Nuit Blanche

Went with a friend to check out a car to buy this afternoon, on a 30-degree day (91 for you fellow Yanks and other outcasts) and ended up at her friend (the seller’s) house. She is this incredible gardener. I wish I’d brought the camera, because her garden is just a vast jungle. Vast! Probably more square feet than my apartment. Probably more than 250 varieties of plants, shrubs, flowers, ferns, herbs, ivies and trees. And she knew the names of each of them. I was very impressed, to say the least. I’ll bring the camera next time.

And then we drove from Dorval to the Plateau and bought some amazing beer from a beer-import depanneur (who knew that existed?) maybe on Frontenac? and went to Sakeo, a “restaurant Asiatique” on Mont-Royal, clutching our beers (some organic stuff containing barley, wheat and oats — really weird but good and REALLY fizzy, like champagne — fountains of bubbles) and a bottle of good Portuguese red wine that seemed to morph along with what you ate, so at the beginning it tasted vinegary (after the beer) then became oaky after the spring rolls (uncooked) and then became progressively more sublime after the various sushis.

Presentation was good, service was spotty and Masako still rules, but it was pretty good.

Then it was Mont-Royal, and stumbling on the Nuit Blanche rue-barrée thingy (not really a festival, just road art and a band in a park) and had Cosmopolitans and nachos at a place called Bistro Etc. (I guess that’s a pun on & cie? Dunno).

So apart from the heat it was a pretty cool evening. Next time I will bring my camera.

Nicky out