Café ce Soir is coming upon their first anniversary and I cannot believe that it took me this entire year to discover them.  Located on the north stretch of Portage Ave. between Arlington and Wall St. (937 to be exact), you will not find French spoken here, as is often the case when you dine in St. Boniface, but the passion for wholesome ingredients and classic French cuisine is authentic.

As you enter the sun-filled bistro, you note that Chef Cam Tran is a member of “Slow Food Canada” who’s vision and Mission is “… a world in which people can access and enjoy slow food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.  Slow Food is an international grassroots membership organization promoting good, clean and fair food for all.”  Slow Food figures prominently into a book that I am currently reading entitled-The Table Comes First, where the movement is additionally described as encompassing: “localism, seasonal cooking, farmer’s markets (and) organic produce“.

Chef Tran worked for many years in the restaurant kitchen formerly dubbed La Vielle Gare, where I first tasted French cuisine west of Quebec.

Lunch began with the sharing of a roasted beet salad, crowned with whole, raw walnuts, creamy goat cheese and pear strings enhanced with a dressing of lemon, oil and a drizzle of maple syrup.  Large nuggets of pink sea salt adorned the plate and brought out the glistening tastes of each bite.

My daughter-in-law spied the gnocchi on the menu and could not resist.  The best way to describe the old-world treat is that it is a dumpling-like pasta made with the inclusion of potato.  When gnocchi is prepared by a skilled chef (and Chef Tran is definitely this), they are lighter than air and taste like the food that angels might feast upon.

In direct opposition, I decided upon the fried frog-legs with a thyme sour cream.  I first tasted frog legs on the very first night of my honey-moon at a Quebec City Bistro.  At one time Picasso’s Seafood Restaurant here in Winnipeg served them and more recently Inferno’s.  I have missed the taste.  I can best describe the flavour as being a blend of chicken and seafood and I love both.  Chef Tran can pan fry them with notice if you are gluten sensitive.

Pink deserts were beautifully concocted to raise money in October for Women’s Cancers.  So lovely when a restaurant is so willing to give back to the community.  They and others, deserve your patronage.

Kath’s quote: “Fish in the hands of a skilled cook can become an inexhaustible source of gustatory pleasures.” –Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin

Love-that is all.

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