JOE BEEF: A GLUTTON’S RITE OF PASSAGE
Outstanding French cuisine meets comforting Canadian hospitality.
Joe Beef
Truly one of the best meals I can remember. We heard about this restaurant Joe Beef in Montreal from an old episode of Parts Unknown—apparently ‘Joe Beef’ was a dodgy 19th century French-Canadian meat scrounger. Our kind of hero. Not Michelin, more an ‘in the know’ sort of place—unfussy, but the very best of everything. They push old school French classics as far as they go, with a few quirky additions like having the pairing for the foie gras in wine-gum form.
A VOYAGE INTO EROTICA GASTRONOMIQUE
Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs (just), and we order far too much, but there are certain nights in certain restaurants when you’d be fools to hold back. So—Vesper Martinis to start? D’accord, you’re the boss. We begin with the foie gras, bone marrow flan, and an unironic prawn cocktail. The mains are hare à la royale, duck a l’orange, and sweetbread, prune and trotter skewers. For pudding, we manage a gateau marjolaine and crêpes Suzette. And there may be a cheeky calvados, to aid digestion…
There’s a bon vivant vibe, like nothing’s too much trouble and indulgence is to be understood and celebrated—the staff know it, and you’re beginning to believe it. There are tea-towel napkins, open fires, and sinful but supportive smiles. A waitress notices one of us has dipped a finger in the last bit of meurette sauce, shakes her head kindly, and a just baked raisin loaf appears on the table with a little matchbook packet of good French butter. Can’t life always be like this?
Sugar Shacks
Also… Quebec has these things called Sugar Shacks during maple syrup season (thanks again go to Parts Unknown). You eat like a farm hand on a shared table in a little cabin in the woods, then they take you outside, boil up fresh maple syrup, and drizzle it on snow for you to roll onto a popsicle stick.
And with that, we officially became Canadian.
The Art of Living According to Joe Beef
Their cookbook, The Art of Living According to Joe Beef is a fresh perspective on traditional French cuisine with over 125 recipes. The book is beautifully illustrated and includes stories that keep you entertained throughout an intriguing and mouth-watering culinary journey.