Canada

I went to Gitanes this day, it was in October and was obviously starting to cool down quite a bit outside. French is one of my favorite cuisines and what better place to have it than France itself? I just walked down from the parliament of Canada where I was sightseeing, it was a pretty good walk if I recall, not too long but took some time to get there. 

I have had littleneck clams before but these particular ones caught my eye on the menu as a starter based off of how they were prepared. It wasn't a traditional platter of littlenecks like you'd expect, open shell and on ice with some lemon wedges on the side. These were prepared and placed on ice and then topped with a haskap kosho and buttermilk sauce. Haskap is a type of berry and it is very citrusy. It was the perfect compliment to the clam. You had the sweet meat, the salty brine, and the citrusy sauce on top. They were incredible, I wound up having 2 dozen across 2 platters. I knew the rest of the food was going to be incredible if they nailed some simple clams the way they did and I was right.

Littlenecks with a buttermilk and haskap kosho sauce.

Beef with pomme aligot.

Front of the Gitanes menu.