A good scoff, cod tongues, toutons and tea on The Rock aka Newfoundland

[ElsieD]

Tonight we are staying in Holyrood and had dinner at The Tea Garden.  Lovely place, overlooking the water.  I was still on the fullish side after our lunch so I only had seafood chowder and some garlic shrimp.  Tonight the chowder had spuds in it.  John had cod baked in a chili sauce with mashed potatoes, carrots, asparagus and spaghetti squash.  It was all delicious and we are now in our rental sitting on an actual couch as opposed to beds and grateful for it, with a glass of wine at hand.  Tomorrow we are going down the Burin Penninsula and will be staying in Burin for two nights.  

[Thanks for the Crepes]

8 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

I watched this and I felt kind of sorry for them, but i'm sure that's because of the cuteness factor.

 

Thanks for taking all these beautiful photographs and providing a lovely narrative to go along with it. I'm so glad you are generous enough to take us along on your amazing trip.

 

8 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

 

This one of the elk/caribou? is particularly amazing to me. ^^

 

I watched this video linked by @gfron1, too, and while the birds are very cute, I liked it. Chef Ramsey has an abrasive reputation for foul language and rude treatment, most of which I've see on "Hell's Kitchen" TV show. We call it "Mean Chef" around here. 

 

He's more polite on some of his other shows, but still has a "potty mouth", as my dear-departed grandma would say. For those still too angry with him to have watched the linked video, you might be interested to see him go bum over teakettle down a hill trying to net one of the birds and come up laughing. He also let's two lucky caught birds go, and we get to see him bitten on his handsome nose by the first one. He looks a bit beaten up at the end of the hunt, but they do eat their kills, including offal. There is a segment where they both eat a raw heart. 

 

Lambs and bunnies are cute too, but many of us still eat them and puffins don't seem to be endangered in Newfoundland.

 

I did find a bunch of info on puffins when I did a search to see if they were endangered, if anyone is interested.

 

Gordon Ramsey and his judges gave one of the contestants on "Master Chef" a very hard time for baking cheddar into an apple pie in a recent episode. I kind of like some good cheddar alongside a good apple pie, but it doesn't top my favorite of a la mode with vanilla ice cream melting slowly alongside a warm slice.

[ElsieD]

As mentioned above, restaurants can be scarce.  We are driving through what a local called"the barrens" and this stretch of road, about 150 km doesn't have a thing on it other than lakes, ponds, rivers trees and rocks.  Thankfully for lunch we had our emergency stash:

 

[ElsieD]

Perhaps because this stretch of road is so "barren" the authorities saw fit to build a "rest stop" complete with antenna???

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

Perhaps because this stretch of road is so "barren" the authorities saw fit to build a "rest stop" complete with antenna???

Hmmmm....could be a weather station?  Or perhaps a solar panel?

[Alex]

On 8/26/2016 at 5:24 AM, suzilightning said:

There is a very good book "The Day the World Came to Town" about Gander and the communities around it during the crisis of 9/11.  Imagine once all the planes are down and there are 6600 people to feed!

 

 

And there's even a musical about it!

 

Quote

And how could it be any other way? The Marsons not only revel in the story of “Come From Away.” They also happen to have lived it. Stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, on Sept. 11, 2001 — strangers to each other and the 6,600 other passengers on 38 jets that were compelled by aviation officials to land and sequester on the rugged Canadian island as American airspace shut down — they met and fell in love.

 

Their romance became one of the many tender threads of “Come From Away,” a fact-based musical by a Canadian American couple, Irene Sankoff and David Hein, about an isolated community that opened its arms for a shellshocked week to unexpected guests from around the world. It made its debut last year at California’s La Jolla Playhouse and went on to an equally well-received engagement in Seattle. As a result, the show is being readied for a wider audience, on Broadway, in an open-ended run starting in February.

 

[rotuts]

@ElsieD  

 

how wonderful !

 

sometimes antennae like that send weather info.

 

I sued to Fly Fish,  I used to tie my own Flies , etc  my repertoire  was fairly limited and would not have gotten any awards

 

at the Annual  Fly-Tie-Awards  FishFry.  none the less ;

 

that looks like a mighty fine Stream for an early AM Fishing.  Just before the sun comes up .

 

what you catch you might even be able to eat !  w/o the Nucular Glow.

 

always nice to have a Dinner down the road    45 min or >  away   for a nice full plate breakfast  too !

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD  

 

how wonderful !

 

sometimes antennae like that send weather info.

