Author: Sara Baron-Goodman

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Arts

Live Show – Art for the People, by the People

Photo courtesy of ARTPROV

Aquil Virani is on a quest to make art interactive and find a Canadian identity

“Live art” is a term that Montreal artist Aquil Virani not only promises to create, but can be seen as part of his whole philosophy. Saturday night, Virani put on an intimate show at the Montreal Improv space on Boul. St Laurent, combining theatrical improv with live painting and a small showcase of his work.

As an artist, Virani aims to bring what would traditionally be seen as high art, down to the level of the masses, involving other artists as well as civilians in his pieces.

“In an article I was once called ‘The People’s artist,” Virani said, “it’s kind of a grandiose, almost profound, yet kind of cheezy title, but I think it’s also kind of true.”

Virani’s personal mandate is to make art accessible to the everyman, and it has been since high school. “My high school experience involved doing a lot of extra curricular activities, and I didn’t like that some of my non-arts friends, who did rugby or choir or science or whatever – they thought that art was stupid because they only saw the avant-garde stuff,” said Virani. “They felt like art wasn’t for them and that frustrated me. I don’t think art is like taxidermy, it isn’t like a niche thing that a few people like. Part of my personal mission is to spread art to the people.”

In his mission to do so, Virani makes it a point to attach a description to every piece he exhibits, explaining how and why that piece is significant to him. One such example is a set of photographs, one of his mother and one of his girlfriend, hanging side-by-side at Saturday’s exhibit. At the bottom of each is a short poem that fills out the headline on the respective pictures which says, “This is my [mother/gf]. She is my crutch.” The fact that each of the poems were identical made the sentiment seem slightly Freudian, though sweet nonetheless, offering two portraits that describe the kind of love and support that everybody should be lucky enough to have.

Photo courtesy of ARTPROV

Virani’s next initiative for bringing art to the people and the people to the art, involves a lengthy quest across Canada to collect drawing submissions that exemplify Canadian identity. This project, entitled “Canada’s self portrait” is all about encouraging people across Canada to “think about who we are as Canadians, and then celebrate that identity.”

Canadian identity in and of itself has always been a vague concept. Marshall McLuhan famously said that “Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.” Virani, however, is single-handedly disproving that theory. By amassing these drawings that individually are snapshots of one person’s experience in one province, collectively they will represent what it means to be quintessentially Canadian.

Virani’s first stop on his cross-Canada tour is Halifax, and he will be travelling throughout the country over the course of the next few months to collect the submissions that will become this tapestry of Canadian life. His tour will end up back in Montreal, though a specific timeframe is not yet established.

Saturday’s exhibit offered a snapshot of the kind of interactive and inclusive show that we can expect from Virani.

“I wanted to explore what [art and improv] could learn from each other,” said Virani. “A painting is a very polished work of art, and improv is as unpolished as you can get, but in the end they combine in very cool ways.”

The first, and dominant, half of Saturday’s exhibit was about an hour of your typical college-level improv show, glorified by Virani’s live painting in the corner. Audience members were engaged as they offered up one-word suggestions that the actors and Virani would each interpret through an improv sketch or painting, respectively.

Photo courtesy of ARTPROV

“The idea is for the art and the improv to feed off of each other, to influence each other,” said Virani.

The two tableaus that he painted on stage came out as beautifully textural and colourful abstract landscapes, unfortunately overpowered by what was at best knee-slapping, drama class antics.

Following the show, audience members were invited to check out some of Virani’s artwork, including the two live paintings done onstage, on display in the next room. The works were a medley of portrait photography, abstract painting, and vibrant graphic design art. His use of colours and shadow was particularly captivating, making each piece pop. Virani works as a graphic designer as well as an independent artist. Of course, each piece was accompanied by a plaque that explained the meaning behind it.

You can keep track of Virani’s work through his website, www.aquil.ca. 

 

Categories
Arts

Zentangle your way to better mental health

An attempt at a Zentagle creation. Photo (and Zentage masterpiece, pictured) by Sara Baron-Goodman.

At first glance, Zentangle looks exactly like the DoodleArt that every child born between 1970 and 2000 surely spent hours toiling over. Zentangle, however, claims to be much more than simple doodling. It is an easy and relaxing way to create images through drawing structured patterns. It is, in fact, a school of art, a sensation that is sweeping the nation. There are hundreds of Certified Zentangle Teachers (CZTs) in more than 10 countries worldwide.

Apparently, Zentangle can bring one to a state of religious experience and deep meditation. Zentangle is like the tantric sex of the art world – the goal is to achieve a spiritual awakening, it’s not about the end results. For tanglers, the pretty art is just an incidental bonus. Because aesthetics are not important to Zentangle, even the most artistically handicapped among us can become tanglers.

Tangles, as the patterns are called, are meant to represent life’s problems, helping to deconstruct them into zigs and zags, dots and squiggles so that they are easier to overcome. As the Zentangle mantra states, “anything is possible, one stroke at a time.” Disclaimer: compulsively drawing lines and shapes will not help you erase your debt, mend a broken heart or pass an exam.

Armed with a copy of The Joy of Zentangle, a black fine-tip Sharpie, a pencil, and a small sketchpad, I was ready. It should be noted that “true” tanglers are supposed to use special tiles to draw on, made from fine Italian paper. I, however, had no desire to spend $20 on said tiles when my highschool sketching paper would suffice. For beginners, it is recommended to only use black ink and a pencil, so that our feeble minds aren’t distracted by too many colour options.

The cardinal rule of Zentangle is never to erase – there are no mistakes in tangling. Already this made me anxious. The thought that there was nothing I could do if I messed up my pattern had me in a cold sweat before I even put pen to paper.

