Dining on the edge

'If you want to get the true Quebec feeling, you've got to come down to the Lower Town and live with the people. No one's living in the Upper Town inside the walls, it's all tourists."

I'm standing inside Jef Poissonnerie in the St Roch district of Quebec City, talking to owner Jean-Francois (Jeff) Mondou. His poissonnerie, or fish shop, is a slick modern space with stools made from tree trunks, and long glass cases of seafood on ice.

It's a symbol of the resurgence of St Roch, located on the flat area beneath the ever-popular Old Quebec, with its historic, narrow streets and 18th-century walls. St Roch, by comparison, was, until recently, the dodgy part of town, and you'd still think of it as edgy.

"There are lots of different types of people here – poor people, strange people, cool people, workers, businessmen – all getting on together," Jeff says. "It's a nice vibe."

St Roch's gentrified main strip, Rue Saint-Joseph, is dotted with interesting small restaurants and specialist food shops.

One of the newest is the Co-operative Les Grands Rangs, opposite the pretty church of Notre Dame de Jacques Cartier, named after a French explorer and possessing a noticeably crooked steeple.

The grocery shop is stocked with specialist foodstuffs from across the province of Quebec, including Labrador tea jelly, duck confit, marinated quail eggs, smoked trout and la douce folie, a hard sheep's cheese that resembles parmesan.

On the opposite corner within an old brick building is the Cafe de Clocher Penche, literally "cafe of the leaning steeple".

I had dinner here on my first night in the city and was impressed by its relaxed but classy atmosphere. Its menu roams from piglet to blood pudding to salmon tartare, featuring ingredients from the region. Further along the street, I step into William J. Walter, specialist sausage maker.