A Taste of Nova Scotia

I'm back!  And alive!  My parents' goutweed experiment proved tasty, and we all survived.  It made for a very lovely soup, made with potato, leek and mushroom, as well as the goutweed, much like a warm vichyssois, but with mushroom and goutweed.

In the meantime, I enjoyed every bit of my time in Canada.  Along with sailing and beach time, we did a lot of eating.  The first day I was there, I discovered that my parents had gone without me to a smokehouse, where they bought three different kinds of smoked fish: smoked mackerel, cold smoked salmon (just smoked, no heat, known in the U.S. as lox), and “cajun style” hot smoked salmon (both heated and smoked). This is possibly the most amazing smoked fish I’ve had in a long time.The lox melted in my mouth, the mackerel was delightfully smoky and mild, and the hot smoked salmon was delightful.

cold smoked salmon, mackerel, and hot smoked cajun flavored salmon

As I mentioned in my last post, my family is very interested in using edible plants in their garden.  Among some of the plants that were there as part of the garden were chives and rhubarb.  My mother used the chive flowers to decorate salads (a very pretty and flavorful addition, for those of you that grow chives).  

Chives!

With the rhubarb, my mom made a fabulous rhubarb cobbler.

rhubarb!

My mom introduced me to raisin pie.  This particular version has about three raisins.  The rest of the filling is reminiscent of pecan pie filling, without the pecans.

Raisin Pie

My parents had some maple wine that I tried, but I have to admit, it wasn't my thing.  However, both the maple syrup and the maple sugar candy are my thing.  Yum!

Maple wine

We went to a little "restaurant", Chez Deslauriers.  This place serves one meal a week, Friday lunch, when they offer two lunch selections and dessert.  I chose a classic Acadian stew, fricot (meat soup with dumplings), and enjoyed a dessert of strawberry shortcake.  Everything about this place was absolutely lovely, the people, the food, and, most spectacularly, the view (I would add more photos, but my computer is not cooperating!).

As well as these treats, we also enjoyed the farmers market, where we sampled local greens, sausage, and fudge, and some lovely fair trade (but obviously not local) coffee.  

The night before I left, my father and two dear family friends went fishing for mackerel.  That night we ate a platter full of lovely fresh caught mackerel.  Unfortunately, the fish came back to the house already cleaned, and we fried it  and ate it up so quickly that I missed my photo opportunity.

I can highly recommend the coast of Nova Scotia as a vacation destination, although I would go later in the summer or bring a lot of bug spray, to prevent being eaten up by the swarms of black flies.

In the meantime, I'm back, and working on some good stuff for you all to enjoy!

~Aurora