Finally, I took the plunge. Following the guidelines in my book, I marked off each corner of the paper with a dot. The next step was to connect the dots to make a frame in which to tangle. Then, tracing an imaginary string with a pencil, I followed the instructions to divide my frame into sections. Each section is meant to represent an aspect of life.

The next part was the fun part, where I got to doodle (sorry, tangle) for an hour under the pretence of self-betterment. After meticulously drawing filigrees and shapes in the first section, I was starting to feel exasperated rather than zen. I can only employ acute concentration for so long, I am a millennial after all. Like a trooper, I persevered and filled the rest of my sections with intricate-ish tangles.

The end result is no Picasso but it is interesting-looking. Was my mind clear and focused on the task at hand? Yes, for about an hour, my raison-d’être was trying to make paisleys fit together like a puzzle. Did this help me to achieve spiritual awakening and solve my problems? Not so much.

The Joy of Zentangle retails for $15.74 at Amazon.ca

 

Categories
Arts

ARTiculate

Graphic Jenny Kwan.

Most Anticipated: The Great Gatsby – 7.5/10

There is bias here. We fell in love with the book in tenth grade. Like Gatsby himself, most people have been waiting five years for this dream to come true. And like Gatsby, it seems that reality never quite lives up to the fantasy.

Graphic Jenny Kwan.

Baz Luhrmann’s version of the movie was the embodiment of a Jazz Age party. It was visually vibrant, the musical score was modern, and the camera dipped and swirled across the screen like it was dancing the charleston. The casting was spot-on, with Leonardo DiCaprio being the obvious successor to Robert Redford as Gatsby, and Carey Mulligan charming us all as the wide-eyed Daisy.
However, bits of the film felt recycled from other Luhrmann pictures. In particular, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, sitting at his typewriter while the words lift off his page and float around the screen – if one were to screw their eyes up right it could just as easily have been Ewan McGregor typing away in Moulin Rouge.
Another qualm was the narration. Nick becoming the author of the book, writing it from his sanitarium, seemed like a cheap reference to Zelda Fitzgerald living out her later life in a similar place, doing work her husband took credit for. Maybe this is reading too much into it, but it is irksome nonetheless.

Most Likely to Become a Cult Classic: Sharknado -0/10 if you’re taking it seriously; 10/10 if you’re not.
This gem of a movie, starring Tara Reid and Ian Ziering, premiered July 13 on the Syfy channel.
For those of you who live under a rock and have managed not to hear about this TV movie masterpiece, the title says it all. It essentially involves sharks who get sucked up into a tornado, and subsequently rain down on the unsuspecting citizens of L.A. Of course, by sharks, this really means the low budget option, which would be shark-like puppets and recycled stock footage of hammerheads in murky water.
Spoiler alert: the best moment was the scene in which Ziering’s character gets swallowed whole by one of the sharks. Just as the audience begins to accept his unceremonious death, he cuts his way out of the animal’s underbelly and emerges from the flaps of shark flesh, covered in blood. It was hauntingly reminiscent of a birth canal, and made only more fantastic by him pulling out one of the other protagonists behind him. A shout-out also goes to Reid, who seems to have wholly forgotten how to act.
Most Pleasant Surprise: The Conjuring – 8/10
The prediction was that The Conjuring would be a hybrid of The Exorcist and Chucky.There were no expectations beyond some cheap thrills. Then five crucial words appeared onscreen: based on a true story.
This is the hook that kept the interest piqued, and prompted a Wikipedia search to find the details of the real story.
The merging storyline of paranormal investigator couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, and the haunted Perron family made it more compelling and story-driven than the usual fear-mongering film. The use of gore was minimal, making it all the more stomach-churning when disturbing images did pop up.

Categories
Student Life

Indulge in afternoon tea at Birks

high tea
Birks is located at 1240 Square Phillips St.

Audrey may have had breakfast at Tiffany’s, but Montrealers can eat their hearts out at the afternoon tea at Birks. The famed jewelry store houses a café by Europea on the mezzanine level so that you can gawk at all the diamonds and gold as you nibble on a scone or six.

The afternoon tea service begins daily at 2:30 p.m., and is in every way an indulgence. For $26.50 plus tax a veritable feast is brought before you on a silver platter, accompanied by a pot of tea of your choice from the Marriage Frères de Paris selection.

Judging by the pride in the hostess’s eyes as she announced the brand name, I can only assume that this is the tea equivalent of an exclusive Parisian designer. Indeed, this was no plebeian cuppa; the lavender and red fruits fused perfectly together in the delicate yet punchy Vert Provence green tea. I also tried the Thé sur le Nil, another green tea infused with spices and citrus. It tasted every bit as exotic as it sounds. You will surely taste the rich quality of the loose-leaf tea in the classic Earl Grey Impérial (I may never be able to go back to Lipton’s again). The teas, each in their own iron pot, were brought to our table along with  three timers designating the optimal steeping time for a weak, medium or strong brew.

The food was presented neatly on a tray the length of the table, arranged in the order in which each course should be eaten. Up first were two freshly baked homemade scones, each served with fresh Devonshire cream and marmalade. The scones were buttery and warm, and the sweetness of the condiments was enough to utterly drive away the “mean reds.”  After two cups of tea and both scones I was verging on full, but alas I persevered on to the trio of canapés.

The first of the lot consisted of a slice of cucumber atop a biscuit, stacked with a mini cocktail shrimp and green apple mint jelly. Following that was a duck foie gras and cranberry chutney canapé, and one with smoked salmon, caviar and cream cheese. Each one was bite sized but full in flavour.

Next up was a half-size club sandwich, made with arugula and crispy prosciutto. The arugula added a fresh herbal zing to the salty prosciutto, chicken and tomatoes. For you herbivores out there, vegetarian options are offered, though they change depending on the season.

