Happy official summer, babes! I hope everyone is gearing up for a few months full of fun in the sun! 

Niko and I kicked off the season by heading up to Quebec (somehow managing to completely avoid the fires, while almost everyone we know and love suffered from a few apocalyptically orange days back in New York). We spent most of our time in Montreal—one of my absolute favorite cities—but also headed up to Quebec City to explore somewhere we hadn’t been before.

To know me is to know that I plan every trip I go on exclusively around food, so it was a week jam packed with eating, eating, eating, and oh duh more eating. Montreal holds some of my absolute favorite restaurants, bars, and snack spots, so the trip was a mix of visiting our old classics and discovering fresh new favs. Huge shoutout to anyone who sent me a rec, I got to a bunch of them and will be sure to slot the ones I missed into my inevitable next visit!

Though we had what feels like infinite perfect bites, I figured I’d count down my top five favorite spots from this trip. The top five places I wish I could airlift out of Montreal and place right on my block so I could visit them always. So without further ado…

Yes, a basic pick you could have found by googling “montreal food” and looking at like the first result, but I’d be stupid not to include it because it is the place I find myself at most often. Lord knows I love a New York bagel, but the Montreal bagel gives it a run for its money. It’s thinner, it’s crispier, it’s sweeter. Rather than cutting it open, filling it and eating it sandwich style, you can pull it apart and dip it in little individualized cups of cream cheese and strawberry jam. Niko and I got a sesame and a salted rosemary as a little pre-lunch snack and I recommend you do the same. 

The Jewish food is plentyful and incredible in Montreal, which means grabbing some smoked meat on your visit is an absolute must. Everyone has their favorite spot, some with lines wrapping around the block, but mine will always be Lester’s. It’s an old-school, no-frills stop where the owner plays practical jokes on the customers in between bites of their absolutely packed sandwiches. I recommend going with a classic smoked meat sandwich (with mustard, duh), a plate of fries, and an order of pickles. You’ll be stuffed, but by the time you’ve walked through a few neighborhoods to the next spot you’ll be hungry again.

One of my absolute best friends, Lee, went to college in Montreal and introduced me to this place on one of our visits. She let me know it was the best ice cream in the whole city. Well, she has great taste because I am doubling down on her statement and here to rave about the special twist cone they offer. There is only one flavor combo a week so you get what you get and you don’t get upset (we had sour cherry and almond so I was very much not upset). You can check out the weekly flavor on good old instagram, but I recommend just going and being surprised. In all my visits I’ve never had a cone that was anything less than out of this world, so whatever the weekly combo is I promise you it will be delicious. 

Salad! Pizza! Wine! My three favorite things. Yes, you’re maybe saying “well couldn’t I have that anywhere?” And the answer is yes, but it will never be as good as what Elena has to offer. Niko and I opted for the Kale! Caesar! which was the best I’ve ever had (and I make a lot of these at home, people), the perfectly spicy and fatty Diavlo 2.0 for our pie, and an absolutely gorgeous pasta special featuring ramps. You obvs can’t leave without splitting a bottle of wine with your lover/friend/whoever-the-hell-you-go-with, and I recommend also sharing one of their out of this world seasonal desserts (in our case, we got a perfectly sweet rhubarb & yogurt cake). They also have a small coffee shop/wine bar around back should you only have time for a quickie instead of a whole meal!

The vibes? Incredible. The food? Even better! This Thai restaurant meets wine bar delivered what I would say is some of the best food in the entire city. Niko and I opted to order the most delicious specials which included, a lobster based curry scooped up with endive leaves (nature’s Tostitos), and a lip tinglingly spicy chicken dish with pickley peppers. We also got an amazing chickpea tofu dish off the main menu and had a few glasses of wine. I did get tipsy enough to uninhibitedly leap into a conversation with the couple sitting next to us the moment I heard the woman utter the word “Scandoval” to her partner. We had an absolutely great conversation unpacking years of Vanderpump Rules drama, and an even better meal. Gonna have to start drunk talking to the people eating next to me more often!

