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

[ElsieD]

6 hours ago, suzilightning said:

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.

 

Suzilightning, this is for you!

[suzilightning]

14 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Suzilightning, this is for you!

Thank you!!! I love it!

[rotuts]

89 0f them must have a BaZillion ticks between them.

 

in Maine, the Moosies are chronically anemic form the 100'drs each carry.   no joke

 

 

[ElsieD]

18 hours 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. 

 

I asked about making toutons at home.  I was told that you use a regular white bread dough, and let it proof once.  Then you cut off chunks of dough, 3 to 4 ounces each and gently form them into a ball.   The dough will deflate a bit as you do this but  you don't want to punch the dough down.  You heat some neutral oil in a frying pan and put the dough in that.  Fry gently until the underside is crispy then fry the othe side.  Total cooking time is about 10 minutes and the dough will rise while it is cooking.  The end result will be a very light bread,  nice and crispy on the outside and hot all the way though. .  Devour while hot.

[Toliver]

On 8/28/2016 at 5:22 PM, ElsieD said:

...The moose were introduced to Newfoundland in 1904.  All 4 of them.  Those 4 are responsible for the 110,000 that are on the island today.

Are there any moose predators in the area? 

[ElsieD]

8 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Are there any moose predators in the area? 

 

Yes, black bears.  There may be others but the black bears were the ones specifically mentioned by the biologist at the Salmonier Nature Park.

[ElsieD]

11 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Are there any moose predators in the area? 

 

 

[Anna N]

@chromedome

 

 That lunch container is a thing of beauty. Thank you for sharing it with us.  

[PattyO]

My ex MIL makes toutons (as I do now), only we split them with 2 forks after they've been fried on each side, fry the insides and serve with real maple syrup (or Aunt Jemima's if you're said ex MIL) and butter if you're really decadent. 

[ElsieD]

1 minute ago, PattyO said:

My ex MIL makes toutons (as I do now), only we split them with 2 forks after they've been fried on each side, fry the insides and serve with real maple syrup (or Aunt Jemima's if you're said ex MIL) and butter if you're really decadent. 

 

Did my description compare to how you do yours?   I like the idea of frying the innards.

[PattyO]

It does, but I pat the dough balls down a little bit for even cooking.  If you want to split them, it's better to do it while they're still a bit doughy in the middle, and then you can get them as soft or as crispy as you want them to be.  I have to make these soon - they are so delicious!

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, PattyO said:

It does, but I pat the dough balls down a little bit for even cooking.  If you want to split them, it's better to do it while they're still a bit doughy in the middle, and then you can get them as soft or as crispy as you want them to be.  I have to make these soon - they are so delicious!

 

Thank you.  She did say to do this but I neglected to put that in my post.  I have since corrected it.  Yes, they sure are good.  We are about to go there for dinner again (outside of the fact the food is good, it's the only decent place here) and I'm trying to think of an excuse for having another one.  We leave Burin early in the morning to go to our next spot so won't have another chance.  I had one last year that was very heavy and I did not care for it very much.  Glad I took a chance and tried them again.

[ElsieD]

Tonight we were back at The Heritage Cafe for dinner.  John wanted toutons so he had 2 toutons less a bite and mac and cheese which he enjoyed.  I had pan fried cod with scruncheons, mashed potatoes, mixed carrots and peas a double helping of mustard pickles aND a bit of touton.  It was all good.  The fish was so fresh, moist and flaky.  We did take a bite or two before I remembered to take a picture.  For dessert we brought home a lemon square to bring home for later tonight.  I spied a date square being delivered to someone's table so I got one to take with me and we will have it in the morning on the way to catch the ferry.   I forgot to mention that the apple crumble cheesecake made up for the bad apple pie the day before.  This is something I'm going to try to duplicate.  I tried to worm the recipe out of them but no dice.

 

The picture of the view is what you see from our table at The Heritage Cafe.  Not too shabby.  The other is of the food mentioned in this post, with a tea bag on the plate with the date square to give you an idea of the size.

[kayb]

On 8/28/2016 at 7:22 PM, ElsieD said:

 The moose were introduced to Newfoundland in 1904.  All 4 of them.  Those 4 are responsible for the 110,000 that are on the island today.

 

 

And people talk about RABBITS being prolific...

 

Just caught up on 100-plus posts on this thread, having been out of town for three days. Such gorgeous scenery. Reaffirms my wish to visit that part of the world someday. Thanks, @ElsieD, for taking us with you! (sorry, though, I just cannot do brown gravy on french fries.)

 

5 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

I asked about making toutons at home.  I was told that you use a regular white bread dough, and let it proof once.  Then you cut off chunks of dough, 3 to 4 ounces each and gently form them into a ball.   The dough will deflate a bit as you do this but  you don't want to punch the dough down.  You heat some neutral oil in a frying pan and put the dough in that.  Fry gently until the underside is crispy then fry the othe side.  Total cooking time is about 10 minutes and the dough will rise while it is cooking.  The end result will be a very light bread,  nice and crispy on the outside and hot all the way though. .  Devour while hot.

 

Oh, I am SO going to do this. Down here, particularly when one goes to deer camp or duck camp, a breakfast standby is "fried biscuits," much like toutons except it's biscuit dough, fried in butter, and doused with syrup. It'll give you a shot of energy and warm you up before you hit the cold pre-dawn to get to the duck blind or the deer stand.

 

[chromedome]

Just for the record, you *can* make 'em with whole-wheat dough as well. My parents do that, and so do I, though most of my Newfoundland relatives stick to white. 

