Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | Quebec & Canada | S01 E04 | All Documentary

foreigner wow, rain on my shoulders so it takes a special breed to live in a province like Quebec it's cold in winter and the winters are long it takes a special kind of person for whom frozen rivers icy windswept streets deep forests seemingly endless are the norm I will confess my partisanship from the beginning I love Montreal is my favorite place in Canada the people who live there are crazy, tough bastards and I admire them for that Toronto Vancouver I love you but not like Montreal why I will explain everything to you it will be revealed Meanwhile, look at this guy, find out what the post office motto is.

Neither rain, nor sleep, nor driving snow, nor locust plague stops the mailman from delivering my junk mail here in Montreal, the simple task of delivering mail in winter comes with its own set of Obstacles I see obstacles I have to ask Do you have special equipment for this? We have slip-on boots. We have other boots for rain. I'm sorry when you get spiked ice. Aha and they also make us slip. on spikes for when it's icy, any kind of city ordinance that you have to shovel, they're not penalized financially, no, they're not taking anything away from you, none of that, any line of duty injuries you've had, uh. several falls, one incident where I was out for two months I thought I had broken my ankle.

What is the most dangerous aspect of the job? Could it be that dogs are icy stairs? There are a lot of dogs in this area, but I'll see. icy stairs it's one thing to have to work outside in this winter mess, but it takes a weird and wonderful kind of mutant to find it really enjoyable, well these two gentlemen, do you like the cold, I mean you, I mean to the Quebecois who cleans. the streets of ebola yes, the bitter cold keeps the riffraff safely out of the city fred moran and david mcmillan chefs restaurateurs of the legendary joe beef bon vival narrator historians of their beloved great northern white princes of hospitality and what they do men for like this funny one when rivers turn to meter thick ice when testicles shrink and most of us run for warmth and shelter if they were like so many other Canadians who would go ice fishing on the St.

Lawrence River who cabin fever induces in the Quebec family because they may be confined to spending a lot of time inside. Many families love doing activities together like this. Go to the cabin. Go ice fishing. Their ilk would find one of the temporary little villages of sleigh-hauled cabins, punch a hole in the ice and wait, but these aren't normal men, so Quebec is better than the rest of Canada, obviously, yeah, I mean Come on, you did it. "You don't have to think about that for long, no, no, wait a minute. Now, strippers get paid by the hour, that's right, it's not a tipping system, yes, it's considered an art, an article of performance, you consider performance, so how does it work?" You don't accept it, put a song on paper and then you can dance in the back, which is a private dance and it's ten dollars a song, five dollars a song in public.

That's why I go to rock strip bars in Prague because the songs are super pitchy, I'm a bit cheap, you know, I go to the King Crimson lab dance after a suspiciously stunned fish emerges from the deep ceiling and all because of an eager producer , no doubt, is ignored because Fred and Dave do things differently, no. coarsely fried fish and breadcrumbs for these great living men of the 19th century, oh dear God, instead a hearty lunch of French classics accompanied by many excellent wines and liqueurs is worthy of gentlemen of discerning tastes who have exhausted themselves in the wild that's how you live well most of the time yes we always have to travel well and eat well we are drinking a natural white one before white burgundy these are Glacier Bay oysters and there are a couple of bocillates in there too , those little cups of French fries are delicious in my prized possession, yes, the most fun part of the restaurant business, isn't cutlery just a spoon?

It's absolutely beautiful, you know, Fred has a wonderful collection of dinnerware with that, without being snobbish or elitist, you know vintage eating. dishware is one of the great joys of life, well this is the interesting paradox of you, on the one hand you aspire to run a democratic, uh, opital system and yet you are hopeless romantics when it comes to painfully nostalgic , the art of living well. sustenance is necessary just look at this as, say, a consummate oxtail to start, followed perhaps by a cold Parisian lobster. the art of dining is disappearing much to our chagrin.

