Marché Jean-Talon – Jean-Talon Market

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Tomiko and I visited the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal on a Friday morning, stocking up on snacks for our road trip through Quebec. It was great to see other tourists enjoying the market, as well as residents doing their own grocery shopping.

The Marché Jean-Talon is more than just a farmers’ market: the sprawling market takes up a whole city block and has fresh, local vegetables and fruit; baked goods; spices and herbs; cheeses and charcuterie; flowers; and meat in addition to ready-to-eat foods.

Located in the Little Italy area of Montreal, the market is open daily and even has its own parking garage. It is one of the oldest markets in Montreal, originally opening in May of 1933 under the name Marché du Nord. The central building is open year round while the outdoor vendor stalls are abandoned during the wickedly cold winters.

Beautiful garlic and garlic scapes!

Quebec is the largest producer of maple syrup in the world, supplying over 60% of the world’s pure maple syrup (http://www.purecanadamaple.com/)

We first got a taste of the small but lusciously sweet strawberries from the famous Île d’Orléans near Quebec City.

The vendors offer samples of their exquisitely fresh produce. There are platters with cut tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes that are for sampling. They add just a sprinkle of salt to help bring out the garden-fresh flavours. How could we resist!

We saw some fruits and vegetables that we barely recognized; not being familiar with some of the French names didn’t help either! Now we know that girotte is French for morello cherries, a type of sour cherry.

Tomiko and I visited in mid-July, but the sweet corn was already available.

In addition to all the lovely food, the Marché Jean-Talon also sells lovely flowers.

Tomiko and I were stocking up on road trip snacks like cucumbers, radishes, and tomatoes – foods that didn’t need to be cooked. Unfortunately that meant we had to pass on these beautiful potatoes.

Even the ‘regular’ mushrooms looked great; little did we know that we would later stumble upon a mushroom forager and treat ourselves to exquisite wild mushrooms in Charlevoix.

Those little maple cornets are filled with sticky maple taffy and topped with maple sugar. Delectable!

I haven’t seen gooseberries for sale since Germany!

Ground cherries for sale. Inside the papery skins are little orange berries that, to me, taste faintly of pineapple.

Red currants – another fruit that is popular in Germany but one that I rarely see for sale in Canada.

Tomiko and I stopped at an epicerie and bought some dried sausages and a piece of the Charlevoix 1608 cheese, a hard cheese made with milk from Canadienne cows, descendants of cows that were shipped from France between 1608 and 1670. The Charlevoix 1608 cheese was one of the six types of cheese that we brought back to Toronto. I will have to check our favourite cheese stores in Kensington Market and St Lawrence Market to see if it’s available here. While the rind has a slightly fruity flavour, the inside has more of a nutty taste. Absolutely delicious as is or melted (on a bagel).

We bought deliciously chewy Montreal bagels from O Bagel. Montreal bagels are skinnier, chewier and less doughy than the famous New York bagel. After trying both this summer, I’ve found that I like the Montreal bagels more. Tomiko and I got a couple each of the classic poppyseed and sesame seed bagels, although O Bagel also makes other varieties like onion, cinnamon, or everything bagels.

We tasted a little cup of ice cream from Havre aux Glaces. I read in Made In Quebec that the maple burnt caramel was good. It turned out to be spectacular.

If you are a food lover and find yourself in Montreal, make sure to stop at this fantastic market!

Visit the Marché Jean-Talon:

7070 Avenue Henri Julien, Montréal, QC H2S 3S3
(514) 277-1588