 

I sued to Fly Fish,  I used to tie my own Flies , etc  my repertoire  was fairly limited and would not have gotten any awards

 

at the Annual  Fly-Tie-Awards  FishFry.  none the less ;

 

that looks like a mighty fine Stream for an early AM Fishing.  Just before the sun comes up .

 

what you catch you might even be able to eat !  w/o the Nucular Glow.

 

always nice to have a Dinner down the road    45 min or >  away   for a nice full plate breakfast  too !

 

When I was here the very first time, my friend Wilson, at whose house we were staying, took my friend and I "troutin'" as they call it here.  We went to a freshwater stream and there we tried to land something.  We were there in the middle of the stream, in our waders.  We didn't catch anything, but we sure had a great time.  We were fishing for speckled trout.  The water is pristine and if you are not looking at the ocean, you are looking at a cape, a pond, a lake or a stream.  The Atlantic around here right now is, I'm told, around 5 or 6 degrees celcius.

[ElsieD]

We found a nice little place for dinner called The Heritage Cafe.  It is at the end of a local road in the outskirts of Burin, outskirts being a relative term. They had on their menu on few typical Newfoundland offerings.   I have posted the menu below so you can have a look.  I had the molasses baked beans, a fish cake with mustard pickles and a touton with syrup.  Most people eat toutons with molasses but you could get syrup instead and since I was having molasses baked beans, I opted for the syrup.  John had the turkey dinner.  Everything is made from scratch.

 

I sure enjoyed my meal.  The fish cake was very light which was nice because they can often be dense.  The beans were good too, but the toutons - oh my,  that was special.  Piping hot, dipped into the syrup, it was delicious.  Less successful was John's turkey dinner.  He said it was good but nothing special.   For dessert, we opted for two pieces of apple crumble cheesecake but when they were brought out and we had a look at them, we decided to share one instead.  That was one humongous piece.  We got it to take out and will have it later.

 

We both want more of those toutons and we non-breakfast folk are going there tomorrow for breakfast.

 

Below are pictures of my dinner, john's dinner, dessert and the menu.

 

I should also mention that it is the only non-pizza, non-McDonald's place in Burin, population about 2,500.

[blue_dolphin]

My new vocabulary words for today: touton and (from the menu) brewis 

 

Also, it's 85 F inside but I'm too lazy to go around and close the windows and crank up the AC when I know it's already cooling down, so I am virtually dipping my toes in some of that 5-6 C Newfoundland water. 

 

Thank you, @ElsieD!

[chromedome]

For those who don't know, toutons are (usually) bread dough fried in a pan, and brewis is hardtack that's soaked until soft (almost gelatinous) then poached and served alongside salt fish as a carb, in place of potatoes. 

[Tere]

On 8/28/2016 at 10:40 PM, demiglace said:

 

In my years of cooking for a living I was only asked once for cheddar with the apple pie. I was also the only one who had heard of it. The younger cooks all looked scared at the thought, lol. Very English as far as I know.

 

I wouldn't dream of serving apple pie and cheese together, but fruit cake and Wensleydale cheese is most definitely a thing. Strange how the former strikes me as weird but the latter gets a shrug.

 

/Brit

/Not from Yorkshire

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

For those who don't know, toutons are (usually) bread dough fried in a pan, and brewis is hardtack that's soaked until soft (almost gelatinous) then poached and served alongside salt fish as a carb, in place of potatoes. 

Thanks, and what is hardtack ?

[suzilightning]

All right, all...am I the only crazy person who, when someone is food/road tripping, grabs my travel atlas and follows along????

 

Looks like if you cut across the peninsula you can get to Garnish.....how appropriate for a food blog.

[ElsieD]

We are about to get started on our day with the first stop being The Heritage Cafe for toutons and, in my case, tea, coffee for John.  We are going around "the boot" of the Burin Penninsula today.  This is not a great distance which is a good thing as we are getting lots of wind today so want to be safely ensconced in our little efficiency unit when it starts.  Wind gusts of 100 to 120 kph are expected and the warning is to watch out for tree limbs being broken off and to watch for loose objects flying through the air.  

 

As we were nearing the end of our drive down that barren stretch of highway yesterday,  we came across a local craft store called The Tea Rose and stopped in to take a look.  They have  beautiful handcrafted items, all locally made.   Here is a picture of my purchase - a pair of really soft wool (non acrylic) slippers, a snowman and a Christmas ornament of a lighthouse.  The snowman is about a foot tall.

[IowaDee]

Oh I sense some happy feet in your future.  

[chromedome]

11 hours ago, sartoric said:

Thanks, and what is hardtack ?

