No, I haven’t gotten too lazy to post but I did go on a little vacation back to my hometown of Montreal.  Funnest vacay EVER!  The point of the trip was my high school reunion so my best buddy from Grade 6 (!) and I took the train.  We took first class, of course, because we are ladies of a certain age and have requirements.  I thought they were going to kick us off at Belleville though, we were laughing and snorting so hard.  There is a reason were always separated by our high school teachers.  We stayed at my brother and his wife’s house in the heart of it all, where crack meets trend, Sherbrooke and St. Hubert.  Except they were still away on vacation for the entire month but their twentysomething sons were home so we were basically two LOCAs in a frat house.  Never a dull moment or a clean towel and we had to hide our food stash under our beds.  I think they were even eating coffee grounds.  There is a lot to say about Montreal I guess but I will say my Montreal does NOT involve smoked meat or those colon clogging glue bagels.  I got my Coco Rico Portuguese chicken fix and my cheese curds from the Depanneur.  Here is something I know but I always forget:  the magical cheese curds from real Quebec poutine are waxy in texture and squeak on your teeth.  I have found some in Ontario but it was from a vendor at Beer Fest ’09 and they claim that the texture is because they are not refrigerated.  Whatever.  If I have a bag of cheese curds I do not have to bother with the whole enchilada, ie. fries and gravy.  I’m happy keeping it simple.  And  the highlight of my Montreal eating was Mike’s homemade burgers…he made them square shaped to match the bun!  I’m still dreaming about them!

Back home and speaking of cheese, I met my friend for lunch.  She is a LOCA but has even more mojo than me and acts it out,  therefore she has the best stories.  I am only proud because I can out-eat her.  We went to Queen Margherita on Queen St. East at Vancouver (east of Greenwood).

Queen Margherita  Queen St East, just east of Greenwood

As far as I’m concerned, you can have too many coffee shops, but you can never have too many pizzerias.  Queen Margherita holds its own on the genre and it is a really cool airy, lofty space.  I ordered the Napoletana, which is anchovies and black olives.  Do you know it was so salty good that I had finished half of the pie before I realized there was no cheese involved?  Of course real Italian pizza doesn’t require cheese….I know that but I am not a carb bunny.  My friend ordered the Diavola which had some cheese on it and spicy meat.  But mine was so good I wasn’t even jealous.  Pizza *sans fromage* on dough, who knew it could be so good?