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| - For the final French Patisserie a bit of a mix between modern and rustic would meet us at Patisserie Rhubarbe, a small space with odd hours on a tiny side street - a place you'd miss if you were not looking for it, no doubt. Owned and operated by pastry chef Stephanie Labelle, a former student of Herme at his Paris flagship the newish space was reportedly quaint according to my friend who recommended it, while the pastries were apparently quite the opposite.
Closed Mondays (when we were just down the street at Fromentier) and opening at 11:00am on Tuesday we entered the shop just as they opened and with Labelle and her team just filling the racks our selection was quite limited for a moment so we sat down and browsed the cute space full of knick knacks before the daily display was available and after browsing, chatting with the chef, and weighing or options we each chose an entement while my mother opted for a quartet of macarons before we returned to the car, eating as we walked.
Beginning first with the less interesting items, a simple carrot cake was presented as a tall cylinder topped with the lightest cream cheese frosting yet to touch my lips and rife with both carrots and pineapples plus a touch of nuts it was toothsome and quite nice. Equally nice, a small bar of lemon meringue tarte was the epitome of smoothness with the light meringue and dense lemon forming a lovely mouthfeel atop a crisp butter crust. Citrus based and thus appealing to my mother, the most interesting aspect of this dish to me was the addition of candied lemon peel and a touch of mint, both subtle but present and giving the dish a sort of freshness that I hadn't expected.
Moving next to the Macarons, only two flavors were available so early in the morning at Rhubarbe and with one lemon and the other maple chocolate walnut it was easy to know who would rave what, though admittedly both were quite good as the crisp cookies gave way to intense fillings, the first nicely sweetened to balance the sour and the second a dense ganache that actually helped to temper the maple rich exterior...or at least seemingly maple-rich until we tasted our last option - a Maple Religeuse with dense impeccable choux stuffed to bursting with rich maple custard and topped with lightly toasted maple sugar plus a crown of impossibly light whipped cream. One part crunch, one part cream, and over the top sweet this certainly wasn't a pastry for everyone, but for me it was a perfect marriage of traditional French technique and Montreal's most famous ingredient...a must taste to anyone visiting the city who loves both.
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