Every place you visit around the world is known for their own certain food specialties and delicacies. In Halifax where I was born and raised our specialties are garlic fingers, lobster rolls and donairs. Chicago is known for deep dish pizza, Berlin is known for curry wurst, Texas is known for its BBQ, etc. On my recent trip to Newfoundland aside from moose and seal flipper pie I learned about some of the very specific Newfoundland food specialties and delicacies. Here is some of the interesting food in Newfoundland.
The bakeapple. Also known as cloudberries, this fruit can be found across Canada however it is extremely popular in the summer months in Newfoundland. The fruit grows wild on low plants in marshy bogish areas with only one fruit growing per plant. Its a taxing job to go bakeapple picking if you can even find them to begin with. Many Newfoundlanders are very secretive with their bakeapple picking spots and some even go to the extremes of stopping at various places on the way to their favourite spot to throw people off in case they are being followed.
Bakeapples are tart and have little seeds inside similar to a raspberry. Most commonly people make bakeapple jam with them and bakeapple cheesecake.
Iceberg beer. A popular beer company in Newfoundland is called Quidi Vidi and one of their most sought after beers is their Iceberg beer. During iceberg season Quidi Vidi harvests pieces of iceberg from the many icebergs that drift from Greenland to the province as they melt in the spring and summer. They then melt down the bergy bits and use the ancient water to make Iceberg beer.
Iceberg beer is nice and refreshing especially to have while on an iceberg watching tour. My favourite part however is the fancy blue bottle that it comes in.
Toutons. A touton is literally a pan fried ball of dough. A popular breakfast food in Newfoundland, however people can often find an excuse to eat them any time of day. Served warm, people eat them with butter or molasses and sometimes butter and molasses but then the big question is which do you put on first?
While I was in Newfoundland I also enjoyed a touton sandwich which was two toutons flattened out with ham, cheese and egg thrown in the middle for quite the tasty breakfast sandwich.
**Please note** if you have a heart attack from eating too many toutons it is not my fault…
Candice Walsh cod jigging.
Cod tongue and cheeks.
Captain Dave Boyd cleaning the cod and cutting filets.
Salt cod.
Cod, cod, cod. Newfoundlanders love cod. There use to be so much cod around the waters of Newfoundland that they would slow ships down. Canadian Heritage moment flashback. However sadly the cod fish have now been over fished. These days there is a fishing moratorium on cod fish in Newfoundland but I was lucky enough to be there during one of the only couple of weeks each year that you are actually allowed to go cod fishing. Each boat is allowed to only catch 15 cod per trip. When we went out fishing with Captain Dave Boyd of Prime Berth: Iceberg, Whale Watching and fishing tours we had 15 cod on our boat in roughly 20minutes. Captain Dave has been fishing for 61 years and he knows how and where to fish.
Cod fish filet at the Twine Loft restaurant in Trinity, Newfoundland.
Aside from enjoying some nice cod filets we also dined on cod tongues and cod cheeks which are the Newfoundlanders favourite part of the cod fish. The cod cheeks were quite tasty and the texture reminded me of a scallop… the cod tongue on the other hand was a bit tough and rubbery. There is a good chance that the cod tongues we had were cooked a tad too much but I think I will just leave the tongues for the locals next time…
While there we also dined on Jigs dinner, icebergs, the best soft serve ice cream in Newfoundland and more. To watch my funny experiences with these foods hit play on the video below.
Honorable mentions go out to moose meat and seal flipper pie.
Have you been to Newfoundland? What would you like to try or What is your favourite Newfoundland food?
38 Comments
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:10 pmYou left out being “screeched-in” and enjoying a “A Wicked Scoff” of a traditional “Jiggs Dinner” with Pease pudding and figgy duff. Don’t forget Cloudberry and Partridgeberry Jams to go on those Toutons.
check out http://awickedscoff.blogspot.in/
Cailin
January 4, 2015 at 12:17 pmI don’t think you watched the video! ;) Jiggs dinner and cloudberries are both there and I did the screech-in in a previous video ;)
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:36 pmSorry, No, I didn’t watch it until just now, I saw where you had bakeapples which are cloudberries. It was an excellent video, it brought up some great memories.
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:30 pmAnd how could I forget about my favorite… Donairs, the Gyro-style sandwich with the sweet-garlic sauce
Cailin
January 4, 2015 at 12:32 pmNo! Donairs aren’t from Newfoundland at all! haha They are from Halifax, Nova Scotia :)
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:39 pmYes, but I ate them almost everyday when I was in St. John’s and Gander. So to me it still needs to be added to the list of food to try when you are there.
Cailin
January 4, 2015 at 12:45 pmhahaha I’m from Halifax and I can’t rightly justify that, also I know that the ones in Halifax are so much better ;) hahaha
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:48 pmYou need to give me the Halifax recipe then, if they are better, because I thought they were great in NL.
Cailin
January 4, 2015 at 12:51 pmhaha I can’t give you the recipe. Homemade donairs do not compare! You need to have one at a proper donair place like King of Donair to really enjoy it :)
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:45 pmIf you haven’t been to New Orleans, yet, contact me and I’ll take you around for an epicurean tour of some of my favorite haunts
Cailin
January 4, 2015 at 12:47 pmI’m dying to visit there, haven’t been yet, but fingers crossed for 2015! Thanks so much :)
Cajun
January 4, 2015 at 12:53 pmYou’re welcome. I can also give you some good tips for places like New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, St. Louis, etc. if you visit there.