I work very hard to be an excellent dining companion when striving for excellence. In a dinner companion what qualities do you look for I turn off the phone you know I never put my elbows on the table of course I don't come prepared with stories no don't drink too much don't get careless come prepared with anecdotes absolutely no elbows on the table no, no It's, it's not right, I'm a total failure as a dinner companion, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, it's, you ask an iconic classic of gastronomy from the Escafie era, oh, look that. holy shit sauce, the devilishly difficult lieve a la royale a wild hair boned in a sauce of its own blood a generous pile of fresh black truffle garnished with thick chunks of foie gras seared directly over the cabin's wood stove oh damn, look at that we are, we are in a wooden shack on three feet of ice and 100 feet of water, they are desperate, desperate, robotics, gentlemen, oh Jesus, look that seared foie is on top of an ethereal suspension of mashed potatoes inspired by joel robuschan of course this is cornwall from reynard vineyard by terri pleasant soul oh it's wonderful yes yes it really is.

Is there a billionaire or despot somewhere on earth who is eating better than us at this very moment? No, no, look at that cheese, there must be cheese in this one. case of a voluptuously devastating epois that some less enthusiastic nature lovers might call overripe, but we don't, this is incredible, we got here, some Cubans, wait a minute, you have a much more relaxed attitude towards the importation of Cuban cigars , chartreuse, of course, and a dessert. As rare as a dinosaur-era monster long thought extinct may be, this is the ghetto, who does this? No, no, it's one of those painful, nostalgic things.

Correct layers of almond and hazelnut meringue. Chocolate buttercream. Oh my god, look at that mmm, damn, that's good for these guys. This is normal This is Sunday lunch It's like a playhouse in my house It's a French playhouse What are you doing You dress up at your house No way tell me everything You dress the children too He's a dandy Sunday Sunday dandy The last time I did it I messed up the praline rose and Lindsay's grievance. I made a chemical candy. I made a salad. your family at this meal, him and his wife and two little kids, little kids, so you, your wife, yeah, and a two-year-old and a four-year-old, right, no, they don't make it to the end, so general I have to like I have to like prematurely open the open device you don't like it bruno you know when I'm thinking this and I think that's really good but I'm also thinking you know I have to do that I'm going to do that, but actually a my daughter would totally be interested once every few decades, maybe every century a nation produces a hero, joey ramon, someone who changes everything in their chosen field, who changes the entire landscape, life after them will never be the same as It's Martha Picard. such a man, until now a hybrid of rugged outdoorsman, veteran chef with many years of experience in haute cuisine, renegade innovator, is one of the most influential chefs in North America, he is also a proud Quebecer and perhaps is He more than anyone has defined a new generation of Americans and Canadians, what that means is that he is an unlikely ambassador for his country and his province, but maybe not so unlikely, I mean, watch him for a day catching beavers with local trapper Carl no so the bait is wood yeah they just heat the bark they eat the bark yeah yeah no I get it back in the pioneer days the beaver was the financial engine of Canada yeah , empires were built on it, practically all hats in the world were made of beaver fur, that's why today it is Canada's icon, to a lesser extent, the tradition continues today.

Carl continues catching. He is typically requested by provincial officials to trap beavers, clear dams and control what could become a destructively overcrowded situation. Yes, that way, no, my little friend, this is young. and those are the ones we want to eat, what would you compare meat to, is there anything similar? That's what you know, there's nothing, nothing like it, you know, when you eat beaver, you understand that it's beaver along with an encyclopedic knowledge of fine wines and an inexplicable attachment to the music of Celine Dion believes strongly in honoring history and tradition If you still catch beavers, if possible, you should cook and eat them, not just strip them of their skins, and as incredible as it may seem, you seem to be able to cook beaver very, very well.

Beavertail, on the other hand, is actually not beaver at all, but rather a type of quick spoon bread that in our case goes a little wrong during an unintentional hell with the sauce, it almost looks like chocolate, it's so good . Look, I love it when it's like this, some people don't put too much blood, but I like it when it's really thick. Wow, it was absolutely delicious. Yes it is. I wasn't kidding about it tasting like chicken, no it doesn't taste like chicken. Not at all, this is your first time, no, ah, wow, that's something. I think you almost eat everything.

