I’m Belgian, and in my country we appreciate a decent loaf of bread. We eat it every day, either for breakfast with jam or chocolate paste or for lunch with a slice of cheese or ham (or both). We are picky about it. My favourite is a brown, multi-cereal bread, soft on the inside, a bit crunchy on the outside. Not too crunchy though, so it doesn’t hurt my palate.
When I came to Montreal in 2018, the search for a good loaf of bread was long and hard. A Quebecois friend told me that there wasn’t really a ‘bread culture’ in Montreal until only a few years ago. There weren’t that many bakeries, so if you needed bread, you went to the supermarket and bought the pre-sliced industrial white bread that came in a plastic bag.
Luckily, the bread culture is ‘rising’ in Montreal – pun intended – and with that came Boulangerie Louise, now my favourite bakery in the neighbourhood. I haven’t tried everything yet, but I usually go for a Campagne Multicéreales bread. On a Sunday morning, I would go get a chocolatine or a Louissette with sesame or poppy seeds. As a snack for the way home, I go for a financier with raspberries or a slice of cake with pear and almonds. Yum!
Good to know, if you buy 3 products at Louise you get a 4th one for free. Beware, choosing a fourth product is not a piece of cake. Damn, I’m killing it with these puns!
