Hi Eveyone

A good friend of mine is involved with Pierrefonds Community Project. They help newly immigrated families and do after school programs. Every year a big company has a huge Christmas tree where they buy 170 gifts for the 170 kids, and for most of these kids it is the only gift they get at Christmas. This year the company just told them that they aren’t doing it because of budget cuts and so these 170 kids don’t have any gifts this year, so PCP is scrambling to find gifts for these kids.

For those interested in donating a gift or money for a gift then please contact rania.partage@qc.aira.com

As well Thursday December 3rd people will be in front of TheBay in Fairview at 8:30pm until 9pm to collect gifts and donations. If you have any gifts, please wrap them (if possible) and write the gender and age on the gift.

Dupond and Dupont - At TMR Brunch experience

The 411

The town of Mount Royal is not an usually associated with brunch In fact, it’s seen as a suburb with limited shops and a mall nearby; one would assume that if you lived in TMR and wanted a decent breakfast/brunch you would have do go to the Plateau to get some food. Although just recently two of my friends told me they had lunch at this amazing place called Dupond & Dupont and they saw that there was a weekend brunch menu. So armed with the fact that lunch was a success in addition to the fact that I always wanted to find a brunch place in TMR, we planned to take a trip and check it out.

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Restaurant Madre - Latin fusion at it’s finest

The 411

Fusion cuisine and brunch are two things that, when combined, can elevate a dish to new levels or crash and burn. Most people are quite comfortable with their eggs and bacon and making fancy brunch dishes inspired by different cooking styles does not always get the warmest reception. I’ve written before about “nouveau” brunch and in fact, I was inspired to check out some of these places by a Sarah Musgrave article that covered a couple places in the city; Madre was one of them. Now, my greatest concern with nouveau brunch is that meals tend to deviate from classic breakfast items and end up being more of a lunch dish. Don’t get me wrong! I don’t mind breaking the mold and trying something different; I may have my old school roots but I do like being surprised and seeing someone take a novel approach to brunch. With that said, Madre proved an interesting challenge: a nouveau brunch style place that combines various South American cooking styles (Nuevo Latin). This is not an easy challenge by any means, although I have had Latin themed brunches before and the options on the menu are limited. If we consider that we are looking at fusing different styles from South America we could end up with something more lunch than brunch. In the end, I called up my oldest brunch buddy who happens to be a foodie and we went on our fancy brunch adventure.

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Cafe Maurizio - West Island delight

The 411

The West Island. What can I say other than it’s far? It’s where my Saturday yoga class takes place and I have friends who live there. Living in the east end, I always like to complain about the West Island. I find it fun to bug West Islanders about how far they live, but I after all the jokes are said I do recognize that there are some good spots to eat there and I do try to check out a couple breakfast places whenever I’m on the west side. On this week I went to get together with my friend and she was in charge of suggesting a place in the west island I had not been to. Her choice was a place that I had never even heard of called Maurizio Café.

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Le Baron Royal - Buckle your seat belts its gonna be a bumpy ride

The 411

Le Baron Royal has been a place that I have gone to a couple times for all-you-can-eat brunch and also for the special Mother’s Day brunches. It is one of a handful of all-you-can-eat brunch places in the East end and to that point, Montreal proper. I am always hesitant of all-you-can-eat places since I fear the quality always takes a back seat, but needless to say people are interested and hungry. Le Baron Royal is a reception hall in St. Leonard that does Sunday brunches for a fixed price of $37 a head. This gets you an all-you-can-eat buffet coffee, tea and soft drinks. You can also book a private room if you are a big enough group although reservations are strongly suggested since it can fill up quite easily and quickly. So, better book in advance for that group of 40, but if you are two you can likely walk up with no reservation and can get a seat with little or no wait. If you are a group of 10 you can pay an extra $3 a head and get a bottle of wine. I have come here for birthdays, anniversaries and Mother’s Day, and the food options are always the same so reviewing this is rather easy. The last time I went and took pictures was for Mother’s Day and we were in the main dinning hall. Normally, Sundays would be in the main dinning room to the right which has a rather large capacity.

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