Lifestyle

AY-PICUREAN

Think you have to continent-hop to enjoy the finest in international cuisine? Think again. Long known for its historical fur trade and little else, Quebec is fast emerging as the destination for those wishing to enjoy truly rarified cuisine.
Text by Ryan Jarrell | March 9, 2018 | Lifestyle

Bearer of a complicated, culturally diverse food scene unfortunately underrepresented in our world’s elite culinary academies and associations, Canada’s great gourmand history stretches from the foods and foodways of their aboriginal antecedents all the way to the modern Muslim-inspired fare fostered by a growing refugee population. The place where these tendencies are perhaps most evidenced? That beauteously bilingual pleasure province known as Quebec. Already home to a number of notoriously Frenchified eateries (including Quebec City’s stunning Saint Amour, located on the banks of the Rue Sainte-Ursule and and the almost overly cozy Le Lapin Saute), this district is quickly gaining a rebellious chef culture all its own, a pattern perhaps best represented by Montreal’s Provisions, an artfully exclusive 25-seater with a focus on sharing and no menu, only a chalkboard declaiming the day’s offerings. Perhaps the most heartful sign of Quebec’s culinary ascendancy? The attention they’ve paid to the culinary culture of their First Nation’s people as evidenced by the explosive acclaim surrounding La Traite, whose menu maneuvers through many of the traditional dishes of a much maligned people. This is a province that truly offers a taste for, well, every taste; QuebecRegion.com.