Peter the eater

I'm a t-shirt owner and facebook friend. Sadly, we won't be back for a few months but I appreciate the kind offer. Another time!

Looks to me like the beginnings of a lobster boil! We have a winner! Tonight's the night.

Anne is everywhere. As a student years ago I rented an apartment that, according to the owner, was occupied by Lucy Maude Montgomery when she attended Dalhousie University a century ago.

Up on the North Cape one can watch the horses on the beach collecting Irish Moss the old fashioned way. It's a red algae that's 50% carrageenan -- an important food thickener and stabilizer. Commonly used in beer, wine, ice cream, jelly, etc.

Incidentally, the chocolate potato chips are surprisingly good. They are thick and ruffled, I suspect to survive the coating process. I wonder if anybody has tried chocolate-covered hash browns to go with chocolate-covered bacon.

Potato chips are available in regular, lobster or chocolate.

Some more preserves from the general store's Buy Local section.

Raspberry cordial in a bottle is available just about everywhere around here. It's carbonated raspberry juice and I imagine goes very well with vodka. I just love the slogan.

I saw some locally canned meat at the general store yesterday. Comes in beef, chicken and ham. I'm not sure if a factory tour would be of culinary interest or turn me into a vegetarian.

I wonder if they exist here naturally or if somebody transplanted them and they just took off. Pretty sure they grow wild but I'll ask around. Mmmmmm . . . perogies.

This photo would make a good Foodblog teaser. Any guesses?

Malpeque Bay Seafood Seasoning is a new discovery for me. It's a rusty red powder with visible dried herb fragments. It reminds me of something you would throw into a Cajun crab boil, like Zatarain's.

Strawberry shortcake for breakfast? This one was made with a homemade biscuit and frozen vanilla yogurt in lieu of whipped cream. And strawberries from the roadside stand.

I wouldn't go so far as to say we're bosom buddies. The pans actually worked well. The one on the gas grill (peppers, mushrooms and onions) has small raised ridges on the floor that are perforated. As a result you get some nice barbecue flavor entering the container and enhancing the veggies without losing the juices. Normally, I try to avoid disposable anythings. If they were thicker metal I could probably reuse them.

No seafood this evening. Local T-bone steaks on the gas grill with new spuds and veg. Red wine from heaven.

I found this notice on my cabin wall a bit weird. What do you mean no currie?

Some context. Prince Edward Island is the smallest Province in Canada and the least populated with around 150,000 full time folks. It's also the site of Confederation where Canada became an official country in 1867. The place I'm blogging from is on the North Shore at Cavendish just down the road from Anne of Green Gables Central. Lucy Maude Montgomery created the character Anne Shirley a century ago and the legacy remains all over. Here's what the Island looked like and how they dressed . . .

I wondered as well but these 2 sites seem to explain: http://www.pickyourown.org/unusualfruits.htm http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-516.html Nayan Gowda, I have zero experience with the saskatoons. I see them around and I think blueberries that are red. I will check out those links Heidi, thanks.

I found something that explains what's in season when.

It's a month early for local blueberries. I'm not sure where the ones below came from but they taste as good as they look. Right now we're seeing lots of local strawberries and saskatoons.

Do tell us more about oishi water! Please. It's a teriyaki sauce relative as far as I can tell. It's made here in PEI based on a century old Japanese recipe. Here's the link. The Oishi makers promote it for marinating and flavoring just about any kind of meat. PEI gets a lot of Japanese tourists which I suspect helps with sales.

I found a small roasting pan in the drawer which looked just about right for poaching the cod. I put some sliced lemon and onion on the bottom, fish on top and oishi water for extra liquid. Some butter and black pepper then 5 +/- minutes on the electric stove top. Meanwhile, there were some big scallops wrapped in bacon in my crisper so they went into a non-stick skillet with a bit of butter for browning. I wouldn't have bought them this way because it's so difficult to get the bacon crisp without over-cooking the scallop. But I'm not complaining.

We hit the fish market down the road. Picked up a few fresh cod filets and some Malpeque oysters along with some Tourism PEI info:

Family members have rented the adjacent cabin and they graciously stocked our kitchen with all kinds of goodies before we got here. We brought quite a few leftover items from the wedding and of course we have some of our own gear such as the pink KitchenAid stand mixer, a big honkin` cake decorating toolbox, and my knife roll. I rarely travel with knives. When I go somewhere the fancy ones usually stay home. Those knives below with the non-riveted resin handles are supercheap so I wouldn`t really care if I lost one. They are stamped steel from China and are real easy to keep sharp. The twelve inch chef`s knife was around ten bucks at The Real Canadian Wholesale Club.

As I mentioned before this Foodblog is on the road. Here's what I'm working with this week: