September Surf Cafe
The month of September often clings to the last of summer’s warmth, with sun-kissed days and crisp evenings, slowly introducing comforting breezes and sweater weather. As co-owner Mitch Martin exclaims, “It evokes good feelings!” Arguably my second home, September Surf Café embodies just that. Big windows and conversation-filled air make this Little Burgundy nook the ideal spot to gather, soak up the energetic atmosphere, and eat delicious food. The seating is thoughtfully arranged to create a sense of intimacy and community, making it ideal for catching up with friends. Yes, it gets busy. In my opinion, the bustle adds to its warm and friendly charm (and the line moves fast). Pop by on a weekday for a calmer visit. Start your brunch off with a coffee – or in my case, a rich and delicious matcha. Order the Classic Pancakes if it’s the very last thing you do. Golden, fluffy, with slightly crispy edges, the pancakes sit stacked atop a bed of maple syrup, kissed with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of sea salt – they are truly an experience. The Deluxe Breakfast Sandwich is equally as delightful. Fried egg, smoked ham, and pickles make this savoury treat perfectly balanced and satisfying. What makes September Café so special is that it emulates a feeling of calm and excitement – the kind of feeling that comes back at the start of a new season. The familiar sights of friendly staff, scents of coffee grounds and butter, and sounds of ever-changing conversation evoke a comforting feeling of routine while sparking curiosity about what’s to come.

– Lara Arab Makansi, Social Media Editor

SavSav
“If you know, you know. Ceux qui savent, savent,” says Felix Lam, co-owner of SavSav and former project member of well-known Montreal classics, BarBara and Crew Collective Café. With seven-meter-high ceilings, long plywood communal tables, and funky eats, this Saint-Henri hidden gem is becoming less and less of a secret. SavSav hides at the end of a corridor in an unassuming office building on Brewster Street. Despite its concealed location, this café is a vibrant and eclectic spot that captures the essence of creativity. At first glance, you’ll find people studying, chatting, and relaxing on the comfy velvet couch. The large central island houses a tempting array of pastries, ready to pair with locally roasted coffee or a beautiful ceremonial-grade matcha. Giant windows flood the room with light on sunny days, and the picturesque gold ceiling piece is truly an eye-catcher. Be sure to check out their unique food menu as well: my favourites include the Chicken Salad Toast on crispy brioche, Breakfast Sando with homemade sausage, and the SavSav Bowl with spiced yogurt and thyme-marinated berries. Looking for fresh ingredients and creative chefs? You’re in for a treat. Savsav is the young, modern spot for your next study session or a midday work break. You may get lost on the way and need to ask for directions, but it’s worth it. A true hidden gem!

– Lara Arab Makansi, Social Media Editor

Pizzeria Napoletana
One cannot visit Little Italy without dining at an Italian restaurant – it would be akin to visiting New York and not eating a bagel (or Montreal, for that matter). The charming neighbourhood lives up to its name, and the extent of Italian restaurants is large. However, it would be difficult to go wrong at Pizzeria Napoletana, a restaurant started in 1948 by some of the first Italian immigrants to Montreal. If the mile-long menu frightens you, let me suggest a few courses: start with the burrata, a recipe originating from Bari, Puglia. The decadent ball of burrata is laid on a bed of creamy olive-oil-infused artichokes and ringed with charred red peppers, all of which meld together into a light, bright, and balanced flavour to adorn the complimentary bread knots. Napoletana’s namesake pizzas are modest with their toppings, pairing a few quality ingredients atop thin Neapolitan-style crusts. If pasta strikes your fancy, their Cannelloni Caruso is a stand-out dish: pasta tunnels encasing a meat and ricotta sauce, topped with mozzarella and thick smoked prosciuttino. One cannot dine at an Italian restaurant without capping off the night with a cannolo. If you weren’t aware, the singular form of cannoli is cannolo, though I doubt you’ll be ordering just one. The restaurant is bring-your-own-vino, made easy by their next-door wine store, Miss Napoletana. One could spend a lifetime trying all that Pizzeria Napoletana has to offer – judging by its history, it will continue to remain an institution in Little Italy.

– Luxe Palmer, Copy Editor

Le Santropol
At the end of Duluth Avenue, Le Santropol stands unassuming on the corner, beckoning you in with the aromas wafting from the wood doorframe. Inside the tiny storefront is a deceivingly large treasure trove of little nooks and crannies for you to make yourself at home. The restaurant was founded in 1976, saving a building slated for demolition, and has been a beloved institution ever since. The plant-forward menu of soups, salads, and sandwiches makes room for all types of eaters, vegetarian and vegan included. The Duluth sandwich – sliced pears, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, arugula, and lettuce stacked atop two slices of the softest brown bread – is intimidatingly tall, yet unexpectedly light and refreshing. The Thai vegetable soup, part of their soup du jour rotation, is the kind of soup you dream about on a cold day or while lying in bed under the weather. The savoury broth is just the right amount of spicy – enough to reinvigorate a weary soul, though not enough to make the nose run afresh. Santropol’s chai is perhaps one of the best chais I’ve had outside of an Indian restaurant. It is clear that they use a homemade spice mix made from whole spices. It is balanced flawlessly: not too milky, richly flavoured, and paired with a sharp kick of ginger that many chais shy away from. It is served in a glass-handled tankard, which is now what I want to drink all my chais from. Le Santropol’s original foundation as an act of love lives on in the attention they give to every detail, from the carefully crafted menu to the warmth and homeliness of the restaurant itself.

– Luxe Palmer, Copy Editor

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Start off the Year of the Dragon with this quick and delicious dumpling recipe! They’re steaming hot and accompany just about any meal. Stuff a few with strawberries: whoever sinks their teeth into those will be blessed with luck from the Jade Emperor himself. Versatile and perfect for all occasions, family meals and quick snacks alike. 

You will need:

(Filling)

• 1 cup cabbage
• 1 cup ground chicken
• 2/3 cup grated carrots
• 2 sprigs green onion
• 1/3 bulb yellow onion
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ginger powder

(Dipping sauce)

• 8 parts dark vinegar
• 1 part sesame oil

Cut cabbage, green and yellow onions into small pieces. Add with carrots to a large bowl with ground chicken. Add salt, pepper, and ginger powder and mix well. Take  a dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand and add a dollop of filling in the centre using a small spoon. Wet the edges of the wrapper and fold in half over the filling, pinching along the edges. Bring water to a boil. Add dumplings, then cover and simmer on medium heat until boiling once more. Remove lid and simmer for another three minutes. Mix vinegar and sesame oil in a small dish. Remove dumplings from pot, and serve hot. 

Tip: “Dumpling soup” can be made in the pot after the dumplings are removed – the residual flavour in the boiled water can suffice for a side dish of its own!

***

Tofu Stir Fry (3 portions)

In need of a last minute hot meal? Have guests coming for dinner, and no idea what to cook? This simple, tasty tofu stirfry will be ready for serving in under half an hour. The tofu’s firm, rich texture compliments the sweet, spicy vegetables and can be customizable with any number of garnishes and side dishes.

You will need:

(Ingredients)

• 1 carrot
• ½ head of cauliflower
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• Tofu, firm
• 3 spoons of vegetable oil

(Seasoning)

• Sea salt
• Soy sauce
• Peppercorns, whole
• 1 cayenne or jalapeno pepper
• Anise
• Coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• ½ onion bulb
• Cream (optional)
• Sesame oil (for seasoning)

Oil your pan, add soy sauce, and set the stove to high heat. Dice tofu and fry in the pan, stirring until light brown. Oil the bottom of your pot. Crush and dice the garlic and onions, then add to the pot with the ginger. Slice the  pepper into thin rings, without de-seeding, and also add into the pot. Add the remaining seasonings, and turn the stove to medium heat. Wait until the onion starts to turn golden. Dice the carrot, and cut the cauliflower into small, bite-size chunks. Add the carrots to the pot, then the corn and finally the cauliflower. Set the stove to medium-high heat and stir until the cauliflower and carrot are tender, and the corn starts to caramelize. Take off the stove. Season with sesame oil and serve hot with steamed rice.

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Hello fellow Hobbits. If you have ever wanted to meet a lone strider on a rainy night at the Prancing Pony, then this recipe will take you there! Bonus: you can enjoy this without your enemy desperately trying to kill you to get the One Ring (obsessive much?)

For this recipe you will need:

• 15-20 small potatoes (highly recommend the ones from The Little Potato Company)
• Half a box of mushrooms or a whole one if you are using one variety
• 8/10 King Oyster Mushrooms
• Shallots and garlic
• Vegetable broth
• Butter and flour
• Bay leaves
• Green onions and parsley

Begin by sweating down your preferred quantity of shallots and garlic in a pot with butter. Once they are done, add in your finely sliced mushrooms to cook them through. Meanwhile, cut your potatoes and green onions into small squares. Add them to the pot when the mushrooms are cooked, along with salt, pepper, and two bay leaves. Cover with a mixture of broth and water and bring to a boil. Let that simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, make a roux by melting your butter in a pan and adding flour. A paste should form. Once your potatoes are cooked through, add your roux to the stew. The roux will add a rich and creamy texture to the stew while retaining the texture of the veggies. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley upon serving and you will have just made yourself a delicious meal! You will also have demonstrated one of the many dishes you can make with potatoes to your weird Middle Earth guide, Gollum (who keeps talking about his precious for some reason).

The Fellowship’s Special Cocoa

Nothing is better than a hot chocolate when you are feeling down or need some cheering up. If you “lose” your dear friend to a Balrog, your companions to a pack of orcs, your ring bearer to a scary spider’s stinger, or if you need to be there for your friend’s claim to the throne of Gondor, this drink will save the day. So trust me, the Fellowship has drank liters of this hot chocolate.

For this recipe you will need:

• A can of whipped cream
• Milk
• Dark chocolate or cocoa powder
• Marshmallows

Begin by heating up your milk over the stove. Once your milk is warm, you can add your chocolate squares to the pot. You can use cocoa powder if you do not have a chocolate bar, but trust me – the melty chocolate makes such a difference. While your chocolate is melting, grate some chocolate to make flakes. Once your chocolate and the milk are well-mixed together, you can transfer your drink to a mug. Garnish your hot chocolate with a lot of whipped cream for a truly decadent experience. Add your chocolate flakes or cocoa powder on top of the whipped cream. Add a marshmallow and a chocolate square for a pretty and delish hot chocolate. This drink is perfect to make yourself a sweet treat and cheer you up. I highly recommend drinking this while watching The Two Towers as you will be so busy relishing in the experience, you won’t have time to tell your friends that Viggo Mortensen broke his toe kicking the helmet!

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Hi readers! Here is the perfect recipe for the fall and winter seasons, if you want a heartwarming, easy, and delish meal. This risotto recipe uses the seasonal ingredients leeks and mushrooms and is guaranteed to impress anyone you decide to feed it to. For this recipe you will need:

• 2 leeks
• A box of mushrooms (227 grams)
• 1/12 cups of rice
• Shallots
• The broth of your choice
• 1/4 cup of butter
• White wine (if you’re feeling extra fancy)
• Parmesan (optional)

Begin by cooking your mushrooms and then stir-frying them in a pan with olive oil and the spices of your choice. Once your mushrooms are cooked through and have a nice flavour, set them aside in a bowl. Cook your shallots and leek in the same pan you used for the mushrooms. Once your leeks have a nice colour and your shallots are soft, you can add your dry rice. Continue to sauté the ingredients for a few minutes (if you have some wine add 40ml and let it evaporate), while you heat your broth. Once the broth is ready, add little by little your broth to the pan. Stir frequently, until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Repeat this step until your rice has cooked through. The act of stirring frequently will create a creamy sauce. Once the rice is cooked add some butter and parmesan. You can now add your mushrooms back to the pan and give them a quick stir before plating your risotto. Adding the mushrooms at the end allows them to retain their delicious earthy flavor. You can top your meal with flavourful parmesan (or the 3 dollar Gran Regale at Segals which works perfectly). You now have a delish meal that tastes amazing, uses fresh seasonal products, and will keep you warm.

