Tastes of the Iberian Peninsula: Food Walking Tour in Montreal

Sightseeing  :  Canada  :  Quebec  :  Montreal  :  Food Tours

Discover the food and wine of the Iberian Peninsula without leaving Montreal on this food walking tour. With a knowledgeable culinary guide, visit Spanish and Portuguese restaurants to indulge in ‘small plates’ — most commonly known as tapas — a social style of eating made famous by those Iberian destinations. Walk from place to place, eating a few different bites at each stop, paired with glasses of wine. The tour includes a map of destinations visited, recipes and a discount card you can use after the tour.After meeting your group and guide at a central location in Montreal’s Plateau neighborhood, start your walking tour of Iberian Peninsula food at a local Spanish grocery store, open since 1964, where you’ll taste Spanish cheese and deli meats.

Next, follow your guide to a chorizo producer, where you can see how the spicy pork sausage is made, and then visit two local restaurants where you will tapear, meaning to eat tapas. At the first restaurant — the oldest tapas place in Montreal — learn a bit about the restaurant’s history as you sample tapas from Spain’s Catalonia region, accompanied by a glass of well-paired wine or cava (Spanish sparkling wine).

Finish your tapas tasting at the second restaurant, a Portuguese establishment where you’ll enjoy the Portuguese version of tapas, known as petiscos, paired with another glass of wine.

Lastly, enjoy dessert and a cup of coffee or tea before saying goodbye to your guide. Throughout your tour, learn about the chefs and entrepreneurs at each place you visit, and meet them if they’re on site at the time.

The tour ends less than a mile from the starting point.

Sample menu (subject to change)
Spanish grocery store:

• Deli meats such as bellota ham, the Rolls-Royce of Spanish ham, made from free-range Iberian pigs fed a diet of only acorns; the ham is dried for three years after it is cured
• Cheese such as Murcia al vino, goat cheese from the Spanish province of Murcia with a wine-washed rind; it’s served with membrillo (quince paste)
• Accompanied by a glass of cider

Tapas restaurant:

• Gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp)
• Grilled scallops with fig paste and chayote salad
• Grilled asparagus and cherry tomato salad with manchego cheese shavings and a sherry vinegar reduction
• Black and white blood sausage, chorizo and olive whipped cream
• Accompanied by a glass of red or white wine or cava

Portuguese restaurant:

• Salt cod croquettes
• Portuguese-style octopus
• Scallops in a cream and sambuca sauce
• Fresh smoked cod
• Accompanied by a glass of wine
• Dessert (such as chocolate, almond and blueberry nougat or Portuguese squash cake) with coffee or tea