Eater looks at the history of Portuguese grilled chicken as an iconic Montreal food.
Updates from February, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Quebec has refused to ban hunting on the island of Montreal.
mare
Very curious which rich, powerful and connected people on the island of Montreal have such a strong interest in this, and what they hunt?
Or is it just a power game between the government of Quebec and maudite Montreal?
Kate
My money’s on power game. I don’t think it’s primarily the wealthy trying to pick off deer in our parks.
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Kate
The city is extending the free weekend parking downtown till the end of March.
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Kate
Winter cyclists are using the Réseau express vélo (REV) even though cycling numbers are down 9%, probably because so many people are working from home.
DeWolf
So it looks like an average of 1,000 people have been using the REV every day since it opened. And that’s during a pandemic winter when cycling conditions are far from ideal and most people are working from home.
It’s not such a stretch to imagine that REV will meet its projections of 10,000 users a day later this year, especially if the vaccination campaign goes as planned.
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Kate
Treehugger looks at a new power plant built on the McGill campus, opposite the city’s castellar McTavish reservoir building on Dr Penfield.
Max
I’ll have to take a look at this, thanks.
Another sympathetic piece of infrastructure can be found beside Mary Queen of the World Cathedral on Mansfield. That HVAC unit / emergency generator looks like it’s been there forever.
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Kate
CTV has the story about S.W. Welch’s rent hike. Welch posted to Facebook that his store is still open for the moment.
Update: Le Devoir also has the story and says the bookstore will be operating till August and describes the owner as “L’imposant barbu à la voix grave et à la longue barbe blanche”!
Bert
Meezly
CultMtl and Global News too.
qatzelok
That would be a great location for a new Birkin Bag boutique!
https://www.instyle.com/news/melania-trump-hermes-birkin-collection-cost
DeWolf
I wrote about this yesterday for Cult MTL. As I was doing the story it occurred to me that I originally met Stephen the last time he had to move from his former location on St-Laurent. I did an article about it for the Gazette:
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/montreal-gazette/20070318/281947423395705
It strikes me that, although both cases involve a rent hike, the story is quite different. Back in 2007, the rent hike was just 20% and moving to St-Viateur was more about following the bookstore’s customer base, which was migrating north. In this case, the rent hike is an astonishing 150% (on top of a 70% hike last year) and the store still has many loyal customers in the neighbourhood.
When I spoke with Stephen yesterday, he said he thought the fundamental character of St‑Viateur would remain intact because some of the oldest and most beloved businesses (the bagel shop, Arahova, Olimpico, Social Club, the Polish place) own their buildings. But everything else is at risk. Shiller Lavy seems only interested in renting to chain stores or restaurants – apparently, they think S.W. Welch’s space would be ideal for yet another takeout-oriented restaurant.
Rumour has it that the corner spot once occupied by the French bakery will become a new version of Laurier BBQ. You might remember that as the ill-fated restaurant opened by chef Gordon Ramsay and (surprise!) Danny Lavy of Shiller-Lavy. That venture ended in disaster when Lavy and Ramsay had a falling out and ended up suing each other for millions of dollars.
Kate
Thank you, DeWolf.
GC
I didn’t know Lavy was involved with Laurier BBQ, but that tracks. (Or, more likely, I just didn’t know who he was at the time…so it didn’t mean anything when I read the name in an article.)
Kate
Laurier BBQ existed for decades before Gordon Ramsay got involved. It was in pretty precipitous decline at that point. I was working nearby and, one lunchtime, popped in to see if anything looked promising, but it was quiet and the few customers were very, very old. Not to be ageist, but that’s never a good sign. I didn’t eat there, and never tried it during the brief Ramsay regime.
Meezly
That was a good article, DeWolf. And thanks for sharing that extra tidbit about the ownership of the other St-Viateur buildings.
DeWolf
Danny Lavy called me last night (!!) so I’ve got a follow-up coming on Monday. He had a lot to say about St-Viateur, the mayor and pandemic restrictions.
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Kate
The city’s children’s hospitals are seeing cases of a post-Covid syndrome that can turn serious in kids. Item details the long list of symptoms that can be involved.
Ephraim
Part of the unknown unknowns…. a really good reason that you don’t want to get COVID No one really knows what the long term effects may be…5 years or or 90 years on.
