This week’s Throwback Thursday are images of EC Montreal’s annual Taste of Poutine activity as part of our Gastronomy themed month of activities.  The entire month of April is dedicated to Gastronomy!  Introducing students to the different savours and flavours of Montreal through culinary classes, pastry making, food festivals, wine tasting and other food related events! The city of Montreal has been named the Gastronomy Capital of North America by Town and Country Magazine.  Montreal truly is a food lover’s paradise.  The beautiful diversity we find in our people, we also find in our food scene.  We have over six thousand restaurants on the island of Montreal and they reflect all the wonderful nationalities represented here.  Whatever your budget and whatever your cravings, you will satisfy your mood in Montreal! In addition to the great variety in restaurants, there is an abundance of culinary classes, baking, wine tasting, barista lessons, food tours and so much more! A visit to Montreal would not be complete without getting a taste of our local foods.  One of the most popular dishes is the ultimate comfort food; poutine!  Poutine comes from the slang French word “pudding” which translates to a beautiful mess.  Poutine is made with french fries, cheese curds and gravy.  Many restaurants, even the high end ones, have their own version of poutine.  It can be topped with lobster, as they prepare it at Garde Manger, or topped with foie gras, as they do at Pieds de Cochons. Going out for poutine is one of our most popular welcome events at EC Montreal!  We usually take our students to Poutineville or La Banquise.  La Banquise serves hundreds of different kinds of poutine topped with so many amazing ingredients!  Personally, I like the classic one. At EC Montreal, our Taste of Poutine activity … Read more

We are delighted to announce that Canada has been ranked the best country in the entire world by US News and World Report. Canada usually comes in second place after Switzerland. This is the first time that Canada takes the top spot! In addition to being named the world’s best country, we ranked number one for quality of life and social purpose and took the third spot for most business friendly and agile. According to the report, the rankings found in the 2021 Best countries data were determined by a survey of more than seventeen thousand business and college educated individuals who are middle or higher class citizens. Canada ranked higher than seventy-eight different countries! The report concluded that Canada is perceived as having a good job market, caring about human rights, and is committed to social justice. The editor and chief content officer at US News commented that “Nations are impacted on many critical fronts by how they are perceived globally from foreign relations to international business to tourism. There perceptions are ever-evolving in a rapidly changing world”. Canada is a wonderful destination for our international students to study English, French or both languages. Canada’s borders have been open to international students with valid study permits throughout the pandemic. They have maintained very strict guidelines and restrictions for travellers in order to keep our population safe. EC Montreal has been open since August 2020 with a blended learning schedule. We had submitted our reopening plan to the government and have been safely delivering lessons to our students. Despite the measures implemented and the social distancing guidelines, EC Montreal remains a school that is full of life! We continue to provide our students with an excellent student experience. Our students receive a very personalized and enriching learning environment. We celebrate … Read more

Spring is here and we couldn’t be happier!  The sun is shining and the temperatures are reaching highs of over twenty degrees.  This is unseasonably warm for this time of year.  Usually in April there is still snow on the ground.  We are lucky to be enjoying such lovely weather.  The trees are in bloom and the grass is getting greener and greener.  Everyone is enjoying Montreal’s beautiful parks and we can smell the wonderful aroma of bbqs everywhere we go.  This time of year we crave fresh and light dishes.  One of my favourites is a chicken and asparagus pasta dish.  It is easy to make and there are always leftovers you can enjoy the following day – perfect for our busy EC Montreal students.  For my version of this pasta dish, you will need the following ingredients: 1 package of dry pasta 2 cups pieces of asparagus ½ cup butter 2 cups half-and-half cream ¼ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 1 pinch cayenne pepper ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese ½ pound cooked chicken breasts – cut into bite size pieces Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Add the asparagus during the last 3 to 5 minutes of cooking. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl. In a large pot over medium heat, combine butter and half-and-half. Cook until thick and bubbly. Season with garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir in Parmesan cheese and  cooked chicken, and heat through. Pour sauce over pasta and asparagus, and toss to coat. It is a great dish to enjoy at an outdoor picnic or seated on a patio on a warm spring day! We hope you will give this … Read more

