Montreal

Montreal eats at 3 AM. The casse-croûte is a 24-hour Quebec institution and the poutine is what it serves at every hour: double-fried golden fries piled in a bowl, fresh cheese curds (must be unrefrigerated, must squeak against your teeth), and ladles of hot brown gravy that wilts the curds just enough without dissolving them. The squeak is the test — refrigerated curds are not curds, they're cheese. Beyond poutine, Boulevard St-Laurent runs Montreal's other food anthems: Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich (cured-spiced brisket, hand-sliced on rye, yellow mustard, a kosher pickle on the side), St-Viateur and Fairmount bagels (smaller and sweeter than New York, boiled in honey water, wood-fired), and tourtière for Christmas Eve. The cuisine is hearty, butter-rich, designed for -25°C winters, and unapologetically French about its sauces.