Christmas Food Around the World

Ah Christmas time again. The time of stuffing your face and suffering from heartburn. When you watch TV, it is all about the food at Christmas time. Having lived in a few countries, I have had Christmas dinners in different shapes and sizes consisting of lots of different dishes. A good time to

Growing up in the Netherlands, Sinterklaas was a bigger event than Christmas, but it didn't really come with food. Unless you count candy as food, there are the spiced biscuits also known as pepernoten, the taai taai or ginger biscuits and lots of marzipan. Christmas dinner was usually a cook your own in the fondue pot. Lots of fun guaranteed especially when the bits of meat got lost in the grease.

Photo by Thomas under Creative Common Licence

Jean Talon Market in Montreal

In the heart of Montreal's Little Italy, you'll find the lively Jean Talon Market. It's a bustling food market which is mostly visited by Montrealers than tourists. Food and the lack of tourists; all the more reason for me to have a little browse.

Breakfast Spots in Montreal

I love having breakfast, especially when it's somewhere foreign far away. When I was staying in Montreal last autumn, I wasn't all too miffed to find that my hotel didn't serve it. So on the hunt for breakfast spots in Montreal I went. Here's what I found.

Olive and Gourmando

Olive and Gourmando is located in one of the cobble-stoned streets of old Montreal. It's got that sort of cosy and warm decor that makes you feel right at home and you never want to leave again. You can get lots of different artisan breads, rolls and pastries to go, but you really want to get a table at this place and stay a while. I went twice; it was that good.
I had a granola doused with creamy yogurt and topped with fresh fruits cut a la julienne. I was extremely tempted to add one of the freshly baked muffins that seemed to stare me down as I paid for breakfast at the till. I resisted.

A Food Tour in Quebec

The best way to get a glimpse of a foreign culture is through its food. So when I was in Quebec last month I joined a food tour run by Tours Voir Quebec. This three-hour tour took me to 7 different spots in town, where I discovered the culinary traditions of Quebec.

The tour started at the Visitor Centre where we met our very enthousiastic guide Jocelyne and the first place she took us was a restaurant called La Crémaillère. This restaurant has an Italian-French menu that features dishes made from local produce. According to Jocelyne it has won many awards and judging by the bruschetta topped with a mushroom and leek risotto, that was absolutely well-deserved.

Montreal's Underground City

In Montreal summers can be scorching and winters are freezing, so the people of Montreal have come up with something brilliant to deal with the extreme weather conditions and built an underground city called RESO. This underground network, which is what it means, is one of the largest of underground complexes in the world. It can get a bit confusing down there, so I decided to have a guide take me around the tunnel system, that measures 32km in length.

Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City

Every (little) girl wants to be a princess. I finally got the chance to at least feel like one when I stayed at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.

Ghost Tour in Old Quebec

Halloween night is spooky as it is, but I made it even spookier by going on a Ghost Tour in Old Quebec organised by Ghost Tours of Quebec.

A Walk Through Plateau Mont Royal

Plateau Mont-Royal is an area in the city of Montreal. The Plateau as it is known among Montrealers, was a working-class neighbourhood back in the early 1900s. It is well-known for its brightly coloured houses with spiralling exterior staircases. There are loads of laid-back cafés, cute little book shops, and trendy eateries. It is supposedly one of the coolest neighbourhoods in North America, which was all the more reason for me to go and have a little walkabout.