MONTREAL CALEIDOSCOPE OR 100 HOURS WITH A DEAR FRIEND
Sketch Five: Romantic Dinners.
It would be a real waste to let this wonderful fir-tree dance remain the only truly romantic episode of our visit. That’s why we decided to add a romantic dinner to the list, and in my mind’s eye I already saw a cozy separate cabin lit by candles or a little green lamp hanging on a dark-wooden wall. Yet, life - as it often does - had totally shattered my dream: nobody in my immediate surrounding seemed to know anything even remotely matching this description…To make a long story short, we followed an advice of our hotel’s receptionist and chose “quite a decent restaurant with a touch of atmosphere”. It was decent indeed! If I try to be really picky, I might mention that our French-speaking neighbours were sitting a bit too close to us, and our voices mingled in the air. Our waitress was somewhat slow in attending on us as well but that really was it! While those mildly unpleasant things proved to be few and far between, nice touches were coming thick and fast: a high quality French quisine boasting a delicious onion soup, an extremely satiating main course and a typical apple pie; low and yet not dim lights, a friendly and polite staff and the very quiet of the place. That was a beginning of a successful evening that ended in the above-mentioned casino, and I had every reason to call it a visit as far as romanticism was concerned.
The next time we got to a restaurant, we didn’t think of anything romantic - the idea was simply to get refueled. This episode had actually started two hours earlier when my Rainbow Girl suggested that we would try something Japanese. As to Chinese restaurants, I have for years been collecting them as if they were postcards, but my experience with their Japanese counterparts has always been limited. So my curiosity took over, and we went to one at hand my She-Treasure happened to be familiar with. The place was closed for an afternoon break, and I started heading for elsewhere but was convinced to wait and come back later for “a gastronomic experience”. We fought off the first wave of hunger with a snack that helped us to idle the time away as well. Then we returned and turned out to be the first evening visitors - so the whole dining area was temporarily being at our disposal. And the lightning struck…
I am not talking about food proper, though it was different and good at the same time. I don’t even remember the names of those courses I chose - apart from a “miso” soup (this specific word stuck in my memory due to being mercifully short!). What I do remember is that the very first thing we heard upon entering the hall, was music - the same one we were listening to during our fir-tree dance. Or, to be precise, it was a different piece of music, but it came from the same nowhere and lulled, and enfolded us like sweet foam. When, already in this state of mind, I sank into a chair, my eyes were greeted by a little lamp hanging on the opposite wall. The lamp was yellow and the wall itself didn’t look exactly wooden but - the waitress is my witness! - it was good enough…And we ate and talked, and ate and talked again - and by the time we left the place, the bond between us and the city of Montreal was finally established, proved and sealed. Probably, forever…
It would be a real waste to let this wonderful fir-tree dance remain the only truly romantic episode of our visit. That’s why we decided to add a romantic dinner to the list, and in my mind’s eye I already saw a cozy separate cabin lit by candles or a little green lamp hanging on a dark-wooden wall. Yet, life - as it often does - had totally shattered my dream: nobody in my immediate surrounding seemed to know anything even remotely matching this description…To make a long story short, we followed an advice of our hotel’s receptionist and chose “quite a decent restaurant with a touch of atmosphere”. It was decent indeed! If I try to be really picky, I might mention that our French-speaking neighbours were sitting a bit too close to us, and our voices mingled in the air. Our waitress was somewhat slow in attending on us as well but that really was it! While those mildly unpleasant things proved to be few and far between, nice touches were coming thick and fast: a high quality French quisine boasting a delicious onion soup, an extremely satiating main course and a typical apple pie; low and yet not dim lights, a friendly and polite staff and the very quiet of the place. That was a beginning of a successful evening that ended in the above-mentioned casino, and I had every reason to call it a visit as far as romanticism was concerned.
The next time we got to a restaurant, we didn’t think of anything romantic - the idea was simply to get refueled. This episode had actually started two hours earlier when my Rainbow Girl suggested that we would try something Japanese. As to Chinese restaurants, I have for years been collecting them as if they were postcards, but my experience with their Japanese counterparts has always been limited. So my curiosity took over, and we went to one at hand my She-Treasure happened to be familiar with. The place was closed for an afternoon break, and I started heading for elsewhere but was convinced to wait and come back later for “a gastronomic experience”. We fought off the first wave of hunger with a snack that helped us to idle the time away as well. Then we returned and turned out to be the first evening visitors - so the whole dining area was temporarily being at our disposal. And the lightning struck…
I am not talking about food proper, though it was different and good at the same time. I don’t even remember the names of those courses I chose - apart from a “miso” soup (this specific word stuck in my memory due to being mercifully short!). What I do remember is that the very first thing we heard upon entering the hall, was music - the same one we were listening to during our fir-tree dance. Or, to be precise, it was a different piece of music, but it came from the same nowhere and lulled, and enfolded us like sweet foam. When, already in this state of mind, I sank into a chair, my eyes were greeted by a little lamp hanging on the opposite wall. The lamp was yellow and the wall itself didn’t look exactly wooden but - the waitress is my witness! - it was good enough…And we ate and talked, and ate and talked again - and by the time we left the place, the bond between us and the city of Montreal was finally established, proved and sealed. Probably, forever…