 

You might notice that white bread is almost universal in the outlying areas of the province. There's actually a reason for that:

 

Newfoundland was a self-governing British colony -- a "dominion," like Canada -- until the Depression hit, and took the legs out from under a place that was already hardscrabble poor. The colony wasn't able to remain self-supporting, and the Brits (who were in straits themselves at the time) had to reluctantly resume direct management by way of a set of commissioners. The commissioners were unpopular with Newfoundlanders ("the seven Mussolinis" was one common nickname for them), in part because of their collective belief that they understood the local population's needs better than they themselves did. 

 

One example of that attitude was the Commission's decision to purchase whole-wheat flour for the populace, on the (perfectly logical) grounds that it was cheaper and more nutritious than white. To the islanders it smacked of the dole, and an attitude that "it'll be good enough for the locals." The end result was that Newfoundlanders almost unanimously rejected whole-wheat bread, and it remains unpopular outside of the cities even now. 

 

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/commission-government.php

[rotuts]

White Bread  , when produced in Europe , was more expensive than whole wheat, ( which was probably coarser and adulterated for a long time ),

 

was there for thought to be P.O.S.H.   and high class therefor sought after as a status symbol for a long time.

 

seems universal-ish idea

[ElsieD]

Today we are in St. Pierre et Miquelon, which is a French colony off the coast of Newfoundland.  We got up with the birds to get to the ferry, which made the crossing in 1 hour, 10 minutes.  We took a tour of the island which was very interesting.  The fellow doing the driving reminded me of Jaques Pepin with his, "you know?"  and it wasn't just the expression, he was a dead ringer with the accent.   A couple of pictures for you.  One is just of the sign with the town name, the other are a couple of the town itself.  The houses are painted different colours, much like St. John's.

 

At the moment we are seated in Le Chat de Luthier,  where we are waiting for our lunch.  More on that later!

[blue_dolphin]

Looks like another beautiful day!  Since St. Pierre et Miquelon is a French colony, is there any sort of passport control when you get on/off the ferry? 

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Looks like another beautiful day!  Since St. Pierre et Miquelon is a French colony, is there any sort of passport control when you get on/off the ferry? 

 

It has been a great day.  We had to show our passports to buy the ferry tickets and then to go through customs on the Newfoundland side.  We just boarded the ferry for the return trip and they checked our passports again.  I'm not sure what happens at the other end.  I'll let you know.

[ElsieD]

Lunch today was very good.  They had a cod special and the menu listed one of my favourite things and something you see rarely to never on restaurant menus in Canada and that is flammekuchen.  I was vacillating between the two then noticed the flammekuchen served two.  I ordered the cod and was very happy with it. Beautifully cooked, nice big flakes of moist fish served with a red pepper sauce.  It came with rice and a condiment topping of sorts which, when I asked, was told it was a shallots, tomato, white wine and cumin sauce. It was really good and livened up the rice which was a plain white one.  John had the pizza and the toppings were hot and sweet peppers, ham, hot chorizo, shitaki mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese,   They had cruet of spicy oil on the table which he also put on the pizza.  It had a very thin crust and was baked in a gas fired pizza oven.  We did not have dessert but visited a patisserie where we bought a couple of delicious looking things for later.  The ferry is about to take off which is when  I loose my Internet so will post the pictures and try to send before we leave.  The connection is not particularly strong.

 

Once again I had poked into my fish and rice before remembering to take a picture.  The menu is a list today's specials.

[rotuts]

" Ile Frottante "

 

brings back memories.   a real favorite of mine  

[ElsieD]

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

" Ile Frottante "

 

brings back memories.   a real favorite of mine  

 

And did you see le chat on the book shelf? 

[rotuts]

yep

[ElsieD]

We did some roaming around St. Pierre after lunch and found a patisserie where we bought the goodies pictured below.  During what felt like  the never-ending drive to tonight's hotel, the eclair managed to roll over and the chocolate ganache fell off, so I had to sort of piece it together as best I could for the picture.  We are having the eclair and the pear tart tonight and will have the apple tart tomorrow.  We have a fridge in our room so keeping it cold won't be a problem.  To keep from eating it before then might be.

 

We were pretty tired by the time we got to Clarenville and we weren't particularly hungry so decided to go to a place called Dustabella's for quick bite.  It is a restaurant attached to a hotel and it actually has pretty good food.  We ate there several times last year and were more than satisfied with it.  I had the appetizer sized portion of seafood chowder with some garlic bread.  This was a good chowder, containing salmon, scallops, cod, shrimp and one  mussel.  The garlic bread was fresh but not very garlicy and not very well toasted which I didn't mind too much because I'm not big on bread with chowder anyway.  John had a turkey soup which he said was  very good but could have been a bit hotter temperature wise.  He had a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich to go with it that he said could have been better grilled.  Overall,  not bad.

 

Tiring day, though.  The going through customs and getting to the ferry early along with the crossing took 4 hours, we spent 5 hours in St. Pierre and driving time added another  for 3 hours and 45 minutes to the day.  Tomorrow promises to be much more relaxed.  I should have some interesting pictures for you tomorrow.

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

I meant to show you one more picture, and that is of a street in St. Pierre.  Cars are driven on the left hand side of the planters and pedestrians walk on the other side.  All the streets that we walked on are narrow like this.  It reminds me of the old part of Quebec City or even the old city of Montreal.  Very quaint if you come from a modern urban centre.  

 

Edited to add:  they drive the same way they do in North America, on the right.   Once students graduate from high school, they go to university in France.  Pretty much everything is paid for by the government - tuition, transportation to and from St. Pierre to France and they get a living allowance.  Of particular interest to those of us who live in cold weather climates, after a snow storm, they have special equipment that totally clears the snow right down to the pavement within 24 hours of a storm.  Also, all hydro and telephone wires are buried, not just in the city but also in the rural areas.  Nary a pole to be seen.   Specialists are flown in from France as required to perform surgeries.  

Edited September 1, 2016 by ElsieD (log)