BEAUTYS AND TOI MOI & CAFE, MONTREAL (PART II)
Friday, March 08, 2013
"Bonjour!"
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Is how we were often greeted in Montreal, because, well, in Quebec, they speak French. Although I don't quite remember which greeting the waitress welcomed us with when we walked into Beautys Luncheonette (click to read their history!), we did walk into a restaurant filled with the familiar smell of a warm, filling breakfast. Which, by the way, was perfect for the six of us who all love breakfast.
Two of my friends ordered the Beautys Basic, which comes with your choice of their thick, challah bread or a sesame coated bagel from the famous St. Viateur Bagel shop.
The classic BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato) sandwiched with their super thick challah bread
Beautys Bounjour - a sesame coated bagel with egg, bacon, and cheddar cheese
Beautys Breakfast Melt
This egg, tomato, cheese, and choice of ham, salami, or bacon sandwich is made with generously buttered and grilled toast. It comes as a massive serving (as with all of their dishes), but I ate it all - neatly too, with a fork and knife, since your fingers would be rather oily with all the buttered toast.
I just couldn't get more of their toast, and since my friends couldn't finish their share of the challah bread, I graciously ate a slice, buttered and spread with their extremely flavourful strawberry jam.
Although I only had a glass of water to accompany my brunch at Beautys, they do offer an extensive list of drinks, including coffees, alcoholic breakfast appropriate sips, and their house-squeezed orange juice.
As you may know, I have a coffee/caffeine addiction which, although I've at first wanted to reject, I've now become to accept into my life. So after that wonderful meal, friends Julie and Sunny and I braved the outdoor Montreal winter and sought to find this café with directions from Google Maps.
A wall full of coffee beans
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When you open the doors of Toi Moi & Café, you face a velvety navy curtain (to keep out the blistering wind upon open doors), which opens to reveal the warm, rich, awakening aroma of coffee.
They are beckoning to end up in our mouths
Since we were remarkably stuffed from our previous meal, we had to forgo the sweets in the refrigerated display which was placed right beside our table *I shall come for you next time, sweet, next time*
Black milk tea, with amaretto and frangelico
This is served hot, with shots of vanilla, and still has black tea leaves in the bottom of the glass to encourage the tea to strengthen throughout the course of your time there. The amaretto and frangelico (almond and hazelnut liqueur, respectively), is highlighted as the drink is hot. I'll have to recreate this one day after I buy some amaretto.
Mochaccino
The name says it all: Mocha and Cappuccino. I cannot say I like this drink because I've never been too much of a fan of chocolate. Although they do use cocoa to contribute to the "mocha" part of this drink, I think I can only truly enjoy a heavy cocoa addition on desserts such as tiramisu. But do you love cocoa? Do you love coffee? If you've answered yes to both of these questions, this is the drink for you (:
Crème de la Crème
The name of this drink may be what allured me, but its description also caught my eye - and taste buds. The hazelnut and vanilla shots complemented the strong latte much too well, and the cinnamon powder topped everything off nicely. I didn't want this drink to end - it was just so good~
What ultimately swayed me the most to love the milk tea and latte was how their flavour shots were unsweetened (I like my cafés on the less sweet side). The flavours of hazelnut and vanilla were definitely prominent, yet the entire drink itself remained unsweetened. This broke my image that all flavour shots aren't all that great because they come with the consequence of sweetening your whatever-you're-adding-them-into. What an amazing way to end our afternoon (:
Much like how I started, I end off similarly:
"Au revoir!"
X
MUAH MUAH MUAH
VICKI CHOW
P/S
One of the places that Anthony Bourdain visited on his No Reservations show is Penang, Malaysia (where I will visit in a few months!). They filmed him describing and eating a bowl of laksa, a spicy noodle soup, which I suddenly craved.
My mommy is from Malaysia, so I called her the next night and told her I really want to eat laksa when I came back home.
My mommy is from Malaysia, so I called her the next night and told her I really want to eat laksa when I came back home.
Enough chocolates for you, for me, and for friends too (only if you have few friends ;P)
I had an incredible case of homesickness that even extremely Chinese food couldn't even cure. So I came home on Thursday evening instead of Friday to finally be able to enjoy some time with family and my cosy (actually, not very cosy because my house always seems to be rather chilly) home.
Do you ever miss something so much that you can't be satisfied by replacements?
