chantal martineau

Sometimes, bar hopping means stumbling from dive to dive, getting sozzled on cheap shots with weak beer chasers. This was not one of those times: I was in Montreal recently with a few oenophilic friends for a wine bar crawl. The rather civilized evening took us to a handful of different bars à vin, each one ideal for a certain type of wine lover. We sipped on unusual by-the-glass options, polished off whole bottles, and dined on shareable plates. Didn’t you know? Montreal is kind of a wine lover’s paradise…

Many a city gets compared to New York. Toronto is the Big Apple of the Great White North? Sorry, Canada. Not buying it. But Mexico City really can be likened to New York — it even hired ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani to consult on how to clean up its streets.

But is it safe? People kept asking me when I told them I’d be spending my birthday last month, alone, in Mexico City. Not that you’re ever alone in a city of 20 million people. Yes, I keep saying, it’s safe. As in, you can traipse from bar to bar at night without worrying about getting jumped (depending, like any big city, on the neighborhood). But the adventurous, borderline experimental, bars themselves — edgy and effortlessly cool — are anything but “safe”…

Puebla celebrates its 150^th birthday this year, which means that the Cinco de Mayo festivities will be bigger than ever this weekend. Celebrations already started taking place for the city’s anniversary last month when I was there and will continue in some form throughout the year.

The city is known as the country’s culinary heart, home to many of Mexico’s most iconic dishes, including mole poblano (a dish many home cooks mind too difficult to attempt). When I was in Puebla, I learned from a local chef how to make it — he showed me it could be done without an abuela ready and waiting in the wings…

A couple tens of thousands of people – don’t quote me on that number – squeezed in last Sunday to watch Bruce Springsteen belt out bittersweet songs about living hard and staying true. (Janelle Monáe writhed on her stage nearby.) I ducked out from the crowd just before the end of the performance.

I had Crawfish Monica on the brain…

It’s around that time again, when we freshen up our Coffee Power Rankings. Like a jolt of mid-morning caffeination, we’re shaking the old list up this month with a sprinkling of new players. In case you’re wondering just what complex algorithm we use to gauge the hottest coffee folks, well, it’s no big secret. We drink a hell of a lot of coffee around these parts.

Those who rank on our list are people in the joe biz who have caught our eye, or palates. Those working on cool new projects. Or coffee purveyors just plain doing it right. Here’s who we’re most into this month…

While a good many Americans are getting ready for the warm weather to arrive, French Canadians still have their minds on their maple. It’s sugaring off season in Southern Quebec, which is a slightly smutty-sounding way of saying it’s that time of year when maple trees get tapped to make syrup and other sweet maple products…

As the resident Montrealer here at Food Republic, I get tapped to write about poutine, smoked meat, skinny bagels and other specialties from my hometown. But what do I eat when I’m there? Wouldn’t you like to know. I drove up to Montreal for my birthday weekend (happy birthday, to me) and ate my way through my favorite spots. Here are the highlights…