Deli K is a new, friendly, family run Kosher food market with many food menu items to take home. Busy families will appreciate their extensive menu so you can buy a month’s worth of meals and never repeat one. West Island of Montreal.

The interesting homemade food is cooked daily in the West Island store. A Mosgiach is on the premises to make sure all is well. Even the bread, pastries and cookies are baked fresh daily. Some basic groceries line the shelves too: tam tam crackers, soup mixes, cookies, whole wheat noodles, candy, gum. etc. You might be surprised to find out that they even carry gluten-free products.

They can also handle larger groups, like business lunches for companies or catering small events.

Here is a sampling of some of their yummies:

Appetizers: hot dogs in blankets, borekas, Asian meatballs, latkes, arancini with chicken

Salads: spicy tuna, salad cuite, mango, crab, beet, spicy eggplant, quinoa, Romanian

Soups: lentil, bean & barley, matzah ball

Poultry: schnitzel in mushroom sauce, turkey with sweet onion, chicken with apricots and prunes, hen in duck sauce, Moroccan chicken with olives

Meats: beef medallions in onion sauce, stuffed eggplant in tomato sauce, stuffed veal cutlets in caper sauce,Ruth’s brisket, cholent

Fish: Moroccan fish, tilapia in lemon sauce, paella, fish balls in tomato sauce

Sides: verenikas, corn pie, scallop potatoes, Moroccan omelette, pastels, green bean casserole

Chinese: Orange beef, chicken chow mein, General Tao, beef and cashews, Kung Pao chicken

Pastries: croissants, danish, strudel, borekas

How’s this for great customer service: If you make a suggestion of something you would like them to cook, they will create it for you.

Location: 11 Sunnydale St. Dollard des Ormeaux QC H9B 1E1
corner: boul des Sources
Tel: 514-685-6340
Hours: Mon-Wed 8:30-7, Thurs 8:30-8. Fri (Oct-March) 8:30-2 (April-Sept) 8:30-5

Q 1 – In the summer everyone wants to look fit and feel fit so its time to  get back on track with good nutritional choices, what food shopping can you suggest?

Health food stores offer a wide variety of foods that have been carefully grown and produced. This one of the biggest growing segments of the food industry. You feel virtuous shopping there.

Q2 –  Is it really healthier there?

You can make good lifestyle choices in regular supermarkets but health stores often have products that are organically traceable right back to the farmer that grew it. There are networks of 1,000’s of farmers. Be careful of that word “organic” though, as you know Dr. Joe will tell us that everything is organic.

Q3 – Isn’t it much more expensive buying food at health food stores?

It is more expensive to buy food at health food stores, because of the cost of producing smaller quantities and growing without pesticides, etc. There is one place I can mention for deals, though. At Club Organic, if you join their club ($30), you are offered a discount based on the volume you buy each time: a $1-$99 order will yield a 3% discount on your bill, $100-$299 is 5% off, and $300 and up will get you 7% off.

Q4 – What kind of food will I find there, is it all sprouts and tofu?

Your regular supermarket staples are here – grains, beans, flours (spelt, amaranth, kamut, soy, gluten-free), cereals, organic fish, beef, veal and chicken, healthy breads, dairy, candy, chips, freshly ground peanut butter, but also cashew, almond and sesame too, and always lots of teas: green teas, barley teas, tisanes.

There’s even food to go: stir fries with seitan and miso, millet pie, pizza, spring rolls homemade soups, desserts, spelt and seaweed wraps and bbq burgers.

Q 5- What kind of other things might I find there that are not usually found in a corner supermarket?

It’s the harder to find things, not usually found in a corner supermarket, that draw a lot of people to these stores: gluten-free, lactose-free and wheat-free products, goat, soy and almond milk, organic chocolate milk, brown rice pasta or buckwheat pasta, noodles made of soba, spelt and soya, etc.

Q6 – Where are all these stores?

