Canada!

Jason and I had a vacation planned to eat as many lobster rolls as possible, check out the fall foliage, and finally check Quebec City off of my list. Perfect opportunity to also check Canada off of my list of countries! 

I've been to Canada a handful of times and tried a handful of Canadian foods already: poutine, alllllll of the chocolate bars, Beaver Tails, Montreal bagels. This is definitely the tourist's collection of foods, but hey, we were tourists! Lazy ones at that because we'd already been on the road for days. 

First up, breakfast on Campobello Island, New Brunswick. We went there to check out the Bay of Fundy and somehow didn't realize that this was a town based entirely on summer cottage rentals. We spent the first night eating microwaved frozen meals from the only market in town. Marie Callander's teriyaki chicken never tasted so good! After a failed attempt to see whales, we warmed up over breakfast at The Porch at Friar's Bay which was right next to the inn we stayed in (very cute, recommend!). We ordered the sourdough French Toast and Belgian Waffle with fruit, both served with local maple syrup, and got the only unique thing we found on the menu as a side: the fish cake. It was very fishy! But not bad mixed in with the potato and onion and it had a nice crust. Overall, I'd skip the off-season Campobello Island experience. 

L-R: fish cake, frozen food and chocolate bar dinner, sourdough
French Toast, Belgian Waffle, FDR's summer cottage, Bay of Fundy

Next up was Quebec City. I've wanted to go here for years. When I was younger, I thought it'd be the only French-y place I'd ever get to go because kids from Lima don't tend to dream too big. I've since gone to Paris, but I'm still that small town kid every time I get to see a new place. Here is my happy dance once we opened up our hotel drapes and I saw Old Quebec:

We ate two Beaver Tails from Queues de Castor (which appears to be a Beaver Tail franchise. My retirement business plan may now switch from cute motor inn to Beaver Tail franchise.) Beaver Tails are a very Canadian pastry - stretched whole wheat dough fried until crisp, yet chewy. Beaver Tails can be topped with different spreads/candies. We chose the maple which had a maple flavored spread and topped with maple sugar crunchies. They were incredible! I want a Queues de Castor in Cleveland! Sadly, the calls to the mobile truck listed in Detroit went unanswered, but there are several right across the border.

Poutine was next on the list. We read that Chez Gaston was the place to go for the best poutine. It was a tiny diner in Saint-Roch that was turning out massive dishes of poutine. We opted for the classic - brown gravy with cheese curds - and Sylton - minced steak, sausages, bacon, onion with the standard gravy and cheese curds. Maybe it was lost in translation, but "minced steak" = chopped up hamburger pieces and "sausages" = hot dogs. It was ... something. I had almost immediate regret. Maybe this was a dish better served after a night of drinking? 

We recovered by walking around the gorgeous city for few miles and eating lots of peppermints and then attempted the next round of traditional Quebecois food at a restaurant located in the oldest house (1675!) in Quebec, Aux Anciens Canadiens. This was tourist central and we weren't expecting much, but it did seem to offer the easiest way to sample a bunch of traditional foods via their menu du jour. I opted for the house red wine, pea soup, Grandma's Treat (Quebec meat pie, meatballs, and baked beans), and the maple creme brulee. Pea soup dates back to when French Canadians made do with supplies brought in by ship from Europe: dried peas and salted pork. Now it's a popular comfort food. Meat pie is a traditional holiday dish, typically served on Christmas Eve. It's made with ground meat - typically beef, pork, and/or veal, but early versions used pigeon meat!- in a double crust. This version was served with a sweet fruit ketchup. Baked beans are one of Canada's earliest dishes; stoneware pots heated over hot stones with beans, maple syrup, and animal fat were made by Indigenous peoples for centuries before they became a standard French Canadian dish. These weren't the thick, maple-tinged version that I was expecting and that's a shame because baked beans can be heavenly. Creme Brulee is a classic - one of my first "fancy" desserts and it's still one of my all-time favorites. This one was outstanding with a perfectly crisp sugary crust and velvety custard inside. 

We kind of knew what we were getting going into this restaurant in the very cruise-ship heavy tourist section of the city and it met our expectations exactly - bland, overpriced, cheesy. But we were able to cross all the standard dishes off of our list and sometimes that's just what you have to do when you have limited time and a bunch of food to eat.

Top: Meat pie, meatballs, baked beans, turnips.
Bottom left: pea soup
Bottom right: maple creme brulee

We made our way to Montreal the next morning strictly for a bagel run. We waited in line at St-Viateur Bagel. The bagels are hand-rolled, boiled in honey infused water, and baked in a wood burning oven to create a sweet and crunchy outside and soft and doughy middle. We got half a dozen and scarfed down three before we were back on the highway. They are GOOD.

Add in the Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp, and Wine Gums and you have a well-rounded Canadian food experience. 

10 down, 42 to go!