Super Secret Special Cookies

No meal is ever complete without a little sweet treat. This is why I have decided to share with our readers the most amazing and delicious cookie recipe. This recipe will give you huge cookies with big chocolate chunks that are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. You will need:

• 125 grams of softened butter
• 120 grams of brown sugar
• 70 grams of white sugar
• 205 grams of flour
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 chocolate bar or chocolate chips

Mix the softened butter with the two sugars. Once you have a paste-like consistency, add the egg. When your mixture is homogeneous, incorporate the flour and the baking soda. Your batter should be a little bit sticky but do not hesitate to add a little bit more flour if you’d like to have less of a sticky consistency. Do not over mix the batter as you risk ending up with tough cookies. If you have a bar of chocolate, chop it into big chunks of chocolate and add it to the batter (or the chocolate chips if you chose to use chocolate chips.) To have thin, crispy cookies, cook them for 20 minutes at 300ºF. For big chewy cookies, make two balls, one bigger and one smaller than the other, and layer the small one on top of the big one. Cook them for 20 minutes at 320ºF: this will give you a chewy texture and a big delicious cookie. I encourage you to regularly check your cookies as all ovens cook differently. This recipe makes about 12 big cookies that you can share with friends, roommates, or just for you to enjoy if you are feeling cookielicious!

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1. Students have a right to see their marks for assessments.

This right is laid out clearly in the Charter of Student Rights, a document that every student should get well acquainted with. It can be found in the “Policies on Student Rights and Responsibilities” section on the “Student Rights and Responsibilities” web page. Note that there are some caveats to this right. The Charter states, “Students have a right to consult any written submission for which they have received a mark… provided the request is made within a reasonable time after notification of the grade, and subject to reasonable administrative arrangements.” So if you’re looking to review an assessment, be prompt with your request. Note that you also have the right to an “impartial and competent review of any mark”, with the same limitations.

2. Security guards at McGill don’t have the authority to detain you.

Quebec has a rich history of student protests. In 2012, Canada had the longest student strike in history when Quebec students fought against increases in tuition. The right to peaceful demonstration is fundamental. However, direct action can create clashes between students and security personnel. It’s important to know that the power of security versus police officers are different; security personnel can only touch you in situations of self-defense and are constrained by the same laws as any citizen. Otherwise, physical contact is considered assault. Furthermore, you can report inappropriate conduct by security personnel to the Bureau de la Sécurité Privée. That being said, disciplinary action can be taken against you if you are identified as violating the Code of Student Conduct.

3. The Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support,and Education (OSVRSE) can be hard to get hold of.

McGill likes to show off OSVRSE, but it’s not always accessible to students. Last year, it closed without warning due to staffing issues. At the time of writing, there are only two days in September to book appointments — there are two time slots on the 20th and the 26th. You’re not able to view times in October. The SSMU service SACOMSS is an alternative to OSVRSE in that it also acts to serve survivors of sexual violence. They’re easier to get timely support from. If you’re looking to bypass intermediaries, you can also report directly to the Office for Mediation and Reporting, which does have reasonable appointment availability.

4. Not all medical professionals can provide sufficient documentation to the Student Accessibility and Achievement (SAA) office.

To register with the SAA, you need documentation that includes a diagnosis. Not all providers can give adequate documentation. According to their website, the medical professional must be recognized by the PL-21. The guide linked on the SAA website is in French. A report on the SAA, conducted by a special researcher hired by SSMU, has other complaints about the service: respondents said they were given incorrect exam information and didn’t like how the SAA only provides the exam location and specific time a day in advance.

