What to eat Quebec? culinary specialties and gastronomy

These are the typical recipes of our grandmothers, dishes eaten mainly on family tables during parties and reunions and in certain restaurants specializing in traditional cuisine. Imported by the first settlers, the traditional Quebec cuisine has adapted to the harsh climate of the province, integrating root vegetables, game and farmed meat for a very caloric result: gourganes (large beans) or yellow pea soup with salt pork, crêtons (ground pork terrine resembling rillettes), beans with bacon, duck with maple syrup, rabbit gibelotte with cider, leg stew (pork legs, potatoes and spices), pork ball stew, cipaille (or sipaille, cipâte : meat pie with potatoes), and various tourtières (pies), originally based on game, today made with mixed pork and veal, whose recipes vary from one region to another (the best known: the tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean). Sweet tooths will crown this hearty meal with a slice of sugar pie or an unemployed pudding. To discover traditional Quebec cuisine, visit La Binerie Mont-Royal in Montreal and Buffet de l'Antiquaire in Quebec City, and to get your hands dirty: recettes.qc.ca/dossiers/cuisine-du-monde/dossier/quebec

They are mainly eaten on the go and are on the menu of many restaurants in the province, starting with the indisputable poutine, a dish of French fries topped with cheese curds and covered ingravy, which is also available in gourmet versions (foie gras, pig's blood sausage, lobster, etc.), veggie versions, world flavours, etc. In Montreal, La Banquise is a reference in the field!

There is also smoked meat, a smoked beef served on rye bread or in a sandwich, accompanied by dill pickles. Schwartz's restaurant in Montreal makes it their specialty. It's not uncommon to have to wait in line for quite a while before you can sit down, but it's worth it.

In the canteens and restaurants of the maritime regions, but also elsewhere in the province, summer rhymes with lobster guédille, a hot dog bun in which a generous portion of lobster salad is placed. Simply delicious!

Then there's the bagel, a ring-shaped roll with a very firm texture, made with natural leavened dough, cooked briefly in water before being baked. You can have it with classic sesame, poppy seeds, onion, etc., or topped with smoked salmon with cream cheese, onions and capers.

Snack bars, canteens, potato trailers: Quebec is home to thousands of them, scattered throughout the province, often along the roadside. A fast-food classic and popular with car travellers, the snack bar reached its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Although it declined in the decades that followed, it has recently come back into vogue, and is now a fixture on the Quebec culinary scene. One example is the TV show Sur le pouce, which showcases these small, unpretentious eateries that are such an important part of everyday life in Quebec's neighborhoods, villages and regions. The show is so popular that a compendium of the province's 165 best casse-croûtes was published in 2016 under the same name.

While it's mainly fast food and home cooking (burgers, hot dogs, fries, poutines, sandwiches and "subs" of all kinds, roast chicken, spaghetti, pizzas, etc.), the casse-croûte has recently reinvented itself, offering a more contemporary and gourmet menu, where regional products and creativity are the order of the day. Grand'Ourse in Kamouraska and Chez Mag Fine Cantine on Île d'Orléans and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière are good examples. If you're looking for a classic snack bar, Roulotte à Patates de Gentilly in Bécancour, Casse-croûte Le Connaisseur in Tadoussac and Cantine Sainte-Flavie on the Gaspé Peninsula are worth a visit.

Today's Québécois cuisine goes beyond the clichés that have been propagated - rightly or wrongly - for a very long time. Gone are the days of 1950s North American recipes, and the same goes for gourmet cuisine, which until the 2000s was little more than French. And it's not all fast food either. Terroir, proximity and creativity are now the watchwords of a booming culinary scene, without losing sight of roots and traditions. Let's take a look at three trends that have the wind in their sails.

Market cuisine. While for a long time it was fashionable to work with products imported from the four corners of the globe, Quebec chefs are now committed to cooking with an eye to proximity, availability and seasonality. It has to be said that consumers are increasingly aware of the cause, wanting to ensure that food has traveled the shortest possible distance from field to plate, and that supplies are based on seasonal availability. In winter, needless to say, this concept presents a few difficulties. Some chefs will also cook with artisanal Quebec beers or spirits, bake their own homemade bread fresh daily, or set up gardens behind the restaurant or on the roof to grow their own vegetables and herbs. Some have even gone so far as to set up an urban beehive to harvest local honey. Market cuisine has become a must, and can easily be found in the province's finest restaurants.

