Locals Welcome Season 1 Episode 6

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Transcript

00:00Montreal is a city of hidden worlds.

00:07Step through a door and you're somewhere else entirely.

00:12Here traditions come alive, like Maghrabi tea, a ritual of patience.

00:19It can take hours to brew, but it's so worth the wait.

00:25This is how you slow time down.

00:29I'm Suresh Das.

00:31I've spent my career writing about the local favorites that make Canada's food scene truly unique.

00:36I believe every bite tells a story.

00:39Now, I want to share those stories with you.

00:50So I've been to Montreal many times in my life.

00:52It's a city you can so easily fall in love with.

00:54The pace is different, the culture, the arts, the food especially,

00:58which is my biggest interest.

01:00In the past, I've explored many neighborhoods.

01:02Little Vietnam, Chinatown, the obvious.

01:04But this time around, I'm here for something specific.

01:07The Maghreb community.

01:09It's a community that spans multiple countries from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, and Libya, and some even from West Sahara.

01:18Montreal has probably the largest Maghreb community in North America because we opened immigration in the 60s and because of French, because of the language.

01:28The Maghreb community's cuisine is slow cooking and slow eating and slow enjoying and celebrating of food and culture with the people that are special around you.

01:37There is this one restaurant that everyone said that you should go to to start the journey.

01:43Hey Google, take me to La Caima restaurant.

01:47Navigating to La Caima cuisine no-made.

01:50At La Caima restaurant where people come to experience Mauritanian food, Chef Atik Hould has become a Montreal emissary for Maghreb cuisine and culture.

02:10Hey how are you? Good to see you.

02:12Good to see you. Good to see you.

02:13Good to see you.

02:14Good to see you.

02:15Good to see you.

02:16Good to see you. Good to see you.

02:17This is incredible, my friend.

02:18This is amazing.

02:19I feel like I'm somewhere else.

02:20I feel like you've transported me.

02:21You're in Africa.

02:22I feel like I'm in Mauritania.

02:23In Mauritania.

02:24Yeah.

02:25To the desert.

02:27Being at La Caima makes me feel like I'm being whisked away to parts of North Africa.

02:32I'm from Mauritania, which is West Africa.

02:35Africa, many different tribe and tradition and ethnic.

02:39I grew up as a nomad with my tribe.

02:43We move with our animal, the camels and goats.

02:47And we move also to get the salt and to have life.

02:52When you grow up as a nomad, time is the element, the key.

02:57The life, what we have like a nomad is the time, nothing else.

03:00So everything is slower and you enjoy every moment.

03:03Sometimes I cook for 36 hours, one dish, and you take it out.

03:08You add this spice, you add that one.

03:09I slow cook.

03:11You mix it until I get the flavors that make me happy.

03:15And it probably tastes amazing after 12 hours.

03:17When you cook it slowly, you get those flavors.

03:20Right, everything comes out.

03:21Exactly.

03:22Oh.

03:23There is no printed menu and the offerings change daily,

03:27reflecting the adaptability of nomadic life.

03:30The entire meal is served family style with a selection of dishes on one shared platter.

03:36This is the chicken with olives, lavender peccals onion, and that's the beef with dates.

03:42And this is vegan, made with cassava leaves, chickpeas, beans, and dry mango.

03:47Whoa.

03:48And all this in the couscous.

03:50You read my mind.

03:51I want to go for the beef and the dates.

03:53The beef with dates, you mix it a little bit with couscous.

03:55Okay, okay, okay.

03:56To get the flavors.

03:57So you go deep inside, okay?

03:58Yeah.

03:59Whoa.

04:00Whoa.

04:01Works so well together.

04:02But that beef, how long did you cook that beef for?

04:03Because it's so delicate.

04:04That's 12 hours.

04:0512 hour beef.

04:06Yeah.

04:07And the date is just like the right amount of sweetness.

04:08It's not too much.

04:09This rich date and beef dish is simmered slowly in a single pot over low heat, using spices

04:26that he brings in from Mauritania, starting with salt.

04:30That salt is coming from Mauritania, is the desert salt.

04:34You make a great flavor, it's different from the regular salt.

04:37It's very important to have that flavors from the past, thousands of thousands of years.

04:43For me, it's all the past with the future together.

04:46In the nomadic life, you have to cook with what you find.

04:51If you have only onions, you cook with onions.