It's a more or less indestructible form of bread (think "dwarf bread" if you're a Pratchett fan). It's just flour and water and a bit of salt, shaped into oblong cakes and baked until they're dry and stone-hard. In the old days they were called "ship's biscuit" by naval types, or "hardtack" by soldiers. It could be pounded to powder and used as a thickener, cooked into a sort of porridge-y stodge, or soaked and served up as a soft and soggy side dish (ie, brewis). 

 

Not exactly a gastronome's delight, but lightweight and relatively indestructible. With that and some dried beans and a bit of salted or dried fish/meat, you could mount a pretty long campaign. Or survive a Newfoundland winter. 

[Ashen]

20 hours ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD  

 

how wonderful !

 

sometimes antennae like that send weather info.

 

I sued to Fly Fish,  I used to tie my own Flies , etc  my repertoire  was fairly limited and would not have gotten any awards

 

at the Annual  Fly-Tie-Awards  FishFry.  none the less ;

 

that looks like a mighty fine Stream for an early AM Fishing.  Just before the sun comes up .

 

what you catch you might even be able to eat !  w/o the Nucular Glow.

 

always nice to have a Dinner down the road    45 min or >  away   for a nice full plate breakfast  too !

 

they have some interesting rules for Non-residents when it comes to fishing.  

 

http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/wildlife/hunting/nonres.html

 

"

On the Island and south of 52° N in Labrador, non-residents wishing to angle for trout or salmon on any scheduled river or angle for trout beyond 800 meters of a provincial highway are required to use a guide or be accompanied by a direct relative.

In Labrador, North of 52°, non-resident trout and salmon anglers must engage the services of an outfitting company or fish at a co-operative camp or be accompanied by a direct relative. When visiting a cooperative camp, non-residents may fish without engaging the services of an outfitter (but must be accompanied by a licenced guide or direct relative) anywhere in the lake or pond the camp is on, or 800 meters above or below the camp, if the camp is on a river. Non-residents may angle in non-scheduled waters unaccompanied and without engaging the services of an outfitter within 800 meters of a Provincial Highway. Non-residents may angle in scheduled waters within 800 meters of a Provincial Highway without engaging the services of an outfitter but must be accompanied by a guide or direct relative."

 

 

@blue_dolphin-  you saw the Brewis, but missed the scrunchions.    MMMMM scrunchions

[ElsieD]

Here is today's breakfast.  John had the Newfoundland breakfast with an extra touton.  Bologna is a staple item here and in the interests of this blog, that is what he had.  He enjoyed it very much.  I had, as you can see, an egg, a touton and what they call breakfast potatoes, pan fried with onions and red pepper.  We ate it all.  Those toutons are something else.  Crispy exterior, soft, fluffy interior.  The fry them up as they get an order.  I can't wait to make them  at home.  Coffee for John, tea for me.

[ElsieD]

Sign along the highway.

[rotuts]

thanks for including the menu's

 

what's   homestyle toast ?   thicker cut out of a homemade loaf ?

 

pan saute bologna actually is quite good.   wonder if there is anything special w the sausage

 

I also missed the scrunchions

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_brewis

 

nice !

Edited August 30, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[chromedome]

Bologna is affectionately known as "Newfie steak."

 

I still occasionally buy some and fry it up to accompany my eggs. 

[Ashen]

I like to listen to my Father-in-law tell stories about when he was fishing down there on the old wooden schooners.    they would set out a line of small dory boats in the ocean with two men in each so far apart they couldn't see another boat and then the schooner would come back to pick them up later.   He said they would often eat  soaked hardbread with  salt back fat on it.  They would melt the   salt back over a candle.    Hard life for hard times I guess. 

[chromedome]

29 minutes ago, Ashen said:

I like to listen to my Father-in-law tell stories about when he was fishing down there on the old wooden schooners.    they would set out a line of small dory boats in the ocean with two men in each so far apart they couldn't see another boat and then the schooner would come back to pick them up later.   He said they would often eat  soaked hardbread with  salt back fat on it.  They would melt the   salt back over a candle.    Hard life for hard times I guess. 

 

You might be interested in this. It's a replica of a doryman's lunch box from back in the day. It's made like a small barrel, with narrow metal hoops to hold the staves in place. The lid is kept on by the small piece of rope, which also serves as the handle. It held food for two men for two days. My uncle makes them, and sells them occasionally to tourists (he lives now in Prince Edward Island, rather than Newfoundland). 

[gfweb]

On 8/26/2016 at 9:06 AM, rotuts said:

after you call in, what does 89 MOOSE do ?

 

89 moose do anything that they want to