Yeah, at this point, you know, the animals see me and they're like there's a joke here somewhere, but to tell you the truth, things are just too much. Well, it's like 10 below zero in this damn city and that usually doesn't mean it's a good time for me. A good time for me is more like a palm tree, a beach, a pool where the only thing cold is my beard, but no, these culinary cordials from the north like to frolic in the snow and ice with greater precision they like to obey their Quebec genetics imperative to risk suffering dental and maxillofacial injuries by skating hitting a hard disk trying to drive it in the general direction of the other I think that a They call this sport hockey this is not in my blood, these skate, yes we grew up in ranks like this, everyone in Quebec is pretty mandatory?

There's no reason to live here if it's not hockey. Hockey rinks pop up all over the city to satisfy Montreal's desire for risk. teeth in the groin and limbs and right behind Fred and Dave's restaurant, Joe Beef, there is a collection game going on for chefs, cooks and hospitality professionals, some of these guys have done a bit of a long charity to be there, we can join together and uh uh, skate on the ice, this is normal behavior, people actually do this for fun, yes absolutely, this is an everyday Quebecois who grows up playing hockey, Canadian national sport man , true, and this young man is already being indoctrinated.

Hello, young man, you are going to play hockey. you're good at hockey you're going to be a goalie or a player wow player oh oh bam quick I'm going to be left with my mouth full of puck the way they serve it with the usual fred and dave restraint hot chocolate in styrofoam cups uh no try a titanic shukrut garnier a la altatien containing flintstone-sized chunks of pork belly, puet bacon, homemade boudin blanc, smoked kielbasa cutlets, plus links of beef and pork, oh yes, this is a truly heroic chakroot, oh look at the beautiful work of linking them, it's amazing.

The dish is the best argument for sharing a border with Germany and, of course, the best wines known to humanity. We have German wine. We have Sylvaner and Pirate bottles. Sweet. What am I drinking here? Canadian Riesling. This is Norman Hardy Riesling from Prince Edward County. five hours from here amazing wine there's an allegory here somewhere I'm reaching for it something about freddiente's reckless abandon coupled with precision and technique a hockey metaphor maybe what the hell it would look like sausages from montreal to

quebec

city by train 160 miles of winter views Swipe past the windows evocative of another time, there you go, Canadian caviar, sturgeon, Acadian caviar, not sure about Dave Mcmillan, but in Fred Moran's perfect world we'd all travel by train, it would still be the golden age of train travel, so, tell me about. the great canadian railway system is purely emotional there really is nothing rational about it fred is what one might conservatively call a hobbyist how extreme is your railway nerdism this is how bad it gets operating manual for this trend model yeah so you have other printed operation books ephemera collectibles fred retains an enduring love for the great iron horses that still carry passengers across thefrozen land that he calls home, but it's more than just nostalgia, it's also an appreciation for a dying art, I mean, it's like the old cruises or transport your Comfort, you know, in those halcyon days of cross-country railroading , there were luxurious dining cars, luxurious sleeping compartments, a bar car with livery service, we looked at the menus of everything, how people used to eat on trains.

I thought the inspiration was how we cook in the restaurant that's where all the sweet breads and fresh peas with béarnaise sauce lamb leg currant jelly very nice photos in the book the book dining on the train I'm the guy who holds the turkey and cuts it and you order a drink, it comes from a bottle made of glass in a glass made of glass, which is a great thing nowadays, it comes back to service, right? Oh, thank you, they present us with a perfectly serviceable omelet. There may no longer be a smoking room with brass spittoons, but this does not mean that a traveler has to suffer, so you always travel with a clean-shaven truffle during truffle season, as a gentleman should endure.

Wait a minute, I'm going to get a picture in action here. Wait on the Canadian train so all these people like to be waiting. Wait a minute, where's my fist-sized truffle? I have the truffle option please, oh of course don't forget. The failure of Quebec City, one of the oldest European settlements in North America, Samuel de Champlain, known as the father of New France, sailed to St. Lawrence and founded the site in 1608, when fighting began. You know who Quebec City was, the French stronghold until the bitter end when the French fell on the plains of Abraham the French may have lost that, but some things the French have remained firm, unyielding, unchanged by trends or history, the continent is the kind of place I was unreservedly sentimental about when I was younger.

