Regional Foods: Maritimes

Alexander and I talk a lot about "local" cuisines, and he often expresses envy that I come from a place (Nova Scotia) that has many more "regional foods" than does Ontario. I have decided to compile a list of them here for the Eat My Love audience.*

For the purpose of this post, I am defining "Maritime food" as cuisine that originates in, or has specific relevance to, the gastronomic culture of Canada's Maritime region** The food of this region is influenced especially by its geographic proximity to the ocean, and the ethnicities of the people who have lived there. My examination of the food of the region will no doubt have a white, anglo Nova Scotian bias. For this, I apologize.


Donair

A variation of the meat-cooked-on-a-stick-in-a-pita genre. Created by Lebanese (?) immigrants in Halifax during the 1970s. "Donair meat" (beef cooked on a "spit") is served on a pita with tomatoes, onions, donair sauce, and often cheese.


Donair Sauce
A thick, white sauce made of evaporated milk, garlic powder, sugar and vinegar.


Donair Pizza

Pizza dough with mozzarella cheese, donair meat, tomatoes, onions and topped with donair sauce


Garlic fingers

Pizza dough with garlic butter and cheese, often served with donair sauce.


Fish and Chips from a truck

This may be a contentious entry since it is certainly not specific to the region, but it is the ubiquity of the fish and chip truck within the Maritime provinces as compared to other regions (for instance, there were two within a five minute walking distance to my suburban Jr. High school) that I think it should be included on the list.


Lobster rolls

A bun (often hot dog-shaped) filled with pieces of lobster meat mixed with mayonaise and spices. Nova Scotia lobster rolls differ from others in the East Coast region in that they often include pieces of celery in the lobster mix and usually also lettuce inside the bun.


Poutine Râpée

A boiled potato dumpling with pork filling. An Acadian dish that I have heard of, but as an anglo, never consumed.


Fayots au Lard
Acadian dish of baked dried beans and salt pork fat served with molasses.


Fish Cakes

Fish cakes are certainly not unique to this region, but the traditional Maritime version of the fishcake is, I believe, distinct from its global counterparts in that they are made with boiled fish- usually haddock and/or salted fish (like cod)- and potato, rather than breadcrumbs. As I child, I hated fishcakes the way bratty American kids on TV hate their mother's meatloaf. In my family, they were the ubiquitous, horrid, pasty, mushy-meat meal I dreaded.


Mini-Sips

Single-serve clear plastic bags of low-quality fruit-flavoured drink made by various local dairy companies. May be frozen and eaten as a popsicle-in-a-bag.


Fiddleheads

Young fern fronds harvested from the forest during the early spring. Usually boiled, steamed or pan-fried and eaten as a side vegetable.


Dulse

A thick, leathery seaweed that grows attached to rocks and snarls your legs up when you swim in the ocean. Eaten dried, as a snack.


Chow-Chow Pickles

A green tomato and vegetable relish, often eaten as an accompaniment to a traditional Sunday supper of roast meat and boiled vegetables.


Moon Mist ice cream

A combination of grape, banana and bubblegum flavors


Oatcakes

A Scottish creation made of rolled oats, flour, sugar, and shortening. In the Maritimes, they are baked into a hard, dry disk whereas in Britain they are, apparently, usually cooked on a griddle. Nearly any bakery, cafe or supermarket in the Maritimes will sell these as a sweet to consume with coffee or tea. You can find oatcakes in Ontario, but they are not nearly as popular here, and those that are available commercially are almost without exception imported either from the U.K. or from the Maritimes.


"Grunt"

An Acadian dessert, usually made with berries, that resembles a fruit cobbler. My first solo-baking endeavor was being assigned to cook a no-sugar, diabetic-friendly blueberry grunt at Girl Guide camp when I was 10. It was awful.


* This list will not be exhaustive, and I hope to add on to it as additional dishes spring to my mind.
** I have deliberately focused on the Maritime provinces rather than "Atlantic provinces" (which includes Newfoundland, a province with its own very unique and very rich gastronomic history that differs considerably from the Maritimes and about which I am largely ignorant). This food culture of this region blends into that of the States along the East coast, so there are many evident similarities and continuities between some of this food and that of New England.