ElsieD

Last night for dinner we went to Oliver's a place we had been to last year. John had the seafood fettuccini in a yellow curry sauce. The fettuccine had shrimp, salmon, and cod in it and he asked for scallops to be added to the dish. The make-up of his dish is hard to see under the blanket of grated cheese. I had the fresh halibut. John loved his dish, I would have loved mine instead of just liking it if the halibut and not been slightly overcooked. This place was are staying in is amazing as to how central it is to everything. We are within a few blocks of all the restaurants we had a hankering to eat at with the exception of one, and it was less than a kilometer away. Unfortunately it is uphill so we drove. By the time I fully get my "St. John's legs" I'll be on my way home. Lunch/brunch today is at the Merchant Tavern. After that, we are going to the community of Calvert to a kitchen party. Should be fun.

Me too. But, we are going out to a nice spot for dinner and wanted something lighter for lunch. I thought the pasta dish might have been too filling. Didn't stop me from having dessert, though.😀 I have learned that when the word fish is used, it means cod. If it is a fish other than cod, it is called by it's name, e.g. halibut. I had thought about trying the Coconut Green Curry Cod today but when we sat down the hostess said "the fish didn't come in today" I knew that there would be no cod for me. Halibut yes, cod no.

Today we had a great lunch ar the Hungry Heart Cafe. We have tried to eat here on previous trips but it has always been full. This time we took no chances and made a reservation. It is an initiative of Stella's Circle and aims to train disadvsntaged adults about the food industry so they can get meaningful work. John had the beef brisket and as I am posting the menu (for @rotuts and anyone else who may be interested) you can read the details there. When it first arrived both our thoughts were, wow, that looks overdone but then we remembered that it was brisket. (Duh!,) I had the Vietnamese plate. We finished with coffee and strawberry shortcake. It was very, very good and I'm happy we were finally able to support this great initiative. Not to mention having a very tasty lunch. We wanted to do some shopping afterward and started walking around but it was just too hot so we decided to go back to our lodging. On the way there, we took a stroll down George Street where there is a street party going on from last night through Saturday. Lots of music being played, mostly rock. George street, a short street and party central in St. John's is almost totally bars and restaurants. @lemniscate too bad you're not here - sounds as though you might enjoy it.

Thanks, @rotuts. You are right, the main part is the muscle.

Dinner was ar the St. John's Fish Exchange. John had a beer, I had a glass of sauvignon blanc. We shared two plates, an appetizer of bang bang shrimp that came with an Asian sauce and a seafood platter that came with fries (not shown). The platter had the obvious items along with a salt cod fritter, and a piece each of cod, halibut and salmon. They had left the side muscle on the scallops which for some strange reason always annoys me and the halibut was overcooked. Everything else was fine. I wouldn't rush back but I have had worse. As we were leaving, and walking past the line-up at the door, I felt someone grab my arm and if it wasn't the same woman I met in Twillingate who lives in our building. What are the odds of that, I wonder. Here are the pics of our meal and the view from the restaurant. And, especially for @rotuts because he likes these things, a menu of today's specials.

We went to Bell Island this afternoon and managed to find the only road that turned into gravel, barely wide enough for our van, heavy underbrush beside us such that it was brushing the car as we were crawling along, trying to avoid the potholes, and nowhere to turn around. That road ended but there off to the right was a lane that ran past a farmhouse so we took it. Had to shoo a lamb off the road but it did lead us back to pavement. The whole time I was wondering if there were moose on the island and what we would do if we saw one. As an aside, I have never been called "my darling" and "my love" so much in my life. I hear people calling each other that all the time so it is just a manner of speaking. Didn't take long to get used to it. A couple of pictures - one taken at the lighthouse overlooking the water and the village of Paradise where our ferry left from. The only food was the ice cream cone we had waiting for the return ferry.

On our walk last light we passed I don't know how many pubs. The windows to them were open and the smokers were all standing outside so they were hard to miss. A rough guess would be 3 per block, minimum. The place we had lunch at today is also a pub, The Duke of Duckworth. The series Republic of Doyle had a replica of the bar built on their set which led us to the place to start with. It seems the cast often came in to the real pub after shooting the show and the main actor, Alan Hawco still drops in from time to time

We skipped breakfast today and instead lazed around this morning working on the NYT spelling bee. We just finished lunch, and once again fish was featured. We were told the fish was fresh so I had pan fried cod with salad and John had the fish and chips. My fish was perfectly cooked, nice and moist. John said his was as well. Fish and chips don't make for a pretty plate but then taste trumps presentation. We are off to Bell Island which involves a ferry crossing. There is some interesting history there. Picture of lunch below. There is also a picture of a set of stairs. These are fairly common is St. John's, they run between Water street where we are staying and Duckworth street, also a major street. We took a set of these stairs to get to this pub. St. John's is very hilly.

Amen to that.

Those of us Canadians who are a bit older will remember Joey Smallwood. Gambo is where he was born. For those of you who don't know anything or much about him, he was the premier of Newfoundland when it joined Canada in 1949. It is said that he was loved and hated in equal measure.

Yes, toutons are really, really good. They are served hot out of the frying pan and I practically swoon when my plate arrives. They are typically served with molasses but most places will ask if you would rather have syrup or jam. I wish we could get them in Ontario.