I ate here with my grandparents and my parents here, well that's all that runs the city, it opened in 1956. Classic, non-ironic cuisine, which means ASEAN dishes you haven't seen in forever, a food-free zone hipsters of French continental ocean liner classics, like Caesar salad. prepared fresh at the table and meat tartare, also prepare it at the table as it is essential: shrimp cocktail, not a deconstructed shrimp cocktail, yes, a shrimp cocktail like Jesus wants you to eat them all, served by a dedicated professional in culinary school. They taught us this. real customers as a final class, we would have to do the barn-side fruit patch, all of which would inevitably fly off the fork and land in someone's soup.

I was so bad at it too, so I would start with the orange and get in trouble. I'll be back behind the screen, I'm like with my teeth removing the thing at least once a day, one of the students would catch fire where the client is, the sterno would like to spill and they would light it. It would be this line from the ground to his leg, no, that doesn't happen here, like I said, pros, this is going to be like a big fireball. Good fireball, the kind that knows how to properly prepare these dishes, sweet, I swear.

I had like a goosebump moment where yeah, for Dave, another classic debufffelai ombot, a filet mignon, a sauce made from cognac cream and deviated glass, that's nice, look at that and for Fred Scampi Newberg, when Was the last time you saw the word Newberg on an amazing menu? Absolutely incredible, but for me the noblest of Dover soul dishes, this seems to be one of the few waiters left alive who knows how to scrape the sauce off the bone and serve it properly. Thank you so much man, I love this place. I am very happy, it is very comforting that there is continuity in this world in the city, something else entirely: the youngest wilder la faire ketchup, of which I am reliably informed, means that everything is fine in the local language at this moment of my life, I just don't know anymore, are these young cooks?

These servers, these dedicated entrepreneurs, are either hipsters or I'm just a cranky old man who thinks anyone under 30 is a hipster. I don't know, but I admire them. So how much do they cost you when you open? Look at this little electrical device. four burner stove at no point in my culinary career could I have worked with one of these without murdering everyone nearby before hanging from the nearest beam how long did it take you to adjust? I would say about three months at first. I was lucky I didn't add many customers because I thought, "Oh man, I was going crazy," and yet these kids today are watching them serve up a wildly ambitious and quite substantial ever-changing menu in this housewife's oven. tonight there are razor clams with burnt wazette ooh and a very cool haddock cream thank you I love razor clams you will notice that no one in Quebec seems to skimp on the portions a tub of foie gras head cheese with cassis mustard oh and we dedicate bruffay to it those are truffled sweetbreads and you have some goose hearts, strange percy, just in case, there is a goose heart that is excellent, loose hearts in general, oh, you also have your moroso salah with roast tomato bread, that's that salt card for you, anglos i'm bloated like the michela tire guy and ready to burst into an omni livery fog hotel motel time for me how canadian is

quebec

are they really an entity or two this is a question that has been wrestled with for some time quebec It is certainly part of Canada, but in many ways, both culturally, spiritually and linguistically, it is something else entirely, there is a lot of history, much of it is controversial, go back far enough and you will get a clearer idea of ​​why the The French arrived on the shores of Quebec City in the early 16th century, but succumbed to the military power of Great Britain in the mid-18th century, thus beginning a gradual but constant persecution of all things French.

Quebecers have fought mightily to preserve their heritage. and french language the question of complete secession, a notion that persists to some extent even today journalist patrick lagasse meets me for lunch at bistro and sur massan to help me understand a little what many quebecers feel is at stake, so i was going to talk about the whole history of french quebecois identity, the separatist movement, all of this, but i have to understand right to the urgent matter of the day pasta gate pastor gate what do you want to know about the gay pastor for those who are not aware much of current Quebec politics? pastagate refers to an incident in which local authorities notified an Italian restaurant that they were violating French laws because they used the word pasta, which is Italian, this is fine, stop apologizing, okay, don't get me wrong, my last name is bulldog, I lean very much towards French, I greatly sympathize with the laws of the language, don't think it's absurd, I don't think it's absurd. but here we have a situation that is stupid.