Club Organic, 4341 Frontenac at Rachel, Phone523-0223 Food items bought at this store can be traced back to the farmer who produced them, as these products are certified by Ecocert Canada, an international regulatory network. You can shop without a membership, but for a $30 membership you can buy ground beef, chicken, butter, flour, beans, grains, dates, pasta, oil, nuts, etc., you get a discount. The more you buy the better the deal: a $1-$99 order will yield a 3% discount on your bill, $100-$299 is 5% off, and $300 and up will get you 7%.
www. epiceriebiologique.ca

Tau Aliments Naturels 4238 St-Denis, Phone:843-4420.   Other bigger locations: 6845 boul. Taschereau (450-443-9922); 3188 boul. St-Martin ouest (450-978-5533). www.marchestau.com

Rachelle-Bery, 505 Rachel est, Phone: 514-524-0725  Other locations: 2346 Beaubien e. (514-727-2327); 4810 boul. St-Laurent (514-849-4118); Longueuil, 217 St-Charles o. (450-679-6472); St-Saveur, 105-1, ave Guindon (450-227-3343).  www.rachellebery.com

Q1: Today you wanted to tell us that we can make our own wine from grapes, right here in Montreal…

Making your own wine is part of the tradition of many families, and has become an addictive hobby for others. The best part of this hobby is that you get to enjoy drinking the results, and you can stock up on perfect and incredibly inexpensive ($2-$3 a bottle!) gifts for holidays or for an anytime house gift.

Q2: Did you ever make your own wine?

Once, while I lived in Greece, I was taken to their annual wine-making festival. After you paid an admittance at the gate of a park, you were given a crude hand-made ceramic mug. This was a lush park, not unlike Mont Royal, and as you strolled through the thick trees and pathways, you eventually would come upon large square cement shallow basins (like huge baby pools) where each grape grower had dumped his stock, and people would be stomping around in the basin mashing the grapes with their feet.

You were encouraged to stomp along with the others, and were given free samples of wine at each stop. If you didn’t like that particular one, you just poured it out into the woods and trundled on to the next one you could find. The U.S. Navy sailors I was with just adored this outing – the mucking around was great fun and it was also a really cheap way to get drunk. I never realized at the time that I was participating in culinary history.

Q3: Well I don’t think many of us are going to crush grapes with our feet, so getting back to Montreal, how do you do it here?

Grapes come into town from now until mid-November from California, Ontario and Europe. You can buy them at the public markets or at Bacchus, the first store mentioned below. It is possible to make a fast young wine in as little as forty days, but waiting ninety days til Christmas would yield a much finer tasting wine.

If you want to skip the first process of grape crushing, then during the rest of the year you can buy the grape in concentrates, and go from there. All of the stores will offer you any guidance you need in order to come up with a fine wine. Cheers!

The reason for the huge space that the store Bacchus Le Seigneur du Vin takes up is revealed now, in September. At this time, crates full of grapes are ordered for customers, and all the machinery you could need to crush them in order to make your wine for the year can be rented here and done on the spot.

There are daily deliveries of grapes, about twenty-five varieties in all. You must order a minimum of six cases (approximately $26 a case) in order to use the crushing service, which costs $25 for 6-10 cases and $2.50 per case above that.

The rest of the year you can buy your fresh Village Vintner juice concentrates (about 24 reds or whites), bottles, labels, corks, rubber stoppers and even 54L containers.

Location: 1820 Dollard Ave, Lasalle
corner: at Newman Blvd..
Phone: 514- 366-8000
Hours:  now to about end of October: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 5  p.m.,
(rest of year) Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Q4: What about other shops that might be able to help us with this delicious project?

For under $100 to start with, at, you can ferment your own wine (for $2 – $3 a bottle) in about 4 weeks’ time. If you have no room at home, you can make and bottle your own wine at the premises of PurVin-Paul Bourget for $3 – $ 4 per bottle. Helpful advice is given by this 37-year-old business, along with the glass aging jars, hydrometers, bottles, gallon jugs, corks, and labels needed to make Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay. From Italy, California, France, Australia, Chile and Spain there are about 75 vineyard quality varieties of wine juices.

Location: 1265 O’brien Blvd, Ville St-Laurent
corner: at Rochon St.
Phone: 514-747-3533
Hours: Tues-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-5
www.purvincanada.com

Mosti Mondiale 2000 has been located in a busy wine-making community for the past 14 years and is well equipped. You can buy or rent equipment – press, crushers. Then you would need  new or re-cycled bottles, labels, barley, malt, hops and concentrates by Sterile or fresh juice. There are lots of beer possibilities: Irish, Australian, Mexican, Scottish, Dutch and ales too, with beer kits starting at $10.