Birks is located at 1240 Square Phillips St.

For dessert we were each given a truffle to sample, enrobed in a shimmering edible pixie dust. The chocolates were decadent, each filled with an oozing fruit coulis. Beautiful pastel colored macaroons sat next to the chocolates. My only qualm was that we didn’t get to select our flavours, and I ended up with two that I didn’t care for. The raspberry anis one was heavy on the anis, while the pistachio had a strong Amaretto aroma. My favorite was the maple and salted caramel, though it was little on the syrupy sweet side. They were however the ideal balance between crumbly and chewy, so the potential was there.

Last but not least were three verrines, respectively filled with vanilla syrup with freshly diced pineapple, bergamot pudding with sliced peaches and maple custard with hazelnuts. The pineapple was the favourite at my table, as the fruit was tangy and welcomingly light after the gluttonous amount of food we had just consumed.

As decadent as the spread was, it was the decidedly “ladies who lunch” atmosphere that sets this afternoon tea service apart from your average midday meal. While pearls are not a prerequisite to dining here, they are certainly encouraged. My friends and I couldn’t help feeling like we were Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, shopping on Rodeo Drive in her streetwalker attire. While we may not be streetwalkers, with our school bags and casual attire, we might as well have been in the eyes of the pretentious hostesses.

Though it is a little pricey for a lunch, the food was delicious and the experience makes it utterly worthwhile for a special occasion. To make the most of it, summon up your inner Audrey and dress up to look the part. The café also offers brunch and table d’hôte or à la carte lunch services.

 

Birks is located at 1240 Square Phillips St.

Categories
Student Life

The speakeasy behind the red door

Big in Japan is located on 4175 St-Laurent Blvd. (Photo Sophia Loffreda)

Step behind the inconspicuous industrial red door and you will find yourself in an intimate, candlelit lair. Big in Japan, the speakeasy sister of the Japanese restaurant down the street, is one of Montreal’s best local gems.

In authentic speakeasy fashion, if you aren’t privy to the knowledge that Big in Japan lies nestled away next to Patati Patata, you would walk right past it.

Once inside, patrons are greeted with a rush of the prohibition era. Tea candles provide the only lighting, giving the room a dim and warm glow. Overhead, Japanese whiskey bottles hang from the ceiling, occasionally plucked one by one by the staff to serve anticipating mouths.

Seating is provided by barstools at the long glass tables that sit along the periphery of the room, so that when full, the bar becomes a sort of communal dining—aka drinking—room. The setting is intimate and you will seldom find the place empty. In fact, it is often busiest on weeknights.

Patrons range from nonchalant hipsters in plaid to the after-work, suit-clad crowd. Ambient music is just quiet enough to sit and read a book while sipping on your umeshu or Chu-Hi (Japanese plum liqueur and Japanese grapefruit yuzu, respectively.)

On a Friday during happy hour, the place was at quarter-capacity and my friend and I were able to actually have a conversation at an appropriate decibel level, though towards 7 p.m. people started to flock in in groups of two and threes.

The menu, having been recently revamped, features about a dozen signature cocktails, as well as perhaps the city’s most expansive list of Japanese wines, beers and whiskeys.

For groups, the punch bowl gets you quite a lot of bang for your buck. Changing the recipe every season, the punch bowl serves 22 saucers of alcohol for $65. The recipe of the moment is a concoction of gin, Pimm’s, mint, lemon and pomegranate. The fruit and mint merge together to disguise the taste of alcohol, to the point where I didn’t realize I was tipsy until I inevitably stood up and couldn’t feel my feet. The old menu used to include a half-size punch bowl for $35, which was ideal for two people to share. Just one fan’s opinion: bring that back!

The Yorkshire Lemonade, another new menu item, has been introduced to much acclaim. Made with gin, lemon, strawberry and cucumber, it is remarkably smooth and refreshing.

The Jamaican Mule is a medley of rum, mint, ginger syrup, tonic soda and lime. The drink tasted like summertime with a zesty ginger kick. The Abbé was definitely tequila-heavy, with a nuance of the other ingredients, being Benedictine, rhubarb and lemon.

The bar, which sits behind a glass semi-partition, also mixes up all the regular crowd-pleasers like whiskey sours and gin and tonic, although with such an interesting cocktail list, it would be foolish to get something so pedestrian.

Big in Japan offers some of the same Japanese snacks as the restaurant does, though it’s infinitely more wallet-friendly to satiate your hunger at one of the burger joints next door.

Cocktails range in price from $10 to $14 and the whiskeys and wines are available at just about every price point, to suit both the students and high-rollers who drink at this trendy watering hole.

 

Big in Japan is located on 4175 St-Laurent Blvd.

 

 

Categories
Student Life

Tale of two tea rooms II

totem tea and spice (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

Totem Tea and Spice will surely add a kick to your day

Sara Baron-Goodman

It was a blustery winter afternoon when a handwritten chalkboard sign beckoned me into Totem Tea and Spice, promising hot apple caramel tea lattes. It’s been a beautiful love affair ever since.

The shop is located just a few blocks away from Concordia’s Loyola campus. Radiating warmth, the homey café is an instant mood lifter.

At the end of February, owner Julie Pederson moved the small walk-up, one-room shop to its new location at street level. The vibe is like a modern English tea room — white paint with grey and exposed brick accents, eclectic frames scattered on the walls and teacups hanging from the light fixtures that Pederson made herself.

Totem Tea and Spice (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

A handful of tables provide sit down room for a good number of customers, but the space is usually quiet, inviting easy conversation or a good atmosphere to get some work done.

The shop is an expansion of Pederson’s online business of the same variety.

