Hey, psst…wanna by some Miracle fruit tablets? Have you ever heard of the Miracle berry and the hallucinogenic games it can play in your mouth? This is the coolest thing! The Miracle berry is a fruit originally grown in West Africa and has been used for centuries but of course the word of mouth spread only after the European dropped in for a visit/invasion. This berry makes sour foods taste sweet.

The berries contains a glycoprotein molecule called miraculin which coats and binds to the tongue’s taste buds when eaten. Science has extracted this molecule and successfully created a edible tablet which does the same thing than eating the fruit. Scientists have made the tablet yet they still don’t know why the phenomenon occurs. The one thing they know for sure is that miraculin messes around with your taste bud receptors.

Ever since I read about the Miracle Berry I have been so eager to try it. After some online shopping I found miracle fruit tablets at a very reasonable price. Finally the packet arrived in the mail. Right away I sent out an email to invite a select group of friends to my Fruit Dropping Party.

Why is it called that? Best guess I have is you are meant to eat acidic food so I assume is is a play of dropping acid? Such parties are also nicknamed flavor tripping parties. Let me assure you miracle fruit tablets are not a drug and are perfectly legal. It is however a subject of controversy as well, see last paragraph.

We were a party of 8 guinea pigs for this tasting experiment. Everyone brought a food to contribute. We all took a tablet and let it dissolve in our mouth, making sure we swished it around the whole tongue. The tablet itself tasted quite sour ironically. Then we all felt a earthy/powdery residue on the tongue. Someone volunteered to take the first lemon bite. It worked! We all jumped on the acidic buffet. See Karyn here bite into a lemon…

It was the strangest food spread I had ever seen: oranges, limes, lemons, grapefruit, tamarind, unripe mango, tomatoes, strawberries, pickled vegetables, sourdough bread, goat cheese, sour cream, salt and vinegar chips, salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, a sour candy called Toxic Waste, red wine and Guiness.

Not everyone reacted the exact same way to all foods but all found foods unusually sweet. A lemon still tastes like a lemon…just really sweet. Same for all other citrus. Tomatoes and unripe mangoes were so sweet ans strawberries were almost to sugary. The sour cream, the bread and goat cheese only had a slight effect but there was an unusual sweetness to it. Vinegary foods were less tangy but still had a bit of kick to them. The toxic candies were still sour..perhaps because it is a chemical sourness? Guiness had a more chocolaty taste to it. Bit I think the biggest shock for all was red wine: it tasted like Kool-Aid made with 5 cups of sugar, it was unbelievable.

We just ate in amazement for about 40 min until we started noticing the effect of the tablets was slowly wearing off. The effects can last between 15 to 60 min. At this point some guest were really happy I had bought antacid tablets. You flavor perception made be different but your stomach sees no difference! Oh boy! Many had a slightly sensitive stomach the next day. But it is totally worth it once to try. We had such a blast.

I highly recommend this experience. It is not expensive so get some and have your own Fruit Dropping Party. Just make sure to supply a bottle of antacid tablets too!

By the way Miracle Fruit tablets are great for those lacking appetite due to the metallic taste resulting from chemotherapy. Diabetic patients and dieters can use it as a way to calm a sugar craving without the calories or playing with their sugar levels.

But the US government has put a stop to any such research. It is legal to grow,buy, sell and consume Miracle berries on their own. It cannot be added legally to foods though because the FDA suddenly decided to classify it as a possible food additive instead of a food (as first planned). Why? Well there are stories that the sugar industry was not to happy about the whole situation. All we do know for sure is that in 1974 the one company developing miraculin for the diabetic market had to close its doors when the FDA slapped the food additive label. Such a label involves years of research and a whole lot of money, more then the Miraculin Company could ever dream of having. Did I mention too that it is a fact the offices of the Miraculin Company were ransacked not log before the FDA stepped in? Hmm, make your own conclusions.

Wow I had a fabulous evening this past Wednesday, a magical metropolitan night basking in some of the best cultural delights Montreal has to offer. I was originally going to try a tiny restaurant hidden in Verdun with my friend Johanne. The day before she got in touch with me saying she could perhaps get free ticket to the very special event of this year’s Fantasia Festival event: Metropolis (see below).

Sure, I am up for it, I had no idea really what we were attending. All I knew is that it was taking place at the Place des Arts (PDA) which meant our Verdun resto would have to wait for a future outing. And my mind was racing as to where to eat around there. The core downtown area is not crawling with funky and nice foodie haunts. We walked along Ste-Catherine in search of something decent. I was also getting paid at midnight so let’s say budget was really an issue, to a certain extent.

cocktails: Jeanne-Mance Collins and Purple Splash

And then, like a savior appearing before troubled souls, we saw in the distance the new “IT” place in town right next to the PDA….Brasserie T!. It is so new (1 month) that neither one of us thought about this place beforehand. So why such a buzz for a new place. The owner is the same as Toqué, one of Montreal’s absolute top restaurants. The good news is the prices at Brasserie T! are a lot more reasonable compared to Toqué.

