Old Quebec: Braised Lamb Shank at 1640 on Place d’Armes and all things French

There is a lot of activity happening around Place d’Armes in Old QuÃ©bec (Vieux-QuÃ©bec). The iconic Fairmont Le Frontenac Chateau is the main attraction of course. Across the square you will find the tourism office which is always full of excited tourists. Beside it is a little charming street of restaurants, cafes and shops. There is also a little alley on this street where you can find local art on sale.

The 1640 Bistro Restaurant on the corner of Place d’Armes.

On my first night in Quebec I found this restaurant right on Place d’Armes — 1640 Restaurant. It was quite crowded but I took my chances. I gather that it is better to wait for a table in a busy restaurant than somewhere boring and quiet. After all there is a very important reason behind why a restaurant is full of patrons. The location must be an easy give away for 1640 of course and I am only hoping that the food would live up to the buzz I am seeing.

As expected, the woman attending to the tables told me, and a few couples standing behind me, to wait. Then she asked me if it is fine for me to take one of the high tables instead of the normal dining table. I was fine with it when I saw that the high table is facing the window outside. I always like to sit beside a window when eating.

Since there was some bread and butter I skipped the starter. I wanted something different for the evening so I chose the braised lamb shank. The choice was perfect. The lamb was tender, juicy and very tasty. This was one of the nice lamb dishes I have ever had. The other lamb meal I enjoyed was at the Hotel de Goudfazant in Amsterdam Noord a few years ago.

After finishing my lamb shank, my waitress came back and asked me for the dessert.

“What would like to have for desert madame?”

I had to pause for a bit and look at her. Did she just pronounced dessert as desert? DESERT?

“No, thank you. I would like an espresso though.”

Oh yeah, I should not be surprised. I am after all in Quebec, French Canada =)

This kind of run in with the locals in Quebec makes travel really fulfilling. I know that many French Canadians can speak English fluently but most of them have English as a second language. Many even adapt a distinct accent and sometimes struggle through with their vocabulary usage. The owner of the Bed and Breakfast villa I stayed at were French Canadians and you can really tell that English is not their first language.

This was all knew to me and it is quite cool to experience both sides of Canada, the English and the French. Next time I visit Canada, I will be checking out the other English speaking regions.