“I wanted a space to be able to grow a local clientele and interact with customers,” she said.

Pederson keeps everything in the shop close to home: all the teas are organic and everything is from local Canadian suppliers.

“That’s something that’s very important to me,” she said. “My customers look for healthy options.”

The new space is bigger, brighter and offers up an improved menu. In addition to tea and tarts, customers can now enjoy fresh sandwiches, soups, cookies and cakes. To boot, the menu is vegetarian friendly; I chowed down on a fresh vegetable and avocado sandwich with a red pepper spread and was wholly satisfied.

Lunch specials are served up daily, and revolve around a hearty vegetarian soup and savory scone, accompanied of course by your choice of tea.

Most importantly, of course, is the seemingly endless selection of 65 loose leaf teas to choose from, each with a cute quirky name. My personal favorite would have to be the Karma Sutra, a floral and chai blend that’s delicate and warms you up from the inside out.

For my fellow chocoholics, I recommend the Red Velvet, a tea that channels the flavours of the classic cake. There’s also the Cocoa Chanel and the Caramel Latte, which are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

Totem Tea and Spice is located on 51 Westminster Ave. N. (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

For the health conscious, sip on one of the more holistic organic teas, which boast properties from helping digestion to curing the common cold.

As far as snacks go, the Melting Moment cookies are sure to live up to their name. The orange blossom butter dough pairs decadently with a creamy lemon zest filling that makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

Totem also offers a selection of 100 spices to take home. Packaged neatly in gift sets with or without the loose leaf teas, there are salts for barbeque, baking and everything in between. The Java Love Rub, made with coffee beans, is a customer favourite that pairs well with red meats and chicken.

All the teas and treats are available to enjoy in house or to take home. For the latter option, infuser mugs and teapots come in a variety of shapes and sizes so you can steep your favorite tea wherever you are.

To top it off, Totem is very student friendly; a full meal of a sandwich and tea latte is only $7. A tea alone is $2.50, while a latte goes for $3.50. Everyone from the Royal West Academy boys to the older women who frequent the yoga studio upstairs seem to love this place. Honestly, there’s very little not to love.

Totem Tea and Spice is located on 51 Westminster Ave. N.

 

Teas and scones will warm the cold soul

Saturn De Los Angeles

As I walked up Parc Ave. on a mild and foggy Friday night, I saw nightclub warriors revelling in their little bubble on the left and students hanging out on the street enjoying each others’ company on the right.

Desperate for a hot drink, I soon discovered this cozy little lounge right at the corner. I walked inside already drenched from the flakey snow melting on my scalp.

The macarons and cupcakes are also a popular staple. Macarons go for $1.75 each. There’s also the option of purchasing a box of six for almost $10 or 10 for $15. (Photo Natalia Lara Diaz-Berrio)

A young lady greeted me, enthusiastically offering a pot of delicious Kyoto Cherry flavoured tea to warm my soul.

I couldn’t resist. I gave in and poured myself a cup. At the moment I took that first sip, I was in heaven.

“We’re a tea shop, and a tea [accessory] shop, and a lounge.” said François Philibert, manager of CHAÏ T’ Lounge.

CHAÏ T’ has been in business since the beginning of last fall and operates as an extension of its more bistro-oriented café called El Mundo. Both establishments have the same owner.

The lounge is full during evenings and weekends with the majority of customers coming from McGill University. There’s also a good blend of tourists, local folks and tea aficionados.

“French people are more used to classic teas than the English people, “ said Philibert. “I see [the French] ask for green tea, but the English order more flavoured ones.”

There is a huge selection of tea available ranging from traditional to flavoured, such as the chocolate mint and a vanilla and grenadine flavoured black tea called the Monas blend. (Photo Natalia Lara Diaz-Berrio)

There is a huge selection of tea available ranging from traditional to flavoured, such as the chocolate mint and a vanilla and grenadine flavoured black tea called the Monas blend. Genmaicha, a green tea with roasted rice, is a staff favourite. Kyoto Cherry and Long Island Strawberry are recommended picks.

A tea pot will cost you $3.99 and will give you four to five cups. You can get an extra refill of hot water for a $1.

The macarons and cupcakes are also a popular staple. Macarons go for $1.75 each. There’s also the option of purchasing a box of six for almost $10 or 10 for $15. Each cupcake will cost you $3.49, while you can get a box of six at nearly $20. But don’t let the prices fool you. They’re absolutely filling — and addictive.

They even have locally made scones from a baker in the West Island. What goes better with tea than freshly made scones? Red Velvet cupcakes also grab a lot of attention. There are also S’More and Oreo flavoured variants as well.

Philibert is preparing a new menu for the summer by creating concoctions with naturally flavoured bubble tea (iced cold tea with tapioca bubbles) and tea soda (steeped tea with sparking water).

Philibert explained that it is important to him that CHAÏ T’ Lounge stand out. “There are four coffee shops on the same corner . . . but we wanted something different. Tea [shops] are getting interesting and getting more popular. We thought at the beginning to make it [as such], but we wanted to be a place to relax and study.”

His passion for tea is something that grabs people’s attention, and it is something that he’ll continue to do as CHAÏ T’ Lounge reaches its first year of operation in September.

 

CHAÏ T’ Lounge is located on 3506 Parc Ave.

Categories
Student Life

The city’s culinary experience is just a pit stop away

Argentinian resto

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the annual Montréal en Lumière festival, which will run until March 3. Every year the festivities focus around a theme and this time the city is celebrating the vibrant culture of Buenos Aires.

