Montreal: The Sugar Shack

On day two of our tour of Montreal, we went to a traditional sugar shack for dinner and entertainment. The sugar shack's food is all based around maple syrup so everything was very sugary. The inside was like a large log house with a sloped gable roof. There were several rows of long tables, all set with plates, cups, and utensils. Every so often, there would be a carton of orange or pineapple juice. On the side was a buffet table, steaming with freshly cooked food. The owner introduced himself and sat us down. Our first course was very simple: pea soup. While we ate, the host danced, sang, and played an accordion. Then, table by table we were called up to the buffet table. There were sausages, pancakes, dinner rolls, French toast, meat pies, meatballs, two types of salad, baked beans, some mysterious purple thing that might have been yam... And there were large jugs of syrup that we were supposed to drizzle on top of everything.

Unfortunately, I had no appetite on that day, and I had to force feed myself everything on my plate (which was already a reduced amount). Halfway through, the host started playing music and invited people up to the dance floor. I wondered how everyone could move with full stomachs. But then again, they weren't stuffing themselves. The dancing didn't last very long, and everyone returned to their seats for dessert. There were three types of dessert. A pie filled with... um... sweet stuff..., a maple cake pudding... (I forgot what it was called)... and something else. Even though I felt like throwing up, I wanted to try everything. It just so happened that as I was taking a bite out of the maple pudding, I choked. Coughing while trying not to puke is NOT fun. Tears streaming out of my eyes, I turned away from everything around my for a few moments.

After that, we had semi-frozen-maple-syrup-on-a-stick. Basically there were these large sheets of ice pieces and maple syrup was drizzled on it to cool it down. We then took sticks and rolled it onto them. I got a huge piece because the lady preparing it spilled the syrup on the table, and so she dumped the rest of it in.

Eventually, many people got really high from all the sugar, and a group of people proceeded to carol on a platform thing in front of the shack outside. Hearing random off-tune songs like "Party in the USA" was slightly annoying but fun to watch, and I don't think our teacher was particularly impressed when a number was dedicated to her...