5. Choose your classes based on the syllabus, not just the content.

The policies in a syllabus can reveal your professor’s attitudes about student rights, disability, and the kindness they think students deserve. Even if you’re not disabled, and don’t anticipate needing accommodations, life circumstances can change suddenly, so it’s in your best interest to favour classes with a professor who’s not uncompromising. Red flags on a syllabus include not accepting late work, mandatory attendance, and needing to buy an expensive textbook, especially one written by the professors themselves (shout-out to Prof. Vybihal).

6. There are several resources for complaints involving McGill.

Issues with your professor can be brought to the chair or director of your “academic unit”, according to a graphic on the “Resolving Disputes” section of the “Student Rights and Responsibilities’’ page. Next, you can contact the director or associate dean in your faculty Student Affairs Office. There’s also the Ombudsperson for Students — this is an office dedicated to giving information about navigating McGill and resolving grievances. If none of these paths lead to a satisfying conclusion, you can write to the chair of the Committee on Student Grievances. It’s worth noting that the information provided by McGill is far from comprehensive — a sentence on the bottom of the page says the website is “intended as an informal, unofficial guide”. It then refers you to a link titled, “The Handbook on Student Rights and Responsibilities” which brings you to a page of links that doesn’t include the Handbook, which was published in 2007.

7. If you’re a worker at McGill, you’re probably part of a union.

There are 14 unions at McGill, and two non-unionized associations. These groups represent floor-fellows, invigilators, support staff, teaching assistants, and more. Even if you’re not employed by McGill, everyone is affected by the quality of work conditions experienced by staff. It’s good to have these groups on your radar, especially when they are negotiating their collective agreement with McGill and could benefit from the support of the broader community.

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The established dialogue between the deindividualized subject and its cruel winter setting, come the coldest months of the year, has, throughout traditional discourse, been an example of the asymmetrical power dynamic that welds the dichotomic sovereign/subject together. Characteristic of the classical variations on the trope of the subject’s harrowing path through the antagonistic environment, through which the protagonist fights for survival, modern cultural portrayals have correlated the glacial months of January and February with the antithesis of well-being, freedom, and, importantly, stability. If instability is a core feature of the midwinter season, typified by the precarious footing and the unpredictable bursts of tempestuous snow, Northern consciousness seeks figurative stability in the representative inflexibility it assigns to midwinter, incidentally confining itself to further restraint, in the abiding domineering status it bestows upon it. For the purpose of this essay, I will evaluate the potential freedom to be gleaned by the subversion of these symbolic signifiers that superimpose the narratorial agency of the individual. The possibility of reinstating the individual’s subject status from object will be scrutinized through the evocative case study and absurd phenomenon of slipping on ice on the pedestrian portion of Prince Arthur, between St. Denis and St. Laurent. 

The example of the dispossession of poise on a racking ice-laden Montreal street is an ideal space for the negotiation of a renewed interrelationship between the subject, the slipper, and the omnipresent outdoors, whose hostile atmosphere perpetually expropriates their individual autonomy. Traditionally, at least, the street-goer in these months is reduced to a puffed mass, hunched against Boreas’ deathly breaths. Accordingly, the ice between Starbucks and Scotiabank should be an extension of this hand that confiscates individual autonomy, yet doesn’t the meticulous operation of choosing where to establish one’s feet confer a newfound sense of narratorial agency to the pedestrian, and indeed to the very essence of Northern consciousness? Further, consider the miscalculated foot placement, or simply the unfortunate, ill-timed gust of wind, embarking the individual on a crazed tarantella of flailing arms and legs. Wouldn’t this interpretive dance, large and unpredictable in its moves, become the ideal playground for the cerebellar unconscious, with a freedom of movement that eludes even the performer themself? While the ballerina spins and whirls, wouldn’t their idiosyncrasies, formerly dwarfed by the coat, mittens and hat, explode in a unique display of self-becoming and self realization through this transgressive act of creative interpretation? All of these questions have yet to be recognized by septentrional academia, yet their urgency beckons those winds to change. 

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