New Brunswick- We discovered Donair Sauce. This is a essentially a combination of evaporated milk, sugar, vinegar and garlic. This combination sounded absolutely disgusting to me at first... milk vinegar and garlic? BLEH! But no... it is delicious. Wikipedia tells me that Donairs were originally introduced to Halifax, NS in the 70s (it is all over the east coast now) when a Greek restaurant owner found that gyros were not selling well... so swapped out lamb for beef and tzatziki for sweet garlic (donair) sauce.
Not liking tzatziki is insanity in my mind, but get your garlic however you like it. As a vegetarian I have discovered more inventive ways to eat it than on a slab of meat (I am sure it is great on beef though, if you eat beef, try it... in moderations because it is definitely on my Unhealthy In Large Amounts list).
Prince Edward Island- In Charlottetown we discovered a cute little cafe on Victoria Row that was selling Poffertjes (in fact all they had were Poffertjes and coffee and a few other beverages) These are Dutch pancakes that are made from Buckwheat and yeast. They are little, have a consistency similar to potato pancakes, are slathered with real PEI butter (for some reason PEI butter tastes better than everywhere else... so do their potatoes... all of the east coast potatoes taste better than Ontario and Quebec, but PEI is even more delicious... perhaps it's all the Iron in their red soil) and topped with icing sugar.... probably decently healthy without the butter and icing sugar... but amazing with it.
Charlottetown also has a store called Liquid Gold, which we originally thought was a bar or alcohol store... but it is a healthy heaven. It also is in Halifax (the original one is in Halifax) but we only went to the Charlottetown one. It's full name is Liquid Gold Tasting Bar and All Things Olive. It is a tasting bar for olive oils (they have a few others like truffle and almond) and balsamic vinegars. We probably were in there for a good 30mins trying everything. All the olive oils as far as I know, are Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I didn't see any that were not EVOO but they may exist) and are infused with natural ingredients to give you flavours like lemon, chipotle, cilantro, buttery... and many more. They also have various EVOOs from different olives that give it distinct flavours. They have a really big selection of balsamic vinegears as well. I walked out with a Peach White Balsamic and a Meyer Lemon Olive oil, that are pure heaven in my mouth when combined (Thank you employee who got me to try them together!) I can't wait to eat them together over salad. This is a picture of the inside of the store:
If you go to Charlottetown or Halifax, you have to go there, it's a great experience!
We also drank (virgin) Raspberry Cordials in Charlottetown because the friend I went with was a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. They were pretty good... a little bit like cough syrup, but a good tasting cough syrup, like the ones usually reserved for children because adults aren't supposed to spit out gross tasting things, especially if it's medicinal.
Newfoundland- Oh you Newfies and your mix of insanely unhealthy and deliciously good for you items. Let's start with Toutons. We were told that this was THE thing you had to try in Newfoundland and that everyone eats it... no one bothered to tell us how HARD it is to find because everyone makes their own. We found a place up in St Anthony that had it (all the local restaurants we went to did not... it was a chain restaurant that did. Weird.) Toutons are deep fried dough that is served with blackstrap molasses. As healthy as Blackstrap is for you... I can not choke it down. The Toutons were amazing in a you-know-your-arteries-are-clogging-as-you-eat-it kind of way, that is easier to justify on vacation.
Bakeapple- after repeatedly thinking that this was Baked Apples misspelled... I finally asked someone what kind of apples Bakeapple was... only to find out it isn't an apple... it's a berry. It's also called Cloudberry (it looks like an orange cloud). It is high in vitamin C and has B1, B2, B3 and Vitamin A in it as well. Bakeapple jam is easy to find all over Newfoundland. We had Bakeapple tea at a little cafe and it was delicious. I regret not buying it now. It is really hard to describe the flavour because it doesn't taste similar to anything else. They make wine and vinegar out of it as well.
Partridgeberry- also known as Lingonberry. Apparently this is the berry that a lot of Newfies love... I think it's gross on it's own. It's decent as a jam, and I've been told it's really good as a wine (I don't drink wine). It gets coolness points for keeping its leaves all winter- even in extreme cold. Some of the phytochemicals in it are thought to be good for Urinary Tract Infections (In a similar way that Cranberries are).
Rhubarb Pickle- We bought Dark Tickle's Rhubarb Pickle (Which is just fun to say!) and freaked out the locals by eating it weirdly (really good on bread or toast with a bit of butter, I also had it on a cheese and apple panini) APPARENTLY it is supposed to be eaten with ham.... or meat... and that's it. It is delicious with cheese and crackers as well. I bought 2 jars for myself.... we finished one of the jars before the trip was even over. It has a flavour similar to carmelized onions... but much tastier.
Fun fact- all the water in Newfoundland is tinted brownish. Toilet water, tap water, well water...
We also ate a chunk of iceberg... 10,000 year old water delightfulness.
Nova Scotia- We were only in Nova Scotia briefly as we wanted to get the heck out of there before the hurricane hit. Two things I learnt while there are: Fresh sea salt is amazingly delicious, and I do not like scotch (bleh)... even expensive scotch (which I kind of think is worse than the cheap stuff).
Quebec- We didn't stay in Quebec, but had to drive through it for a good 5 hours each way (Since we didn't come back through the USA). We did pick up tortillon cheese a few times. It is the REAL string cheese and is packed with salty goodness. 50g has about 600mg of sodium (That's 1/4 of your Recommended Daily Intake for those who are keeping score) so it's definitely more of a "treat". We had prepackaged ones from a gas station, as well as fresh ones from a Fromagerie. (The Fromagerie definitely was better)
We did a ton of other stuff besides eating, but all these new experiences in food felt blog-worthy to me. I always think it's cool to try new things. If you're somewhere new, don't be afraid to try local fare, hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised... and if not.. well, at least you know to avoid it.
Stay healthy!
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