Brasserie T! is smack dab in the middle of the PDA, the Contemporary Art Museum, the Place des Festivals where numerous international outdoor festivals take place and the brand new Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan. The restaurant itself has a very peculiar architecture I would say almost reminiscent of a long glass bus stop. It’s a very narrow and long rectangle. From outside I find it off putting. From inside you forget about it.

Charcuterie: Saucisson en brioche and Tête fromagée

We did not know if we would even get a table. Turns out the 6 stools by the bar are reserved for ‘walk-ins’. They were all empty. I normally hate eating at the counter but this time it turned out to be the best seats in the place I think. Sara, the bartender who also took our orders, was just a jewel. I really, really, really liked her. We each had a cocktail…really original ones. Totally from memory but Johanne had the Jeanne-Mance Collins which included vodka, limoncello, absinthe, fresh mint. She was actually the first official customer to order that drink, it was brand new. It was AMAZING. I had the Purple Splash which had gin, raspberry blueberry and something else with a bit of hot peppers and served with ground pepper on top. Really unique but there was something missing.  Sara really took the time to ask our opinions of the drinks and was open to my suggesting a couple of drops of Bitters. She was very happy to oblige, welcomed suggestion and took note of it.

Plats: Croque monsieur and Brandade de morue

Our bartender was just as attentive and knowledgeable when it came to our food selection. The winner in the Charcuterie was my Tête fromagée. It was just divine and melt in your mouth. In English it is called Head Cheese, a meat jelly. The winner in the Plats category was Johanne’s Croque monsieur. At first she was a bit surprised it had 2 slices of bread, presented like a grilled cheese almost. Oh but was it good, the cheese so flavorful and there was a poached egg in the middle. Really the only dish out of the 4 that left me a bit indifferent was mine, the Brandade de morue, which I found a bit bland. An interesting note though: the bread had been drizzled with excellent olive oil quite liberally before placing the cod dish on top, that I enjoyed.

Before or after a show, if you can get a table or stool, Brasserie T! is a fabulous place to go for a true French Bistro bite to eat if you have a bit of extra money compared to what I normally blog about. A cocktail, a charcuterie and a plats came out to $35 before tipping. Exclamation mark.

Brasserie T!, 1425 Jeanne Mance St., 514-282-0808

So this is just dinner! Next was the movie Metropolis. Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere, and much footage was lost over the passage of successive decades. Today the film has been restored and 30minutes of lost footage has been added. These 30 min actually change the whole view of the movie. This film has such a strong influence is was  inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2001.

Many considered this cinematic presentation a real coup for the Fantasia Festival. It was show on closing night. A 3,000 seat sold-out presentation for a silent 83 year old film. A 147 min silent film that was accompanied by an orchestra. Internationally renowned silent film composer Gabriel Thibaudeau wrote a new score for the film, which he performed with a 13-piece orchestra live at the screening. A very long standing ovation closed the performance.

I am not sure how to describe the experience. Palpable and surreal are two words that come to mind. It was one of those just profound once in a life time experiences sprinkled with a dash of magic. At first I did not know what to think of the movie but later on I realized how powerful its message was. It was captivating and a still valid sociological critic today of basic morals and values. Closest to it I ever saw would be Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.

If you ever have a chance to see Metropolis this way make it your priority.

Before I start this post I just wanted to send out a big thank you to Amanda at The Mindful Table. She lent me temporarily her second camera while I wait for mine to resurface from it’s silly journey. I mentioned a couple of times my recent pics were from my cell phone and of bad quality but did not tell you why! Well silly me I left my camera on my friend’s kitchen table in Virginia before going of to North Carolina. So upon my return my friend arranged to return my camera by mail. I of course sent her the money for the shipping. But she was badly instructed by the postal worker on how to fill out the forms. I got a notice for the package with an amount of money, not a small one, requested for duty. IT’S MY CAMERA!!!!!!

At this point if I pay duties and ad the shipping, well it’s more then this old camera’s worth. And I am not going to pay and then TRY to get customs to change their mind. So I declined the package and it will either fall in the hands of a custom agent who will call me (I gave my refusal with my phone no.) or my friend will have the package returned and she will resend it the cheap proper way. So this is why I am camera-less at this time!

No idea why I never tried this before but this summer I bought a baby cherry tomato plant for my balcony, all the way up on the 18th floor where I live.

I am very excited I have little green fruits. I cannot wait to watch them get red. I have very little veggie gardening experience…any tips and comments are welcome.

Oh and had to share this ADORABLE pic I found online too!

This Tuesday the blogger, columnist and journalist foodie world was all gathered at Restaurant  Biron for delightful bites, copious punch and lively conversation. Congratulations to Charlotte for this event! Pictures are each worth my thousand words for this post. Much more was served there is only so much I can do with a drink in one hand and food in the other.

Great open concept kitchen

Iceberg lettuce with panko salad

Kobe beef tongue and calamari

Oyster bar for Oyster Shootres

Melon Shooter

Mackerel Maki Rolls

Clean, modern yet warm décor