mindstalk | Entries tagged with montreal

I did go out Friday after all. First to Kametsuru, to get mugicha, which involved a really annoying walk from the closest Orange line station, through a tunnel under a freeway. Then to get into the Undercity/RESO, which I messed up. I thought I'd start at Place de Artes, walk south to Chinatown, and west. But I couldn't find an entrance. Staff said "McGill" but I thought I knew better.

Reader, I did not.

I did get in at Complex Desjardins, found stuff, walked through long empty tunnels to Chinatownish, did find a narrow but nice indoor area with a high skylight and funky sculpture. Then flailed around a bit -- there were many maps, but none with a "you are here" dot -- ended up walking overland toward McGill, but found an entrance by a Cathedral. That was definitely the Real Thing. Of course, in the end it's basically a shopping mall and food court.

What gets me is that for all the hype about how big it is, in length and area, there wasn't that much? And it doesn't seem fully connected. Useful for Montrealers in the know to dodge winter, but not the continuous undercity I thought it was.

OTOH Toronto's PATH may be more like that.

Anyway, train to Toronto yesterday. I splurged on business class, which got me a business lounge, early boarding, and seats that weren't obviously more comfortable, but are further apart -- 2 adjacent seats are separated by a small coffee table, so your elbows don't jostle. Not that I had a seat mate anyway. I got a fair bit of work done, and intermittent views of Lake Ontario.

First impressions of Toronto:

The subway system is more accessible than Montreal -- granted, Montreal sets a very low bar. Bonaventure station, connected to Montreal Gare Central, did have an escalator up from the platform -- shocking! -- but getting to the train station still involved revolving doors and some stairs -- just a few, but enough to block a wheelchair or someone too weak to lift their luggage (not me, fortunately.) Toronto's map suggests maybe 1/3 of stations are accessible? Which I think is a lot worse than Boston (if everything is working), but better than Montreal.

The 1 train has open connections, like the green and orange lines in Montreal. Unlike Montreal, there are ads in the cars -- for colleges and a homeless shelter. The station displays tell you the frequency, but not the time to the next train, unlike the Montreal displays which give you live tracking. The train had an old LCD display announcing the next stop, plus a NYC-style updating map of colored lights.

The 2 train had separate cars, and no visual display whatsoever.

Within 10 seconds on the street I observed my first asshole speed demon driver.

Both Dufferin, Toronto and Monkland, Montreal, like really long blocks. Like 4 minutes. My house is 10 minutes from one street with shops and 6 from the other. Or maybe it just felt that way; Google claims it's under 900 meters from Bloor to College, but I'm right in the middle. Having to walk 5+ minutes to get to something that isn't housing isn't something I've experienced since... Honolulu, Nov 2019?

As I anticipated, it's weird for me to be in Canada and not have French as the default language, since up to now almost all of my Canadian time has been in Quebec.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/586048.html

I'm back in Montreal for a week. New location.

I tell people about living most of my life within a 10 minute walk of a supermarket, but I've outdone myself this time; it's just one minute away.

It seems like I've reset the season a bit; trees are colored and leaves are falling, but the trees aren't as bare as they were getting in Quebec City. Though that could also be an altitude/microclimate thing, Old Quebec is like 60 meters above the river, I don't think most of Montreal is that high. But we're also a bit further south.

Montreal has had the most disappointing Thai food I've ever had. Beef fried rice from the Thai Express chain before, pad see ew from Baba Thai tonight. Edible but unexciting.

I'm watching Shirobako, the original anime about making anime. It's a lot of fun. There's stuff I could criticize, but whatever. Fun.

I somehow learned of The Shogun's Daughter from 1910; it was a fun read. Somewhat pulpy and romantic, but seemed pretty well researched, especially for 1910. Shorter and with more appealing character than Clavell's Shogun, which I'm reading now. Different time period; Daughter is about the Perry period, right before and right after.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/585514.html

North Oakland has become rather aggressive about traffic calming on residential streets. Lots of circular planters in intersections, like a micro-rotary, to slow cars down; that's been around for a while. But new was lots of barriers: say you're allowed to enter a street, then you probably passed a barrier blocking exit in the opposite direction. And when you reach the end of the block, you'll be facing a barrier across the intersection, so that you'll have to turn left or right rather than go straight. (Legally, anyway -- I saw a few drivers cheat.) So the streets are internally two-way, but a maze of limited accesses to prevent traffic from running through.

Lots of bicyclists without bike helmets in Montreal. I'd guess helmets are like 50%, though I haven't really counted. Common, unlike Osaka or Amsterdam, but not as ubiquitous as I recall from the US. Some of that is people on Bixi bikeshare, but I've seen road bikers in traffic without a helmet. There did seem to be more helmets yesterday on the canal shared path, but that's the sort of thing that probably attracts faster biking (apart from having to share with the pedestrians.)

