what I ate on summer vacation
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:46 am
While I haven't engaged in any boisterous PDA's with my lover on a public elevator, I did have a lot of fun on our vacation last week. This year took us to Nova Scotia. Herewith are a few food notes from the trip.
There was plenty of well-prepared food in Nova Scotia. Food is of course an essential element to a New Orleanian on vacation and I had the mistaken idea from some guidebooks that we would encounter few places that were able to adequately spice and prepare our foods. In fact, we found that many places are well-versed in the modern kitchen and even some very modest places had some fairly ambitious items on the menu. There are not a ton of fine dining establishments in most of the province, but there were lots of good places - either that or we were really lucky.
We spent most nights in B&B’s and the breakfast food was pretty good, especially the seasonal berries up there. Otherwise we mostly ate in free-standing restaurants. I had decided before the trip that I would be eating seafood twice a day and managed to pretty much fulfill that promise.
I had mussels several ways. There was he traditional white wine preparation, of course, but what I found interesting was that many places offered multiple aromatic bases for the steaming - thai curry, madras curry, provencal, tomato-basil, etc. One place in Lunenburg offered eight different preparations of the mussels alone. I particularly liked the curry versions. These were really good.
On the fish side, I had a couple of simple Atlantic salmon preparations that were very nice (one pan-seared and one grilled on a plank) along with a couple of rounds of the ubiquitous fish and chips, which was usually haddock - the cod has been over-fished. I also had a broiled halibut entree that was great.
I had several preparations of the local scallops, but the best version was the simplest – pan sautéed in butter. I have never cared much for scallops before, but every dish I had of them up here was great.
You buy alcohol here in provincial liquor stores that shut down about 5 PM. The liquor prices are very high for wines and spirits, unless it’s a Canadian product. I was unaware that there is actually quite a good bit of winemaking in Nova Scotia, and the local Rieslings et al., while not up to export standards, make a pretty good pairing with the seafood. There are several winery tours available, which we didn’t have time for. We did stop at the Glenora distillery, which alleges to be the home of North America’s only single-malt whiskey. If you’re particularly enamored of the experience, you stay overnight in the attached inn and dine in their restaurant. I am not a whiskey drinker so I can only tell you it seemed quite light and smooth to me compared to our domestic offerings. They get their (used) barrels for aging from Kentucky, BTW. As to beer and ale, Canada appears to have a lot in common with the US, where there are relatively few mass-market brews including Bud that you see everywhere, but a lot of very fine regional craft brews. The local favorite in Nova Scotia is Alexander Keith’s, which puts out a fine array of styles including a wheat, IPA, amber, a pils, a dark lager and several seasonals. One of the more atmospheric meals I had was working through the Keith’s on-tap repertoire on the deck at the Mug & Anchor pub in Mahone Bay while eating fried clams and taking in a race of sailing vessels participating in the Classic Boat Festival on the bay. This was much better use of time than accompanying Ms. Gourmondo on her antiquing forays.
I must not forget the lobsters of course. They are everywhere (including at least one gas station!) and I had them in almost every form imaginable – seafood chowder, lobster bisque, lobster linguine, lobster salad, lobster rolls, and of course the traditional boiled lobster, which we had several times. Probably the best was at a seaside place by the marina in Hall’s Harbour. You sit outside by the water, fog rolling in past the lighthouse, while the massive Bay of Fundy tides crash on the rocks below. You go in, get your lobster from the tank, pay for it and bring it to the kitchen where they take it from there. Superb experience and food. The lobsters are in all the supermarkets too and they can boil them up right there if you want one to go. And, yes, I even had a McLobster at the local Mickie D’s ($8 Canadian, if you were wondering).
The locals were uniformly friendly and most welcoming. Service tends to be a bit lackadaisical at times - they seemed very short on experienced servers - maybe they are all down in the States. As to non-food experiences, the hiking and whale-watching and scenery on Cape Breton Island is fantastic, as were the local Celtic music offerings in the evenings.
There was plenty of well-prepared food in Nova Scotia. Food is of course an essential element to a New Orleanian on vacation and I had the mistaken idea from some guidebooks that we would encounter few places that were able to adequately spice and prepare our foods. In fact, we found that many places are well-versed in the modern kitchen and even some very modest places had some fairly ambitious items on the menu. There are not a ton of fine dining establishments in most of the province, but there were lots of good places - either that or we were really lucky.
We spent most nights in B&B’s and the breakfast food was pretty good, especially the seasonal berries up there. Otherwise we mostly ate in free-standing restaurants. I had decided before the trip that I would be eating seafood twice a day and managed to pretty much fulfill that promise.
I had mussels several ways. There was he traditional white wine preparation, of course, but what I found interesting was that many places offered multiple aromatic bases for the steaming - thai curry, madras curry, provencal, tomato-basil, etc. One place in Lunenburg offered eight different preparations of the mussels alone. I particularly liked the curry versions. These were really good.
On the fish side, I had a couple of simple Atlantic salmon preparations that were very nice (one pan-seared and one grilled on a plank) along with a couple of rounds of the ubiquitous fish and chips, which was usually haddock - the cod has been over-fished. I also had a broiled halibut entree that was great.
I had several preparations of the local scallops, but the best version was the simplest – pan sautéed in butter. I have never cared much for scallops before, but every dish I had of them up here was great.
You buy alcohol here in provincial liquor stores that shut down about 5 PM. The liquor prices are very high for wines and spirits, unless it’s a Canadian product. I was unaware that there is actually quite a good bit of winemaking in Nova Scotia, and the local Rieslings et al., while not up to export standards, make a pretty good pairing with the seafood. There are several winery tours available, which we didn’t have time for. We did stop at the Glenora distillery, which alleges to be the home of North America’s only single-malt whiskey. If you’re particularly enamored of the experience, you stay overnight in the attached inn and dine in their restaurant. I am not a whiskey drinker so I can only tell you it seemed quite light and smooth to me compared to our domestic offerings. They get their (used) barrels for aging from Kentucky, BTW. As to beer and ale, Canada appears to have a lot in common with the US, where there are relatively few mass-market brews including Bud that you see everywhere, but a lot of very fine regional craft brews. The local favorite in Nova Scotia is Alexander Keith’s, which puts out a fine array of styles including a wheat, IPA, amber, a pils, a dark lager and several seasonals. One of the more atmospheric meals I had was working through the Keith’s on-tap repertoire on the deck at the Mug & Anchor pub in Mahone Bay while eating fried clams and taking in a race of sailing vessels participating in the Classic Boat Festival on the bay. This was much better use of time than accompanying Ms. Gourmondo on her antiquing forays.
I must not forget the lobsters of course. They are everywhere (including at least one gas station!) and I had them in almost every form imaginable – seafood chowder, lobster bisque, lobster linguine, lobster salad, lobster rolls, and of course the traditional boiled lobster, which we had several times. Probably the best was at a seaside place by the marina in Hall’s Harbour. You sit outside by the water, fog rolling in past the lighthouse, while the massive Bay of Fundy tides crash on the rocks below. You go in, get your lobster from the tank, pay for it and bring it to the kitchen where they take it from there. Superb experience and food. The lobsters are in all the supermarkets too and they can boil them up right there if you want one to go. And, yes, I even had a McLobster at the local Mickie D’s ($8 Canadian, if you were wondering).
The locals were uniformly friendly and most welcoming. Service tends to be a bit lackadaisical at times - they seemed very short on experienced servers - maybe they are all down in the States. As to non-food experiences, the hiking and whale-watching and scenery on Cape Breton Island is fantastic, as were the local Celtic music offerings in the evenings.