Does this city have the greatest selection of raw-milk cheeses outside Paris? Mais oui! But what about the best deli sandwich you'll taste in North America? You bet. Welcome to Montreal, where gluttony is an art form

Video: Condé Nast Traveler's Kate Maxwell bikes, dances, and eats her way through Montreal.

THE SCOOP
Why is the food so good in Montreal? Certainly it's not because the locals speak French. After all, the French lost control of Quebec in 1759, and a visit to rural Quebec proves that not all French speakers are raging epicureans. But there's something different about Montreal. Can you think of another North American city where it's so easy to buy fresh goose and duck foie gras?

Nowhere is the local passion for food on better display than at the Atwater Market, where you can procure Quebec-only specialties such as Kamouraska lamb (138 Atwater Ave.; 514-937-7754), or Fromagerie Atwater, which carries 200 different Quebecois cheeses (514-932-4653). Fromage in hand, buy yourself a crispy baguette at Premiere Moisson bakery (514-932-0328) and a bottle of ice cider—Quebec's incredibly delectable answer to ice wine—at the SAQ (514-937-2068), and head to a nearby park to eat, drink, and feel extraordinarily merry. When you're done, stroll to the south end of the market and top off your meal with an ice-cream cone at Havre aux Glaces.

If you're jonesing for French Canadian food, then make dinner reservations at Au Pied de Cochon—part foodie shrine, part culinary laboratory pushing the envelope on Quebecois cuisine. This is the place that invented foie gras poutine (foie gras, french fries, gravy, and fresh cheese curd), makes its own boudin, and lists duck carpaccio and bison tartare as appetizers (536 E. Duluth St.; 514-281-1114; entrées, $10-$28).

Not all Montreal specialties are quite so French. In fact, if there is a single dish that has inspired more food pilgrimages to Montreal than any other, it is the smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's Deli—simply the best deli sandwich in North America. Order it fatty (the way old-timers do) and ask for a pickle. Before leaving, get another sandwich to go—you won't forgive yourself if you leave the city having eaten just one (3899 St-Laurent; 514-842-4813; sandwiches, $4-$5).

WHERE TO PARTY
Renowned for its international jazz festival but ridiculed for its occasional appreciation of the uncool (exhibit A: Celine Dion), Montreal has of late become the breeding ground for the hottest indie-rock groups around: Wolf Parade, Chromeo, Arcade Fire. While up-and-comers play the warm, scruffy Casa del Popolo, a vegetarian resto by day (4873 St-Laurent; 514-284-3804), and La Tulipe's vintagey stage (4530 Papineau; 514-529-5000), heavy-metal acts choose the eighties-era neon of Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent; 514-286-1010), and French DJs reign in the soft lighting and chill ambience of Le Divan Orange, where the cover's just suggested (4234 St-Laurent; 514-840-9090). Montreal's sonic-fresh fivesome The Stills (who've opened for Kings of Leon and Paul McCartney) have appeared from behind the velvet curtains of Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, which, on concert nights, never closes (2111 St-Laurent; 514-845-2322). And there's no dearth of swank cocktail clubs for a quieter cool: Bu, in the Mile End neighborhood, is a sleek, lacquered wine bar that serves 25 vintages by the glass (5245 St-Laurent; 514-276-0249), and at the glitzy new Koko Restaurant & Bar (see Hot Nights, May 2009), glam Montrealers nosh on beef tartare and Thai nibbles while sipping pear-and-ginger Grey Goose cocktails.