Location: 5187 Jean-Talon est,  St-Leonard
corner: Viau
Phone: 514-728-6831
Hours:  Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-5 (Sept-Nov Sun 9-5)

Q1:  Everyone is so busy these days that they don’t even have time to prepare dinner, and its so cold to go out, you say that you have some solutions for this dilemma

Located in the Jean Talon market, Milliner is preparing french-inspired home-cooked meals for you or you can enjoy Comfort Meals which are home-cooked meals by a husband and wife team. Both companies deliver them to your door and make all the meals from scratch with no additives, coloring, fillers, etc.

Q2:  How does it work? What kind of food do they cook?

You can look online or call them up and order ahead.

Milliner prepares 75 different dishes (350 gr. $9-$13) in its open kitchen using grain fed chicken, Quebec AAA beef, but no additives, colorings or preservatives. Start drooling over the  lamb with apricot, blanquette de veau, Thai chicken, bbq baby back ribs, cassoulet de fruits de mer, pork with prunes or even beef cheeks with mashies. 70% of them are even gluten free. You can also buy box lunches or use them for catering. Home delivery is available.

Location: 7010 Henri Julien, Marche Jean-Talon at Mozart
Phone: 514-270-0004
Hours: Sat-Wed 9-5, Thurs & Fri 9-7
www.milliner.ca

Comfort Meals costs only $5-$8 for a 350-400g  of stick-to-your ribs home cooked meal.They are cheerfully delivered to your door, and ready for microwave, oven or freezer. Meals are lower in salt (and can even be no salt) and made with fresh ingredients.

Some interesting choices might be: chicken with apricots or Kiev style, vegetarian lasagne with bechamel sauce, pineapple ham, Hungarian goulash, shepherd’s pie, salmon in Spanish sauce, veal in mushroom sauce or tourtiere. For those cold winter days there’s soups: perhaps pea, barley or lentil. Delivery is only offered in the western end of town with a minimum of 7 meals, and all meals should be ordered on Wednesday or Thursday  for delivery the following Wednesday.

Phone: (514) 713-1951
comfortmeals@sympatico.ca
www.comfortmeals.ca

Q3: Those are good deals but since you’re the Smart Shopper you have an even less expensive alternative – is it really airplane food?

Delta Daily Food use to make food for airlines; Nowadays they prepare meals for schools, cafeterias and even supermarket chains. Dietitians create interesting menus every month. At the end of each month, whatever hasn’t been sold to them, is offered to the public at really inexpensive prices (mostly around $2.50 or less per meal).

I’ve recently toured their premises and they seem more sterile than a hospital surgery room.

Q4:  Okay, I’ll bite, how much do they cost and how do you go about buying them?

My family has been eating “frozen airplane food” for over 15 years. Some of the food is in bulk and others are individual or family dinners. They’re great for: quick dinners, after school (or anytime) snacks for kids, for elderly folks who don’t cook anymore, college students, etc.

If you are ordering the individual meals, they come in packaged in 4/8/10, so an idea might be to form a buying group with friends and that way you can get an assortment. What you might find at a sale:  shrimp in spicy sauce (only $2 per meal), salmon tapenade or beurre blanc ($2.50), chicken in green curry ($1.40), shrimp and scallops ($3.50 each), vegetarian Indian meal ($1), beef Yakaniku  ($1.70), beef with oriental noodles, rice with mango and coconut, chicken a la king, meat lasagna, and lots more…

Location: 26 Seguin, Rigaud
Phone: 450-451-6761
Directions: Exit 9 on Autoroute 40 Ouest
Date and time: Sun Jan 31st and then Sun Feb 28: 10-3
You can be on their e-mail list for future sales, write to: l.brasseur@deltadailyfood.com

Not homemade but if you never wanted to cook again, shop at M&M and you would not have to repeat a dinner for a long time. Some of their new meals to try: slow cooked beef pot roast, veggie lo mein, lemon chicken, sweet potato fries and the shrimp hors d’oeuvres or last year’s hit: hors d’oeuvre quartet – vegetarian hors d’oeuvres (mushroom, spinach, cheese and roasted pepper). If you’re having a crowd, there’s the all time favorites, the oriental party pack and the cranberry brie.