I completely agree with you that this province 40 years ago was in a sense in the English city, so we needed to have linguistic laws for signage and now signage, for example, must by law be mainly in French French first in all things, but all bureaucracy produces byproducts of stupidity and that was it, and you know what won't stand, Anglo-Canadians treated French-speaking Quebecers like second-class trash for much of history, so I get it. Be angry too, I want my own and when I have it, I would like to make sure there is no regression to the bad every day that when the first sovereignty party to be elected was elected in 1976, it did not come to light . out of a vacuum emerged from a couple of decades of awakening and struggle 50 years from now people will still predominantly speak French and Montreal yes, without a doubt, without a doubt, French first is something that most would agree with to what extent and with what rigor is I want to continue with that, do you think there was ever any possibility of a real majority or a plurality of Quebecers who would have voted in a separate nation state?

You know, in English, you say that the timing is all right and the timing was never better than in the period 1990. 1991 92 because in 95 this country was inches from this division, yes, do you think it will ever happen in history of the world? I don't know, but I know one thing: anyone who says separatism is dead in this country in this province is a fool, it doesn't matter what you think about Quebec, is it separate or is it an essential part of Greater Canada, any reasonable person loves this place. Ronald Lenski's Concealer is famous for the sandwich.

This one is special. And what tradition does this basically fall into from the East? In Europe it was a matter of survival, it was because they were poor and that's what they could make Willenskis an old school institution since 1932 serving pressed beef bologna and salami sandwiches or specials as they call them, along with creams of cream. egg and shakes, so, um. the sound the special and a proper drink and egg cream very happy that's how it goes there are rules the special is always served with mustard it is never cut in two don't ask why just because that way there has always been a little respect for tradition Please, I'm happy now that you know that some things are beloved institutions for a reason, this is delicious, thank you, the tradition of the kaban asuka or sugar shack is as old as maple syrup here in Quebec, where the 70 comes from percent of global supply.

Deeply rooted in the outdoor maple syrup lumberjack lifestyle is the cabin in the woods where maple sap is collected and boiled into syrup. Over time, many of these cabins became informal dining houses, dining rooms for workers and some guests where a lucky few could sit. communal tables and enjoy the bounty of the trees and forests that surround them. Martin Picard has taken this tradition to what is in some ways its logical conclusion and the crazy end of it, creating his own hut souk open only during maple season and serving food that comes directly from those humble but abundant. roots, it makes a lot of sense in a way, I mean, 130 acres produces about 32,000 gallons of maple sap that runs through these tubes to here, where it's cooked down to about 800 gallons of syrup, which is about minus what they use per season here.

Nothing leaves the property and it makes sense while you're here to raise pigs and cattle on the property and maybe have a cabinet or two nearby for any friends who are too stuffed to sleep, but there really is some reason for this. What are you doing here? Why do you have to make life so difficult if money was your main motivation? This doesn't seem like the quickest path to untold wealth. My grandfather, you know, had a sugar shack. Everyone had one. You can come back. Know? three generations had a sugar shack and I'm very proud of uh Quebec I'm very proud of Canada you know you celebrate Canadian history you celebrate Canadian traditions you celebrate Canadian ingredients uh in a way that no one else has, right? some kind of patriot is that what is happening here is national, uh, very patriotic, I say it all the time, this is one of the most important restaurants to me in North America, if not in the world, it is a facility of art, yes really Look at it pretty, the meal starts with a tower of maple desserts, good sir, sponge cake, maple caramel, maple donuts, beaver tails, maple cotton candy, but wait, there's more almond croissant, whipped cookies, a little nougat, yes, here we go, I think it's the first time for me.