04:53Onions, right.

04:54The bread, you cook with the bread.

04:56You use what you have.

04:57That's how I'm cooking every day, to mix this with that and this and that.

05:01Oh, that's wonderful.

05:03Like the beef, the chicken is roasted and then stewed until extremely tender.

05:10Its silky texture is punched up by the briny explosion of the olives.

05:15Mmm.

05:17The olive brings you to Morocco.

05:21Yeah, the olive is a star player here.

05:23You start running and it's calm.

05:24Right, right.

05:25With no direction.

05:26Because you just have energy.

05:27You're ready to go.

05:28Exactly.

05:29Excited.

05:30And the chicken is nice and tender, but the olive is like just gives it a little pop.

05:35Yeah.

05:36And the couscous kind of brings it all together.

05:37Exactly.

05:38One thing we shared with all of our neighbors is couscous.

05:43In Mauritania, we eat it every night.

05:48When I'm cooking, I connect to my past, I connect to my tribe, I connect to my camels.

05:54We have to cook it slowly to give time to the grain to break them and to put them back again and to mix them.

06:02And when you've done that, you can find that flavors of the couscous is totally different.

06:07You can eat the grain by themselves without any sauce.

06:10A teak steams its couscous three times.

06:13Between each round, it's coated with olive oil and fluffed by hand, leaving every grain tender, distinct and full of flavor.

06:21Now, we've been across North Africa.

06:27Uh-huh.

06:28Now we jump in to the west.

06:31You cross the desert.

06:32The tribe is different.

06:34Now we have the cassava.

06:36I make it with squash and chickpeas.

06:38It has the flavor of West Africa.

06:41Mm-hmm.

06:42Mm-hmm.

06:43Mm-hmm.

06:44So it sounds like a mango.

06:45It's a dried mango?

06:46It's in the back.

06:47It's dried mango on the left.

06:50But the cassava and the rice.

06:52Okay.

06:54At Lakhaima, Atig isn't just feeding you.

06:57He's showing you his life's journey.

07:00You cook what you find, share what you have, and most importantly, you take your time.

07:15I have visited Montreal many, many times over the years,

07:18and I've explored many different parts of Montreal.

07:21But I haven't been to this neighborhood that is commonly known as Petit Magret.

07:28It's this really wonderful strip where you have this high concentration of North African and West Saharan

07:35little boulangeries, bakeries, that are nestled into this one row.

07:39And I've been told that the first place you want to go to is Boucherie Le Classico.

07:46Algerian street food might not make you think of slow-cooked meals, but in Petit Maghreb, taking things slow is a way of life.

07:55Nabil Zetouni is serving up bold Algerian flavors and reimagined Montreal classics, all in the form of unforgettable sandwiches.

08:04I've heard so many amazing things about your little shop.

08:07Really?

08:08So what's the most popular sandwich on the menu?

08:10It is the meat and the merguez. Actually, we have some fresh merguez that we just made now.

08:14So is that like North African-style merguez?

08:16Yeah, merguez is really North African.

08:18Oh, yeah.

08:19You might turn Algerian after having that sandwich.

08:21Is that a guarantee? Okay. I love it. I gotta have both.

08:24Okay, I'll see you in a moment.

08:25Okay.

08:26Alright.

08:27One of the Maghreb's most famous food exports is the spicy merguez sausage.

08:32Nabil's is crafted in-house with seasoned lamb and beef.

08:37He also has his own take on the Montreal classic smoked meat.

08:42But it's his handmade sauces that really elevate these creations and give them a distinctive Algerian flavor.

08:50This looks incredible.

08:52So this is the smoked meat.

08:54Yeah.

08:55And right next to it, you have the merguez.

08:56The merguez. Whoa.

08:57I can smell it as soon as you open the door.

08:59Whoa.

09:00So you were born in Montreal?

09:03I was born right on that corner, yeah.

09:04Oh, across the street.

09:05Yes, sir.

09:06I gotta try this sandwich.

09:07Yeah, of course.

09:08My favorite.

09:10Mmm.

09:11Mmm.

09:12Whoa.

09:13That's just so tender, Nabil.

09:14Mmm.

09:15Kind of just like splits in your mouth when you bite into it.

09:17That's the magic of the smoked meat.

09:18Yeah.

09:19But what really kind of sets it apart is there's something in that meat.

09:22The sauce.

