Update: Juliette et Chocolat

Okay people. I had to go back for another crepe and a shot of chocolate. This time, I gathered a little more information for you in the visual sense. Again, I went with Tracey and Yan Yan, who are two of the greatest females on Earth.

I'll be brief with this one, I'll only focus on the chocolate.

First, I had another buckwheat crepe. This time I had the ham, pesto and gruyère.










And here is a shot of the Juliette et Chocolat salad that both Tracey and Yan Yan had:










Now, the glorious chocolate bar. As I've already said, there are a variety of liquidy, decadent chocolates to be had at Juliette et Chocolat. You have the classic shots: Bitter, Semi-Sweet, Milk, etc. Then you have some more exotic types exhibiting distinct flavours. They are indicative of types of cocoa mainly from South America and the Caribbean. For my first shot, I went with the classic semi-sweet type. They bring you the chocolate in a small, white ceramic pot that would normally hold cream, or even tea. There is more than enough for two shots and so you and a friend could order two different ones and share the experiences. What a treat - it is great for dessert because you get the sweetness without the heavy, cakey feeling. I'm feeling unimaginative tonight so I'll just say this tasted exactly like liquid chocolate. Look. What do you want from me. It's late, I just graded a bunch of exams and I'm considering whether I have the energy to make a cheescake flavoured with a ground cherry coulis. Cut me some slack.

Kisses,
Laurelle

Brunch: La Sala Rosa
La Sala Rosa, 4848 boul. St-Laurent (514)844-4227

So I've got these two friends, Tracey and Yan Yan. We all met a few ago in a summer session course called the Philosophy of Law at McGill University. The course was amazing and years later when I run into people who took the class with me we reminisce about how stimulating, rewarding, participatory and how non-McGill it was. It was truly a blessed experience. Ahem, let me clarify, Tracey taught the course and Yan Yan and I took the course. But really, it was a great experience which is obviously part of why both Yan Yan and I like to hang out with Tracey to this day.

So, recently there have been some changes for the non-me parts of this threesome. Yan Yan just graduated from McGill and as of this writing (and this was not written on the date posted) she lived in England. Tracey finally handed in her doctoral dissertation and shortly should be awarded her PhD. Yay for them! So, being that this was one of the last opportunities for us all to hang out together, we decided to meet for brunch.

We have met for dinner frequently, but rarely for brunch, so this was a novelty for us. Tracey suggested that we convene at La Sala Rosa, not to be confused with La Sala Rossa, a concert hall located pretty much in the same building. Yeah, very creative name-giving, I know. La Sala Rosa is located on upper St-Laurent, not to far above Mont-Royal and near my beloved brunch haven, Savannah. It is also located near a totally cool store called Preloved. Preloved recycles clothes , both old and new, into other clothes. For example, I have my eye on a strapless dress made out of a typical London Fog beige trenchcoat. The way they make the clothes is such that the elements of the trenchcoat are still there - buckles, London Fog tag, loop holes, flaps and all. You'd have to see it, or, I could have taken a picture. I'm so thoughtless, sorry.

What am I saying, this is about La Sala Rosa, let's get back on track. So, long story short, we caught up and got down to the eating. I started out with some grapefruit juice. Usually, I have a coffee but this time I needed something a little more vitamin-infused since I was feeling "like that." You know what I'm saying - not all there, a little groggy and you need some good-hearted goodness to give you a boost, 'cause, uh, I don't do drugs to pick me up. The juice was very good. Obviously, it was freshly pressed since the seeds were still floating around in it. That's very natural of them to leave the seeds in there, but while I seriously enjoy the pulp in my juice, I'm not much for avoiding the seeds. I'm just saying, the juice was great but they could have helped me out by removing the seeds so that I could enjoy my juice even more rather than discreetly removing them from my mouth. Maybe that's just me though. I think because La Sala Rosa has a rustic feel, which I like, they try to make things appear as homemade as they possibly can.

La Sala Rosa has a nice little spanish-homestyle-themed menu going on. Each of us ordered a different dish.

I ordered the omelette with chorizo sausage.









Tracey ordered the buckwheat crepes.









Yan Yan ordered the latkas.









Although I only comment upon what I order, let me say that Yan Yan's latkas came with two sauces - sour cream and a pear, raspberry and ginger compote. I think that's pretty cool, no? That's all I'll say about that.

My meal was good, but I have to say it was pretty normal, which goes along with the homestyle motif. By normal I mean that I feel that I have the skills to make this dish on my own with no problems whatsoever. Maybe that says more about my skills as a cook than their skills as professionals (I have improved my culinary abilities lately), but even so, I think that it was a pretty regular meal. That's not to say that it wasn't a tasty meal. The eggs weren't overcooked nor were they undercooked. It was a well-made omelette that tasted simply like an omelette - no extra surprise but no disappointment. The bread was wonderful - look at the picture, it was very thick, crusty and substantial. I'd also say that they very appropriately went light on the potatoes. Usually restaurants overload you on the starches - particularly fries or potatoes - leaving you with a too full feeling. Normally, when I have brunch I can't eat anything else for the day - maybe a small snack during the late evening to top me up. After this meal, I was able to carry on normally with my eating schedule.

