Quebec's Gourmet Foodie Delights Slideshow
Chocolates at Choco-Musée Erico
Quebec City is serious about its sweets. Left, the gorgeous displays of handmade chocolates at Choco-Musée Erico (pictured), a second floor mini-museum with displays about the history of chocolate and tricks of the chocolatier trade.
Maple and Honey at Les Délices de l’Erable
In a similar motif, Les Délices de l'Erable has a tiny museum devoted to maple and honey on the second story, while the first is arrayed with all sorts of artisan maple and honey products. Sample maple caramel, orange, and rum-infused syrup and various candies before stocking up. There's also an onsite café serving pastries and coffee (including maple lattes, naturally).
Maple Syrup Sugar Snacks at 'Sugar Shacks'
The traditional way to eat maple if it's not a topping, though, is simple as can be. At "sugar shacks" which crop up around Quebec — and indeed, other places around the North East — during maple sugaring season (February-May), people pay just a dollar or two for a dollop of pure maple syrup that's been poured on the snow, and then quickly, when it's just half frozen, twirled around a stick to make the richest-flavored, most natural lollipop ever.