09:23It's the sauce.

09:24It's the Algerian sauce.

09:25The Algerian sauce, yeah.

09:26Bright orange sauce that's in the middle.

09:27You slather the meat with it.

09:28And the harissa.

09:29And the harissa, right.

09:30That's the red at the bottom.

09:32I always put it on the bottom.

09:34It's the perfect ratio.

09:35Exactly.

09:36Yeah.

09:37Nabil's Algerian sauce is made with harissa, a spicy roasted red pepper paste,

09:43mayo, and finely chopped onions.

09:45Paprika adds a beautiful smoky flavor that really complements the heat.

09:50From what I'm learning about Maghreb culture, there is this real sense of like slow cooking

09:55and enjoying food very slowly with friends or your family and taking the time.

10:00Yeah.

10:01And that kind of really makes sense to me with smoked meat.

10:03Because smoked meat is not something that you do very quickly.

10:05No, no, it takes a lot of time.

10:06It takes a lot of time, right?

10:07Yeah.

10:08And so then how did you go from the smoked meat to this guy, the merguez, which I've

10:11heard so much about.

10:12You cannot be Algerian and have a butcher shop without having merguez.

10:15Is that right?

10:16Yeah, this is like the gold standard.

10:17You have to.

10:18Yeah.

10:19And it has to taste good also.

10:21This bread is really special.

10:22Where's the bread from?

10:23Right across the street there.

10:24You know what?

10:25Let me take you to my favorite pastry.

10:26So it's an Algerian spot?

10:28Yes, sir.

10:29Amazing.

10:30All right, let's go.

10:35So would you say there's more than 20 Algerian businesses here?

10:38More than 20.

10:39Yeah.

10:40Yeah, close to 30.

10:41You can get everything you need on this street then.

10:42Oh yeah, absolutely.

10:43There's a certain sort of feel and vibe to it.

10:45I mean, from the signage to the type of businesses.

10:48Even like those beautiful smells that you're getting from the pastry shops.

10:51So this used to be Hsin Butcher Shop.

10:54This is where I was a kid.

10:56Hsin would cook me some merguez.

10:58Oh wow, wow.

10:59Exactly, yeah.

11:00I see where the merguez is coming from now.

11:01Yeah, yeah.

11:02But that's the first butcher shop that opened here in Jantano from our community.

11:06Yeah, and this is where I get my bread.

11:08You're gonna love it.

11:09Okay, I can't wait.

11:10All right.

11:14Oh, this is really cool.

11:15Yeah.

11:16So many different pastries.

11:17You have all the bread over there.

11:18Yeah.

11:19And this is authentic pastry from Algeria.

11:22Yeah.

11:23The makrot on the top.

11:24And you have here the baklava.

11:25Baklava, yeah.

11:26The baklava.

11:27Algerian desserts are made with semolina flour and nuts grown in the Maghreb.

11:31Like pistachios and walnuts.

11:34Oh, amazing.

11:36Fragrant floral waters and sweet sticky syrups give them a glossy finish.

11:43Mmm.

11:44Oh yeah.

11:45These pastries offer this community a bridge back home with every bite.

11:49Thank you, Nabil.

11:50It's been an amazing tour.

11:51My pleasure.

11:52And we'll come back for round two one day.

11:53I really hope so.

11:54I love Montreal.

12:08It's the perfect backdrop to experience Maghreb culture.

12:11In the Maghreb, there's no such thing as grabbing a quick coffee.

12:15So today, I'm taking some time to meet my dear friend and fellow podcaster, Emna Achor.

12:21Emna.

12:22Hi.

12:23How are you?

12:24Good, how are you?

12:25Good to see you.

12:26Coffee and desserts?

12:27My favourite, yep.

12:28Oh, I love it, love it.

12:29Let's go.

12:30Emna is taking me to experience her culture at a Tunisian place in the Mile Landing.

12:36She's my go-to source for the city's best eats.

12:40And she's been raving about the desserts here at Cujina Cafe.

12:44It's owned by Malek Ben Amar and Baia Ben Milet.

12:51Hello, welcome.

12:52Hi, how are you?

12:53This is my friend Suresh.

12:54Hi.

12:55Malek and Baia.

12:56Exactly, yeah.

12:57Okay, very nice to meet you.

12:58You grew up in Montreal.

12:59Yeah.

13:00And you guys also grew up in Montreal?

