A week on Prince Edward Island turned into more than three. Every turn and every town looked like a postcard version of itself. Even empty fields were either mowed or planted with low grasses or sunflowers, and each woodline looked painted by god. I watched the tides go in and out dramatically, and I explored different shores, but I don’t know if I did the island justice when it comes to learning its foods.

Thing is, there’s an overlap between tourist food and what the locals eat, along with what the locals have traditionally eaten. Things like Chow Chow aren’t common anymore. Early frosts might threaten late season tomatoes, so they were harvested green and chopped up into a kind of relish. This was a fall and winter staple at one point, but most locals haven’t heard of it, and you are only likely to find it in a homemade condiment bowl at small Acadian restaurants, of which I did not go.

Lobster poutine is another one that isn’t really a local flavor, but a great way to up-sell regular poutine to tourists or a local who orders it as an occasional indulgence. The lobster supper is considered an island staple, but it also has to do with being able to consistently and quickly serve a bus-load of tourists at the same time with something “Instagrammable.” The plastic bib, the big claws and the cracking tools make for good posts to social channels.

Fish n’ chips are very popular on PEI, but the dish isn’t something specific to the area. Oysters and mussels are a local treat, but I’ve never really been a fan. If you have to douse something with lemon juice or cocktail sauce then is it really that good? I skipped it entirely, but did grab a few noteworthy dishes.

Fries with the works (FWTW)

This isn’t actually a spin-off of poutine, and can also be found back on the mainland, but FWTW is still popular on PEI. It’s a good comfort food and potatoes are a staple crop here, so a base of French fries is always going to be a good start. Adding gravy and cheese curds makes it poutine, but the cheese curds aren’t always added for FWTW. Instead, ground beef and peas are piled on. You might see peas and carrots on occasion, or shredded cheese melted on top, but not usually.

Then there are the lost recipes like seaweed pie. The name actually comes from Irish Moss, which used to be harvested by the local immigrant population and put into many things. The pie itself is only served at the Canadian Potato Museum in O’Leary, and starts with a sort of sponge cake bed and then the fluffy, greenish filling. It tastes nothing like moss, seaweed, or the ocean.

The texture is similar to a mousse, and it’s really good like a cream pie might be, though I prefer the texture of thicker pies like key lime or even cheesecake.

I’m not sure why it went out of fashion, other than locals probably stopped needing to harvest moss as the island grew and prosperity came to more households.  Just to prove it tastes like any other pie, you can get it with a raspberry or blueberry drizzle. I chose the latter and it was really a great dessert. And hey, the museum itself is worth a look, as it’s about the island’s history as well as farming methods, potato history, and soil conservation. Plenty of cool old tractors to look at, too.

All hail the new potato

PEI is a great place to have a potato museum, as the country’s smallest province is their leading producer of the venerable tuber. Fields abound and are quite beautiful early in the season when the leaves are still deep green, and some varieties even bloom small white flowers. Potatoes need to be harvested after the leaves die so the skins can thicken up and the starches stay preserved, but if you aren’t trying to palletize tons of them at a time, you can harvest them early, which creates the “new potato.”

These are sold in 3, 5, or 10-pound bags usually, and can be found at unattended roadside farm stands everywhere. An honesty box is left in place and the prices are listed. There’s plenty of potatoes and sometimes carrots, fresh eggs, radishes, or some kind of greens available. Despite them being lower in starch and therefore better for stews and soups, I’ve been chopping and boiling them with great success, then finishing them off in a hot pan with some avocado oil, pepper, and smoked paprika.

They are potatoes and therefore go with anything, including locally caught cod and mackerel, or store bought crab legs, pork chops, parsnips, or even cheese tortellini (no, really). They’re also great for the road since they don’t bruise or wilt easy, though I would be happier buying them 1-lbs at a time to save space.

Canadian staples

I also managed to find a beaver tail finally, but no, there are no beavers involved. It’s just a flat bread that is topped with sweet or savory items, with the classic just being cinnamon and sugar. Still, there’s everything from bananas and Nutella to gummy worms, and although I really liked my classic, $11CAD for a piece of bread doesn’t fly with a guy who has had Indian frybread at a fraction of the cost.

It feels a bit like if someone wanted to charge you $7 for a donut. Also, it is a Canadian thing yes, but not some sort of societal staple like the chocolate chip cookie. No, it’s more like the deep fried Twinkie is to America, or cotton candy. They only go back to the 1970’s, when an Ontario family sold them at a craft fair under the name of Beaver Tails. It was really just a family recipe for a fried bread that came from the old country (Germany).

After spending time both on Vancouver Island and Prince Edward Island, I’d say the fish taco is more widely consumed by Canadians than the Beaver Tail. People from the American Southwest would clutch their pearls most likely, but Canada can fry up fish better than they can in Baja. Of course they’ll never win on the tortilla, but they aren’t miserable up here by any means.

The real difference is they will make their own weird salsa instead of using pico de gallo, and it can often be sweet, so as to match the sweeter chipotle sauce used instead of the Baja-style crema. They also go for micro-greens instead of shredded cabbage most times, but cabbage is mainly used in Baja because it doesn’t wilt while being transported from the farm, not because of some flavor profile.

A bit more “northeastern” is certainly the lobster roll. I’m not a huge fan of lobster but if you put enough mayonnaise on something, I’ll eat a bag full of smashed up @$$holes. Usually though it’s best to have them made to order, or made in small batches, so the lobster can’t get soggy, and the flavor of both it and the mayo are kept distinct. I find it slightly more authentic though when it’s served up at a gas station.

These are of course made the night before, and a 2nd batch might be made midday depending on demand. I found one trick is to go in later in the day and to ask if they have any in back. Assuming their front fridge is empty, someone is obliged to go look and see if they can grab one from tomorrow’s ready-made batch.

In that case the mayo has had a little time to meld, but nothing has gone soggy. Considering the going rate for a fresh one at a restaurant is $30-$32CAD, I’m a big fan of just taking my gas station roll and a beer, riding out to a point or a cove, and enjoying it all while I swat mosquitoes (the other PEI staple).

PEI does have its own beef industry, and while the hamburger certainly isn’t a Canadian invention, they sure as hell know how to do one. I have a feeling Canada just doesn’t allow as much ground up cow eye or cheek meat in their ground beef as the US, but I haven’t actually verified. It tastes better everywhere I go, but I suppose I wouldn’t be able to truly compare unless I went to a local Burger King or McDonald’s.

Coming up…

Now though, I’m back on the mainland, just crossing into Nova Scotia as the month of September establishes itself with some cooler temperatures and heavy clouds. I will soon be pushed out of here as the Great White North begins to live up to its name, but not before I get out to Newfoundland—the place even Canadians keep saying they wish they could go see.

There’s an upcoming biker rally on the Nova Scotia north shore, then I’ll poke round the south shore a bit before taking the ferry to the big island. While here though I want to look for some Acadian dishes like fricot or rappie pie, or also poutine râpée, a sort of potato dumpling filled with shredded pork, which apparently needs to be eaten with either black pepper, or molasses or honey added, and no other way.

All of those are more Acadian than regional, so I can find them throughout the Maritimes if I just pay enough attention. Once I get to Newfoundland I will have a whole new series of local foods to try, from cod tongues to the Jiggs dinner (which is usually only served on Sundays, I’m told). In all, I’ve got my work cut out for me, trying to see the big island and still making it back to see more of Nova Scotia before making tracks to the US, then south to avoid the snows.

Stick around,

John

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