jayhay

My thoughts too! Looks great Marlene, what did you have for a vegetable, besides potatoes?

Some food observations on places that had been recommended to us: MAGNOLIA'S in Lunenberg...Probably the best steamed mussels we've ever had, plump & tasty in a Pernod sauce. They're noted for their Key Lime Pie, & it had a creamy, rather than dense lime filling, & a graham/nut crust. We returned again, at the end of our trip, & ordered these items a second time. Just as good! ACTON'S in Wolfville...Lovely room. Fellow diner taking pictures of his food. Now, who on earth would do such a thing? Fresh brown bread accompanied creamy, rich seafood chowder. Crab cakes with caramilized onions...not much crab flavour, onions good though. Seafood Hot Pot, delicious flavour, although lobster chunks were tough. Crisp, garlicky croutons on top were good. RUDDER'S BREW PUB in Yarmouth...Pints of Full Sail Pale Ale, nice caramely flavour, limited edition. Shared a large cold lobster sandwich... lots of tender meat, & cole slaw & fresh cut fries, a bargain at $13.95. RITA'S TEA ROOM in Big Pond...Old school house, revamped and added onto, by Rita MacNeil. Very charming, beautifully landscaped grounds. Very nice homemade bread, thick clam chowder, & delicious carrot cake for lunch. NEW GLASGOW LOBSTER SUPPER....in PEI. All you can eat of freshly made rolls & bread, steamed mussels, seafood chowder, green salad, potato salad, pies, & cake. Choose the size lobster you want, & chow down! Didn't bother with salads or dessert...just went for the good stuff. WATER-PRICE CORNER STORE...in Charlottetown. Another lobster dinner, the night after our New Glasgow feast. A-1..one of the best meals we had on the trip. (Thanks for the recommendation Merlin.)Similar to the above menu, but superiour. Very generous portions, not all you can eat. IL MERCATO in Halifax...Found it to be noisy & wait staff inattentive. Food was only okay, nice room. FRIES & CO. in Halifax...Supposed to be the best fish & chips in town. Located on an out of the way street, very small. The food was fine, but not as good as our favourite place at home. CHIVES in Halifax...Wonderful food, great waiter, nice room...hit the jackpot this night! Both had Peasant Soup, lots of sausage slices & potato chunks in a tasty broth, & wonderful garlicky croutons on top. Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, & beef tenderloin with a merlot sauce for entrees. Great hot biscuits, a signature feature, served in a paper bag. We were there on a Monday night, & it was not busy. Hopefully business picks up later in the week. NAUTICAL NELLIES in St. John's ...Heard good things about this pub in NFLD. Good, but not great food, beer was great though. GUV'NOR'S PUB in St. John's...Nice place, lots of dark wood. Had a plate of Cod Tongues & Scrunchions Loved the scrunchions (pork fat rules!), cod tongues, not so sure. It's that gelatinous material in them I can't stand. CHES'S FISH & CHIPS in St. John's...Looked up the location that had been given us, but they were closed for renos, because of a fire, so tried their other location on Topsail Rd. Located in a strip mall, the price was right. at $11.98 for TWO plates of 2 pieces of fish each. lots'o chips, coleslaw, gravy & stuffing(?) on the side. The fish was quite dry & the batter heavy, chips were good. We intended to try out CHUCKY'S FISH & CHIPS in St. John's, but they are no longer in business. Also had reservations at BISH in Halifax, but cancelled our reservation. Just plain tired of eating out, so decided it would be wasted on us...another time maybe.

We've just returned from a trip to Atlantic Canada & the last three were: CHIVES CANADIAN BISTRO...Halifax: Wonderful food...great waiter, nice room...a hit with us. FRIES & COMPANY...Halifax: Supposed to be the best fish & chips in town....not as good as King's Fare in Vancouver. IL MERCATO...Halifax: Noisy , inattentive wait staff, food okay, attractive room.

Some of us have bigger, um, casserole dishes than others. Nice post, and ditto to McDuff. I love the beet and squash Napoleon, especially. I just finished making Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon from MAFC . Serving it tomorrow night, & will be thinking of Julia.

I would recommend the family-run "Maria's Taverna" on 4th Ave, across from the Safeway. They have a new location on Denman Street, but haven't tried that one, so can't comment.

I have a grandson that age! No, Foodie, you're not THAT old!

As I said, I've not made Osso Buco before, but neither the Batali recipe nor the Bourdain recipe call for straining the vegetables out. Could be they were just making the recipe more user friendly for the masses.... Oh....and I AlWAYS make sure my dinner guests "have a glass of wine in hand "....makes everything taste SO much better!

I've decided to make OSSO BUCO (for the first time), for a dinner party on Saturday night. Any special places to go for veal shanks, & should they be ordered ahead? I've printed out Mario Batali's recipe from FoodTV, & Tony Bourdain's recipe from Epicurious...can't decide. Any favourite recipes out there?

M.M......I'd love to have this recipe, have you posted it elsewhere?

Thank you for sharing Kyaksoup. Not to worry, you chose the "right" words to describe your meal. Happy you enjoyed your evening at Cru....when we dined there, we did too!

And I'm still checking into this thread to see what else everyone has to add.....

U.S. or Canadian $ ?

I had a wooden cutting board warp on me, & I solved the problem by heating a heavy, cast iron frying pan, & leaving it on the board to cool. Good as new!

No way...malt vinegar rules!

Amazing suggestions...everything from jig's dinner to laundromats!

Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions! I really appreciate the help.

We're going to visit the Atlantic provinces in September, & would like to know what experiences others have had. There's great information on eGullet for the other provinces, but not Newfoundland. We were thinking of spending one week out of our four week trip in that province, & will have a car. Is that a reasonable length of time? Any suggestions for food & lodging? We're not planning on hiking or fishing, just driving & eating. (Maybe trying out a little screech too )

Thank you MJ for a great blog! Haven't read it thoroughly yet, am saving it for a treat on the next rainy day. May have missed it, but do you have a job? Didn't seem to me you'd have time.....

I agree with your recommendation of Halliburton House, Chromedome. We stayed there on our first trip, & are going to be there this time as well. Perfect location & nice rooms. Haven't eaten there yet, but maybe this time.

Thanks Merlin, for the recommendations. I'm making notes, & getting excited about the trip! Ben, we ate at Ossie's last time, so this time we'll give COMEAU'S a try...thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to post the above recommendations. Wish we'd been part of the eGullet group on our first trip to the Maritimes a couple of years ago. We'll be heading back again this fall for our second trip, & wonder if there are any updates we should know about..... Was Bish damaged in the hurricane, & if so, is it up & operating again? What about the new restaurant (don't know the name), operated by the owners of Bish & Da Maurizio, is it recommended? Any suggestions for PEI? Also Newfoundland, in case we get that far?

Ah yes, Canadian Club & Canada Dry gingerale...with a marachino cherry of course. Meant it was Christmas time when I was young!

Oh...you're one of THOSE people are you? No more advice for you!!

We would too! We'd rather go to the produce stores on West Broadway for fresh produce than buy the trucked in stuff Costco offers. Their feta & parmesan cheese prices are what keep us going back. (as well as their prices on T.P., paper towels, books, etc.etc......)

Ha.ha...wait until you feel you're being ignored because of your "elderly" appearance (we're cursed, I know)... Not that we were at Cru...in fact we had a lovely evening! Three of us had the set menu, & loved everything. At the end of the meal I mentioned we had heard of the place through egullet & the server said..."Now you tell me! I could have given you free stuff". She then called over the owner, who seemed to be impressed that we were "from" egullet. We would have gone back anyway, but this didn't hurt!