Lily Lau
September 12, 2014 at 2:28 pmThat was a hilarious post! The food seemed fresh, but I think I wouldn’t be able to eat half of it -especially the tongue!!
Cara
February 12, 2015 at 4:29 pmI’m a Newfoundlander and I don’t eat most of this stuff… I hate fish, and I’ve never eaten anything bakeapple in my life. However, toutons are DELICIOUS and I highly recommend them.
Cailin
February 16, 2015 at 3:43 pmhaha well you are not just a regular Newfoundlander then are you? ;)
Megan Kennedy
August 27, 2014 at 10:44 amI love that you had a chance to eat part of an iceberg and how many unique foods are in Canada, depending on where you are.
I’ll have to try to find some Bakeapples when I visit, anything berry like is a favourite of mine.
Great video, I haven’t been to Newfoundland since I was a child but I’m craving a trip back.
Jessica
August 25, 2014 at 8:31 amWow, I learned so much from this post!
“Many Newfoundlanders are very secretive with their bakeapple picking spots and some even go to the extremes of stopping at various places on the way to their favourite spot to throw people off in case they are being followed.” This part cracked me up! Sounds like serious business indeed! ;)
Great job on the fishing too. Looks like you guys rocked it!
Cailin
August 25, 2014 at 10:10 amThanks Jessica! It took me a few good days until I finally found a guy actually picking the bakeapples so I could find them and get a photo of them growing! haha Glad you enjoyed the post! And the fishing was easy, as long as you know where the fish are ;)
Elena
August 25, 2014 at 7:53 amOooh the cod looks delicious! And though I don’t eat a lot of fried food…the touton sandwich had me drooling.
Cailin
August 25, 2014 at 10:12 amElena if you don’t eat a lot of fried food you might not survive in Newfoundland because there was A LOT of it! haha It was all quite delicious though :)
Izy Berry - The Wrong Way Home
August 25, 2014 at 12:17 amThis post made me so hungry. I never thought of New Foundland as a food hotspot, but you might have convinced me I need to visit :D
Cailin
August 25, 2014 at 10:21 amIzy and these were just the foods unique or popular to the province. There were soooooo many other places with awesome food! Even in the middle of nowhere in a place called Grates Cove we found some of the best sushi I’ve ever had! However Newfoundland does also have a lot of processed fried food too… haha
Jessica @ Independent Travel Cats
August 23, 2014 at 11:03 pmI have never heard of the bakeapples, would be interesting in trying some! But I think I’ll pass on hte moose meat and seal flipper pie…. :)
Cailin
August 25, 2014 at 10:22 amI’m not sure if I would try the seal flipper pie either… but I’ve had moose before and it was actually pretty good :)
noel
August 23, 2014 at 8:49 pmWow, all good stuff, I would love to try the cheeks and tongue, what a novelty
Cailin
August 25, 2014 at 10:23 amYou can have the tongues and I’ll keep the cheeks! haha It was all very tasty :)
Jenny | A Thing For Wor(l)ds
August 21, 2014 at 11:25 amGIVE. ME. THE. TOUTONS.
The rest, I could live without (although would love to try iceberg beer), but seriously, toutons? Where’ve you been all my life?
Cailin
August 22, 2014 at 11:18 amYep! They are pretty damn good!!! And addicting… haha
Helen @ Not Without My Passport
August 21, 2014 at 10:24 amMy kind of post! Those toutons look awesome – I know what I’ll be trying first when I visit Newfoundland!
Cailin
August 21, 2014 at 11:04 amThey were pretty great and the good thing about them is that they are easy to make at home if you wanted… but then you might eat too many! haha
Wandering Carol
August 21, 2014 at 2:12 amI’ll stick with the bakeapples. They look so cute. And maybe an Iceberg beer. Fun post, Cailin
Cailin
August 21, 2014 at 11:05 amThanks Carol!! It was all tasty!
Lisa Goodmurphy
August 20, 2014 at 11:04 pmYes, we visited Newfoundland a couple of years ago. I tried cod tongues but my kids refused to even taste them. They were okay, I found them a bit tough as well. Now the bakeapple jam – that was tasty!
Cailin
August 21, 2014 at 11:06 amNext time you go get them to try the cheeks! Much better :) The bakeapple jam I had was great too, I need to try the bakeapple cheesecake next time :)
Mary Calculated Traveller
August 20, 2014 at 9:31 pmThanks for the NewFoundland food primer! I loved your reaction when you caught that Cod – I’d probably react the same way!
Cailin
August 21, 2014 at 11:07 amhaha thanks Mary!! I actually cut out most of the swearing, that was the semi-PG version haha I had been fishing many times before but never caught one that big :)
Chanel | Cultural Xplorer
August 20, 2014 at 7:01 pmEverything looks so fresh and delicious! Eating an iceberg is especially interesting in addition to the cod tongues. You are making me want to travel to New Foundland! :D
Cailin
August 20, 2014 at 8:29 pmYou will definitely have to visit someday Chanel! But first you have to remember that it is all one word! Spelt “Newfoundland” ;)