Cabane à sucre Au pied de l'érable

Every year, my mom books a cabane à sucre for almost the whole family. We always pick a new one because, let's face it, we can always do better. This year, we headed to Mirabel to Au Pied de l'Érable. Obviously, this screams cabane à sucre! Hellooooo, sugar!

It was a quintessential cabane, with wooden walls, exposed beams, skis + old school snow shoes hung everywhere and a red door. I loves me a good red door! Oh and just by the by, it was all-you-can-eat. Mama loves her AYCE!

We already had some marinades on the table, because that's HOW YOU DSO. Marinated onions, beets, pickles and homemade ketchup. The marinated onions were a bit on the intense side: I loves me some onions but it just seemed like they had JUST put them in the marinade the day of. The cornichons were surprisingly salty and a bit too hard. We were expecting more of a sweet pickle. The beets were totes perf and the size of the pieces was good as well.

The omelet. Oh yes, I love a good omelette soufflée! This one, in all seriousness (yes, I can be serious sometimes), is the LEGIT best I've ever had. Ever. Had. It actually had flavor, when most cabane à sucre omelets are bleh (technical term), and it was moist, when most are dry. Let's face it, no one goes to the cabane à sucre for the omelet. Well, put a bit of maple syrup on le top, and you got yourself something awesome.

The pea soup. A classic. This was totes taste. We were all looking at each other, thinking about how much we were going to fart after. The important thing is that we do it together :p It was perfectly seasoned: not too bland, not too salty. It could've been hotter though.

The cretons. FYI, it's basically pig fat made into a spread. YASS! They were good but not great. I'm sure tante Berthe's (my ex step-aunt... or something) cretons would've won the cup. They were lacking in flavor and they weren't easily spreadable. We want spreadable cretons, all the time. All. The. Time.

Le ham: another staple. I'm being 100% serious when I say that this is the best ham I've ever had. Freaking EVER! That means a LOT. It was moist, it was tasty, and its crust was perfection. It was superbly caramelized and just effin awesome. We ordered more (ya, because we could and that was great), and surprise surprise, I finished it. Oops.

Les oreilles de crisse: MORE fat! Basically this is hard lard. Someone should write a song. You know: haaaaarrrd laaaard. Aaaand song over. I had the smallest tiniest bite because even if I used to like them, I know they are way too hard for my teeth. And anyway, they taste like a**. And this goes for all the oreilles de crisse.

Cocktail sausages in maple syrup. Everything that is IN maple syrup is better, and this was proof. I'm not supes fond of tiny sausages but they WERE better in le maple. Let's face it, I'm just not a small sausage kind of girl. Ha, I ain't a BIG sausage kind of girl either, if you know what I mean. Wait, you do know I'm GAY right?

The beans (not pictured... just imagine beans yo) were, well, I farted. They were excellent and not toooooo sweet!

Les grand-pères: basically, a ball of dough in maple syrup. EVERYTHING IN MAPLE SYRUP!!!!!!!! I wasn't a huge fan of these because it was basically dough with sugar IN sugar. Enough is enough!

The maple mousse. I loves me a good mousse. This one, I LOVED. It wasn't overly sweet, even if, hello, maple. It was soft and perfect.

Service was on the damn ball throughout lunch. Cabane à sucre service is usually in a class of its own, kind of like Asian restos. They have a couple services per meal and its tight. The girls (let's face it, it's always all girls) were fast, efficient and nice. When we asked for a refill or for more napkins or what have you, it was on the table as quick as a flash. They were THERE.

And now, les scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 9.5

We've already agreed: we're going back next year!

Érablière St-Henri

Now THIS is a real cabane à sucre (yes yes I know its called a sugar shack!): if you have to drive more than 40 minutes, if, when you get there, you have no idea where you are, and if you see deer crossing the road right in front of you.... you are going to the real thang baby!

My sister was in town for a couple days so we decided that going to a sugar shack would be fun. I hadn't been in a couple years, my sister hadn't been to a real one in at least 10 to 15 years and my mom, surprisingly enough, hadn't been in about 28 years! Whaaaaaa? We HAD to go!

The place had two rooms for your sugar pleasure :) I'd say it can sit around 100 people in all. It was complete with plastic table cloths and fake leaves everywhere :p But you know what, it was darn tootin' homey and I likes it!

Alright, let's get down to the food because there was, as per usual à la cabane à sucre, a shiz load!

To start us off, there were cute little mason jars with marinated beets (just vinegary enough), pickles and homemade ketchup (just a touch of sweetness) on the table! YUM!!! And to top it off, there were delicious cretons that came with warm bread :)

Pea soup---a cabane à sucre classic! It was good but I found that it lacked a bit in the taste department.

Then, our waitress (who is the daughter of the owners---à la cabane à sucre, it's all in the family!) brought us maple syrup soaked baby sausages, bigger sausages, beans (me.loves.beans) smashed potatoes and du ragoût de boulettes (I'm not even going to attempt to translate---but it's the bowl on your right).  The mini sausage in maple was surprisingly dry and, well, I ain't the tiny sausage kinda person. The bigger ones were tastier (yes, I know, here come the lesbian jokes ;p) and had more moisture! The beans were perfect... just like they should damn well be at a sugar shack! The potatoes were OK but a bit dry and didn't taste like much. The ragout de boulettes was really good, tasty, just the right amount of salt in the yummy sauce.... but there wasn't enough!!! We were 5 and I think there were 6 meatballs. Grrr. 

After, there was the omelet and the tourtière (meat pie). The omelet, we all could have done without. It was tasteless and... hum... square! What the what now? The tourtière was wonderful and when you added some of the ketchup it was gosh darn delicious! All the right spices were present. But, again, that omelet... WHAT were they thinking?

Apparently, my memories of 'oreilles de criss' were not as good as I thought because that was, well, NOT good. It was WAY too hard and unpleasant. Bah. I know what it is but it was literally like putting pure dried up fat in my mouth (which it is...http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreille_de_crisse). The bacon was good but a tad overcooked.

Mmmmm: ham! I loves my ham! And actually my whole family has somewhat of a ham crush. When it's done well we can eat it foreva (ex: the other day, my mom gave me some ham that she made and I proceeded to eat TWO big ass ham sandwich in 1 hour---what's WRONG with me!?). Anyway, it tasted of loveliness and maple and you could break it off with a fork!

Oh it's not even close to being done, but this was the desert: Pancakes, sugar pie and maple syrup pie and 'grand-pères'. Ok, so basically, the 'grand-pères' tasted (AND felt) like raw dough. Meh. The pancakes were good but the stars were the two pies, and by looking at this picture, you can see we did NOT have enough for all 5 of us! Geez! I liked the maple syrup one better than the other because it's not every day that you get to taste that yumminess. Mmmm... it was so soft and silky and obviously had around 8000 calories in every bite.

And this was the finale: de la tire d'érable (or 'maple taffy' if you prefer). Oh yes; this boiling maple syrup that hardens as soon as it hits the snow reminded me of childhood! Some opted out because they were 'too full' but I thought 'hey, what's another 600 calories'?

Service was good: she brought us a pitcher of water at the beginning of our meal but we did have to ask for more... And I mean, she only had two tables to care for. On the other hand, since she was the owners' daughter so she knew a bunch of stuff about maple and the making of the maple syrup and what have you so that was very cool. 

And now, the scores!!

Food: 7.5
Service: 8

Such a fun experience! I loves me some sugar shack and this was exactly what I needed! So if you feel like you want to go to a real cabane à sucre, go to Rigaud and you're set!