13:01No, we grew up in Tunisia.

13:02Oh, so what made you decide to open up Cujina?

13:04I think we needed some place that would resemble where we came from and where we grew up.

13:09Mmm.

13:10Somewhere where people knew each other, where you could be included very easily.

13:14That's very nice.

13:15I mean, I'm not Tunisian, but I'm fully ready to dive in.

13:17So, like, Malek, what's on the menu here?

13:19What do you guys do?

13:20What I would recommend would be Arabic coffee.

13:22It's a coffee that you would drink very slowly.

13:24It's a social coffee.

13:25Kind of like an espresso where you're supposed to have it here.

13:28You're not supposed to take it to go, kind of thing?

13:30No, no, you don't take that to go.

13:31Don't take it to go.

13:32You need to sit to take your sweet time with it, to have a conversation around it.

13:38The experience is more close to a wine tasting than a coffee.

13:42Oh, okay, okay.

13:43So, what are you doing right now, Malek?

13:44Right now, what we're doing is the Arabic coffee.

13:45So, as you can see, we put it in those little cups that are made out of copper.

13:56You put boiling water in it, mix it well, and then we're gonna let it cook.

14:02You have to make sure it doesn't burn.

14:04You have to keep an eye on it.

14:05And so, like, what's wrong with taking it to go, Malek?

14:08You're moving with your coffee.

14:10Everything is gonna go back at the top.

14:12Because it's not filtered.

14:13Exactly.

14:14The grounds are still down there.

14:15The coffee ground is super thin.

14:16So, it's very, very, very sandy.

14:18If you're just gonna get it, Malek, you don't want that.

14:20Right, right.

14:21And this is why it's very strong.

14:22That's why you need to drink it slowly.

14:24That's good to know. Thank you for that.

14:26The coffee ground are mixed with orange peels, verbena, and cardamom.

14:30And those ingredients came from the herbs when they conquered North Africa.

14:35I feel like I can kind of get that right now.

14:37The waft is coming to me.

14:38The smell is pretty strong.

14:39Within seconds.

14:40So, there it is.

14:41Then it's set for like 30 seconds, a minute, and then drink it.

14:44Yeah.

14:45Okay.

14:46Wow, this is awesome.

14:47Mmm.

14:49Cheers.

14:50You're welcome. Cheers.

14:51It's so aromatic.

14:57That's wonderful.

14:58All I'm getting are the aromatics before my mouth even gets to the cup.

15:02Should we try the cake?

15:03Yeah.

15:04So, I'm gonna go for the...

15:05Fikia cake.

15:06Fikia cake.

15:07Fikia.

15:08Yeah.

15:09Okay.

15:10If you're stopping for coffee, it's a crime not to have cake.

15:12Two of Kujina's specialties are Fikia, a rich cake of dried nuts infused with a fragrant syrup of geranium water

15:20and topped with pistachios.

15:21And the gorgeous El Carmos, a cheesecake with a spicy speculose cookie base filled with

15:27mascarpone and cream cheese.

15:29White chocolate and topped with a fig compote and dried figs.

15:35Figs are often used in Tunisian desserts, where they've been cultivated for thousands of

15:40years, drying slowly and sweetening in the North African sun.

15:44That fig cheesecake.

15:45Yeah.

15:46Oh my god.

15:47Mmm.

15:48Mmm.

15:49Like it?

15:50Oh yeah.

15:51The texture is just so good because it has that syrup in there.

15:54Mmm.

15:55It's like just wonderful.

15:56This is exactly how I like my cakes.

15:58Yeah.

15:59I'm sorry, I'm not listening anyway.

16:00Why?

16:01I just need a second.

16:02This is so good.

16:03It's so good?

16:04You have to try this.

16:05Mmm.

16:06You can swap plates.

16:07It's so fluffy in the middle.

16:09Mmm.

16:10Mmm.

16:11Oh my god.

16:12Mmm.

16:13Oh my god.

16:14That is so good.

16:15And the fig, oh the fig two ways.

16:18Mmm.

16:19Gives it like acidity, I don't know.

16:20Mmm.

16:21And that speculose on the bottom gets a nice little thick crunch.

16:23Yeah.

16:24It's perfect.

16:25Perfectly balanced.

16:26It's perfect, yeah.

16:27This tastes just like Tunisia.

16:28So you grew up in Montreal.

