I Love Montreal Smoked Meat!

I love Montreal Smoked Meat! Did you know I used to be a vegetarian? That's right. I was a very strict lacto-ovo vegetarian for four years. I hated meat. In my mind I couldn't justify killing animals for meat when there were so many other options for human beings. I mean, I thought that meat was totally unnecessary for life, so we were in no way justified in the needless killing of animals. However, there are always the childhood memories . . . . .

You see, I lived in Montreal in the summer of 1993 (at the height of my vegetarianism), and my friend Leslie came to visit me. He is originally from Singapore, but I met him when I was a student at the University of Calgary. Anyway, I was showing Leslie all of the sights, and taking him to eat all of the famous food from Montreal. We had bagels and creamcheese, we had blintzes and knishes . . . it was wonderful . . . but then I took him to Schwartz's for a smoked meat. (http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index2.html) I had too, I mean, it is one of the iconic smoked meat places in Montreal. I had no choice. So, I ordered him a smoked meat, and I got myself a plate of fries. I ate a fry. He took a big bite of his meaty, juicy sandwich, the fat dripping over his hands. He let out a small moan of pleasure. It was the best sandwhich he had ever eaten in his life. I couldn't stand it. Childhood memories started to flood through me. I could picture my Granny pleading with me to just have one smoked sandwich when I became a vegetarian. An entire culture began to press down on me. I grabbed half of Leslie's sandwich . . . I bit into it. The first meat that had passed my lips in 4 years . . . I started to cry. It was so good.

And that, my friends, I how I stopped being a vegetarian.

The whole point of this little blog entry is to tell you about the Montreal Smoked Meat place on 11th Street and 14th Avenue SW (kind of) near 17th Ave SW in Calgary. It is so good. They fly the meat in directly from Montreal. Please go there . . . a 6 oz sandwich is $8. It'll be the best $8 you ever spent, and you can think about how I stopped being a vegetarian (an made my Granny very happy too).