Ten single serving options are available: lasagne, cabbage rolls, chile, mac ‘n cheese. Seasonally you can find their stuffed turkey breast (freezer to table in 2 hours) or the ultimate cream puff selection made with Belgium chocolate or try the new raspberry almond tart or banana chocolate chip cake.

Locations: Pointe Claire: 6321 Transcanadienne, Complexe Pte Claire at boul. St-Jean (514-426-1894); Laval, 3192 boul. St-Martin (450-686-0220); 6295 Somerled (514-485-9913); 3547 boul. St-Charles (514-694-9515); Dorval, 475 Dumont (514-633-9350); 2137 boul. des Laurentides (450-975-9595); 6925 boul. Taschereau (450-926-9518); 8453 boul. Newman (514-363-2929); 7864 Sherbrooke e. (514-493-1444) and more.  www. lesalimentsmm.com
Hours: Regular plus Sun 10-5

Q 1 – After the holidays, everyone wants to get back on track with their nutritional needs, what food shopping can you suggest?

Health food stores offer a wide variety of foods that have been carefully grown and produced. This one of the biggest growing segments of the food industry. You feel virtuous shopping there.

Q2 –  Is it really healthier there?

You can make good lifestyle choices in regular supermarkets but health stores often have products that are organically traceable right back to the farmer that grew it. There are networks of 1,000’s of farmers. Be careful of that word “organic” though, as you know Dr. Joe will tell us that everything is organic.

Q3 – Isn’t it much more expensive buying food at health food stores?

It is more expensive to buy food at health food stores, because of the cost of producing smaller quantities and growing without pesticides, etc. There is one place I can mention for deals, though. At Club Organic, if you join their club ($30), you are offered a discount based on the volume you buy each time: a $1-$99 order will yield a 3% discount on your bill, $100-$299 is 5% off, and $300 and up will get you 7% off.

Q4 – What kind of food will I find there, is it all sprouts and tofu?

Your regular supermarket staples are here – grains, beans, flours (spelt, amaranth, kamut, soy, gluten-free), cereals, organic fish, beef, veal and chicken, healthy breads, dairy, candy, chips, freshly ground peanut butter, but also cashew, almond and sesame too, and always lots of teas: green teas, barley teas, tisanes.

There’s even food to go: stir fries with seitan and miso, millet pie, pizza, spring rolls homemade soups, desserts, spelt and seaweed wraps and bbq burgers.

Q 5- What kind of other things might I find there that are not usually found in a corner supermarket?

It’s the harder to find things, not usually found in a corner supermarket, that draw a lot of people to these stores: gluten-free, lactose-free and wheat-free products, goat, soy and almond milk, organic chocolate milk, brown rice pasta or buckwheat pasta, noodles made of soba, spelt and soya, etc.

Q6 – Where are all these stores?

Club Organic, 4341 Frontenac at Rachel, Phone523-0223 Food items bought at this store can be traced back to the farmer who produced them, as these products are certified by Ecocert Canada, an international regulatory network. You can shop without a membership, but for a $30 membership you can buy ground beef, chicken, butter, flour, beans, grains, dates, pasta, oil, nuts, etc., you get a discount. The more you buy the better the deal: a $1-$99 order will yield a 3% discount on your bill, $100-$299 is 5% off, and $300 and up will get you 7%.
www. epiceriebiologique.ca

Tau Aliments Naturels 4238 St-Denis, Phone:843-4420.   Other bigger locations: 6845 boul. Taschereau (450-443-9922); 3188 boul. St-Martin ouest (450-978-5533). www.marchestau.com

Rachelle-Bery, 505 Rachel est, Phone: 514-524-0725  Other locations: 2346 Beaubien e. (514-727-2327); 4810 boul. St-Laurent (514-849-4118); Longueuil, 217 St-Charles o. (450-679-6472); St-Saveur, 105-1, ave Guindon (450-227-3343).  www.rachellebery.com