Canadian Taste Treats

During a recent trip to Sauble Beach, Ontario, we had a some interesting taste treats:

1. Beaver Tails. This is the name of an Ontario type of pastry. It is one of the best desserts I've ever had. It's thin, flat, wide and messy to eat. Mine was topped with maple butter and my wife's with hazelnut chocolate. We had ours at the Beaver Tails stand in Little Tub Harbor, Toberymory.

2. I had a very nice fish & chip lunch with whitefish at the Princess Hotel in Toberymory. The menu has a mix of Canadian and Greek food. The Greek food appears to be the real thing. For example, the Greek Xoriatiki (Country) Salad did not have lettuce - the sign of a genuine Greek salad. Our waitress was originally from the Peleponnesus in Greece.
3. We had some terrific home-made ice cream at the Big Bay General Store, a terrific little store on the south side of Colpoys Bay, east of Wiarton. The same people have owned it for at least 15 years.
4. I had a delicious sausage sandwich at the weekly market at Keady. The market is a farmers market and antiques market. When a local heard me discussing a sausage sandwich as I was standing next to a booth that sold sausage sandwiches, he told me that the best sausage sandwiches were at the F&M booth. My niece and I went to the F&M booth and each had one. They were terrific. The owner, Floyd Wallerstein, said that he only uses pork, salt, and pepper, with no filler. The buns he uses are home made.
The Keady market has a lot of beautiful produce in summer. However, you have to be very careful. Some of the stands sell produce that is at the end of its freshness.
5. I tried some poutine (french fries and gravy) in Wiarton, but it did not match what I'd had in Montreal. This dish is from Quebec.
6. We had some wonderful Montreal-style bagels which my niece's husband had brought up from Montreal. (For a description of Montreal-style bagels, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal-style_bagel)
7. We had wonderful meals prepared by my two nieces.
8. In Sauble Beach, there is a Chinese restaurant called Channings. It reportedly has tasty Chinese food. What I found amusing on the web site menu is that they have a section entitled, "Canadian food." That section comprises three items:
- chicken fingers
- french fries
- grilled cheese