Lunch at the Forest & Stream

Yesterday was our company’s Christmas lunch and once again we were spoiled. We went to the Forest & Stream Club for lunch. The club was founded in the late 1800s on a parcel of land on the water in Dorval, Quebec. The service is fabulous and the food is great and so I figured that I needed to make a post about it.

Christmas lunch is a festive occasion so I admit to having a dram of scotch before the meal while we were sitting by the fireplace in the living room. We were then seated in the Moose room. It is called the Moose room because there is a Moose’s head mounted on the wall. No, I’m not sure if they serve Moosehead in this room. I started off with 6 oysters which were extremely fresh.

For the soup course I somehow avoided the lobster bisque and opted for consommé. Many of you are now saying to yourselves, “Stu, what on earth were you thinking? Consommé? Stu, that’s ridiculous.” And while you might be right on certain levels, the consommé at the Forest & Stream Club is quite good, but really its about the presentation. They bring the consommé in a lovely F&S china cup and then they proceed to add sherry right in front of you. Needless to say, this is no ordinary consommé. At any rate, it is something of a classic for the Forest & Stream and I enjoyed it immensely.

At this point, they also pass around pieces of white toast with the crusts cut off, which is kind of cute, refined and at the same time feels indulgent because not since I was 2 years old did anyone cut the crusts off of bread for me.

I had the Club-style Lobster Salad for lunch and I don’t think words alone can explain how wonderful it was. It was sinful, sophisticated and sumptuous all at the same time. At this point I fall into some type of euphoric trance thinking about the meal. All I can think about is the wonderful lobster claws and tail on a beautiful bed of greens with dollops of sauces on the side in endive leaves.

How can this be topped of properly? Tough to say, but my Forest & Stream chocolate millefeuille was wonderful. It was actually quite different from a regular millefeuille in that it was round, and had chocolate mousse instead of vanilla custard and didn’t have icing on top. Keep your eyes on this blog for Stu’s adaptation. Believe me, it will be coming soon…