16:29Yeah.

16:30How often would you be able to get this before coming to Cuisine Cafe?

16:33Never.

16:34Yeah.

16:35My parents don't bake cakes.

16:37I wouldn't have tried it, right?

16:39That's why it's great to have a place like Cuisine Cafe in Montreal.

16:42Yeah, yeah.

16:43So that I can live my culture through another lens than the one I just have back home,

16:47than the ones of my parents.

16:48That's amazing.

16:49Should we switch cakes again?

16:50Yeah.

16:51Let's switch cakes.

17:00Everybody knows that hockey runs deep in Canadian veins.

17:06In Montreal, that passion lives just as strongly in the Magrabi community.

17:11I had no idea that Morocco's national hockey team was built right here in Quebec.

17:16The players live and train here, but when they take the ice, they skate for Morocco.

17:22As professional athletes, their lives are so fast-paced.

17:26But these guys always make time to slow down and share a meal together.

17:36And tonight, I am lucky enough to be invited to join them for a post-practice traditional Moroccan feast.

17:43Hey, good evening, gentlemen.

17:47Nice to meet you.

17:48How are you guys?

17:49Pretty good.

17:50You?

17:51Good, good, good.

17:52This is Chef Miriam Eloula's way of bringing a taste of her coastal Moroccan city to Montreal.

17:58Oh, thank you, Chef.

18:00Her take on regional dishes is what these guys crave.

18:04Bon appetit.

18:05Merci.

18:06So, Adeel, what do we have here?

18:07This looks like some sort of tagine presentation.

18:09This is a tagine of chicken, saffron, black pepper, a kind of sour butter.

18:15Chicken demira, a popular Moroccan wedding dish, is prepared with onions, ginger, turmeric, saffron, pickled lemons, and a Moroccan fermented butter called smen, which lends the dish a pungent blue cheese-like flavour.

18:35Smen is made by salting and aging butter in a sealed jar.

18:40In ancient times, smen was often made and buried at the time of a daughter's birth, then unearthed years later for a wedding celebration.

18:50The dish is simmered slowly until the meat becomes fork tender, and it's finished with a scattering of olives.

18:58The saffron.

18:59The saffron.

19:00That's what it is.

19:01It's a saffron in there.

19:02Yeah.

19:03This is eating the bread by hand.

19:04So you just dip it.

19:05Okay, I see.

19:06You just dip it and you eat, you know, usually it's a common plate.

19:09Amazing.

19:10It's so tender, too.

19:11It's very.

19:12It just peels off.

19:13Mmm.

19:14Chicken is so soft.

19:18There's like earthy flavours to it, too.

19:21And the olive is like that really nice accent.

19:23The saffron.

19:24That's what it is.

19:25It's a saffron in there.

19:26Yeah.

19:27It kind of comes at you near the end for me.

19:30It kind of lingers on your palate.

19:32The Irish food is really challenging during its time.

19:35It's really demanding a lot of passion.

19:40It's not fast food.

19:43It's something that's our tradition.

19:46This rufisha is a very traditional dish in Morocco.

19:49We prepare it for the holiday, for example at the holiday party.

19:55It's very traditional and very ancient.

19:57and very old.

20:27This is to load you up.

20:28This is perfect for a hockey player.

20:29It's like something between a flatbread and a pancake.

20:33We call it paratha in India.

20:35We call it like lingi roti in Sri Lanka.

20:37But it's that like flaky layered pastry, right?

20:40Exactly.

20:41It's not like paratha, but it's like two layers of paratha.

20:44Right, okay, yeah, right, right, right.

20:45The food that we're eating right now is very demanding.

20:49It takes the process long.

20:51Everyone is in the kitchen cooking.

20:52It brings family together, not even only eating, but also making it.

20:55In a literal sense, food can bring people together.

20:58Definitely, definitely.

20:59Moroccans make sure that you're more than fed properly.

21:03You won't be able to take any more food, and they'll keep on telling you.

21:06Oh, I love that.

21:06Cool, cool, cool.

21:08Eat, eat, eat.

21:09I love that.

21:10I love that.

21:10I feel truly welcomed by my new friends in Montreal's Maghrabi community.

21:16Taking time to make connections here has been really meaningful.

21:21Though North Africa is an ocean away, the tradition of unhurried, slow-cooked meals feels right at home in this vibrant city.

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