OH CANADA: FOOD GLORIOUS (?) FOOD

June-July, 2018

So is there more than poutine to know about Canadian eats?  Hell yeah!  We had some very, very good meals, and some that were pretty average as well.  Please remember that this reflects our stops through the Canadian Maritime Provinces  and Newfoundland.  I’m sure there are “more sophisticated” eats in the more heavily populated areas such as Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto.  Saint John’s is probably home to some good grub too, but we were on a mission to eat fish and chips.

Fresh food purchased in a grocery store is expensive, and milk products are exceptionally high-priced.  Restaurants run the full range from what we would consider moderate to expensive.  Barbara needed to see if a Canadian quarter pounder with cheese tasted any different than it’s American counsin (it doesn’t), but there was some sticker shock when, with conversion, the sandwich cost $5.50US.  Guess we are truly spoiled with the abundance of food that keeps prices in the States more reasonable than those experienced by our Northern neighbors.  Oh yeah – with the exception of one restaurant we noticed in Quebec City, the Golden Arches have a Maple Leaf in the middle.  Not sure what that’s about nor did anyone we asked have an answer.  And Mickey D’s offers poutine everywhere as well as fish and chips, if you happen to be in the Maritime Provinces.

Tim Horton’s is the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts in their prime, and they are ubiquitous (the donuts are barely a C; the toasted sausage biscuit an A-.  Well, maybe I was overly hungry?).  They are tied to independent shops, sold in gas stations, grocery stores, travel plazas and probably door-to-door by students needing money for…well you know the routine.  Horton’s offer poutine as well.

Everything can be had with brown gravy – everything.  I’m not sure if the gravy boat should replace the maple leaf as the symbol of the country but it’s a pretty close call.

Chicken was rarely available except pre-processed and served fried.  Turkey is available everywhere, and a hot turkey sandwich (gravy – get it?) is on most menus.  Unusual combinations are offered on many menus as well.  At one diner near Saint John’s I had fish and chips topped with gravy, sautéed onions, good old-fashioned stuffing, and (yes, canned) peas.  Thank goodness the fish was to the side!

There’s nothing like the first several bites of good poutine.  It really is a delicious combination of crisp French fries,  slightly melty cheese curds and gravy.  There are actually places called poutinariums where you can order almost anything on top of your poutine (pulled pork, loose meat (browned ground beef), salmon, vegan), leave off the curds and add different types of cheese, and top with something other than brown gravy (heresy for a true Canadian, I think!).  We were either purists or amateurs though, and we couldn’t bring ourselves to bastardize poutine.  Remember we said the first several bites?  After that the dish becomes soggy, loses its snap and takes on a monotonous and somewhat blah taste and mouthfeel.  If ordering, go small side dish or share with a crowd (Canadian nachos?).

If you order fish and chips in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, the fish is going to be haddock.  On Newfoundland, it’s cod.  No matter though, the fish was probably swimming merrily long until very early the very morning you ordered it, was cleaned, sold and in the restaurant’s cooler well before you got going for the day and it couldn’t be fresher.  Outstanding, even if you’re not a fish lover!  Fried cod has a buttery taste and texture; haddock is a thinner filet and a very little bit more fishy tasting, but fries up much more crisply than does cod.  In New Brunswick “full belly” clams are readily available, not so in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  Both malt vinegar and tartar sauce are offered.  And as long as I’m at, it the chips we had were done properly – no exceptions.  I’m guessing the potatoes are soaked, par-cooked and then bathed again in oil to create that crispy on the outside soft on the inside texture.  Oh yeah – fried food stays crisp throughout your meal!  Lard or beef tallow in the oil?  Proper temperature of the oil strictly maintained?  Arteries be damned!!