Argentinian resto (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

As a thriving culinary city, a huge part of the festival revolves around literally tasting the spirit of Argentina, along with Quebecois favourites we all know and love. For the foodie on a budget, the returning Escales Gourmandes series of gourmet pit stops is a must. Scattered around the free outdoor site at Place des Arts, Montreal restaurants have set up kiosks where festival-goers can drop in for a small snack or full meal.

To do it right, I recommend arriving on an empty stomach.

My first stop was the SAQ Express booth; to wet my palette, so to speak. For $4.50 I had a steaming cup of hot red wine. Mulled with spices similar to a hot apple cider, it was the perfect antidote to the bone-chilling wind. Other items on the menu included several varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Blanc and spiked coffees, all between four and six dollars. They also offered chorizo sausages and marshmallows to roast over nearby fire pits, but I opted out as I was saving myself for better things to come.

Argentinian chimichurri from D’Argentine (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

Next up was L’Atelier d’Argentine—a Montreal restaurant that was serving up its South American specialties.

The chefs grill the food in the middle of the booth for customers to salivate over as they wait to order from their spots at the wooden tables that line the perimeter. I had the grilled pork sandwich slathered with criolla sauce; the sauce, made with olive oil, diced tomatoes, onions and peppers, added tanginess to the savory pork. My companion opted for the corn empanadas. The dough was buttery and flaky and the inside was hearty, tasting like a cream of corn soup. Dipped in the homemade chimichurri sauce for an added zest, I think that might have been the winning dish of the night. The empanadas were around $6.00 for two and the sandwich was just under $7.

Next, we stopped at the small window set up by Café Jura. We each devoured a churro, which oozed dulce de leche from the doughnut center. For $3.50, it was a delightful and authentic treat.

From there, we spied the Baraque à Frites and the Maison du Chocolat right next to it. Someone with greater willpower than I might have kept walking, but forgoing fries and chocolate is simply not something I’m comfortable with.

At Baraque à Frites I was presented with a cone of crispy Belgian-style fries and a choice of one of their specialty mayonnaise dips for $4.50. I selected the Béarnaise, made with mayo, white wine and tarragon. The fries were a little salty, but the creaminess of the mayo salvaged the dish and I was altogether satisfied.

Of course, it was then necessary to balance the saltiness with a little sweetness and poke around the Maison du Chocolat hut next door. This kiosk was set up by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and was a miniature version of one of their stores. After much deliberation, my friend and I chose to bring home caramel apples and 72 per cent dark chocolate bark, adorned with almonds and fleur de sel caramel, all for $12.

SAQ bistro (Photo Sara Baron-Goodman)

The last stop for the night was the SAQ Bistro, set up as a sit down restaurant inside a dome. The ambiance was definitely memorable, but the food fell short of my expectations. We ordered what the menu promised to be parmesan fondue with tomato coulis, for $6.50. Disappointingly, we were served two small, square, battered bricks of cheese that looked store-bought, with tomato sauce slathered on the side. For another five dollars each, I had half a shot glass of porto and my friend had a tiny plastic cup of Cabernet white wine.

I left the Escales Gourmands probably about seven pounds heavier, but thoroughly content. You will find something to satisfy just about any palette and it is all relatively inexpensive. The winner, in my opinion, was L’Atelier d’Argentine. But I will definitely be back to sample the rest of the kiosks before making a final judgment.

For more information, visit montrealenlumiere.com

Categories
Student Life

What do you do when Cupid is on a budget?

Graphic Jennifer Kwan
Graphic Jennifer Kwan

He’ll catch you if you fall
Sara Baron-Goodman
Assistant life editor

Harness the bone-chilling Montreal winter and take your valentine out for a spin on one of the city’s free ice skating rinks.
A skating date might sound like a cliché, but anyone who has ever seen Serendipity (which, incidentally, everyone should) will recognize the indisputable classic romance and winter wonderland magic of it all. I can’t guarantee that your valentine will fall head over heels, but the chances of falling on skates are infinitely higher.
To keep warm, consider packing a thermos of hot chocolate if you’re feeling wholesome, or buttered rum if you’re not. Of course, the best way to avoid hypothermia is good old body heat—I’m sure you can all figure out for yourselves how to make that work.
For an old-timey romance vibe, head to Parc Lafontaine, where you can weave in and out of ice paths and delight in the way the snow reflects the sparkle in your partner’s eyes (if you’re into that sort of thing.) Entrance to the rink is free; you can rent skates for seven dollars and helmets and lockers for three dollars. Skating hours are from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every weekday in the winter, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.
Alternately, there’s the rink at Bonsecours Basin in the Old Port, which has daily musical themes to offer a soundtrack to your skating. Admission is six dollars and it’s open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Wednesdays and open until 10 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday. As you may have guessed, the musical theme on Thursday is ‘romance’— I’m thinking some Michael Bolton.

Night at the museum
Sara Baron-Goodman
Assistant life editor

For those of you with an appreciation for aesthetic culture, take a gander around one of Montreal’s museums.
There are always interesting exhibits going on, but the house collections are just as impressive and are usually cheaper entry.
Le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal charges eight dollars admission for students and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and stays open until 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. Entrance to the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal is free for the permanent collections, which can be visited between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekends and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the week.
For something a little different, I recommend the Montreal Creative exhibition at Place des Arts. The exhibit itself is tiny but the interactive nature of all the pieces lends well to playful antics and banter. The exhibit is only on until February 16, and open until 6:30 p.m. every night.
Afterwards, pick up a baguette, some cheese and a bottle of wine and indulge in Euro-style romance. Art always opens up for titillating dialogue and the touristy vibe of going to a museum lends an exciting and sophisticated note to the evening.

