Nova Scotian Food
Perhaps nowhere is the English culinary tradition more prominently
reflected than in the pubs and taverns across Nova Scotia. This is where
you'll find the shepherds' pies, plowman's lunches, sausage rolls, and,
most popular of all, fish and chips.
Fish and chips were to industrial England what the hot dog was to the
United States - the original fast food of generations who knew of McDonald's
only as a Scottish clan. In Nova Scotia there are many corner operations
and small restaurants that proudly aim to please the fish and chip crowd.
Upscale restaurants might call their dish haddock and frites, but we all
know it's fish and chips.
down to a matter of preference. Do you like your fish fried in a light or
heavy batter? Or just run through a coating of seasoned flour? And will that be cod or haddock? Some ask only one question before they order. "Is the fish fresh or frozen?" If the answer is evasive, like "Well, it's fresh-frozen," true fish and chip addicts may opt for the special of the
day.
Lunenburg County is the stronghold of German fare. If you're lucky, you
might start with an appetizer of Solomon Gundy (pickled herring) and go on to a salad of sauerkraut or cucumbers in sour cream. Follow this with an entrée of salt cod and pork scraps, which the Germans call House Bankin and others call Dutch Mess, and for dessert, gingerbread with lemon sauce, or pie of any kind. It's here that the great cabbages grow and are turned into sauerkraut and kohl slaw. It's here where potatoes are made into a delicious Kartofflesuppe or added to the batter of raised doughnuts called Fasnaks.
It's here that a sausage called Lunenburg pudding is adored, and it's here where some of the best home cooks ply their mixing spoons and rolling pins. Oh yes, in Lunenburg County, they take pride in their baking but modestly ask "what's all the fuss?"
You'll find Scottish cuisine prominently located in Pictou County and Cape Breton, or wherever oatcakes appear in bread baskets (give a restaurant a star for this). From Scotch broth or cock-a-leekie soup served with bannock or porridge bread, to smoked kippers, finnan haddie or poached salmon with a side of clapshot, or tatties and 'neeps, you'll find something special about Scottish fare. This is especially true if you wash it down with a tot of rare single malt whisky distilled at Cape Breton's Glenora Distillery, the only place in North America that makes it.
With the early back-and-forth flow of people between Nova Scotia and New England, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the cuisine of either.
They readily credit the New Englanders who brought to their Nova Scotia homes the cornmeal that they turn into puddings and Johnny cakes, the baked beans and brown bread, and the traditional Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But Nova Scotians hold close to their hearts the first fish chowders ever served in North America.
To stake their claim they point to the blackened pots of the early 1500s,
when foreign fishermen came to fill their nets and ships with the prolific
cod. They had to eat and fish was handy.
The perfect fish, seafood or clam chowder is there - somewhere. But
finding it depends on your personal preference. Some connoisseurs like a thick chowder, others like it thin. Perhaps somewhere in between lies perfection. You may find it, if you stay long enough.
Photos courtesy Nova Scotia Travel