The Tribune

For many people, hamburgers bring to mind bad cafeteria food and mystery meat. But two restaurants are redefining hamburgers, or at least getting back to the good old days. M:brgr, on Drummond and de Maisonneuve – best classified as diner-chic, with gleaming white tables and ketchup squirt bottles – serves up custom, gourmet hamburgers, spiked milkshakes, and other glamorized versions of hamburger joint classics.

Did you spend St. Patrick’s Day mourning your midterm grades over Guinness? It’s not too late to get the grades you want, but finals start in just over three weeks, so it’s time to get serious. Problem: You haven’t gone to class. Solution: Start going. You may feel lost, but the professors usually start to give hints about the final exam around this time.

The McGill Fight Band doesn’t march. They don’t do halftime shows, they don’t wear Napoleonic uniforms, and they don’t have a dance team. If you’re looking for high-stepping, capes, or colour guards, you’re out of luck. But if you’re looking for spirit, look no further – the growing Fight Band does what fight bands are supposed to do and does it well.

I should know better than to order anything off a German menu when the only German phrase I know is “beer, please.” Clearly this wasn’t the case after I found myself at the Haufbrauhaus in Munich, staring down at a plate of something that looked more or less like pig ankle (although I imagine it could have been an elbow or knee).

Though downtown Montreal is filled with dépanneurs, the small establishment in the basement of the Cartier Building on Peel and Sherbrooke Streets is the only one that has several hundred loaves of bread delivered fresh every morning. That dépanneur, known as Super Sandwich because of the red-and-blue neon sign advertising “Super Sandwiches” mounted in the window, needs the loaves in order to make the hundreds of sandwiches it sells each afternoon.

The 18th annual Montreal Fashion Week kicked off in style at the Marché Bonsecours last week. The festival was full of innovative fashion shows, glamorous parties, and the fifth edition of Le Showroom, in which leading designers play host to buyers from around the world.

Fennel is my favourite vegetable by all counts, but not one that I see people cooking with very often. However, I use it all the time, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by the many ways it can be used. Fennel is a root vegetable that looks like a cross between a white onion and celery, with dill sprouting from the top.