Randomly within a few days of each other I received two different books written by Anthony Bourdain, given to me by two different individuals. Previous to reading his books all that I knew about the man and chef was that he had overcome a nasty drug habit at one point in his life, that he was a considered a good chef and that he could be “grumpy”. Most of this knowledge having been pieced together in bits and pieces from various other sources (the internet, television shows such as top chef or through friends).
My coworker lent me a copy of “Kitchen confidential” while my brother sent me his “No reservations: Around the world on An empty stomach” (Thanks bro!). I have to say that I did not use to “enjoy” food. I used to eat because it was a necessity; I needed fuel. Over the years this has changed a great deal and I now consider myself a lot more adventurous when it comes to trying new dishes or cuisines. I tend to say “sure I’ll give it a taste” rather than “that doesn’t look appetizing”. I like sitting around a table with a group of friends, drinking and eating the night away.
I literally devoured Kitchen confidential. It had me laughing out loud while riding the metro on more than a few occasions. I flipped through “Around the world” until I stopped on the Korea and Japan sections. The advertising signs, the colors, the people, the food; they all screamed one thing: COME BACK! I decided it would be wise to put the book about food with all the beautiful travel pictures down for a little while.
If I couldn’t be on the road I would do the next best thing. I started watching “Anthony Bourdains no reservation” television show. I watched the first season and enjoyed some insightful moments and one in particular stayed with me. I forget to who he was speaking but at one point he says that a chef friend of his had mentioned something along the lines of “The more I travel, The more I realize I know nothing”.
I started season two and noticed that there was an episode about the province of Quebec. While in Montreal he visited the popular “Au pied de cochon” restaurant where they tried to kill him with food. I’ve heard of the pied du cochon but have yet to try it myself.
He next moved on tasting a few different versions of the Quebec ‘poutine’. His favorite? The classic cheese, gravy and fries. Anthony knows his poutine, that’s all i’m saying. So now I’m dreaming of being on the road again, eating the local cuisine, meeting the locals and getting lost in some new adventure. In simple terms I can’t, but that’s the beauty of dreaming isn’t it? It doesn’t cost a thing…
I have to focus on my “job” for a little while. So please fate I’m asking politely; stop teasing me. I spoke aloud to no one in particular “Stop showing me what I’m missing and show me what I have here in Montreal.” While in Montreal Anthony visited the local Dante quincaillerie (hardware store). He explained that it’s frequented by chefs and foodies for their kitchen equipment.
As an amateur foodie I decided it was time for me to stop and visit this little quincaillerie for the first time. I jumped on the metro, got out a few blocks before the Jean-Talon market and made my way to Dante’s.
As soon as I walked in it felt like I was in someone’s well stocked Kitchen. The aisles were small and despite still being early in the morning the store was full of various people shopping. Dante’s is located in Montreal’s little Italy so it was no surprise to hear Italian being spoken mixed in with French and English throughout the store.
The kitchen equipment is top notch and as a foodie and amateur chef I saw a lot of “items” that I wanted to bring home with me. I’m a minimalist at heart and am always torn between the things I’d like to have and my brain saying “but do you really need it”. I did find a couple of things that I was looking for: One of them being a nice basic plastic spatula. I also located a nice ceramic oven pot, very similar to what they used to cook Dak-Baek-suk and it was only 40$. There’s no doubt I’ll be revisiting Dantes again to pick up that pot. There was a thick non stick pan that was just calling my name but it wasn’t within my budget on this visit (100$). There was a small egg frying pan, made out of pure non stick steel for another (20+$) that looked really appealing as well. The one thing I didn’t find which surprised me was some nice thick bread baking “pans”.
The store has a lot of cooking equipment as well as some hunting gear (guns, knives etc). The reason I was there today was for the knives. I’ve been wanting to buy myself a nice all purpose kitchen knife for some time. In the “Kitchen confidential” book Anthony made the recommendation of getting one “decent” knife that goes by the brand “Global” made by the Yoshikin Japanese company. When he visited Dante’s he explained that chefs often buy their knives there so I thought I’d go check out their selection.
I saw a display case with several of their knives and asked one of the floor staff if I could have a look at them and check their prices. After a few minutes of inspecting the different models I settled on the “Global Cromova 18 Stainless Steel” specimen. I finally have my first real decent kitchen knife. Of course like anything of quality it didn’t come cheap.
To say that it’s sharp is an understatement. It’s a beautiful one piece stainless steel knife and it’s surprisingly “light” when in your hand. I was getting ready to pay for my purchases, fighting the old Italian ladies at the cash when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dog’s tail wagging. There in one of the aisles was a dog winding his way around the customers. I have had no idea who the dog belonged to but it was obvious that this store was his “home”. Like any dog who has more than his share of attention he/she was very non challant about all the customers inside the store. He stepped outside and proceeded to lay down at the entrance of the store.
You see I have a theory about places that have dogs. They simply can’t be bad. If you ever see a dog walking inside a bar or a store do yourself a favor and stop to check it out. You’ll almost never go wrong.
It was another one of those perfect and beautiful Montreal summer days: I continued to wind my way through the side streets, walking from Dantes in little Italy to the downtown core before stopping to grab a bite to eat.
My pictures from inside of Dantes didn’t turn out well at all. On my next visit I’ll take a few more and update this post.
mtl_dokkaebi
Nice knife man…tell me, how do you find the grip if/when your hand’s wet? I’ve always had the suspicion that it would be a lot more “slippery”/less grip with a stainless steel handle…lemme know how it’s working. My Henkle is almost at it’s end and I’m willing to dish out a few bucks for the next one…
Well for the sake of trying it out; dunked my hand in water and played with the knife. I don’t think it makes much of a difference in terms of “slipping” compared to say a knife with a plastic handle.
That being said I haven’t had a chance to really get may hands dirty while working with it (yet). The handle fits nicely in the palm of your hand and the knife is “weighted” in a way that makes holding it seem natural, if that makes sense.
Probably still a little bit more slippery than say a wooden or molded plastic handle though.
COME BACK! ;-)