More bikers than I was used to in LA, not sure about Boston or Oakland. I see a lot on Maisonneuve but it has a physically protected bike path.

Montreal forbids biking on the sidewalk, unlike LA. The one sidewalker I recall seeing was laboring uphill toward Mont Royal. Can't say as I'd be happy to bike on the major streets here.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/583574.html

Been a while.

In the long ago golden age of "early June", it was possible to believe the world was going back to normal, and I reserved a really cheap Airbnb in San Francisco for July. Took Amtrak, meaning "bus to Bakersfield, train to Emeryville, bus to SF." Alas when I got to my intended home, a guest was still in occupancy, I don't know why, and with the host incommunicado, Airbnb gave me a full refund and a free week and cut me loose. Of course, everything else in the area was twice the price, which was why I went to SF in the first place... I sucked it up, mostly in Oakland, seeing some friends and enjoying the weather, Zachary's pizza, and a "Rice Triangles" shop making fresh big onigiri.

I stayed the longest in an old Oakland house, with a couple of nostalgia points: old locks on bedroom doors, like we had when I was a kid, except this place had the keys, which my host called "skeleton keys" for them. Also my room had a rainbow-and-unicorn decal stuck to the window, I'd swear identical to one I grew up with. Perhaps some friend in Berkeley sent it to my parents?

Right when I was thinking it was high time to flee the western US on account of wildfire smoke, Canada finally opened up to the US, despite having lower covid rates than us, and I slipped into Montreal, where I plan to be until it snows. I'm downtown-ish -- tall buildings, anyway -- near Guy and Sherbrooke. There's only one French-style bakery nearby, though it's practically around the corner, and I've been having morning croissants and baguettes. The baguette rustique is softer, and stays softer longer than,the baguette blanche. There's also a baguette levain -- sourdough -- for twice the price. A bit further is an Arab bakery, with spinach pies and za'atar stuff. On Saint-Catherine are a whole slew of things, including dim sum places, and a Japanese food shop staffed by actual Japanese people, or at least Asian people who know Japanese. I made the mistake of saying 'konbanwa' (good evening) and got "do you want a bag" in Japanese -- or so I infer from context, as I sure didn't understand them. But I got out with karaage, cold ramen, and chashu. There's also frozen beef at CAN$150/lb, I assume wagyu. Surprisingly, not locked up. I did not get any of that.

Indoor masking has been good if not perfect. There's supposed to be some new QR/vaccine passport system, though I wasn't dining in any restaurants anyway, just takeout. I would like to go to the gardens or Biodome, might be relevant then, hopefully someone will take my US evidence.

Los Angeles masking was deteriorating; my subway ride to Union Station had 50% masking and two people smoking. SF Muni seemed very good, I didn't see any noses. BART, decent rate, but I found myself on a car with three unmasked men, one emitting random sounds, and fled to another car.

My first Saturday in Montreal, I thought I heard some local cultural parade coming up the street, which police had blocked off, but it turned out to be a protest against vaccine passports. Someone was waving a TRUMP 2020 sign.

My T-Mobile roaming worked great until two days ago, when I stopped being able to make calls or texts. Oddly, data still works. I called, they got it fixed, then it broke again. I happened to have a second phone and a Canadian SIM from the airport, but *that* isn't giving me data despite doing the APN hoops.

Montreal does in fact have cheddar cheese. I'm not really surprised, but I hadn't noticed any on my 2018 visit, compared to a wide variety of brie.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/583129.html

Belatedly, as I left three weeks ago.

* Many of the subway trains are this strange magical thing where the cars are hooked up like an articulated bus, and you can easily walk from one and of the whole train to the other without opening any doors. I am told this is standard for modern trains. Boston and NYC are not "modern".

* No ads on those new trains, or even space for them, except for a little electronic display next to the map.

* The greenhouses in the Botanical Garden are pretty neat, and membership is cheap -- CAN$20.50 one visit, and CAN$45 for a year's membership, I would totally get one if I lived there.

* It's not just the milk; all the grocery store cheese is labeled with the percentage of milkfat. Given the French roots, I don't know of this is more so you can avoid it or so you can seek it out.

* There were at least two bakeries, with fresh croissants, within 5-7 minute walk of where I was staying. OTOH at least one of the Large Supermarkets had rather meh bread selection.

* There was a macaronic and cheese restaurant, 'Macbar'. I had unkind thoughts about Quebec crossing French language and English cooking. This is the province whose special dish is fries with gravy and cheese curds.

* The steaks I bought from the markets came out pretty awesome.

