protein and pineapple....
I'd figured given Brazil's mix of
influence from Portuguese invaders and black Africans as a legacy of the slave
trade, and extensive coastline that the menu would have a distinctly Carribean
flavour - i.e fish and spicy dishes using tropical fruits and coconut.......
I must give credit though to my colleague "Mike Jnr" (he'll hate me for that) -
his wine choice was excellent even if the wine list was not particularly
'challenging'!
Last night was the obligatory "meal out with the
customer and contractor", that is dinner with a bunch of be-suited
heavyweights.... Now, Montreal is blessed with every conceivable variety of
eating house found on the planet (well, almost - I have yet to find a Timorese
dog curry though I have no real wish to relive that particular experience...) so
when I found out we were going to a "Brazilian Restaurant" I was intrigued. I'd
figured given Brazil's mix of influence from Portuguese invaders and black
Africans as a legacy of the slave trade, and extensive coastline that the menu
would have a distinctly Carribean flavour - i.e fish and spicy dishes using
tropical fruits and coconut.... made sense to me..... However the reality was
somewhat different... whether this was just a N American take on Brazilian
cuisine or really is what they eat in Brazil, I was sorely disappointed....
Dinner choices consisted of meat, meat and more meat - all carved at the table
from giant, sweating skewers... I'm not vegetarian and I do enjoy a bit of high
quality protein... in moderation but last night looked to be very much at the
expense of quite a few head of cattle! At least the sweet potato was good and my
colleagues enjoyed tucking in (it stopped the work talk thankfully). The saving
grace was the cinnamon roast pineapple for dessert, that was ace. I'm going to
look up Brazilian cuisine when I get home... I'll keep you posted! I must give
credit though to my colleague "Mike Jnr" (he'll hate me for that) - his wine
choice was excellent even if the wine list was not particularly
'challenging'!
This will be my last
visit to Montreal in a professional capacity for a while (well, I do my best at
being professional anyway!), though I really ought to make the effort to travel
over again on my own time to catch up with friends. As I fly home this evening
on the bloody awful Air Canada 'bus', and as the execs are 'happily' ensconced
in their endless meetings I decided to take the morning off in the interests of
a lie-in and leisurely breakfast of fresh strawberries, kiwi and melon up in the
Club Lounge. Most agreeable it was too. With no rush this morning I had time to
read the Globe and Mail properly, it didn't take long. This is Canada's 'quality
national daily' but in line with all N American newspapers it's a pretty skimpy
bit of paper with the rest of planet being considered worthy of little more than
a page of lip-service. Still, that's better than the papers to be found in
Canada's largely ignorant Southern neighbour.... When I lived here the bulk of
Canada's news was occupied with the antics of the government and various
politicians... and despite two changes of Federal Government since I left - it
still is! The Feds though were never as bad the Quebecois lot... the Liberals
are in power in Quebec now and they seem to be a little less akin to the players
in a black comedy than the Bloc Quebecois were a few years ago.... Having said
all that the political world back home is in a pretty sorry state too with
mister blair (he doesn't deserve a capitalisation) behaving more and more like
his red-neck bosom buddy, bush and (if you believe him) his firm ally in all he
does... God (though I often wonder what God has to say about all
this...).
On reflection I'm going to stop
there... I could go on for ages and no doubt offend someone (shame..) so I'll
shut up until I'm safely back in the land of grey skies and endless
drizzle....
See ya!
Posted: Thu - March 9, 2006 at 05:08 PM