@chromedome that hitchhiking story is really something. That's one way to meet long lost relatives! I went to Medicine Hat once on a business trip (yes, really! And Lethbridge Alta. on the same trip. The only memorable thing about medicine Hat that I remember was a suit I bought there. I also remember being at the airport in Calgary waiting for my flight for Lethbridge when I spotted by SIL who had just come from there. She worked for Molson at the time and was headed back to Toronto. I remembered that you had spent time on that peninsula but had forgotten it was on the other side. The couple we spoke with at breakfast were quite enthused with the place. Makes me wish we had gone there.

Lunch at Cashin's was a Turkey dinner for John and toutons and baked beans for me. Strangely, my plate came with a couple of pieces of cheese and yogurt. I guess the cheese isn't so odd but I thought the yogurt was a strange item. The toutons look a little burnt but they didn't taste burnt so I was happy. The food is always good there. We then drove the TCH to St. John's and have checked into our accommodations. We have a one bedroom apt. with a full kitchen should I feel inclined to cook. That's not likely going to happen. The meals will get more interesting starting tomorrow night. We have a bunch of reservations at different places but left lunch open for tomorrow as we were not sure as to what we would be doing. Our apt. Is smack dab downtown and we can walk to all our eating spots except for Friday lunch. I'm not sure what we are doing for dinner as we are both still full from lunch but no doubt we'll get something although I doubt it will be a full meal. Edited to add: that's how he likes his fries.

@blue_dolphin Yesterday we went toTwillingate via Lewisport. Today we took the other route to Gander and then to Gambo which is where we are now. After lunch we get back on the TCH and head for St. John's. A couple of pictures, one is the lookout just outside Gambo and the other is an information poster listing various species of birds and plants native to the area for those of you interested in such things.

It 's noon here and I finally have an internet connection. We had a great time at the show last night. Now, here is a coincidence for you. In this hall there are four long tables, each seating 24 people. We were the last two seats at the end of one side of the table and the rest of the table was full except for the seat ar the end and one across from us. 2 ladies sat down and someone asked where they were from. One said Montreal, the other Ottawa. We got talking to them at the break and to make a long story short, it turns out the Ottawa person lives in our building, having moved in a month ago. Small world. Breakfast this morning was at the Cozy Tea Room in Twillingate. I had toutons with partridgeberry jam and tea while John had the breakfast sandwich which consisted of a fried egg, bologna and cheese and coffee. We were very happy with both. The pair at the table next to us were from Huntsville which is also in Ontario. They told us about some interesting things they saw in the Baie Verte Penninsula, the one peninsula we haven't seen.. I think that is where @chromedome lived for a time. We are on our way to Gambo for lunch, heading down the Trans Canada highway.

It's a very special place for sure.

The jam-jams were homemade. They sure didn't make up for toutons though.

I saw this too. It's great!

And finally, a picture of Twillingate as you come into it. I had a better picture but my thumb managed to cover up a good part of it. The town's original name was Toulinquet. We have no plans for dinner tonight. We did not finish lunch until 2:30 so aren't very hungry. There are a couple of restaurants on site so we may get a bite after the show which ends at 9:00. We'll see.

We are now in Twillingate at our hotel. Somehow the one-bedroom apt. I thought I had booked had morphed into a regular room. We managed to straighten that out and are now ensconced in the unit I thought we were in. After checking in, we went to Auk Winery. I was sure we had been there before but it didn't look like anything I remembered. @suzilightning Do you recall when you were there last year that it resembled a souvenir shop more than a winery? On the way back to our hotel, I took this picture. Someone built what looks like a miniature village and it is on his front lawn. Tonight we are going to a concert to see The Split Peas. We saw them last year and really enjoyed the show so decided to go again. When I called for tickets to be put aside I found out that I was talking to, as she put it, "one of the accordian players". She informed me that at half-time they would be serving tea, but the toutons I was so looking forward to had been replaced with jam-jams. Seems they can't find anyone to make the toutons anymore.😟 I don't know anything about jam-jams but I don't expect I'll enjoy them nearly as much. Maybe @chromedome can tell us something about them.

At lunch, we had to wait before we could get seated. When we did, we shared a table with 3 other people. They ordered some deep fried calamari and I know a few of you will be horrified to learn they dunked the rings in ketchup!!! When we left Gander this morning, it was hot outside so I had hoped that we could have lunch on the pier. But it started to rain just as we go there so no lunch on the pier for us. The restaurant has an underwater camera located next to the pier and it displays what's happening in the water on a TV in the restaurant. John took this picture.

Lunch today was every bit as good as we hoped it would be. We both had the seafood chowder, shared an appetizer portion of scallops then we each had a sandwich. We ordered a crab salad one and a lobster salad which we shared. We both had blueberry cheesecake and coffee for dessert. The chowder is very rich and chock full of fish, lobster, crab and mussels. No spuds were sacrificed in it's making.

The seafood is vacuum packed and frozen. Something you don't see much and I admit, hard to see in the picture but in front of the scallops there were smoked capelin. To the right of that is frozen lobster, the frozen meat of 1 lobster per package. Also for sale were various fresh items, such as lobster, halibut, mussels etc.

We are just outside of Lewisport on the way to Hillgrade where we will have lunch. We stopped at this place where they sell all kinds of seafood. Pictures are a bit dark, but that is one big lobster! Also beautiful scallops, carb, mussels, etc. We stopped here once before on another trip and they put out free buckets of mussels. I bought some summer savoury to bring back with me. The last picture is the view from the back of this place.

We hope to have some lobster for lunch but I'm not sure if it is in season right now.