* Canadian customs was a lot faster and more efficient than US. And somewhat friendlier. At least the Canadians didn't tell us they would confiscate a cell phone on sight. Entering the US we stood in line for over 10 minutes while "Agriculture" combed our bus thoroughly.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/513992.html

Years ago I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I've told various people of my passing an empty lot of ground squirrels[1], luring one up a chain link fence with a peanut, dropping my trail mix, having four of them seemingly teleport to the sidewalk[2], and having one of them start climbing my leg, which I considered far too tame.

'Monterey' is "mountain-king" in Spanish.

Today I'm in Montreal, which is French for "royal mountain", more or less. I was walking through Parc la Fontaine, and observing very bold gray squirrels. I had no food, but that didn't stop them approaching and looking expectantly, where squirrels from my childhood in Chicago would have been much more cautious about putting distance or a tree trunk between us. I walked further, and found three perched on fence posts like statuary. Two descended and approached, getting even closer; I got a photo of one just inches from my foot[3]... right before it started climbing my leg I could feel its little claws through my jeans I yelled and shook my leg and it was gone.

[1] Squirrel-like rodents living in holes in the ground, anyway

[2] There was a hole in the bottom of the fence, but I did not perceive them moving. Suddenly, squirrels, one on my backpack.

[3] It turns out my attempt at such a photo was ruined by the leg climbing; I actually had a blurred photo of leaves.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/509489.html

If I'm lazy, it's just brie and pate on bread from the bakery five minutes away.

With a bit more work, frying up some pepper steak in olive oil, then in the remaining oil frying up a grilled brie cheese sandwich.

Morning croissants from aforementioned bakery. They have varieties like kamut and vegan, though I'm good with regular.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/509321.html

Trader Joe's sells a cheap plastic grinder, full of black pepper, for I think $2 or so. I actually like it a lot. It gives a coarse grind with a lot of flavor; it seems to do better on the same batch of pepper than another grinder I had did. I left my old one when I started going nomadic, but after a month and a half I decided to travel with my own and bought another. It's even stronger than I remember, making me wonder if they also use better pepper than the refills I'd gotten from Harvest Co-op or Penzey's. Since I am traveling, this time I kept the cap, to reduce leakage in my luggage; possibly that also reduces oxidation as well.

Being clear plastic you can see how much you use. I bought this one on Oct 13 and I'm already halfway through. I knew I used a lot but this seems faster than I recall.

***

In the previous Montreal post I'd snarked about milk types. As recorded in the comments, I since learned that 3.25% is the minimum limit for "whole" milk in the US (though some say 3.5); also, "whole" homogenized milk is probably skim milk with the right amount of cream added back in. UK whole milk is apparently at least 3.6% fat.

I'd always thought of whole as 4%. I am tempted to get cream or half-and-half to add to milk...

***

A Quebec convenience store has packaged croissants. It doesn't necessarily have good croissants; I saw various oils and no butter in the list.

***

I prefer good oranges (sweet and juicy) to grapefruit (bittersweet and juicy) to bad oranges (unsweet and/or dry). Thing is, grapefruit seems much more consistent in quality, especially compared to navel oranges, but even to clementines or juice oranges. That or because I buy grapefruit individually, I'm better at weighing them in my hand to make sure they're heavy and juicy... It came up because I didn't trust the oranges in the store, so I have grapefruit again.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/508939.html

* The weekly metro pass runs Monday-Sunday, not 7 days from purchase. Oops.
* The subway is every 5-10 minutes from like 5am to 1am. Beats Boston or even some NYC lines. The buses, though... I was deceived by staying near the 24, which does run every 10 minutes until 9pm, but most other lines seem more like 20-30 minutes.
* Supermarkets seem scarce, though I did find one today. (A proper one. Google Maps calls various things "supermarkets" that are lame corner/convenience stores.) It has many varieties of brie and Camembert for sale. Lots of smaller stores, quality ranging from "seriously meh" to "ooh, nice produce!"
* Apparently no whole milk, just 0, 1, 2, and 3.25% fat.
* Yogurt without gelatin! ...not as good as TJ/Strauss "European style". I may try "Balkan style" after I finish this one.
* Montreal has Uber and no Lyft, and no UberPool. I'm told Toronto has Lyft, I forget if it has Pool.
* My front door is literally flanked by maple trees.

Crossposts: https://mindstalk.livejournal.com/508704.html

Went on a little trip last week. B was driving up to see C and Montreal, and I went along. First time in Quebec, second time in Canada as an adult not counting changing planes in Toronto, third time in Canada ever ditto. I had fun. Subways are better than Boston's, I got a taste of the underground pathways (they're not too exciting, lots of shopping, but you could indeed get around much of downtown in the winter without going outside), it felt like a taste of French culture but where everyone knows English too.

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