Eating Like a Montrealer: Poutine, Smoked Meat, Bagels and More

La Banquise, open 24 hours. Poutine is fries, cheese curds and brown gravy. La Banquise, on Rachel Street East, serves more than 28 varieties, per its official site. Open around the clock, it is the go-to address for a first encounter with Quebec's iconic dish. Mont-Royal metro, then about 15 minutes on foot. For your first taste of Quebec's national dish, served hot at any hour at a Plateau institution.

Poutine is Quebec's iconic dish, and La Banquise has been its go-to address since 1968. More than 28 poutine varieties — classic, Italian, smoked-meat, vegetarian — prepared around the clock.

People come at all hours, in pyjamas after a night out or with the family at noon; it is the dish that unites all Montrealers.

St-Viateur and Fairmount. The Montreal bagel is boiled, then baked in a wood oven — denser and sweeter than the New York bagel. Two legendary addresses face each other on Mont-Royal Avenue: St-Viateur, since 1957, and Fairmount, since 1919. Both are open day and night. Best eaten straight from the oven with cream cheese. For the unique wood-oven taste and the tradition of a neighbourhood that never sleeps.

The bagel is to Montreal what the croissant is to Paris — and these two houses have guarded it since 1919 and 1957. A bagel boiled, then baked in a wood oven — denser and sweeter than the New York bagel.

A friendly rivalry splits the city into two camps; the tasting happens hot, straight from the oven, often in the middle of the night.

The public markets. Jean-Talon, Atwater and Maisonneuve markets: each has world-cuisine counters, from cheese to smoked fish to spices. The Montreal Public Markets site lists vendors and hours. Eating on-site costs less than a restaurant meal, and you meet the whole neighbourhood. For a meal from around the world at a small price, surrounded by all of Montreal.

The public markets are Montreal's world cuisine at producer prices. Cheese, smoked fish, spices, cured meats — dozens of counters where you can eat on-site for a few dollars.

Families come on Saturday mornings, taste, chat with vendors — neighbourhood life at its purest.