Sunday, August 4, 2024

Pizza in Quebec City + Green Gazpacho, Go-To Cucumber Salad, Baked Feta and Tomatoes & More

At the very end of fifth grade, my oldest daughter Ella elected to take French as her middle school language because in eighth grade she would travel with her fellow French classmates to Montreal for a field trip.

When this trip finally arrived this past May and a hockey tournament prohibited her from attending, she was crushed. It felt like a teaching moment — like, well, maybe field trips shouldn't determine the language you take for three years? — but who am I kidding, I would have done the same. Upon seeing her disappointment, I impulsively suggested: Let's go to Montreal this summer!

Ben and I went to Montreal 10 years ago, shortly after we moved to Upstate New York, and I've longed to go back. I loved the vibe, it's not terribly far from us, and it's where I discovered kouign amann, affogato, and a style of bagels that would soon become a thing in the States.

Despite my longing to return, as we picked a date and began planning, we decided to go to Quebec City instead, just a few hours further, a city so many people have urged me to visit upon hearing my love for Montreal.

And so, here we are! We drove up on Friday, checked into our Airbnb in the Saint-Roch neighborhood, and shortly thereafter headed to Nina Pizza Napolitaine for dinner. Friends! It was fabulous. The kids loved the Margherita, as did we, but this white one, the Greenpoint, with fresh mozzarella, lemon zest, arugula, and parmesan was très bien!

There was salad of course:

And we finished with affogato:

Pizza, salad, ... affogato — is there anything better? Friends, the food here has been so good, from the crepes at breakfast yesterday morning to the poutine and po' boys at Diner last night. And I promise we haven't only been eating — in between meals we've been cruising the streets of Old Quebec City, and last night, we hiked the Montmorency Waterfall. It was beautiful.

I'm off to find coffee and kouign amann. I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.

PS: Thank you to all who attended my Milk Street virtual cooking class on Thursday evening! I hadn't made Sicilian- or grandma-style pizza in a long time, and the exercise reminded me how much I love pan pizza, particularly grandma pizzas... tutorial coming soon!