Retro theatre night
Jade Adams
Contributor

While a standard dinner and a movie date can leave you wondering if you’ll have enough money left to spring for popcorn, Dollar Cinema offers admission for two and snacks for under $10. Most of the big movies make their way to Dollar Cinema after a few weeks so you and your date might have the chance to catch one of the flicks you missed during the holidays or the first few weeks of semester. It’s admittedly not the most glamorous movie theatre, but there’s a certain charm in going to a movie where the lobby boasts an interesting collection of old sofas and the man working at the counter might be up to personally discuss the movie you’re going to see with you (depending how long the line is.)

There’s no age limit on boardgames
Jade Adams
Contributor

Pub Ludique Randolph would be a great date idea for any couple with an underlying competitive spirit. Cover costs about five dollars each, giving you access to dozens of board games. They also offer coffee, soda, cocktails, beer and light snacks such as quiche and sandwiches. After you claim a table, you wave down one of the animators on duty and let them know either which game you want, what they would recommend, or give them the opportunity to surprise you with one of their personal favorites. It might not be one of the most traditional Valentine dates, but Pub Ludique Randolph will definitely leave you with a night to remember. Aside from all of the fun you’ll have together, think of the potential bragging rights you’ll win by the end of the night.

Categories
Student Life

Loosen that belt and get your cheese curds on

Graphic Jennifer Kwan

Montreal, brace yourselves for seven days of glory. Prepare yourselves for one of the greatest weeks in our history. Montrealers, raise your forks together for what is going to be greatest culinary experience of your life. Let us celebrate our national treasure with nothing less than pride and dignity. Montreal, get ready for Poutine Week.

Graphic Jennifer Kwan

You read right, Poutine Week; one week filled with events, culinary treats and great parties for the decadent, saucy, cheesy delight that we Quebecers have the honour of representing. Montreal is filled with poutine gems and this week they’re all getting together to celebrate the dish that has made them famous. The event is organized by Montrealer Na’eem Adam.

“Basically, 30 restaurants are getting together and making an amazing poutine that will be available at all of these restaurants for [roughly] $10,” said Adam in an interview with The Concordian. Restaurants will also be selling half portions of this poutine for only $5.

Adam is the social innovator that was behind Burger Week in September, which was a huge success. This time he knew Montrealers expected more.

“After Burger Week, we wanted to take it to another level, and that’s poutine,” said Adam.

Poutine Week has been all over social media sites for the past few weeks. It seems everyone is preparing for the first ever Poutine Week in Montreal.

Adam and his team have been organizing it for quite a while, and events posted on Facebook are already gaining popularity. Events featured during the week include Poutine Week team dinner, hockey poutine and even a poutine jog.

“We don’t want anyone feeling too unhealthy during the week, so we even organized the poutine jog, so that you can still get that exercise in between poutines,” said Adam.

Needless to say, this is an ingenious idea that has found it’s one and only true home: Montreal. The idea and the organization behind it was absolutely spot on, and, like Adam hoped, brought this event to a whole other level. We can only hope to see this will become an annual event.

 

 

Poutineville does it like no other

Poutineville is notorious for having one of the greatest and most innovative poutines in the business. Owner Kosta Kariotakis couldn’t contain his passion when describing what he’s done with the famous poutine.

Poutineville provides a quite modern yet equally old school setting, which seems to be the norm for many restaurants in the Plateau nowadays. Nevertheless, it provides a comfortable atmosphere where one can enjoy a few drinks and a world class poutine, which is exactly what Kariotakis wanted to achieve with Poutineville.

“We want customers to have the best possible experience when coming to Poutineville,” said Kariotakis.

Over the years, Poutineville has developed different types of poutines around the core of what most of us know to be poutine. This has enabled him to discover a mix of ingredients that will literally make your mouth drool. Here’s the secret behind their success.

“What you know as poutine is smoked meat, bacon, cheese. What we’ve done here is that we’ve given the French Canadians poutine, with Greek food. We take poutine, and we add filet mignon, we add beef. No one else has poutines like us,” said Kariotakis.

There’s no doubt in my mind, especially considering my Greek origin and my personal love for Greek food, that this is an idea that has changed poutine for the better. However, the boys over at Poutineville took it to another level for Poutine Week, and the hype for this particular poutine had already exploded on the Twittersphere. They call it the General Tao Poutine. This monstrous platter of fries, sauce, and General Tao can be called nothing more than a masterpiece.

Some of the ingredients in this particular one includes sesame seeds, scallions, General Tao sauce, cheese curds and home crushed potatoes. It had been making headlines before it was even featured in their Beaubien location, receiving a spot in the “top 10 must go places for Poutine Week” on mtlblog.com.

Some other classic Poutineville poutines are on special this week in honour of Poutine Week, such as the cheeseburger poutine and the infamous braised-beef poutine. Just repeating that in my mind stirs my stomach.

Poutineville is located on 1348 Beaubien E. St., 1365 Ontario E. St., and 99 Charles Lemoyne

 

 

There is nothing ordinary about Burger Bar’s poutine

As if it was necessary to have an excuse to eat more poutine, our glorious city is home to the first ever Poutine Week, going on right now all over town. Thirty restaurants are offering up their french fry creations for the occasion, with innovative recipes inspired by international cuisine, post-inebriation needs and twists on the classic.

I decided to venture to Burger Bar, somewhere not far for Concordia students. Their featured concoction, the Hangover Poutine, consisted of king oyster mushrooms slopped in with the traditional fries and cheese curds, slathered with gravy and truffle oil and topped with a fried egg. The whole thing was served up in an iron pot. It was big enough for my two friends and I to share for dinner and be full enough not to entertain dessert.

The truffle oil and mushrooms added an earthiness to the greasy dish. The flavours were unexpected but married perfectly with the poutine, adding that hint of je ne sais quoi to the classic Quebec meal. The mushrooms provided a meatiness that is so necessary to late night food, but without the aftershock of heartburn that frequently accompanies smoked meat or hotdog poutine binges.

