by Morri Mostow
Im
wild about duck. I dont shoot it and I dont cook it but I love to find
it on a menu. Few places have more duck-adorned menus than the Eastern Townships, home of
the world-famous Brome Lake duck. This upscale fowl is a year-round dish du jour in the
Townships many fine restaurants. As new resident Townshippers, my husband and I have
done our share of exploring and have settled on our two favourite duck establishments: the
Auberge Lakeview Inn in Knowlton (Ville Lac Brome) and La Vieille Bûche in Mansonville.
Brome
Lake Duck has been a tradition at the Lakeview for decades. For the last four years, its
four-fork Sheffield dining room has been among the 15 or 20 restaurants judged excellent
enough to serve the elaborate gastronomic duck dinners created by the invited chefs of the
Brome Lake International Duck Festival, which turns an otherwise dull month of October
into a bonanza for the areas hotels and inns.
For
us, the Lakeview has many charms. Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year,
this cozy 28-room inn has been a landmark destination in the area since 1874. It was
reopened in 1986, after being lovingly restored to gracious Victorian splendor by its new
owner, Montreal businessman Ronald Blair. We particularly enjoy the quiet elegance of its
Spencers Pub a faithful replica of the pub of the same name in London,
England with its raised, high-backed booths of finely tooled mahogany trimmed with
brass.
One
Friday, we fortuitously arrived during Happy Hour (from 5 to 7 p.m.) to discover a
continuously replenished platter of complimentary Brome Lake duck wings so tasty
that they even attract workers from the Brome Lake Duck Farm, conveniently located up the
street and around the corner from the inn. These succulent, spicy morsels are oven-baked,
with paprika, herbs and five kinds of pepper, until the meat almost falls off the bone. We
usually accompany them with a half pitcher of Lions Pride, a full-bodied dark ale
brewed at the Brasserie Le Lion dOr ($7.75) in nearby Lennoxville, a generous basket
of perfectly seasoned, crispy French fries ($2.95) and a Lakeview Salad, a chef salad of
mixed greens, garnished with generous chunks of Gruyère, maple-cured ham and chicken
($6.95 small; $9.95 large). The pub stocks a well-balanced selection of foreign and
domestic beers, both on tap and bottled, including those of the provinces
microbreweries, Le Lion DOr and Unibroue (owned by Quebecs famous chansonnier
Robert Charlebois), with its imaginatively named brews: La Maudite, La Fin du Monde and La
Blanche de Chambly.
Outside
of Friday Happy Hour, we normally tuck into the duck club ($9.95 for one or $12.95 for
two, includes fries and salad). By substituting roasted duck meat for the usual chicken or
turkey, Lakeview chefs have turned an otherwise mundane sandwich into a taste sensation. A
note of caution: depending on the chef on duty, the duck club can be disappointingly
meager or dauntingly generous. For duck without the bacon, opt for the duck burger
($6.95), a burger plate, with all the usual trimmings, where roasted leg of duck stands in
for the normal beef patty.
If
your appetite and pocketbook permit, treat yourself to duck in the Lakeviews
Sheffield dining room, which also boasts an extremely fine wine cellar with some rare and
exotic vintages. Quebecs leading sommelier, Alain Bélanger, helped select the wine
list, which offers bottles at prices ranging from modest to expensive. The
Sheffields four-course table dhôte
menu ($38 per person) changes every week but always features a Brome Lake duck entrée.
Join the ranks of the French, Swiss and other Europeans who frequent this charming inn and
dine on its duck (and many other) specialties. Its well worth the leisurely
75-minute drive from Montreal.