GC
Yes. That’s why it really bugs me when people focus only on the death rate. Obviously, that IS important, but it’s not like the only outcomes are death or full recovery. It seems like there are a lot of areas in-between.
Ephraim
They finally named the first of the syndromes associated with COVID. Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection, PACS. But there is a lot of information missing. And the real affect on life expectancy.
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Kate
How much more Montréalais could one man be? General manager of the Canadiens from 1978 to 1983, when he was sacked despite the team winning the Stanley Cup in 1979, Irving Grundman was also a city councillor for a long time, 1968 to 2003, first in St-Laurent when it was a separate city, then briefly in Montreal, where he was accused of corruption, fined and
jailedsentenced during Gérald Tremblay’s era. Grundman has died at 93. Sources differ on how long he was in municipal politics, but Wikipedia seems to be mistaken that he only went into it after his hockey job was over. Obituary.Joey
He was jailed? The obits said he was sentenced to community service.
Kate
Corrected.
Roman 21:23 on 2021-02-27 Permalink
Portuguese chicken in Montreal can’t compare to a real Portuguese chicken.
It’s like saying sushi is an icon, just because we have 100 mediocre sushi shops that don’t taste like anything you’d get in Japan.
Kate 23:20 on 2021-02-27 Permalink
What makes the real Portuguese chicken different, Roman?
Azrhey 02:13 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Romados chicken is a pale comparison to what it used to be, there was a change in admin in the early 2000 and since ithen it’s been super industrialised and the son is an ar$e (their best cooks had a row with him and left to open the Piri-piri chain , which is better).
There is superior quality chicken in Montreal, but if you want to pay fastfood prices , you get fastfood quality.
Portugália still does it well (opinion from fall 2019, thanks covid) , although I usually go there for the bifanas .
Then again these days even maxi sells authentic Piri-piri sauce, so spread it out, lather with sauce and some herbs, drizzle with lemon juice, let it rest overnight, and you’re good to go. The major factor is quality of the chicken itself, and a lot of it is cheap factory farm quality so… *¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kate 09:56 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
One thing I do know about Portuguese chicken in town is that the owners of the Monteiro chain (the website lists four locations) are not Portuguese or anything close. Was told this by a restaurant owner of the same ethnicity as Monteiro’s owners.
Of course they may have seen an opportunity and hired Portuguese cooks – who knows?
Roman 10:14 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Kate: probably the chicken itself to begin with. North American chickens taste like nothing at best. European and Asian chickens raised traditionally are delicious even without any seasoning.
Then the seasoning itself is made from fresh ingredients, while in Montreal it’s just a mystery powder from a can.
GC 10:39 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
But does it actually need to be good or authentic to become “iconic” of a city? Sushi can be found all over every major city in Canada, so it’s hard to say it’s iconic of Montreal. I can decide I don’t like smoked meat, but it’s still going to be iconic of Montreal
Azrhey 12:19 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
@roman let’s not exoticise Portuguese , or other, cuisine like that. Most rotisserie chicken in Portugal comes from industrial sources and most seasoning comes from a mystery box. We’re like everybody else. Yeah sure in small places you get traditionally raised animals and fresh ingredients, and some fancy restaurants give you their best for a lot of money, but day in and day out? Your average José will just get half a frango assado from the cantina next door, and it will taste exactly the same as Monteiro, Piri-piri, and Nandos is around the world.
Chris 12:46 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
>Of course they may have seen an opportunity and hired Portuguese cooks – who knows?
Otherwise everyone eating at these restos are guilty of cultural appropriation I suppose? 🙂
DeWolf 13:53 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Roman has a point that chicken just tastes different in Europe and Asia, whether it’s factory farmed or not. For example, in Hong Kong the chickens are much smaller, with a more concentrated taste – kind of similar to how Cornish hens taste here. By contrast, North American chickens are enormous, with tons of breast meat, and they taste like nothing much at all.
Kate 12:00 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
I suppose it could be different chicken breeds that dominate in some places. Like those awful tomato cultivars that were chosen mostly because they shipped well, we’ve probably ended up with chickens bred more for toleration of overcrowding and for fast growth, than for flavour.