Signs of Spring

How quickly early spring comes and goes in the city. One day it is winter, the next it is spring, with a few negotiations back and forth between seasons, then we leap towards summer.

Here are a few of my favorite signs of spring, gone for now, but back again same time (approximately) next year:

A crisp, sunny day in March, when the first spring laundry hangs in the ruelles.

In the Québec woods, maple sap is flowing, which means Bilboquet is open for the season and scooping out their famous tire d'érable (maple taffy) ice cream. Combine maple ice cream with the sugar-on-snow one would find at a cabane à sucre and you get sweet maply heaven. Those with dental work should chew cautiously: some of the taffy pieces are enormous and enormously sticky.

Bilboquet ice cream can be found in several Montréal locations, but we frequent their Outremont shop:
Le Glacier Bilboquet
1311 avenue Bernard Ouest
(514)276-0414

I confess to being a zeppole virgin, until this spring, when I came across a zeppole thread on the Quebec Chowhound board. How have I missed these all my life? Basically, zeppole are an Italian pastry cream or sweetened ricotta filled donut traditionally made to celebrate St. Joseph's Day on March 19. Fortunately, they're typically available at Italian bakeries not just on St. Joseph's Day but in the weeks leading up to Easter. Unfortunately, most of those weeks had passed before I knew to grab them while I could. Next year I plan to compare and contrast zeppole from all the recommended Montréal bakeries.

The creamy wonders we sampled were from:

Boulangerie Clarke
29 rue Saint-Viateur Ouest
(514)276-7827

Alati-Caserta
277 rue Dante
(514)271-3013

And early spring in Montréal wouldn't be complete without a visit to Papillons en Liberté (Butterflies Go Free) inside the main greenhouse of the Jardin Botanique. The butterflies usually arrive sometime in February (when your aversion to the Québec cold is about as strong as theirs) and flit about until the last week in April. The weekends have too many children ignoring the Don't Touch signs, so if you can go during the week, it's much more relaxing.

Now, on to the last weeks of spring and summer!