Montreal's Jean-Talon Market is offering a world of food all in one place

GLOBE TROTTING: Marche Jean-Talon at 7070 Avenue Henri Julien is a large produce market in Montreal offering fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as prepared food from the province of Quebec and around the world. You can take the subway to the Jean-Talon Station, a couple of blocks away.

EVERYTHING BUT TOOTHPICKS: I don't know of any other produce market that gives free samples.

NO PESTICIDES: One stand offers Lebanese-style cucumbers grown in Quebec without pesticides.

NORTH OF THE BORDER: One stand sells tortas and tacos stuffed with cochinita pibil, a traditional slow-roasted Mexican dish of shredded pork prepared in a sauce of orange and lime juices, and vinegar, seasoned with chili powder, cumin and achiote, above and below. 

QUICK LUNCH: You'll pay $5.50 Canadian for three tacos or a sandwich. Visitors from the United States get a discount because of the strength of the U.S. against the Canadian dollar.

SAY CHEESE: Freshly made sandwiches are filled with Quebec cheeses. 

FISH FRY: Aqua Mare is a full-service market with a well-iced display of wild-caught fish, as well as live lobsters, but the shop also prepares fried seafood you can eat on picnic tables outside. Opposite the store, another vendor serves freshly shucked oysters for $2 to $3 apiece.

SMELTS IN THE MOUTH: An order of fried smelts and shrimp with spicy mayonnaise is enough for two as a snack ($10 Canadian).

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Less than a block from the produce market, Boucherie Al Kahir at 300 Rue Jean-Talon East, Montreal, is a Moroccan butcher shop that also sells a wide variety of prepared food, spices and bread. 

SPREAD THE JOY: The butcher shop offers hummus, baba ghanoush and the less familiar zaalouk, made with eggplant, tomatoes, oil and parsley.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: In Morocco, pastilla is a pigeon pie, but in Montreal, Boucherie Al Kahir makes them with chicken or seafood.

BREAKING BREAD: The butcher shop's bread corner. I can find fresh Middle Eastern pocket bread baked in Montreal when I shop at Fattal's and other stores in the South Paterson section of Paterson, N.J.

TORTILLAS AND MORE: On the corner opposite the Moroccan butcher shop, La Tortilleria bakes tortillas in the front of the shop and prepares tacos and other Mexican specialties in a kitchen in the back to take out or eat there.

SPICE OF LIFE: Marche Jean-Talon is ringed with food stores, including Vrac en Folie, a shop at 274 Rue Jean-Talon East with hundreds of spices. Unfortunately, the za'atar spice mixture sold here contains soy. I found a much better version at Boucherie Al Kahir. Vrac en Folie did have ground cardamom to mix in Turkish coffee or espresso.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Joey Alexander inhabits the spirit of jazz musicians who turned to Islam

Jazz piano prodigy Joey Alexander is dwarfed by his sidemen as they acknowledge a standing ovation on Friday night at a concert in Montreal. Alexander responded with two encores.

Editor's note: In Montreal for the 37th annual International Jazz Festival, we've been eating our way around town, and going to hear and see such great musicians as Joey Alexander, who turned 13 on June 25.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- Joey Alexander was born in Indonesia -- the most populous Muslim country in the word -- learned to play jazz piano at age 6 and released his first album at age 11.

As remarkable as his story is, Alexander still can't fill the shoes of jazz great Fritz Jones, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., on July 2, 1930, and began playing piano at age 3.

Except it's likely you have never heard of Jones, who is among the dozens of black jazz musicians who adopted Muslim names to combat bigotry and racial injustice in the United State.

See: American Jazz + Islam and Muslim Names in Jazz, a list of black musicians whose exotic names ring a bell with many fans of the music.

In Jones' case, that name is Ahmad Jamal, whose award-filled career spans more than six decades.

Others are Yusef Lateef (William Evans), Sahib Shihab (Edmund Gregory) and Idris Muhammad (Leo Morris).

In a way, Alexander -- born Josiah Alexander Sila on the island of Bali -- is a spiritual descendant of Ahmad Jamal and all those Americans who sought comfort in Islam in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Baby face, baby voice

Even though I've heard so much about Alexander and saw him profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes," I wasn't really prepared to see his trio perform at the International Jazz Festival in Montreal.

He isn't quite 5 feet tall, and plays the piano both sitting and standing, favoring uptempo numbers based on the repertoires of John Coltrane and other jazz giants.

On Friday night, the bespectacled Alexander and his much older sidemen came on stage and started playing, and the teenager didn't speak to the audience until later.

When he did, I was struck by his baby face, baby voice and heavily accented English.

He put on a spectacular show, backed by a great bass player and drummer, showing his command of the jazz piano at such a tender age.

