Montreal Cheese

Larry and I spent the last couple of weeks visiting my mum in Montreal.

Montreal in the summer is all about sitting outside, preferably with un bon café or a cold drink, watching the world go by.

We sat outside on great terrasses - McAuslan's pub on the Lachine Canal, Brûlerie St. Denis on rue St. Denis, Winston Churchill's on Crescent St., The Black Lion Pub on the Lakeshore, Juliette et Chocolat on Laurier.

Possibly the best terrasse was my mum's patio, where we watched the fireflies dart around the garden in the twilight. (We don't have fireflies in L.A., so this was a real treat.)

The hot humid weather made simple meals attractive, and some of the best meals we ate started at the fromagerie Atwater in the Atwater Farmers Market.

It was one of our first stops after we landed, and we picked up enough cheese for a few days.

I walked up to the cheese counter and announced that I was visiting with my husband - un Américain - and I wanted him to experience the bon goût du fromage québécois. My French is rusty, but the young man behind the counter was up for the challenge.

He suggested a sampling of Quebec cheeses, starting with the mild and moving to the more flavorful. He selected his favorite mild cheese, came around the counter, and gave us each a piece. Mum was off wandering the store, but he tracked her down to give her cheese. What a good guy. She stayed next to the counter after that.

He described each of the cheeses in French and again in English to accommodate Larry. (As the visit wound on, there was less French and more English. He knew his audience.) We bought a little of each of the four cheeses he recommended: Pied-de-Vent, a raw cow's milk cheese from the Magdalene Islands in the St. Lawrence River;  Louis d'Or 24 mois, a washed-rind raw organic cow's milk cheese from Ste. Elizabeth de Warwick,  Cheddar Brittania (Larry's favorite - a good sharp cheddar, $42.99 a kilo, but we only bought $2.59 worth), and Victor & Berthold, a semi-soft cheese with a washed rind from Notre Dame de Lourdes.

Cheese, baguette, salade verte. Lunches don't get much better than that.