Smoked Meat (Montreal, 1920s?)

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   Two Montreal guidebooks from the 1970s.  Unfortunately, neither has "poutine."
   There was a "suspicious package" at the NYPL this morning, shutting off the front entrance.

SMITH'S MONTREAL
by Desmond Smith
New York:  Alfred A, Knopf
1976

Pg. 65:  ...the adoption of English word which are given French pronunciations--_le parking, le quick lunch, le hot-dog, un triggerman, en blue-jean, le leadership, les bestsellers, le hamburger,_ and so on.

Pg. 67 (STREET FRENCH):  ...CHIENS CHAUDS (Hot Dogs) or HOT-DOGS STEAMES (Steamed Hot Dogs)...

Pg. 215 (LES FILLES DU ROY restaurant):  And the dishes, similarly, are all from the cookbooks of early French Canada:  to being, _croutons a l'ail_ (squares of hot bread spiced with garlic), _feves au lard a la canadiennce_ (a small dish of pork and beans); then, traditional main dishes like _tourtiere_ ( a ground-meat pie), _ragout de boulettes_ (meat balls, pork hocks served in a spicy sauce), _cipaille_ (a variation of the _tourtiere_, with a filling of various meats and/or game and onion)...

Pg. 217 (SCHWARZ's deli):  The pastrami sandwiches, known locally as "smoked meat," are terrific.

Pg. 225 (VAN LING, a Vietnamese restaurant):  Among the recommended dishes are the _poisson a la marmite a la mode du sud_--South Vietnamese-style fish in a marmite sauce--and _chao gio_--egg rolls filled with a delicious mixture of crabmeat, black mushrooms, and transparent noodles.
(OED entry for "chao gio"?--ed.)


MONTREAL INSIDE OUT
by Bonnie Bruxton and Betty Guernsey
Ottawa:  Waxwing Productions
1974, first edition
1976, enlarged and revised

Pg. 29 (QUEBEC CUISINE):  AMong the typical Quebec dishes are _tourtiere_ (traditional meat pie); _ragout de boulettes_ (pork hock and meatball stew); _cipaille_ (meat pie with fowl and vegetables); _soupe aux pois a la canadienne_ (habitant pea soup made with dried yellow peas); _soupe a l'oignon gratinee_ (onion soup, sprinkled with cheese); _cretons_ (a rough meat pate); _feves au lard_ (baked beans in molasses): _tarte au sucre_ (maple sugar pie); _tarte aux bleuets_ (blueberry pie) and local products such as Brome duckling, Gaspe salmon, Oka cheese and l'Ermite blue cheese.
(...)
   _Auberge Le Vieux St-Gabriel, 442 St-Gabriel in Old Montreal, is said to be the oldest inn and restaurant in North America, dating to 1754.
(Before our word "restaurant"?--ed.)

Pg. 48:
   THE MONTREAL HOT SMOKED MEAT SANDWICH
   The Montreal HSM sandwich oews its existence to Ben Kravitz, who founded a shop on the Main in 1908, and used a recipe similar to one popular in his native Lithuania.  Back in the old country, beef was preserved by being pickled in brine, and then frozen outdoors.  When you wanted to eat it, you'd hang it over the fire to thaw--and then the smoky taste that resulted eventually made smoked meat a year-round delicacy.
   Smoked meat, corned beef and pastrami are all made from brisket.

Pg. 49:
   _Ben's Delicatessen_, 900 de Maisonneuve West, is synonymous with the Montreal HSM.  Actually, when Ben Kravitz first started selling smoked meat on the Main in 1908, it wasn't between two slices of rye.  The bread came later, according to Irving Kravtiz, son of Ben and Fanny Kravitz, who now operates the delicatessen.
   According to legend, the name "smoked meat" was coined in the 1920's when millionaire Henri Gauthier brought visitors from New York into Ben's and said, "Donnez-nous du boeuf fume."  In 1951, Ben's moved to its present location, and rapidly became a Montreal institution.