Labrador eatin'

I should have had a conversation about what people eat here 4 weeks ago.  Who knew there was such a bounty of Labrador (& Newfoundland) specific food.   It started with the hospital serving fish and brewis ("brews") for dinner.  Right?  Does anyone know what this is?  They take salt fish and soak it in water overnight then take hard tack (rock hard bread that sailors used/use), soak that overnight too. The next day they boil each separately and then serve it together.  Traditionally it is served with scrunchions - salted pork fat cut into small pieces and fried. Both the rendered fat and liquid fat are drizzled over the salty fish and empty carbohydrates.  Wow.  I took a few bites of the hospital version and it was bland, white on white on white and I haven't yet found the appeal. 

Bakeapple (aka cloudberries) apparently have a distinct honey/apricot flavor.  Partridge berries (aka lingon berries) are a relative to the cranberry.  Someone brought me in homemade jam.  Yes!

 

 

Speaking of partridge, I saw one of them on a little hike I did.  And I use the term "hike" loosely.  I followed the cross country ski trail in a 6km circuit. There isn't much hiking to speak of here.  It's very flat which is part of it, and most of the trails are ATV/Ski doo trails.  I've walked them a few times, but ATV'ing is huge here and the people on the ATV's wonder what the hell I'm doing walking and it's noisy and frankly ruins my serenity.  These partridge are apparently fairly stupid, there is not much to catching them.  You can pull over on the side of the road and grab them.

The lack of the thrill of the hunt makes me feel only slightly guilty.....eating them. Someone brought me a plate of partridge, heart and gizzard in all. Hey, when in Rome.   It was delicious.

 

The break room was truly astonished I had never heard of, let alone tried a "Jigg's dinner".  It's a Sunday night staple here.  They asked how the beef comes in Vancouver if it doesn't come salted. Does anyone else notice a theme here?  I guess it is or at least was all about preserving during the winter months so everything, and I mean everything is salted here.  They asked what we have for Christmas dinner, I explained, and they said, "but you mean it's all cooked separately in different pots?"  "Ummmm.... yes...."  Their Jigg's dinner (aka boiled dinner) has, you guessed it, salted beef, carrot, turnip, turnip greens, potato, figgy duff (soft bread), and pease pudding (basically solid pea soup).  Someone brought me a plate to my house.  It was good, but holy god they aren't kidding about that salted beef.  I am so thirsty now!  I keep drinking beer, but it's not helping ;-)

 

 

 

It looks like I'm coming back here for another month.  Coming to the same place twice wasn't my intention for my big adventure but the dates of this next contract work out well and I have a big house to myself and they give me a car.  It could be worse.  The people I'm working with are amazing.  I am usually crying I'm laughing so hard at least once during my shift and you can't beat that.  They are so expressive and such characters - they talk SO fast.  I'll be home August 30th till September 16th and then back here for another month before I figure out where my journey takes me next.  If not Alberta, I'm going to pursue my Northwest Territory/Nunavut licence and head to the Arctic for contracts through the winter.  Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.

 

If you get a chance, vote for my photos of "Northwest River, Labrador" from my previous post at







http://www.travelnurse.ca/employee_photo.html    and help me win a camera.  They are the shots of the boat floating in the water and the teepee skeleton.  Thanks!