OK – let’s get it out of the way.  The best meal we had was at a fish market across the parking lot from the Masstown Market, Masstown, Nova Scotia.  We shared a fish and clam and chips meal that included cole slaw and potato salad.  Too much food  disappeared.  Next best was the breakfast we experienced at The Treasure Box in Rocky Harbor, Newfoundland.  Oatmeal, bagels, partridgeberry pancakes, and coffee paired with such lovely conversation to make for memorable fellowship and meals.  Then seafood anywhere.  The mussels were divine, the lobster caught hours before eating and prepared while you waited.  We were thrown for a loop when the fishmonger asked if we wanted a male or female lobster?  Turns out that means did we want roe or larger pinchers.  Who knew?  Rounding out the best-of-the best was the smoked meat reuben at the Clucking Hen along the Cabot Trail, smoked meat from Schwartz’s in Montreal, and Montreal bagels.

In case you’re wondering, a partridgeberry is a lingonberry.  But in Newfoundland the locals think of it as only a sorta equivalent of the lingonberry, but of course with local pride, different and better.  There’s also another berry only available in alpine, tundra and boreal forests, and Newfoundland is certainly a perfect place for the cloudberry to grow.  Tastes like a cross between a blackberry and raspberry.

Schwartz’s is the god of smoked meat.  No, not pulled pork or brisket or hot inks or chicken with that lovely smoke ring!  Montreal smoked meat is brisket and on a par with the best NY pastrami.  It is served warm and you get to call the amount of fat wanted.  Order a large plate of medium fat, and it is served with excellent sliced rye bread that at your command keeps coming and coming until you’re satiated.

Montreal bagels are proper bagels (yes, we are bagel snobs, and while it’s ok for you to like blueberry or cinnamon raisin bagels they are not bagels to us) formed, boiled and baked in a brick oven to a crisp outside and chewy inside.  The standards are sesame or plain; pumpernickel, onion, garlic, salt and everything are available, too.

The second night in Newfoundland we shared a pizza with a meat topping called donair.  Not to be confused with gyros meat, donair is a spiced ground beef loaf.  Ground beef is mixed with a little cayenne, paprika, onion and garlic powder, a little black pepper and salt, nonfat evaporated milk (!) and sugar (!), baked and then once cooled sliced very, very thinly.  The sauce is more sweet and mayonnaise-like than the tzatziki traditionally served with a gyro.  But like a gyro it is usually served in a pita with sauce, onion and tomato.  We just happened to have the meat as our pizza topping.  The dish originated in Halifax.  Tasty.

Canadians must have an obsessive love of bologna, as there had to have been 20 different brands and styles of bologna in the grocery stores.  Couldn’t help taking  a chance.  Delicious!  What we ate spoiled us for a bologna that “has a first and last name.”  By the way we’re sure the bologna we ate during our screetch-in ceremony was moose.

There’s more to Canadian beer than Molson’s or Labatt.  I’m a Labatt’s fan and have been since, well, 1969, and I would choose that brand if it’s on a beer list.  Easy choice when it’s your brand, eh?  But we found that at each of the stops on our travels there was a local brew or 2 as well as imports, usually from Ireland, that were delicious (listening Roma and Jim?).  One brewery stood out above the rest; it brews a lager from waters obtained from icebergs (aptly called Iceberg Beer – go figure!).  The Quidi Vidi Brewery, Saint John’s, Newfoundland also brews other exceptional ales and lagers.  Hope they make it to the States soon.  If so, I’d go with the red ale.

We did permit ourselves some treats.  Cadbury chocolate products far outshine Hershey’s or other readily available non-premium chocolate in the States.  Covered Bridge Potato Chips are made from dark russet potatoes grown by the owners of the chip factory, and are wonderfully crisp and flavorful.  And the best treat we experienced were Vachon Cakes.  Think Hostess only better.  The cake is pillowy soft, the amount of filling perfect to compliment the cake, and it is wrapped in a coating that actually tastes like chocolate!  Every cake tastes as if freshly made, and the question is not whether you prefer yellow or chocolate  cake, but how many of each your diet will tolerate!

While in Newfoundland we ate our meals in restaurants, and with the exception of gorging in Montreal, packed a lunch for our day trips, and made dinner at our campground when on the “mainland.  We believe there’s more to the food scene in Canada than we experienced, but these two foodies left Canada with a pleased palate.

Barbara and Brian