What can I say, at La Sala Rosa I felt at home, literally. Two and a half stars.

Love and Kisses,
Laurelle

Dinner: Juliette et Chocolat
Juliette et Chocolat, 1615 St-Denis (514)287-3555

Don't we look spooky with blurred out eyes? That's why I do it: spookyvision!

Last night I went out with La Française for a bite to eat. She had a ton of things to tell me and I had a professor to complain about, so, things worked out just fine. We decided to meet outside Place des Arts metro. Of course, I was about 15 minutes late. Sorry, Française, I didn't mean to make you wait. Obviously, the whole time she had been thinking about where we should go. So, as soon as I barrelled up to her in a frenzy of apology, she waited for me to catch my breath and say "Hey, why don't we walk over to that place I told you about - Juliette et Chocolat." Certainly, I was in to position to object. Not that I wanted to. A few months ago La Française had gone out for lunch with a friend, also from France. They went to Juliette et Chocolat and she came back raving about these crêpes au sarrasin that I just had to taste.

So, off we went and fifteen minutes and a world of information later, we arrived at a small, quaint, fruitfully decorated, whimsical basement café.

Have you ever seen the movie Chocolat where Juliette Binoche is a young woman who heats up the town with her thick, creamy, decadent chocolate brew spiced with chili powder? Well, if Mme. Binoche lived in Montreal this would be her shop.

The place was filled with young people who looked decidely unromantically involved. It should have been filled with young people who were undeniably sexually involved and looking for some kind of torturous delay tactic. But, who am I to talk, I was there with La Française who, while beautiful, is frankly the wrong gender for me. Anyway, she's seeing someone.

The menu is 90% chocolate and other sugary decadences, 10% savory crêpes. Since we were attempting to have a dinner of some sort, we started with the savory crêpes. The decadences I'll get to later.

Ok, wait. Let me just say this. They have a bar au chocolate, which you'll be surprised to know is a chocolate shooter bar. They serve you different kinds of liquid chocolate in manageable shot glass portions - bitter, semi-sweet, milk, chocolates stemming from different areas like Trinidad and chocolate flavoured with orange and other flavours.

Now, the crêpes are all made of buckwheat flour. You can have them topped with your choice of pestos, a variety of cheeses, asparagus and other vegetables. I chose the épinard, which came topped with spinach, an egg, ham and gruyère cheese. La Française went for a pesto of nuts and cheese, along with extra goat cheese. Overall, I was pleased with my dish. However, the crêpes was ever so slightly overcooked. The edges were just a little crispier than they should have been. The filling was excellent - particularly the egg, which I had asked be well done, rather than runny. Whoever cooked it has great timing. It looked like it would have been runny, but it wasn't and I cut it right away so it hadn't had time to settle. I have it on good authority that La Française enjoyed her crêpe, but that the combination of cheese upon cheese was a little too creamy for her tastes.

The crêpes, while filling, weren't so much so that you couldn't have dessert. Or maybe it's just a case of refusing to leave without sampling the chocolate. It seems that there were more patrons than menus, so after several minutes of looking around hopefully a waitress (who seemed to be Juliette herself) arrived apologetically commenting that "oui, je vous ai vu - vous voulez un dessert, non?" Yes.

The dessert menu, as I've said, is vast. There are sweet crêpes, there are cakes, there are chocolate candies, there are chocolate shooters. Unable to control ourselves, we both opted for the chocolat fondant. If you don't know what that is, then God help you. Fine, I'll just tell you. Usually, it is a rich, moist chocolate cake with a "melting" interior of liquid chocolate. This one was reversed - a rich chocolate cake draped in a wonderful curtain of chocolate balanced by a scoop of hazelnut ice cream. The moistness of the cake was wonderful. The texture just melted in your mouth. The chocolate sauce was slightly sweet and tasted best with an accompanying mouthful of the ice cream.

Men, and I'm talking to the men because lesbians already should know this, getting women drunk is pointless. If you're looking to arouse artificial interest in your date, your best bet is to ply her with liquid chocolate. Trust me. If you "get lucky" with a drunk woman who otherwise would not be interested, then you've taken advantage of her to an extent. If you take the same, mildly disinterested woman for chocolate shooters, she will take advantage of you. Chocolat puts ideas in a woman's head.

Okay, so the service was friendly if at times hurried. The food was mostly good and the chocolate was decadent (the buzz word of this review). I'll give it 3 stars - but the rating could rise once I try the shooters.

Kisses,
Laurelle