crossword puzzle books.

Location: 3988 Boul. St-Charles, Pierrefonds
corner: Boul. Pierrefonds
Tel: 514-620-6914
Hours: Tues-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-5

With their own smoker (and no MSG or phosphates!), La Bernoise has been able to cook authentic German and Swiss specialty sausages, smoked pork chops and veal roast, smoked ham, bacon and smoked pork hocks. The butcher counter sports the meatloaf, air-dried sausages, knockwurst, lamb sausage, schublig and air dried beef, which you can eat with sauerkraut and squeeze-tube mustard along with rye bread made with muesli. Homemade whole wheat and 6-grain bread are available as well as groceries: dumpling mixes, Kuchen Meister cakes, Knacke brot plum butter, Lindt chocolates and even German crossword puzzle books.

Location: 3988 Boul. St-Charles, Pierrefonds
Corner: Boul. Pierrefonds
Tel: 514-620-6914
Hours:Tues-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-5

For my Smart Shopping Montreal fans, I have so much cool new stuff in this edition:

I bumped into green shopping everywhere in the city. I loved Bamboo Entrepot with its bamboo flooring, kitchen cupboards, couches, wine bar, bathtub, clothing and linens. There are environmentally responsible friperies like Folle Guenille or Pre-Loved who take vintage or just pre-worn clothing and rework them into hot one-of-a-kind fashions. Eco Reno is part of the ecological hardware and furniture movement.and offers up old doors, windows, mouldings, bathtubs and plumbing parts so you don’t have to buy new. Or how about Couche Maman Ecolo, the diaper fairy who comes once a week and saves our landfills of mountains of plastic diapers? In Montreal there are local manufacturers for: gift wrap, plaster mouldings, sofa-beds, maternity wear, paint, comforters, cribs, cardboard boxes and even bountiful farmer’s markets.

Once you pick up “Smart Shopping Montreal” it is hard to put it down, as you discover:
– liquidation locales: Lindt chocolate, home theatres, designer shoes, pianos, house renovation products, sporting goods, bras, pasta
– services: people who scoop poop, rent paintings or fur, monogram gifts, send cakes for a special day
– second-hand shops: computer games, maternity clothes, laptops, ergonomic chairs, mouldings

People who treasure saving objects from obsolescence and enjoy the work performed by master craftsmen will find solace in the chapter on repairmen. Do you know where to go to get your espresso machine fixed, costume jewelry repaired, boots widened, baby strollers washed, antique carpets cleaned or holes fixed in your leather couch?

Montreal is lucky to have a large mixture of ethnic groups. Reading through the International Food section takes you around the world with a smorgasbord of stores to entice you to try new flavours, perhaps English marmite and vegemite or “skinny” donuts or pickled mudfish.

In every budget, there is always a place where extra money is spent solving shopping problems. In, the specialty stores (which are often pricey) you’ll find: custom bathing suits, snakes, made-to-order couches, cake decorating, wigs, hard-to-find DVD’s, lace, and moving boxes

It’s time to join up for my Smart Shopping Club www.smartshoppingmontreal.com and receive your own autographed copy of my book. Happy Shopping!

Often it’s too hot to cook in the summer and there’s nothing easier than laying out a whole spread of cold cuts and letting everyone make their own dinner. Zytynsky’s Deli is my favorite. How can you beat 3 generations of tradition found at this 88-year-old shop? The most popular sellers are their old-fashioned smoked meat (still made by hand in the time-honoured tradition), old-fashioned ham, knockwurst and kobassa. You will note, that their wonderful blend of seasonings is less salty than most others around town.
Do try their delicious homemade pyrohy (pierogi) filled with cottage cheese and potato, cheddar cheese and potato, sauerkraut at $5.75/dozen or cabbage rolls at $6.50/lb, kapusta, red cabbage salad and tripe soup. Frozen pierogies by Supreme are a real deal here, three bags for $9.99 and amongst the groceries: pickeld yellow peppers, 7 kinds of pickles, including red pepper and onions and sour cherries. Remember this: After you buy 10 sandwiches here, the 11th is on the house.
n dinner.

Location: 3350 Beaubien East
corner: 12th Ave.
Hours: Mon 10-6, Tues-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-4 (summer Sat 9-2)
Phone: 514-722-0826

I often get calls about where someone can have a party – for a shower, special birthday, anniversary or whatever. I have found a decently priced yummy restaurant that fits the bill for this. Pasta Tutti Giorni started out in DDO with 2 guys and some Italian family recipes. Eventually they joined up with partners that wanted to franchise their concept. It worked for awhile but a little over a month ago, those partners went bust and their stores had to be shut.

However all is not lost as the original location in DDO is still open and at lunchtime on the weekends they are open for private family celebrations. Imagine, you can get the whole restaurant to yourself for the afternoon. You can make up your own menu for your guests by selecting meals off of the menu. The restaurant will print it up for you to hand your guests at the table.

For under $20 per person, you can have soup or salad, main course, dessert and coffee. Our family favorites are anything that is covered with their rose sauce (we take it out by the litre) and their special recipe for eggplant timbale (not on the menu but available for parties – it’s like a tender eggplant lasagna). The restaurant is licensed if you want to add any drinks to the mix. They seat about 100. You can of course, dine there anytime – even if you aren’t having a party.

