A birthday ode to Queen Céline..

[CSCfan]

Homage to fromage

Maeve Haldane

 

http://www.hour.ca/_images/montreal/1413/texte/restoh_1413.jpg

Nickels and dimes make Dame Dion's day

 

A birthday ode to Queen Céline and her culinary tastes

 

It was as if I were struck by a fever when I realized there were three restaurants in town with a connection to our province's - nay, our country's! - greatest diva, Céline Dion. With an exuberance not unlike that of the songstress, I planned to devote a column to each!

 

My editor, tact personified, said no. Probably for the best. But in honour of Céline's birthday, March 30, I bring you a Céline torch song trilogy.

 

Any Céline tour starts with Nickels, the chain she's poured her heart into since 1990. I'd never been, but my sister's platonic life partner has what might be deemed an unhealthy obsession with La Diva. He takes my willing sister to Nickels on dates and together they check out www.celinedreams.com, a forum of fans dreaming about Céline Dion. I figured the sib would be a perfect guide to the diner's mysterious allure, so I offered her a free lunch.

 

"I think I'll pass," she said. "It's not that good." So I took a friend who was visiting from New York (she couldn't believe her luck). We were gobsmacked by the restaurant's size, as if opening a trapdoor to find the Titanic. Inside is replete with south-of-the-border celebrity simulacra, like black-and-white 8-by-10s of old stars, Route 66-type paraphernalia.

 

The menu is generic pan-global American: buffalo wings, fish and chips, salads, brochettes, fajitas, burgers, BBQ chicken, pasta. An illusion of all-embracing copiousness, yet all more or less the same.

 

In a state of lowered expectations, we sprung for the daily specials. After a not bad tomatoey lentil soup, I had an inoffensive chicken Caesar salad and my pal a club sandwich. "It tastes exactly how it looks," she said brightly, happy it was better than she grimly bargained for. Nonetheless, it failed her partway through. The chicken was cardboardy, the fries lacklustre, and she felt $10 could be better spent. The only lunch-special dessert left when we finished our late meal was Jell-O. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not in the geriatric ward yet, no matter their deals on their over-60 menu.

 

I lived a bit of Céline's dream wedding at Lebanese restaurant Daou, which famously catered La Dion's blissful Vegas union to René Angélil. Photos of our queen and her knave greet my friends and me at the entrance. An old article says she sometimes flies-in Daou's stuffed zucchini when on the road.

 

This is a family place where swank stout ladies in fur coats sit imperiously, respectable 20-somethings go on dates, and kin fill up tables. Last time I was here, an elderly woman was at the centre of a multigenerational fuss. Her adult son proudly said they were celebrating her 93rd birthday.

 

I knew from experience I'd love the spicy sausage and like the pungent chankliche, a blend of cheese and herbs. Despite my love of cinnamon-tinged kebe, a.k.a. Lebanese steak tartare, I told my pals I was putting a moratorium on raw beef because I write of it too often. So I ordered appetizers, a couple of mains, then asked the server for recommendations.

 

"Do you eat raw meat?"

 

I paused. My friends smirked. I found myself nodding, as fateful as Céline, unable to escape the destiny of my love.

 

We enjoyed silky hummus with crunchy pine nuts and ravaged the spicy red pepper and walnut dip like newlyweds. Crunchy orbs of falafel were both peppery and salty. Ful medames were a weak link, for the fava beans sorely needed a squeeze of lemon. The marinated chicken breast was tender, and my pal enjoyed a grilled rope of kefta kebab.

 

When your sweet tooth itches, bypass baklava for katayef, a thick crepe folded over ricotta cheese dusted with pistachio, drizzled with rose syrup, gleaming like a mollusk.

 

Only a true Célineophiliac would seek out California Dream. The lone connection is that chef Martin Leclerc cooked for a year at Angélil's Mirage Golf Club in Terrebonne. But it's as if California Dream took a page from Céline's songbook with its slogan "If you can dream of it, you can do it." California Dream (note the initials!) emerges from greyest Old Montreal as does Vegas from the dessert. Inside are dreamy swathes of white fabric, blue fibreglass swivel chairs, and a funnel-shaped steel fireplace in the lounge among white leather couches.

 

I had the table d'hôte in this extravagantly appointed and pricey resto.

 

They get points for soft butter and warm buns, but an amuse-bouche of a cooked clam with blackberry vinaigrette was a bit weird. My starter of a citrus salad with tomato tartar seasoned with piment d'Espelette and spinach was spunky enough, but the main faltered. Veal was tender but bland, the accompanying pretty yellow beets too bitter. All gloss, no depth, I thought.

 

Fit for a queen.

 

Nickels

710 Ste-Catherine W.; 871-2899

Meal for two: $25-$40

www.nickelsrestaurants.com

 

Daou

519 Faillon E.; 276-8310

Meal for two: $25-$45

 

California Dream

355 D'Youville; 288-8999

Meal for two: $70-$100

[nano]

thanks for the article

 

it made me hungry

[Josje]

Thanks for the info

Mjammmm..I think I am going to eat now..get hungry too..

[Johana]

thank you

[ula]

thx so much

[HelenCeline27]

thanks

[Krys]

im salivating

[vivezpouraimer]

Awesome article -- thanks for sharing!!

 

 

 

yuuuum.