May 11, 2016 Train to Quebec City, Dinner at Lapin Sauté

May 11, 2016 Train to Quebec City, Dinner at Lapin Sauté

We got up and had a quick breakfast and went to the train station by 8:00 for our 9:10 train to Quebec City.  We ate ham sandwiches on the train and arrived in Quebec at 1:30.  We went through the chaos of finding transportation, but bought a one day bus pass and found the No. 21 bus, which took us to within steps of our BNB located at the end of the 21 bus route in the oldest part of Quebec.  We met our hostess, Joanna, who got us settled in.

We put down our grips and walked to Place Royal at the center of the old town and stopped for a sangria for Suzette and an apple cider for me.  We then rode the funicular up to the upper part of town and went to tourist information to find out the names of best restaurants and where the best antique shops were.  We went to St. Paul street to the antique shops, where Suzette found curtain holders and a bag of imitation tourist she'll hair barrettes and the proprietor of the store where Suzette found those items recommended Restaurant St. Malo.

We decided to look for more antique shops in our area of town, which is also where several of the recommended restaurants were located, so we took the No. 21 bus to the end of the line and walked west along the street to Rue Champlain where the Restaurant D’Ingue was located.  I did not like it's menu, so we walked up to the next street which also connected to the street that connected to our BNB at the funicular.  It turned out to be a high end shopping street with lovely shops.  Soon we came to a small square and Restaurant Lapin Sauté.  Suzette loves rabbit and the restaurant featured many rabbit dishes, so it was 5:00 and Lapin Sauté was open.  We had not eaten a proper meal all day, so we decided to eat dinner at Lapin Sauté.  It was warming and there were heaters on the roof of a small patio, so we ate outside.

We both decided upon a three course meal, because two additional courses were only $15.00 if taken with an entrée and all the items were appealing. One side of the menu had Classic dishes where the rabbit dishes and the Roasted Pork Shoulder I ordered were located and the other side was a Discovery menu with more exotic choices.  

Suzette ordered a spicy trout as her appetizer, which turned out to be the best Gravad trout she had ever tasted garnished with sour cream and a maple syrup sauce.  There are lots of maple syrup and apple cider sauces in Canadian cuisine.  I ordered a smoked duck breast appetizer that was served with toast points and cornichons.  It was the most tender duck I have ever tasted.  We loved both of our appetizers.  We had trouble choosing a wine and took the waitress’ suggestion of av2014 Les Volcaniques Gamay from France that was good, but not as full bodied or fruity as the Douro we had two nights ago and it was $51.00 which pushed the total price of dinner past Can. 150.  Our host stood me the next morning that they often have a few glasses of wine at home before and after the go out to eat because so many restaurants Mark up wind so much.  Our entrees were also delicious.  I ordered Roasted Pork Shoulder in an apple cider mustard sauce and Suzette Sautéed Rabbit in two different sauces, a mustard sauce and a red wine mushroom sauce.  Lapin Sauté is a legitimately wonderful restaurant because it used first quality ingredients in creative way to make interesting dishes with unique sauces for each dish.  For example, my Pork Shoulder was slow roasted so that it was almost as tender as the Pork Belly at A G in Montreal and it had a delicious sauce of reduced apple cider flavored with mustard; a sauce I will try next time I get a chance.  Both entrees were served with potato wedges fried in duck fat.  This was the real deal, real duck fat fries cooked to dark brown to seal in the duck flavor, the best I have ever eaten.  It was like getting the duck fat revelation.  I saw it.  I also had a salad with a Dijon vinaigrette that I liked very much.  Suzette had steamed and Sautéed vegetables as her vegetable with her sautéed rabbit.  We tasted eac others dish.  Suzette’s rabbit was the most tender I had ever tasted and she said, “Yes, it is good.”  A pretty big complement.  

We stopped eating our entrée, so we would have room for dessert.  The waitress was kind enough to bring us a plastic box and we put the remaining potatoes and meat of our entrees in it.  Suzette said she ate a piece of the roasted fat that I had removed from my pork shoulder and found it delicious.

Suzette ordered a honey pie that turned out to be a chess pie that we both enjoyed.  I ordered a discovery dessert of chocolate fondant with a small glass of dark beer.  The flavors of the moist chocolate cake and the dark beer were amazingly similar, which tells you someone in the kitchen has some creativity.  We both loved both desserts and agreed this was the second best meal at a restaurant we had on the trip.

Our waitress recommended a microbrewery across the St. Lawrence River, which is an 11 or 12 minute ferry ride.  Since the Frey terminal was at the last stop of the no. 21 bus, which put it about a five minute walk from Lapin sauté, when we finished dinner at 7:00, we decided to take the ferry across the river to the Coursaire Microbrewery to watch the sunset and have a view of Quebec.  We caught the 7:30 ferry and found a table at Le Coursaire on the deck with a view of Quebec.

We ordered pints of apple cider to help digest al the food and sat and watched the sun set and then the moon rise over Quebec as the light came on.  We sat until almost 8:30 when the return ferry was scheduled to leave and the temperature dropped precipitously and the wind rose as darkness fell.  The walls of Quebec and the towered of the. 

Hotel Fontenac were bathed in light at darkness, which made a pretty picture.  We took the return ferry at 8:30 and were in bed by 9:00.

Bon Appetit