I've never seen that, not at all good, that was a hammer, let the madness begin next, a whole lobe of foie gras with baked beans on a pancake cooked in duck fat, of course, cottage cheese and eggs cooked in maple syrup. Wow, that's amazing, there's a healthy salad. sauteed duck hearts, gizzards and pig ears topped with lots of fried cracklings, oh my, and a maple bacon and calf brain omelet, and these, how do you make this with love? With love, panko-encrusted duck legs, shrimp and salmon mousse, and maple barbecue. sauce Oh my gosh, wow, but this is a classic Quebecois dish, it's called la tuccia, you know, a meat pie, a turtle, a whole lara cheese, quiet, foie gras, calf's brains, sweet breads, bacon and arugula , but with marten that is not enough.

Normally there is no truffle, but I only, yes, black. truffles more truffles, it will be too much truffle, my blood gets thicker seeing that and now the main course is home-grown, smoked in the front, local ham with pineapple and green beans, almonds and chicken, but with Marta the chicken never It's just stuffed chicken. with foie gras potakino and lobster we put lobster bisque on the chicken, yes, my goodness, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, ah, someone should be singing the national anthem, now I mean, really and practically prehistoric, the classic syrup of Old school Canadian maple warms up. then poured over thesnow and becomes a kind of candy, but the preferred delivery mechanism presents some problems. take a big one and you have to suck it, not swallow it, you know, look, you have to go like this slowly, slowly, you know, that slowly, slowly.

That's how it's good, that's how it is, can I do it in a manly way? Yes, yes, you just don't look down and look away in a distracted manner. It's like it's not really the best way to look up. finally there's maple meringue pie and maple ice cream with chocolate shards. Any suggestions on how to attack this. We did it once. I wonder if the chef suggests it for the ice cream cone. The chefs suggest that you eat the ice cream like this. That's what I think you have to focus on too much. about food, you know, you know, wow, this is very intellectual and I, wow, and then blah, blah, blah, I've done too much, even though all that, uh, you know, I don't want to do that, I don't want to play anymore. because food is feces and wait, this is CNN, if there's one thing you always need on a cold, snowy night, it's another hearty meal.

I meet Fred and Dave at Liverpool House, Joe Beef's sister restaurant. I think we always compensate a little. bitten with excess food due to our insecurity of not being like good cooks no, you know what it is a combination of low self-esteem and generosity that explains the amount of food maybe first course gravlax of char solomon beets and eggs twitter incredible look in the side, this is smoked eel and potatoes inside salmon pastrami and wait a minute, this is super classic and this ugh on egg and gelatin, soft-boiled or poached egg and clear gelatin broth, classically garnished with white ham, leaves of tarragon, black truffles, oh my goodness.

I was pretty sure I would live the rest of my life without seeing this again. Ah, delicious, but tonight, after a full week of French-Canadian attacks on our livers and our lights, Fred and Dave thought it would be delicious and merciful to take advantage of the somewhat lighter and incredibly delicious meal from their brilliant chef Omar , which is from Pakistan, amazing authentic Pakistani food, so what do we have here? Butter chicken, crab, octopus, tikka, small eggplants raised with anarca seeds, small pomegranate mushrooms, rabbit korma fingerlings with fenugreek and fennel, this is nahari mate, yes, said donkey. meat, is there a problem with the dishes continuing? a Pakistani gumbo with okra and coriander, curry with sesame seeds and green pepper, hanger steak, palak paneer, all with beef, scotch egg, a puri with horse meat tartare and an authentic goat biryani, wow, the biryani is amazing, are you full?

Yes, in the end we did a good job here and perhaps as a nod to the Anglo tradition. However, there will be Stilton. This is a genius. These princes of gastronomy are never a suboptimal moment. Nothing less than excellent. Accepted beyond excellent. Too excellent. Yes, possibly surpassed. the top yes definitely everything comes back in the end the circle of life we ​​started from the beginning the heart and soul of every right thinking quebecois apparently freeze a stick and a puck fred, dave and mark happy carr are united by the original god of Montreal gastronomy, the great chef, normal lapris to watch his beloved Montreal Canadians lay waste to the Carolina Hurricanes while eating, of course, and drinking, as it turns out that the best wines known to mankind and here we go, woohoo.