Location: 3343 Boul. des Sources, DDO
corner: Boul. Brunswick
contact: Peter Klaiman
Tel: 514-421-3266
www.ptg.ca

Just eyeballed a new West Island location for Basse at 3643 boul. des Sources (514-683-0111). Around for 15 years, this Mid-Eastern family business (5 brothers) has been oil-roasting and dry-roasting all kinds of nuts: 6 types of pistachios or almonds (tamari, bbq, candied), pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts and caramel pecans. Other interesting goodies abound: roasted chick peas, corn nuts, double roasted hot peppers, dried kiwi, peanut/rice crackers and roasted peas. Grocery items to be found might be blossom or rose water, bags or jarred zaatar, bitter orange jam, stuffed zucchini and, if you need them, gallon jars of hot peppers. Other locations: 9360 Charles de Latour (514-387-8828); 4555 Autoroute 440 Ouest (at the plant 450-781-1255).

If Boulevard St-Laurent just south of Jean-Talon can be called Little Italy, then Montreal North should have the moniker of Big Italy. The businesses I chose to write about today are on the arteries of what is considered the heart of this neighborhood – the Madonna de Pompeii church – located on Boulevard St. Michel near Sauve St. When many of the immigrants settled here, they wanted to live nearby so that they could walk to church. Naturally, storekeepers tried to stay within that circuit as well. And stay they did.

Just calling the stores to interview someone for this column was a challenge, since I don’t happen to speak Italian. When you get into any neighborhood that is so ethnically saturated, then you know you are in a good place to find food that will taste more like their Mommas made them at home. So that is where I am leading you today To get to the first two stores, take St. Michel Blvd. For about ten blocks North of Metropolitain Blvd. and make a left onto Charland Avenue, a little street just before the underpass at Industriel Blvd. For the last store, Les Importations Giannini, go under the underpass, make a right on Mont-Joli St. and then another right onto Lausanne St., which is one way going south.

Italians are known for their attention to freshness and home cooking, so what you look for when you shop here are your basics – bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, great canned tomatoes, etc. The busier cooks who won’t be rolling their pasta from scratch will only buy very, very good pasta that has either been homemade by someone else or at least hails from Italy. For the heart of an Italian meal, pasta, you can start at La Maison du Ravioli, one of the first businesses in Montreal which dared, thirty-one years ago, to try to sell noodles to an Italian community.

La Maison du Ravioli, 2479 Charland Ave. at d’Iberville St. Phone: 514-381-2481. Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 1p.m. Ask almost any Italian about pasta, and they’ll know this spot. Around since 1976, they have built up a following of more than three hundred restaurants that buy here. Their specialties include meat or cheese ravioli and tortellini, medaglioni stuffed with ricotta and veal/beef/pork, cappelletti, cannelloni, gnocchi di patate and tagliatelle, but they don’t stop there. Find your favourite, top it with their new house sauces (rose, arrabiata, bolognese, napolitana) and find out what pasta is supposed to taste like. Now you can take home their homemade lasagne too – meat or vegetarian.

Salerno, 2411 Charland Ave at De Lille St. Phone 514-384-9142. Hours: Daily, 24 hours. Why am I not surprised that at any hour of the day or night someone in this neighborhood can buy a loaf of fresh bread? Every day of the week you can pick up cold cuts and salads to stuff into crusty breads like the pagnotta or the corona with a hole or the di grano or a whole wheat and white bread combo. Make a stop for some specialties – the stuffed pizza (cold cuts inside), calzone (cold cuts with cheese, or spinach and cheese) or taralli, pretzel-like treats made with fennel. Do not leave without buying the to-die-for mezzaluna, a fried dough donut-like treat stuffed with sweetened ricotta (and buy one for me!).

Les Importations Giannini, 9821 Lausanne Ave at Industriel Blvd. Phone: 514-324-7441 Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Going wholesale is a way to catch Italian specialties before they run out of them in the shops. The first little food showroom has select items: Granoro pasta products, Pugliasena olive oil (from their home town) and Monari Federzoni balsamic vinegar, in business since 1912. They sell the Journal de Montreal’s contest-winning pannetone by Loison. With Easter coming up, you can now also score Loison’s Easter special – the dove-shaped sweet columba. The wholesale end of the business goes way beyond this showroom, so if you ask you might be able to get some by-the-pound products like rare black chick peas or ciccerci beans (funny looking white-yellow ones from the lupini family). Local restauranteurs have been beating a path to their door for their fig syrup – mixed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar it makes the yummiest salad dressing. Organic food chasers will find pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and flavored oils. Upstairs the local community makes a point of stopping here to choose from lines of Alessi and Calderone kitchenware, dessert sets, serving pieces, dishes, stemware, pasta machines, pressure cookers and heavy duty stainless steel pots and pans, as well as small gifts, frames and gift baskets. They are an authorized Jura espresso machine dealer (Saeco and Spidem) too. Note that espresso machines can be repaired here.