Eating Well #1

Poutine

The trip across the US as far as Michigan did not provide lifetime culinary memories.  The highlight was McDonald's senior coffee for himself and lattes for me.  The UP pasty was interesting, a meat pie made like a turnover.  I am told it comes from Wales and is what a coal miner would take for lunch.  Once we hit Quebec, I figured it would be a better world.

Our first Quebec adventure was to order the ubiquitous "poutine."  This makes our junk food look healthy.  It is a large serving of french fries, topped with gravy and then slightly melted cheese curds. It is a one time experience for me.

Things improved as we continued east, with very nice french bread, a Basque cheese shop with wonderful smoked cheddar and some delightful french onion soup.  The markets had quite a different selection of food, fresh duck legs and breast, duck fat, sausages made from various game including wild boar, lots of veal and of course, croissants.  It was looking much better than the North Dakota Walmart.  Fortunately, the stores laid in while still in Washington lasted about 2 weeks (and much longer for the pantry and frozen things) so we did not starve. 

My first lobster roll

PEI Mussels

Conditions are very much improved now that we are in the Maritimes.  My first (and definitely not my last) lobster roll was lovely.  A homemade hot dog bun with lettuce and a homemade tartar sauce plus loads of lobster meat.  The PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels were the best every.  We love our Penn Cove Mussels in WA,  but the PEI fresh caught mussels on a deck in the sun with blueberry ale were memorable.  They are large and succulent, prepared with lots of garlic and wine as well as shavings of carrot and celery.  Yum.  We have also had outstanding fresh fried clams and lots of fresh caught haddock and cod, prepared either deep fried or sauteed and served on a bun.  Unfortunately we don't like oysters as they are pretty common here too.  Yesterday's lunch was a seafood chowder,  not cream based, but thickened I suspect with the generous amount of potato and loads of seafood (fish, shrimp, crab and lobster).  I am inspired.  We eat the local fare at every opportunity and I know this availability will continue for some time as we head into New England in a week or so. 

The final food related treat was a trip to the Paderno cookware factory store in PEI.  I love bargains and I love cookware.  I found a great little omelet pan which it now occurs to me will be a perfect size for the RV kitchen.  A seafood omelet will be a nice campground supper one of these days.