Vacation Is My Best Excuse

Posting’s been thin lately, but I have a good excuse (I think).  My sister and I were on vacation in Quebec City.

If you’ve never been (and we hadn’t), I highly suggest you go.  We had a wonderful time shopping, going to the Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, walking through The National Battlefields Park, and, of course, eating.

I’m sure Quebec isn’t the end all, be all of fine cusine, but I took my mini-vacation seriously and ate whatever I wanted, not necesarily in terms of quanity-we stuck to 3 meals a day, and relatively cheap ones because we’re like that- but I ordered whatever I felt like off the menu, vegetarian or not.  We were only there for 3 days and it was vacation after all.  Everything we ate was delicious (who doesn’t love crepes?), and despite our lack of ability to speak French, the waitstaff in all the restaurants we tried were accomodating and helpful.

We finished up our wonderful trip to Canada by stopping at the Empire Grill in Skowhegan, Maine on our way home.  For those unfamiliar with the novel Empire Falls by Richard Russo, the Empire Grill is the restaurant owned by the main character.  The Empire Grill in Skowhegan was used as the site for the filming of the HBO miniseries based on the book which starred Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Newman, after which time the restaurant kept the Empire Grill name.  Empire Falls is one of my absolute favorite books of all time, so stopping at the Grill was a “must do”.  The restaurant far exceeded my expectations.  The portions were huge (I think they served my sister an entire fish with her fish and chips), the prices reasonable and the food delicious.  Even if you don’t care about Empire Falls (though you really, really should!), the Empire Grill is the perfect place to eat if you ever find yourself in Skowhegan.