The egg on top is what made the poutine live up to its name. For some inexplicable reason there is nothing more satisfying than the combination of potatoes and egg after a night out.

The key to the Hangover Poutine experience is the blending of all the flavours. For optimal enjoyment cut the egg into bite-sized bits and thoroughly mix the fries with the mushrooms and cheese until it’s all a melted slurry.

My one criticism is that the heaviness of the fried egg made it sink to the bottom of the dish, so that at the end all that was left were chunks of egg white gone soggy in the gravy.

I would wholeheartedly recommend a trip to Burger Bar, especially if you’re looking to soak up all that leftover alcohol you’ve just consumed at one of Crescent street’s numerous bars.

The Hangover Poutine will cost you 15$ and some instant artery clogging, but it’s delicious and it really hits the spot.

Burger Bar is located at 1465 Crescent St.

Categories
Arts

Romeo and Juliet with guns, denim and high kicks

Photo by Victor Tangermann
Photo by Victor Tangermann

Take Romeo and Juliet and throw them into the violent, gang-ridden New York city streets of the 1950s and you have West Side Story. Oh, and throw a few songs in there while you’re at it. For the next two weeks, the McGill Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society is putting their own spin on the romance and tragedy of these timeless star-crossed lovers.

AUTS is an organization dedicated to putting on shows by students, for students. The team is made up entirely of undergraduates, most of whom are just amateur aficionados, not theatre students. Keeping this in mind, the production was impressive.

The story follows the unlikely and forbidden romance between Tony and Maria. He is the leader of the New York street gang, the Jets. She is the sister of the leader of the rival gang of Puerto Rican immigrants, the Sharks. The narrative plays out like Romeo and Juliet, but with more firepower, jean jackets and a lot more dancing.

Concordia student Piper Ainsworth took centre stage as Maria, the modern Puerto Rican incarnation of Juliet. The role calls for a mix of passion and demureness that can be tricky to pull off, and Ainsworth definitely favoured the latter characteristic in her portrayal. She played Maria’s naïveté to a tee, but when it came to the scenes of heart-wrenching emotion, her performance was a little lacklustre. All was forgiven however, every time she opened her mouth to belt out another of the all too catchy songs. With a powerfully operatic voice, Ainsworth commanded the audience with every impossibly high note she nailed.

McGill student Christopher Stevens-Brown plays Tony, Maria’s Romeo and leader of her family’s rival gang. His musical talent was equally standout, and the range in his singing carried his character from moments of intimacy with Maria to desperation in the face of senseless violence.

However, it was Vanessa Drusnitzer, who played Maria’s confidante Anita, who stole the show. Her emotive acting allowed her to command the play’s more dramatic moments, and the passion that came in her singing only enhanced an already powerful voice. Of the whole cast, she was the most believable in her role, down to the details of the Puerto Rican accent she put on — kudos to Drusnitzer for being the only one to fully pull that off.

The live orchestra, conducted by Sean Mayes, was by far the most professional aspect of the production. The difficulty of playing live against the foreground of actors singing and dancing is a challenge that the team executed flawlessly. The instrumental music added a dimension to the show that would have been lacking with pre-recorded music, and the talent of everyone in the orchestra really shone.

West Side Story is a notoriously difficult musical to put on, mainly due to the strength it needs not only in acting and singing, but also in choreography. Considering this was an amateur production, the dancing was good and the actors were fairly in sync in their movement. Although the fighting scenes between the Jets and Sharks might have been executed with more brutish movements, the ideas still came through and the story was not lost.

Overall, the production quality was a notch above a high school play, but the musical talent of the cast and orchestra was its saving grace. If you’re a fan of the story, it’s worth seeing, and worth supporting the efforts of the students who took on this ambitious project.

Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for adults. The show will be running on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from Jan. 31 until Feb. 2 at Moyse Hall, in the McGill Arts Building.

Categories
Student Life

Dive into some of Montreal’s best chocolate desserts

LIFE - Cocoa Locale - By Sara Baron-Goodman (2)

Cocoa Locale perfects the cake

Cocoa Locale, a cozy cake shop on Park Ave., is everything that a bakery should be. It is whimsical, homey, and has smells so tantalizing that it’s hard not to buy at least one of everything.

Reema Singh opened the shop five years ago, and has been churning out cakes and baked goods with her own two hands every day ever since. She’s a one-woman show, and she likes it that way. The shop is her baby.

Cocoa Locale is one room consisting of a counter with a display case, behind which Singh has her baking atelier. (Sara Baron-Goodman)

“I would never hire anybody else, I like that everything is up to me,” she said, elbow deep in vanilla cake batter.

Cocoa Locale is just one room consisting of a counter with a display case, behind which Singh has her baking atelier. She mixes and pours her confections as she serves and greets customers.

Artfully decorated, the place is brimming with personality. Corkboards the length of the walls are adorned with picture frames, 1950s ads and postcards, kitschy quotes, and retro baking paraphernalia.

The only seating is a wooden bench under the window, and a wooden swing beside it. This is a take-out shop, and customers can pre-order cakes and other goodies or else pick them up on the spot.

A box of six cupcakes is $15, a small cake ranges from $10 to $12, and a large one from $18 to $20. (Sara Baron-Goodman)

“I do cupcakes but my specialty are cakes,” she said. For Singh, cupcakes are really just a miniature version of her larger cakes. You won’t find thousands of flavours to box up by the dozen, but the select recipes she has leave no conceivable room for improvement.

“I’m a vanilla person,” Singh said of her favorite recipe. “I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting that.”