Imagine a concert pairing this young phenom with a true master, Jamal.

Alexander, who is under 5 feet tall, plays the piano standing as well as seated.

American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal is among dozens of African-Americans who took Muslim names after experiencing discrimination. Jamal was born in 1930 as Frederick Russell "Fritz" Jones in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Joey Alexander speaking to the audience on Friday night in Salle Luder-Duvernay, a Montreal concert hall that was inaugurated in 1893 and is said to be Canada's oldest theater.

In Montreal, bargain lunches are taking bite out of high cost of eating out

Place Deschamps Bar A Vin and many other fine-dining restaurants in Montreal offer a two-course, fixed-price lunch, usually with a limited selection of dishes, for as little as $20. Ordered a la carte, lunch entrees alone are about $25 each at this wine bar.

Editor's note: All prices are given in Canadian dollars. Our vacation in Montreal brings an added bonus. This week, a U.S. dollar is worth $1.29 against the Canadian dollar.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- You can eat really well in this French-speaking island city, but to get the biggest bang for your buck, make lunch your major meal.

Year-round, most fine-dining restaurants offer a two-course lunch for a fixed price that includes coffee or tea.

They're called "table d'hote du midi" menus, and for visitors from the United States, they are even a bigger bargain because of the favorable exchange rate against the Canadian dollar.

This week, we enjoyed a two-course lunch for $21 at a Portuguese restaurant and another one for $20 at a wine bar, exclusive of 15% meal taxes and a gratuity.

Sure, fine-dining restaurants in Manhattan offer three-course lunches for $25 during Restaurant Weeks in July and January.

Not only are they more expensive than Montreal's table d'hote lunches, but you'll be forced to choose a dessert as a third-course even if you are watching you're weight and cholesterol.

In recent years, Manhattan restaurants that once substituted fruit for an unwanted dessert at a Restaurant Week lunch have refused to do so. 

In Montreal, one of the best lunch deals around isn't strictly a table d'hot du midi menu, but a choice of three petiscos or "snacks" for $21 at Taverne F, a Portuguese restaurant. Starters include Cod Cakes with Piri Piri Mayo, above; Roasted Sardines and Gaspacho, photos below.

Boneless and headless Portuguese Sardines with Pickled Vegetables.

A cold Tomato and Pepper Gaspacho comes with hard-boiled egg and sausage chips.

For their main course, both my wife and son chose Porco Frito or Portuguese-style slow-cooked suckling pig with Braised Fennel and Bean Puree. Each also had a side of Batatas Fritos or fried potatoes as their third choice, below. The menu at Taverne F lists other choices for the $21 lunch, but some carry a supplement of $1 to $4. 

You can ask for Taverne F's complimentary bread service, which included one of the crustiest baguettes I've ever had with thick Portuguese extra-virgin olive oil for dipping. I poured some of the olive oil over my roasted sardines.

Taverne F, open 7 days for lunch and dinner, is at 1485 Rue Jeanne-Mance, Montreal, in the heart of the city's festival district; 1-514-289-4558.

On Friday, the table d'hote du midi menu at Place Deschamps in Montreal offered one entree and one starter for $20, plus tax and tip. The main course was Cod served over Asparagus and other vegetables, above, and the perfectly cooked fish came to the table with a crispy skin. I asked the kitchen to make it with olive oil, not butter.

My starter was a cold, thick soup of Watermelon and Cucumber, and the meal included a cup of coffee.

My wife ordered a Cesar Salad with Roasted Guineafowl, and we had the kitchen substitute arugula for the iceberg lettuce listed on the menu ($26 a la carte).

I was able to get some extra-virgin olive oil with the bread.

Place Deschamps Bar A Vin, above and below, is open Mondays to Fridays for lunch, Tuesdays to Saturdays for dinner, and on Monday and Sunday evenings when there are performances in one of the halls in the Place Des Artes; 175 Rue Sainte-Catherine West, Montreal (1-514-564-3155).

1000 Grammes, a Tex-Mex restaurant at 1495 Rue Saint-Catherine Street East in Montreal, offers a midi menu for as little as $11.50, including a cold soup or salad and dessert, above and below.

Regency Club

We're eating our breakfasts and light dinners at the Hyatt Regency Montreal, headquarters hotel for the 37th edition of the International Jazz Festival, which runs through July 9.

This year, I booked a two-room suite, and paid a $50 daily Regency Club supplement that entitles the three of us to have complimentary morning and evening meals.

In the hotel's Saveur restaurant, breakfast is an all-you-can-eat buffet with made-to-order omelets, carve-to-order ham and more food than any one person should eat at one time, including bagels, granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, pancakes, bacon, potatoes and too many other items to list (normally, $21.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity).

