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Cuisine is more than food, it defines and represents a city's culture. When we picture Montreal, Canada’s cultural capital, we see music, art and hearty poutine coated with smoked meat. When we picture Kelowna, we see a fresh and light cuisine that imaginatively uses fresh local produce. But what happens when we fuse these two food cultures? What happens when we take hearty, smoked meat and toss in a foray of locally produced vegetables? MTL Real Food’s head chef Mathew Morazain is on a quest to find out.
“Growing up in Ottawa, I always had a passion for Montreal,” says Chef Mathew Morazain. “Our Christmas tradition was to go to the Jewish meat deli and get a delicious meat dinner. Montreal food has always been in my life. When I came to the Okanagan, I wanted to bring this food with me.”
Check out these four fantastic Montreal-inspired dishes and see why montREALfood is the Okanagan love letter to Quebec's most flavourful city.
1. MTL Smoked Meat
As an integral part of Montreal culture, smoked meat is a kosher-style deli meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket with spices. This dish takes over a week to prepare and is unique in the Okanagan. Talk about rich, hearty food!
"Montreal Smoked Meat has been a part of my upbringing," said Chef Morazain. "Every Christmas we'd go down and grab a sandwich from our local deli. This sandwich is so integral to Quebec culture, it's an art form and we're so happy to bring it to the Okanagan."
In Montreal fashion, the smoked meat is piled onto a fresh rye loaf and dressed with some pungent mustard.
2. Falafel wrap
As a large city with a diverse, international culture, Montreal is home to over 117,000 Middle Eastern people, many of whom are Lebanese. As such, the city boasts some of the world’s greatest Falafel. MTL embraces this dish with an Okanagan twist.
‘We’ve fused the Montreal Falafel expertise with Okanagan cuisine to create a delicious dish overflowing with locally grown produce such as lettuce, tomato, and cucumber," said Chef Morazain. "For some authentic flavour, we’ve thrown in almonds, pickles, and tahini sauce.”
The extra hungry diner can add locally grown, made from scratch beans, fries, and coleslaw.
3. Scratch made poutine
What makes MTL’s poutine so special? A spoonful of the Okanagan! This poutine is made from freshly cut Russet potatoes grown in the 5,000-square-foot garden at MTL Real Food. Also in keeping with the Okanagan’s health focus, Morazain provides guests with a vegan mushroom gravy, which is gluten free!
Nevertheless, the integrity of the Montreal poutine has not been violated. Diners can coat their fresh cut fries with a thick blanket of real gravy, made from scratch. Carnivores can always garnish their meal with smoked meat, pulled pork, rotisserie chicken, or duck confit.
4. Soup du jour
“Soup shouldn’t be an afterthought” contends Chef Morazain. “Like every bistro in Montreal, the soup at MTL is a focus of the cuisine. The ingredients are always fresh and sourced from our farm or local market. I’ll grab whatever I can find which inspires me.”
We hope you enjoyed this brief foray into Montreal food with an Okanagan twist. If we’ve whetted your appetite, you can always check out the menu or embark upon this delicious adventure by visiting the restaurant located across the road from the Landmark buildings.
Located opposite the Landmark buildings on Kirschner Road, MTL is a classic scratch diner and a love letter to Montreal from Chef & Owner Mathew Morazain. Open weekdays from 7am – 5.30pm (with extended summer hours on Wed-Fri until 7:30pm) & Saturdays from 10pm - 4pm, it serves up breakfasts, lunches, take-out & a monthly supper club – inspired by Quebecois classics but with Morazain’s inimitable twists using Okanagan fare.
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