And perfect it is as this vanilla is anything but boring. With hints of rose, the cupcake is fresh, sweet and melts in your mouth.

It was, however, the chocolate chai cupcake that sent me reeling into what I can only describe as the elusive taste-bud orgasm. The cake is rich and decadent, with complex spices and a hint of ginger against the bittersweet chocolate.

The third cupcake I sampled was lemon coconut and was a nice contrast against

the richness of the chocolate. This one was sweet and buttery, with zings of lemon that hit you with each bite.

Cakes are baked fresh every day and while she retains customer favourites, she occasionally alters the menu at her own whim. Her three classic recipes are chocolate valrhona chai, vanilla rose, and lemon coconut. Each cake or cupcake is decorated as deliciously as it tastes, with a feminine sprinkle of flower petals or coconut shavings.

A box of six cupcakes is sold for $15, a small cake ranges from $10 to $12, and a large one from $18 to $20. I guarantee it’ll be worth every penny.

Cocoa Locale is located on 4807 Park Ave.

 

 

Cacao 70 brings you a taste of home

When away at university, the comforts of home seem to be far and few, especially when it comes to food. One thing I definitely miss are my mom’s home baked goodies, her brownies in particular. So when I stepped into Cacao 70, I felt that I had found a home away from home for all my chocolate-treat needs.

If you ever find yourself walking down Ste-Catherine St. and in need of a quick chocolate pick me up, pop into Cacao 70, a unique resto, dessert, and chocolate bar. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, a much needed relief from the below zero temperatures outside, with a sweet aroma of chocolate in the air.

There is a sit down menu or you can get your goodies to go, either way you cannot go wrong with a treat from them. My personal favourite is their brownies. I find it difficult to find a really good brownie as they’re always too soft, too hard or too rich. What seems to be such a simple dessert is actually really difficult to get just right.

However, at Cacao 70 the brownie is simply to die for. It is light, not too rich, and each bite leaves you wanting just a little bit more. This delicious dessert is comforting and warm, like it was baked in your mom’s kitchen.

You can have the brownie plain or add whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce. Along with the dessert, you can also enjoy a homemade hot chocolate that comes in a variety of flavours such as dark, milk chocolate, and spiced. You can also choose from several decadent chocolate pizza options that include chocolate peanut butter and Nutella with ricotta cheese. Another sweet surprise on the menu would be the 10 different flavours of chocolate soda that Cacao 70 offers, including banana and passion fruit.

No matter what chocolate needs you have, Cacao 70 has something to offer. It is just a quick walk from the downtown Concordia University campus, so make a pit stop after class to satisfy your chocolate cravings and be comforted with a one-of-a-kind dessert experience.

 

Cacao 70 is located on 2087 Ste-Catherine W. St.

Categories
Student Life

Step back in time and get lost in a nostalgia shop

Courtesy of Kitsch n Swell
Courtesy of Kitsch n Swell

Brimming with quirky relics from decades past, Kitsch’n Swell is a treasure trove waiting to be scavenged. Though sandwiched in the middle of several similar stores, Kitsch’n Swell is as unique as the items it houses, and is not to be missed.

Unlike many vintage stores, which can’t seem to stifle the lingering smell of mothballs, Kitsch’n Swell welcomes visitors with the subtle aroma of incense, automatically giving the space a warm feel. The décor is overly cluttered in a completely charming way, with everything from Christian-themed oil paintings to Elvis memorabilia to 1940s feathered caps hanging off the bright walls. Every square inch of the place oozes with personality, and it feels like each item has a story.

Most importantly, this isn’t just another frippery.

“Everything we sell is genuine vintage,” said Amélie Thériault, who owns the store with her boyfriend Richard Goulet. All items sold hail from sometime between the 1940s and ‘80s, so you’re not just re-buying a discarded Christmas sweater from three years ago.

“We’re constantly searching for interesting items,” said Thériault. She explained that they get their merchandise from a myriad of sources, often enlisting the help of a “picker” who is essentially an expert vintage hunter.

Most of their stock comes from within Montreal, but an occasional expedition elsewhere in Canada has proved fruitful.

“Some of our prized items are a collection of 600 pairs of pants we found in New Brunswick, all from the 1960s and never worn,” said Thériault.

Another one of their treasures is a slew of 1950s glasses, all completely new, which they retrieved from a closed-down optometrist’s old stock. There are hundreds of pairs of horn-rimmed and bejewelled cat-eye frames and, of course, I simply couldn’t resist trying on every single one. The new-old frames are all sold for $124, while ones that were previously owned come in slightly cheaper at $99.

Some of my favorite items were the 1960s grey-blue typewriter, still in its original case and the functioning 1940s dial phone. Scrounging around the magazine rack, I rifled through old issues of Life and Paris Match magazines, the oldest of which was from October 1937. Amongst them were some iconic editions, namely the Life issue that came out the week after John F. Kennedy was shot. Of course, there are also plenty of sartorial finds for vintage aficionado—I dare you to leave without a perfectly granny-chic sweater in hand.

Prices vary depending on the item, how old it is and its condition. Generally the clothing seems to fit into the $35 to $60 price range, meaning that these timeless pieces won’t set you back any farther than the average shopping trip to Zara or H&M.

Thériault and Goulet opened Kitsch’n Swell five years ago, and have since opened a sister shop, Rokokonut, one door over. In there, you’ll find a similar vibe with a racier edge. Vintage Playboy magazines sit on racks next to gussets and garters, but it also houses a more extensive collection of pants and dresses.

Both stores are definitely worth a visit if you’re in the market for kitschy knick-knacks, an authentically retro wardrobe revamp, or if you simply want to take a step back into the days of olde.

 

Kitsch’n Swell is located on 3968 Saint-Laurent Blvd.

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