From forest to table. Quebec's forests are teeming with succulent edibles. Used extensively in the past, particularly by Aboriginal peoples who still use them today, they have been gaining in popularity in recent years among the province's restaurateurs and artisans. Wild mushrooms (chanterelle, orange boletus, oyster mushroom, boletus...), forest vegetables and berries (Saskatoon berry, sea buckthorn, wild blueberry, camerise, chicoutai, squash, root vegetables, elderberry...), edible plants and flowers (milkweed, monarda, tansy..), Nordic nuts (black walnut, butternut, heartnut...), teas and herbal teas (wintergreen, Labrador tea...) or spices and herbs (balsam myrtle, samphire...), they can be enjoyed on their own or as processed products. To sample the full richness of Quebec's edible forest products, restaurants specializing in boreal or northern cuisine such as Chez Boulay in Quebec City and La Galouine Auberge et Restaurant in Tadoussac are highly recommended.

Also worth mentioning is the Fourchette bleue certification program, which encourages Quebec restaurants and fishmongers to offer little-known flavours from among the many edible species of the St. Lawrence, all with a view to sustainable development and the protection of biodiversity. By encouraging diversification in the consumption of marine products, the aim is to reduce overfishing of certain species and to promote lesser-known products such as Arctic surf clams, Arctic surf clams, soft-shell clams, green sea urchins, grey seals and certain species of seaweed. The Fourchette Bleue logo identifies certified products in partner establishments, which are becoming more numerous as time goes by. A smart way to consume and discover the riches of the St. Lawrence. To find out more: fourchettebleue.ca

Native cuisine. Aboriginals traditionally cook over wood fires. They make a distinction between the wood-fired food that forms the basis of their traditional diet, and the supermarket-bought food of the white man. The latter is essentially made up of fresh produce from the local environment. Depending on the season and location, this includes salmon, seal, caribou, moose, porcupine, bear and berries (atocas, blueberries, chicoutai, etc.). These dishes are served roasted, boiled or baked, accompanied by tea and the famous Amerindian bannock, a kind of bread with the consistency of a cake. Today, it's possible to enjoy wood-fired food seated in a tent on a fir mattress. For a more contemporary version, the La Traite restaurant in Wendake is a must.

By far the most popular, the craft beer industry has been all the rage for the past decade, a trend that is not about to slow down. Although there are large industrial companies dominating the market (Molson-Coors, AB InBev-Labatt...), microbreweries and craft breweries are multiplying all over Quebec. They often incorporate local ingredients in the brewing process in order to give a regional character to the various house beers.

Quebec also produces wine. The main wine-producing region is in the Brome-Missisquoi area in the Eastern Townships, but there are also vineyards in the Montérégie, Chaudière-Appalaches, Québec, Outaouais and Laurentians regions, for example. A specialty to discover is without a doubt the ice wine: the grapes are harvested frozen, which makes them keep a high sugar content. A pure delight!

The Belle Province also specializes in the production of ciders, including fire or ice cider, maple liqueurs, caribou (an explosive mixture of strong alcohol, red wine and herbs) and other delights from the rich Quebec soil. And for the past few years, Quebec has been getting into the distillation business by producing gins, vodkas and other spirits.

Quebec's culinary scene boasts a number of big names. Among its headliners is Normand Laprise, chef behind Toqué!, Burger T! and Beau Mont. Then there's his good friend Martin Picard, a lover of generous cuisine and foie gras, both of which feature on the slates of his restaurants Au Pied de Cochon, Cabane Au Pied de Cochon and Cabane d'à Côté. And we can't overlook Jérôme Ferrer, at the helm of one of the province's finest gourmet restaurants,Europea.

That said, several young chefs are already well established. Antonin Mousseau-Rivard of Le Mousso, Charles-Antoine Crète of Le Montréal Plaza, Arnaud Marchand of Chez Boulay, Stéphane Modat and his restaurant Le Clan, and Colombe Saint-Pierre of Chez Saint-Pierre and La Cantine Côtière come to mind. And that's just the tip of the iceberg..