In the evening, a buffet of soup, salads and hors d'oeuvres is available from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  

After 7:30, coffee, tea and desserts are served.

We've noticed cutbacks, including the elimination of smoothies that were available at breakfast in the past. And I haven't seen any smoked salmon or shrimp in the evenings.

The evening buffet in the Regency Club often includes roasted vegetables, below.

At Montreal Festival: Gregory Porter, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

HEART-BREAKING SONGS: Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter and his quartet performing on Wednesday night in Montreal's Theater Maisonneuve, above and below.

Editor's note: On our visit to Montreal for the annual jazz festival, we eat, sightsee and catch free concerts during the day, then go to see and hear today's giants of jazz at night.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- American jazz singer Gregory Porter spoke to the audience and responded to their standing ovation with encores on the opening night of this city's 37th edition of the International Jazz Festival.

In contrast, trumpet colossus Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra filed onto the stage and started playing, but the leader didn't introduce the group until later.

Maybe he was upset the emcee introduced him as "Winston Marsalis."

Marsalis also ignored a raucous standing ovation, and the only encore he provided was playing his horn with the rhythm section after the rest of the band members had left the stage.

On the opening night of the International Jazz Festival on Wednesday, Porter and his quartet delivered emotional songs -- most of them originals -- about heartbreak and injustice to an enthusiastic audience in Theatre Maisonneuve.

An official also presented the festival's annual Ella Fitzgerald Award to Porter.

Birth of the cool

On Thursday night, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra filled a much larger venue, Maison Symphonique de Montreal, but the performance lacked warmth.

Some of that had to do with the stage lights being left on throughout the performance.

Marsalis did mention the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra had been created in the spirit of Duke Ellington, and that members of the Ellington family were seated in the hall.

But he spent more time speaking to them than trying to engage the rest of the audience.

OVERSTAYED HER WELCOME: Soul and funk singer Jaime Woods opening for Gregory Porter with a repertoire of her own songs, but some audience members felt she spent too much time on the stage.

HARSH LIGHTING: Leader Wynton Marsalis kept his seat in the trumpet section as he introduced his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra interpretations of Ellington's "Braggin' In Brass," "Dead Man's Blues" and other selections.

DISAPPOINTED AUDIENCE: Despite cheers and a standing ovation from the audience, Marsalis allowed most of the orchestra to leave the stage without performing an encore.

We're looking forward to 8 days of great jazz and great food in Montreal

A tour group from Virginia exploring the Place des Arts In Montreal as preparations continue for the city's International Jazz Festival, which begins today and runs through July 9.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- After a good night's sleep and a big breakfast, we are looking forward to seeing and hearing Gregory Porter, the American who took a 2014 Grammy for best jazz vocal album.

This French-Canadian island city is hosting the 37th edition of what is often called the best jazz festival in the world.

Porter will perform tonight in Theatre Maisonneuve, one of the concert halls in the Place des Arts that make up this city's bigger and better version of Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

We also have tickets to see Joey Alexander, the Indonesian child prodigy who released his first jazz album in 2015 at age 11; singer Lauryn Hill and others through July 7.

We're also looking forward to exploring restaurants and markets in a city with world-renowned food. 

Hundreds of free concerts at outdoor stages and in tents begin at 11 a.m. and end at midnight during the 11-day festival. Ticketed concerts are in halls, nightclubs and other venues in or near the Place des Arts, above.

The Hyatt Regency, headquarters hotel for the festival, is part of the Complexe Desjardins, above, a link in a vast network of shops, restaurants, offices and subway stations known as Underground Montreal. 

A bowl of yogurt, granola, dried fruit and nuts is available as part of a groaning-board breakfast at the hotel.

The breakfast includes made-to-order omelets, ham, string beans and much more.

My 2% Costco reward certificate covers membership fee two times over

The Costco Wholesale Business Center at 80 S. River St. in Hackensack is a stress-free alternative to the bigger, far busier Costco Wholesale warehouse a few miles away in Teterboro, especially if you live nearby and want to pick up only a few things. The warehouse also has a food court.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

My 2% Reward Certificate from Costco Wholesale arrived in the mail this week and repaid me more than twice for an annual $110 Executive Membership.

The check for $241 back on Costco purchases in the past year is in addition to the $274 in cash rebates I received in February from American Express for purchases at Costco, gas stations, restaurants and other businesses.

The new Costco Visa credit card will return even more cash back then the displaced American Express card.

On Monday afternoon, I picked up KIND snack bars, mangoes and chewing gum at the Costco Wholesale Business Center in Hackensack.

I handed over my 2% Reward Certificate to pay for them, and walked away with about $209 in cash.

What's not to like?