This week’s Throwback Thursday are images of EC Montreal’s annual Sushi Making Lessons!  Every April, EC Montreal’s month theme is gastronomy!  Every activity on our social events calendar celebrates Montreal as a food lover’s paradise.  EC Montreal’s plus programme is Gastronomy.  We are able to introduce our students to the many different gastronomy options in Montreal through our weekly “Taste Montreal” events. The activities include getting a taste of local foods and cuisines, culinary lessons, cupcake decorating, international potlucks and so much more!  The most popular and definitely one of our favorite activities is the sushi making lessons.  Our incredible student services manager, Renee, would lead the sessions every year.  The EC Montreal team would prepare all the ingredients on platters and supply students with the rolling tools and instructions.  We prepared platters of cucumber, avocados, crab, shrimp, tuna, egg, red bell peppers, green onions, smoked salmon, cream cheese, panko, sesame seeds and mayonnaise.  There were ingredients to satisfy an array of different tastes. When the students would successfully roll out their sushi, Renee, would cut it expertly for them and display their beautiful creations on a plate.  Every table in the student lounge had chopsticks, soya sauce, ginger, wasabi and hot sauce to make their sushi taste even better! Our EC Montreal students would sample each others work and enjoy a real sushi feast!  They would also be so proud of their achievements!  They would take pictures and display their images on social media bragging about their culinary works of art!  They learned how easy it is to make your own sushi when you have the right ingredients, tools and helpful tips! We cannot wait for the government to lift all the social gathering restrictions so we can begin enjoying these really fun and interactive activities like our wonderful … Read more

We celebrated Easter this past weekend and the weather is getting milder and milder in Montreal.  Temperatures are supposed to reach a high of twenty degrees this week.  You can smell meat grilling on barbeques throughout the different neighborhoods in Montreal! We went to the Jean Talon market in Little Italy this past weekend and it was full of people enjoying the sunny day and stocking up on fruits and vegetables for the week!  We did the same and bought so many different kinds of lettuces and vegetables to grill. These days, we crave lighter and more colorful dishes.  So in honor of the first real days of spring, I am happy to share my recipe for a lemony vegetable pasta salad.  For my version of this recipe, you will need the following ingredients: Lemony Dressing 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest ¼ cup lemon juice ½ small shallot, chopped 2 teaspoons of maple syrup ¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard salt and pepper, to taste ½ cup avocado oil Pasta Salad ¾ lb asparagus, woody ends trimmed 1 cup shelled green peas, fresh or frozen 1 package of pasta noodles 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas, from approximately 1 can, drained & rinsed 3 green onions, finely sliced 6-7 radishes, finely sliced into half moons ½ cup parsley leaves, chopped Make the lemony dressing. In an upright blender, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, shallot, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and oil. Blend the mixture on high until creamy and unified. Set aside. Place a large bowl of ice water on the counter. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Chop the asparagus into 2-inch lengths and add to the boiling water. Boil the asparagus for 2 minutes, or until it’s just starting to become tender. … Read more

This week’s Throwback Thursday are images of EC Montreal’s Easter themed activities.  Every year, we make sure to celebrate Easter with our students through cupcake or Easter cookie decorating as well as an egg hunt! We decorate the student lounge and place cupcakes and cookies on every table.  We provide the students with a variety of sprinkles, frosting, jelly beans, candy and chocolate eggs, so they can create beautiful Easter themed treats! We love to create these wonderful opportunities for our students to interact with one another.  It gives them a chance to make friends, practice their language skills, learn something new and have a marvelous time! Celebrating these special occasions with our students helps us to create a wonderful sense of community at the school.  We want our students to feel like they are part of one big, happy, EC family!  We want them to feel like choosing EC was the best decision they have made!  We give them a personal and enriching experience and we genuinely care about them. We long for the day our social gathering restrictions in Quebec are lifted and we can resume these activities with our EC Montreal students!  We cannot wait to see our student lounge back to life!  Until then, we will find ways to make the student experience in the classroom as wonderful as possible! Join our EC Montreal English or French classes and be part of our dynamic and friendly EC community!

Yesterday, EC Montreal announced its March teachers of the month!  The winning teachers are Olga for the English programme and Essadia for French!  At the end of every month, EC Montreal creates a poll on Facebook where students have an opportunity to vote for their favorite EC Montreal teacher!  The poll asks two simple questions; Who was your favorite EC Montreal teacher in March? and Why?  The why is an important question as it allows us to read so many wonderful comments about our teachers.  It is wonderful to see how very much appreciated our teachers are.  Current and former EC Montreal students stay connected with us on social media and make sure to cast their vote and show how much of an impact our teachers have had on their learning and progress! We surprised Essadia in her classroom with a small gift and Teacher of the Month certificate.  Her students cheered and were thrilled for Essadia. We surprised Olga on Microsoft Teams where she delivers the English online lessons.  She was so excited and laughed that she always seems to win during the month of March!  We told her it was because she is as sweet as maple! We are so very proud of our team of EC Montreal teachers!  They have truly been our heroes during this difficult time.  We cannot thank them enough for their dedication, passion and energy in the classroom! We also want to thank our students who took the time to vote and for all the wonderful comments they shared.  We are happy to share them with you! He is patient and explains everything so clear. I really enjoy her classes. She has so much energy and is a fun teacher. She is so patient and nice. I think she is the best teacher … Read more

