FRENCH-CANADIAN CAFE OFFERS TASTE OF QUEBEC

“Everything, it’s good?” asks the waitress.

Why, yes, in fact it is. Cafe Casse Croute not only turns out good rib-sticking French-Canadian food but it also immerses you in a charming, homey Quebecois atmosphere. A snowshoe and a wool cap hang on the wall, and a little deli case at the cash register sells cigarettes, chewing gum, candy, street maps of Montreal and a patent needle-threading device. Often a couple of the tables are pulled close so that a crowd of French Canadians can make the most of an occasion to speak the old language.

Like Cajun food, Quebecois is New World French, but the two styles could scarcely be further apart. This is cooking for the North Woods rather than the bayous, filling stuff, and the informing flavor is not hot pepper but allspice, perhaps with cinnamon and clove as well--the usual French spices for sausage. In Quebec they seem to put them in every dish where meat is ground up, including meatballs, pate and meat pie.

The quick way to try this style is to order the plat quebequo , which starts you with yellow split-pea soup (heavy on the black pepper) and a crumbly pate called cretons , served with buttered toast. The plat proper is loaded with steak fries and some vegetables (carrots, turnips) that seem to have been browned in a pan, some meatballs in brown gravy (ragout de boulettes) and a wedge of tourtiere , which is the national dish of Quebec. Literally tourtiere means a pie-pan, but it has come to refer to a pie filled with ground pork and beef with onions and pretty much the same spices as in the cretons and boulettes. It’s served with gravy on top and gives a clear picture of how they beat the cold up north.

For lighter fare you can get sauteed smelts (eperlans) , sardine-sized and virtually boneless fish cooked in butter with garlic and onions. The meat loaf is worth trying, too--not the usual thick slab of dryish ground meat but a fairly thin slice, full of onions and the usual spices, topped with a sort of hash of celery and tomato and doused with mushroom gravy.

Incidentally, though it doesn’t automatically sound French Canadian, the T-bone steak is a remarkable buy. I don’t expect it’s prime grade, but it’s tender enough, full of steak flavor and delightful in a simple sauce of browned butter. And it practically overflows the plate, recalling a nearby restaurant, Belisle’s, that also specializes in huge portions and has French-Canadian roots.

All of these entrees except the steak come with steak fries and vegetables, and everything comes with a glass pot of ketchup maison , believe it or not. This is not the American-style tomato ketchup but a sweet pickle of celery, onions and apples with--well, those spices we’ve been tasting all along. It’s great, a sort of New World chutney.

The rest of the menu is largely sandwiches--burgers (which come on a French roll with fried onions as well as the usual fixings), ham, turkey, meat loaf, club. A specialty is a sandwich of smoked beef imported from Montreal, rather like lean pastrami. It comes with more steak fries and a translucent chartreuse spear of non -dill cucumber pickle. Listed more or less with the sandwiches is a very homey dish called poutine , simply steak fries with melted cheese and brown gravy.

A sign in the window advertises the Chef’s Mixed Grill, a lumberjack’s sort of breakfast: a couple of bacon slices, a couple of patties of country sausage, cottage-fried (pardon me, lyonnaise ) potatoes, eggs scrambled with minced ham and finally French toast made from French bread: three slices, each stuffed with cream cheese and grape jelly. With this comes a glass of fresh orange juice.

And maple syrup, of course. We’re talking the land of the maple leaf here. Cafe Casse Croute also has a striking dessert called sugar pie, a wedge of pie with a slightly caramelized, intensely mapley filling that slowly explodes in your mouth for about half a minute after each bite. You can buy whole sugar pies (or tourtieres or cretons or ketchup maison ) to take home.

This is a very reasonably priced place. Breakfast is $4.50, sandwiches $3.25-$4.25, entrees $4.75-$9.95, and a wedge of sugar pie $1.25. Wine and beer are served (Labatt’s and Moosehead, you bet), and there is a singing organist in the evenings.

CAFE CASSE CROUTE

656 S. Brookhurst St. (in Albertson’s shopping center), Anaheim

(714) 774-8013

Open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday, for dinner Friday and Saturday only. No credit cards.