Now that I’ve provided you with your itinerary next time you find yourself in Montreal, let’s get into this week’s recipe… which does in fact have almost nothing to do with anything you’ve read so far lol. Though, in the spirit of talking about some of the most delicious food I’ve eaten in a while, I figured these were the perfect treat to put out because they are in my opinion, the most delicious recipe I’ve developed thus far. 

As a lifelong Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey stan, I’ve been trying for a while to develop something inspired by the flavor. After making about 49398585 chocolate walnut banana breads—BORING—I decided to play with form and landed on a cookie. I wanted the flavor to pack a bit more of a punch so I decided to throw a bit of white miso, turning Chunky Monkey into Funky Monkey. 

I start by toasting the miso and banana in butter to get a deeply savory and caramelized flavor into the cookie, before packing the cookie with roasted walnuts and flecks of chocolate. The result is a textural symphony with wonderful bits of crunch in a sea chewy cookie. 

These will be a hit no matter where you go so take those overripe bananas and throw together a batch to bring to your next picnic, barbeque, or other glorious summer outdoor function. Who cares that it’s too hot to turn on the oven? Slap on your teensy tiniest outfit, crank up the fans, and get baking!

xx,
Ian

Funky Monkey Cookies

Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 8 oz (170g) walnut halves or pieces
• 8 oz (170g) chocolate, at least 60% cacao
• 16 tbsp (2 sticks/226g) butter
• 1/2 cup (144g) shiro (white) miso
• 3 extremely ripe* large (345g) bananas
• 2 1/2 cups (320) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp (2g) baking powder
• 3/4 tsp (3g) baking soda
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup (133g) brown sugar
• 1 tsp (4g) pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Toast your walnuts & chop your chocolate: Place your oven racks into the upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Preheat your oven to 350°. Dump your walnuts onto a small baking sheet and spread into a single layer. Place them on the low-middle wrack and let toast for 8-10 minutes or until they smell deeply toasted and have darkened in color. Set aside to cool when done. While they cool chop your chocolate so that you have a nice mix of bigger pieces and little flakes, set aside. Once they’re fully cooled, roughly chop the walnuts.
2. Caramelize your bananas and miso: In a large saucepan, melt your butter over medium heat. Once fully melted add in your bananas and white miso. Use a rubber spatula to break down the bananas and miso into the butter. The mixture will not come together homogeneously, but should ultimately be broken down into a paste frying in the butter. Let your mixture cook, scraping the sides and bottom of the pan occasionally, until it has become deeply golden, and smells toasted, 8-10 minutes. Pull off heat and set aside to cool completely at room temp.*
3. Preheat your oven: Once your banana mixture is cooled, preheat your oven to 350°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Whisk together dry ingredients: In a medium sized bowl whisk together your flour, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Make your dough: In a large bowl whisk together your sugars and eggs until fully combined. Pour in your completely cooled banana mixture and vanilla and whisk until the mixture comes together, it won’t be completely homogenous, there will be streaks and puddles of fat, but that’s okay. Add in your dry ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula until they are fully incorporated. Add in your chopped walnuts and chocolate and fold a few times to distribute.
6. Portion and bake: Using a 1.52 ounce (#20) cookie scoop*** or weighing out 50g balls of dough portion out your dough, placing 8 cookies on each baking sheet. Place your two sheets on separate racks and bake until they are a deep golden brown and firm around the edges, 14-16 minutes, swapping the baking sheets halfway through. Allow your baking sheets to cool for at least 10 minutes if reusing them and repeat to bake off the remaining cookie dough. Let cookies cool and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Notes:

*Your bananas should be very brown, and mushy. They should be to the point where you maybe wouldn’t eat them raw. When your bananas get to this point, you can also freeze them and let them defrost when you want to bake.
**Make sure your mixture is fully room temp otherwise you risk your chocolate melting which is 🙁
***In a pinch you can also portion out 3 tablespoons worth the dough into balls.