Southeast
of Knowlton, on the road to the Owls Head ski and golf resort just beyond the town
limits of Mansonville, sits, in isolated splendour, La Vieille Bûche. This gourmet
hideaway is a labour of love of owners Louis and Christine Veillon. A charming and
gregarious host, Louis, who hails from a hostelry family, began cooking as a hobby. While
he confesses to being a culinary autodidact, Louis has learned his considerable skills
from several of the areas top chefs who helped him launch his restaurant two and a
half years ago. Judging from the superb quality of his eclectic cuisine, which boasts
seven to nine different vegetables with every main course from parsnip-and-turnip
flan and sweet-and-sour beets to ratatouille in puffed pasty he takes instruction
well! Today, this flourishing establishment is essentially a family run operation.
Louiss wife Christine looks after the decorations and laundry and daughter-in-law,
Lisa, keeps the books. While Louis is assisted in the kitchen on weekends by a chef who
teaches the culinary arts at a Sherbrooke CEGEP, he essentially turns out the meals
himself, with occasional help from his affable son Chris, the Communications Director at
Jay Peak.
Every
meal weve ever had at La Vieille Bûche has been outstanding. The choices vary with
the seasons and Louis fantasy last spring he served alligator gumbo! Many
dishes are not even on the menu, which is why you must ask Louis what else is available
that day. Thats how we discovered his P.E.I. mussels ($8.95), which arrive perfectly
steamed, garnished with a spicy, garlicky marina sauce and heaped on a small bed of
multi-coloured rotini pasta (to sop up the sauce). Louis serves this dish in the
downstairs pub on Friday nights (when mussels are in season), since Friday is the day his
orders arrive fresh.
So,
when we decided to host a small family celebration in October, we naturally turned to
Louis, who graciously agreed to open his restaurant for our party on a Sunday afternoon.
And, since it was October, we naturally hankered for Brome Lake duck, Louis
exquisite greaseless, boneless breast of duck, to be exact. While we all enjoyed it that
day accompanied by four other courses in a menu he prepared specially for us, Louis
regularly features it in a table dhôte
menu priced at $28.95. For that reasonable price, you will find a choice of appetizers
(like mussels or smoked trout), a creamed vegetable soup (asparagus or spinach, perhaps),
an inventive house salad (a combination of couscous with chick peas, beets salad, zucchini
and capers on a bed of baby greens) and the houses decadent crème caramel made with
cream not milk. As for the pièce de résitance, Louis lightly pan fries and oven finishes
the skinless, deboned duck breast. He serves it rosé,
European style, the thin slices of slightly pink meat glazed with a light fruit gravy
ours was of blueberry and cassis; later in the season, it would be of cranberry and
ground cherries the texture and flavour reminiscent of filet mignon. Our guests are
still raving about it, weeks later. Whether Brome Lack duck appears on the menu or not,
Louis always has some in reserve. You have only to ask. I promise, you will not be
disappointed.
Auberge
Lakeview Inn is
open year round.
50 rue Victoria, Knowlton (Lac Brome), Quebec, J0E 1V0.
(450) 243-6163 or toll free (800) 661-6183.
To
get to the Victorian village of Knowlton (Ville Lac Brome), take highway 243 south from
exit 90 on the Eastern Townships Autoroute (Highway 10).
La
Vieille Bûche
is open evenings from Wednesday to Sunday from fall to spring, and every evening but
Wednesday in summer.
241 Chemin Vale Perkins, Mansonville, Quebec J0E 1X0
(450) 292-0302
For
Mansonville, take highway 245 south from exit 106 on the Eastern Townships Autoroute
(Highway 10). Once in Mansonville, ask any of the locals for directions to La Vieille
Bûche.
Brome
Lake Ducks Ltd.,
Canadas largest duck farm, sells more than a million ducks a year around the world.
You can buy Brome Lake duck, fresh, frozen or pre-cooked, as well as pâtés and duck
liver, at the farms on-site store, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to
5 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
40 rue Centre, Knowlton (Lac Brome), Quebec, J0E 1V0.
(450) 242-3825. E-mail: bld@qc.aibn.com
COPYRIGHT © 1999 by Morri Mostow &
Associates. All rights reserved.