Although I had previously taken a brief detour to Montreal with my roommates during medical school, I had long since forgotten the diversity and culture that this city offered. When Duyen and I were left unprepared with a week of vacation on our hands, we decided to return to this convenient escape by car. After about a 6 hour drive, we ended up at Hotel Gault, a hard to find “boutique” hotel which offers affordable room with ultra modern styling (styling that suits me just fine).

Though we were only there for a few days, we were able to explore a wide range of what Montreal had to offer, to be honest, I’m not sure it is really necessary to stay longer for first-time visitors. My high school French came in handy for initiating conversations, although I was decidedly unable to fool people into thinking I was fluent after a few sentences betrayed my weak linguistic skills.

The food was the highlight of the trip, particularly Le Club Chasse et Peche where I enjoyed a delicious Canadian bison along with some unusual side dishes like pureed cauliflower and leeks. Au Pied De Cochon (the pig’s foot) was decidedly less impressive. The oversized, fat-laden dishes lacked depth of flavor and the restaurant’s attempt to improve the taste through liberal salting was a failure. A case in point was the poutine; I had looked forward to this Canadian delicacy, but the Au Pied De Cochon version of the gravy and cheese drenched fries was almost inedibly salty.

Fortunately, the high caliber of bakeries more than made up for the relative failure of this second restaurant. Duc de Lorraine is a quaint bakery cafe serving fresh, light croissants far superior to most American versions. Their rum-soaked Danish was a bit mushy for my tastes, but the chocolatine was right on target. Despite being part a large commercial chain, the ubiquitous Premiére Moisson branches were consistently of high quality. Our final stop at Au Pain Doré only cemeted our confidence on Montreal bakeries. It’s too bad that most Bostonians don’t even know what they are missing.