na brasa, montreal canada

the first time i came to montreal, i wandered up avenue st. laurent and veered into a portuguese neighborhood that was rife with eateries. i chose the one with the packed and festive patio, a place called bistro duluth. i couldn't have been more on point. the waiter was so sweet and everything was so delicious, i promised myself that if i ever returned, i'd have to eat there again.

so today my friend and i tromped through the snow and freezing rain in search of this lovely little spot. i had no idea where it was. and little did i know that the name had changed to na brasa. after three years, all i could do was wander up the same avenue and hope for some clues here and there. well. believe it or not, we found it. it was the perfect lunch. thank God we split everything. (frankly, my best diet trick is to always let him eat most of our meals. he should anyway because he's so much bigger than me and can burn it off much easier than i can.)

my cardinal rule to eating out: no chicken! why go to a restaurant and order something that you get all the time, anyway? so unfortunately, their infamous marinated specialty was off limits. because we intended to have a foodie dinner, we decided to mix it up on the light side by starting with this:



this is a tapas dish called petisco. it's chourico (much like the mexican chorizo i know so well and love so much, but dried and cooked down), pork (marinated and grilled on its own before it was thrown into this mix), morcela (a kind of portuguese blood sausage -- this one was dense and flavorful, with no fillers like rice) and a soft white cheese (not quite manchego, but close), with a little salad on the side to cut the intensity of the meat. it was the right kind of spicy, with a sauce that demanded to be sopped up with lots of crusty, fresh-baked bread.

and then there was this amazing little treat:



this is called cataplana moda da casa -- basically it's fish with lots of seafood: clams, mussels, shrimp, prawns, calamari and chunks of deboned fish swim amidst a stew-like broth of cilantro, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, sweet onions and new potatoes. it was like a tomato-based bouillabaise -- complex, flavorful, somewhat spicy, not fishy at all.

my friend ordered a fruity/not so dry glass of white wine that i actually liked. too full for dessert. but i'll make up for that later on tonight.