Aux Vivres and Jane's Walk

Today, I went out for lunch. Exciting, right? Well, it was exciting because I finally had an excuse to try out Aux Vivres, on St. Laurent. I've wanted to go there for a while, since I heard it was a great place for vegan food. I'm not a vegan (not even a vegetarian), but I don't mind going without animal products. I met my friend Clare there, a good friend from my Mac Campus days. We started off with an appetizer of chapati (Indian bread, similar to na'an) with "butter". I have no idea what the "butter" was made of, but it was really delicious. For lunch, I had the Aux Vivres veggie burger, potato wedges with chipolte ketchup, and coleslaw. Everything tasted so good that I forgot it was all vegan. Clare had a huge veggie "lox" sandwich, and surprisingly it did taste like salmon, even though it was made from carrots (I think) and various other ingredients that combined together to magically taste like a fish. I generally try to stay away from vegetarian food that pretends to be something made from an animal. Actually I try to stay away from most things that try to pretend to be something else, like potato chips that taste like chicken or ribs. However, sometimes these flavors are so convincing and so delicious that I can't avoid them. Most of my good friends know about my uncontrollable love for Ruffles barbeque or all-dressed chips, which are definitely trying to pretend to be something else. Anyway, I have to stop talking about food or else I'll want dessert.

Jane's Walk
Jane's Walk is happening May 7th and 8th in neighborhoods across Montreal. These are guided walking tours that encourage local knowledge, culture, history, and nature. You can check out the pdf to find guided tours near you. The walk is named after Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), which encouraged city planning to find alternatives to a car-based community.