Day 186 - Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Although they don't serve free breakfast, the good people of the Omni Mont-Royal deliver a chilled beverage of choice to the door in the morning, together with the national newspaper (The Globe and Mail, which is decent - a step or 2 above lobotomized USA Today at least) and the offer of 2 free pressings a day, so as the week progresses, the entire wardrobe is becoming creaselessly fresh - huzzah!

A great chat was enjoyed with the nice young smoothie lady this morning, who revealed her desire to visit Ireland, having enjoyed Paris last year (she loved Paris, but not the Parisians). Lunch in the food court was Korean chicken and rice today, and after work I decided to rent a Bixi, similar to Dublin Bikes, offering 24 hours of cycling for just $5 (€3.75) (but costing a whopping $68 (€51) for the year, fact-fans).

I wandered downhill and found myself at the Vieux Port (Old Port) area of the city - an historic quarter with busy boulevards of strolling tourists along the St. Laurence Riverside - gorgeous in the evening sun of 23 degrees or so. The ride back uphill to the hotel made me quickly realise how hilly the city is, but after a brief respite to get a recommendation for an Afghan restaurant from the hotel concierge, it was back on the bike again to Duluth Street, which looks like a quiet side-street at first, but rolls on for kilometres and is packed with virtually nothing but restaurants.

As recommended, I paid a visit to the off-licence first and acquired a bottle of Merlot, as the restaurant is Bring Your Own, with zero charge for corkage - impressive already. The Khyber Pass was packed and nearly booked out but they managed to fit me in. The feast began with red lentil and coriander soup, continued with minced beef and tomato ravioli, then peaked awesomely with fall-off-the-bone rack of lamb with aubergine tomato and a trio of different coloured rice. Absolutely amazing! Dessert was a forgettable tapioca pudding of some kind, but the mint tea was very good. With the wine and tip, the total bill was $40 (€30) - a veritable local bargain, and the tastiest meal I have had in some time, and that's saying something!

Most of the city's inhabitants speak French, so I have been getting good practice, and this continued at the Bixi stand, where a lady with 3 pre-teen kids enquired how the whole thing worked. She seemed pleased with the responses!

Time to cycle back in a tipsy stylie back to the hotel - I now realise from the clip below that I speak 2 octaves higher whilst under the influence!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaytMjZKIGY


The soups and starters at Khyber Pass

Contentment : 18.5 / 25
Excitement :    4 / 10
Memorability : 6 / 15

Overall Score : 57% (6th out of 186)