[ July 2019 ] I continue talking about our summer holiday in Canada.
On the next day, after staying four nights in Quebec City, we headed for Montreal by train.
The railway station in Quebec City was attached to the bus station and the interior was elegant.
But the trains did not seem to run very often.
Because we arrived there early, we went to have a cup of coffee at the café in the bus station.
And when we went back, we found that people were making a long queue.
We already had the tickets and the seats were reserved, so I did not think we needed to queue, but following the local people, we stood in the queue.
And when we got on the train, we understood the reason why they were queuing.
The space for the large luggage to put in was limited.
Our seats were facing backward.
We have taken trains during our travelling in many countries, but so far, it is only in Japan that the direction of the seats can be changed according to the direction of the travel.
It was quite a long journey of 3 hours and 15 minutes, but the view from the window were nearly always the flat land and did not change much, which made me think how large Canada is.
The announcement on the train was over friendly, but other than that, it was the nice and smooth journey.
Montreal was a big city compared with Quebec City.
The hotel this time was Intercontinental Hotel, which was another huge hotel, but the interior was nicer and more tasteful than other hotels we had stayed so far in Canada.
Now it was the time for looking for a restaurant.
My husband wanted to eat some Italian foods, so he searched on the internet and we decided to go to Ristorante Quattro which was at the walking distance and had a good reputation.
We phoned up there to book a table and the person who answered the phone spoke good Italian, but when we arrived the waiter’s Italian was broken.
We sat at the table, feeling a little apprehensive, thinking “This is not one of those fake Italian, is it?”.
My grilled squid for the starter had some sort of sauce on it, which was rather sweet.
We had been saying since we arrived in Canada that the seasoning here was generally very mild and often too sweet as if it was for children.
I suppose that is the taste of Canadian people.
I chose a rabbit dish and my husband had lamb.
Both were stewed and the portion was generous.
For the dessert, we had a glass of Passito di Pantelleria and Cantucci.
The Cantucci had raisin in it and they were very nice.
The person attended our table towards the end of our meal spoke much better Italian.
Apparently he was born in Canada, but his parents came from Abruzzo in south Italy in 1962.
So in Canada, the Italian restaurants are run by the people of the second or later generation, though in London where we live, chefs and waiters themselves are normally Italians who came from Italy.
I suppose nowadays it is difficult to immigrate to any countries, including Canada.
And that is why the seasoning has been changing.
I wonder the taste of Italian foods in London will change gradually, too, after the UK is out of EU and people’s movement is restricted.