This upcoming weekend we will be celebrating Easter!  We have a long weekend to look forward to!  The weather is starting to become a lot milder and with these warm temperatures comes an air of optimism!  The vaccination roll out in Quebec is going really well and they say that by the end of June, any Quebecer who wants to be vaccinated will be able to!  This gives us hope that better days are waiting!  With a large percentage of the population being vaccinated, we can begin to feel a lot more safe. There is definitely a lot to celebrate and to look forward to at EC Montreal!  Our classes are slowly becoming more and more populated and our students are absolutely delighted to be learning inside our bright and orange classrooms!  We have many social distancing guidelines to respect but we are still doing our best to create a wonderful learning environment for our students.  Ensuring our students feel a strong sense of community at EC has always been a priority!  We accomplish this by making it a very personal experience for our students.  We remember their names, we celebrate their birthdays and make sure to celebrate other special occasions, like Easter! We prepared small baggies filled with Easter treats and put them in a large basket.  We went to all the different classrooms and distributed them to our students and teachers!  The students were so excited and happy!  We took this opportunity to remind our students that Friday, April 2 is Good Friday and there would be no classes. It is supposed to be a warm and sunny weekend and a wonderful time to enjoy springtime in Montreal! Happy Easter from our EC Montreal family!

It is the last week of March and our last maple recipe to share! It is maple season in Quebec and the maple farms are welcoming many visitors to the farms. There you can buy many different maple products. It is so nice to get out into the countryside and breath in some fresh air away from the busy city. We always like to visit the farm and buy our maple treats. Some of our favorites are the large jugs of maple syrup for baking and for pouring over our weekend pancakes and waffles. We also like to pick up maple tea. It is absolutely delicious. It is not sweet but has a very unique maple taste. Every March we have a maple tea and conversation activity with our EC Montreal students. They love it as much as we do! This last maple recipe can’t be easier! It is a perfect little snack that you can grab on the go for breakfast or as a simple dessert. It is a no-bake recipe and packed with so much flavour! For my version of oatmeal maple balls, you will need the following ingredients: 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 3/4 cup peanut butter 1 cup raisins 1/3 cup pure maple syrup 1 teaspoon of cinnamon In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until well mixed. Roll into 18 bite-size balls with wet hands to keep the mixture from sticking to you (or use a melon scooper to help). It is best to keep these balls refrigerated for freshness. We hope you will give this recipe a try! They are the perfect snack to take to school and enjoy at break time. It is also a great treat to share with your classmates and teachers. We will be sharing this recipe … Read more

This week’s Throwback Thursday are images of EC Montreal’s legendary certificate ceremonies!  Every Friday, all the students graduating are sent an invitation to join our farewell party in the student lounge.  We put up graduation decorations on every table in the student lounge with some sweet refreshments.  Our English and French teachers help to distribute the certificates to all the departing students and all the students cheer and applaud the graduating students. After the certificates are distributed the students all hang out taking pictures with EC Montreal’s photo props and frames.  They sign each other’s Canada flags.  They exchange contact information and share memories, jokes, hugs and tearful goodbyes.  It is always a very special moment at the school.  It is a beautiful farewell and ending to their language adventure at EC Montreal. We look forward to social gathering restrictions being lifted so we can resume these wonderful moments with our EC Montreal students.  For now, we are bringing the EC certificate to the classrooms and finding cheerful ways to celebrate our students’ graduations. Despite the pandemic, EC Montreal has done everything possible to create a wonderful sense of community at the school.  We know all our students’ names, we celebrate our students’ birthdays, we celebrate graduations, special holidays and teacher of the month festivities. We are being safe, practicing social distancing and ensuring we do not gather outside the classroom bubbles. Join our EC Montreal English or French lessons and be part of this wonderful EC Montreal family!  Until then, you can register for our French virtual lessons to get a head start on your learning.  Not only will you get a taste of the language, you will also get a taste of the destination as you will be studying French with students who are already here in Montreal … Read more