This March Break, we decided to forgo our preferred method of travel (flight), in exchange for a long 17 hour road trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  My boys booked 5 days of golf, which allowed me the leisure of exploring the small historic towns along the coast, as well as visiting some farms and checking out the local and artisanal food scene. One day even took me to Charleston, a truly beautiful and historic city.  Another day I spent at the spaaaaah…did I mention the 17 hour drive??

Needless to say, where there’s a road trip there is ‘road food’. The boys in my house are big fans of the Travel Channel’s ‘Man vs Food’ (a show whereby the host travels to various areas in the United States, profiling independently owned restaurants who feature outstanding ‘down home cookin’).  To break the monotony, we decided to plan our driving route to accommodate a few of their favourite episodes.

Our first stop was ‘Ben’s Chili Bowl’, an ‘institution’ in Washington, D.C. There, we had the house special; a chili half smoke with chili cheese fries. Basically, this is a hot dog, smothered in chili, with french fries smothered in cheese and chili on the side – a southern poutine!

Next stop on our journey was ‘The Backyard BBQ Pit’ in Durham, North Carolina for a ’soul food’ dinner of succulent brisket, pulled pork and ribs, expertly slow roasted for many hours in their backyard cinderblock smoke house.  Our final stop was the Bowen’s Island Oyster House, in Charleston, for an authentic and very rustic, ‘oyster roast’.  This was, without a doubt, our favorite meal of the whole vacation!

Long drive home …this vacation was a calm before the storm…only 5 weeks left until the big move!

The final stop in our weekend in Montreal was the Jean Talon Market.  This is the best place to go if you are looking to incorporate a meal into your visit.  Many of the vendors sell food that is ‘ready to eat’, and the market is surrounded by permanent shops, many of which offer take away or eat in service.

This is also the best place to visit during the growing season when the market spills out into a series of tents.  If it grows, they sell it here.

The trick is to arrive hungry and take the opportunity to sample from the vendors.  My favourite stops are the Fish Monger, who will deep fry calamari, shrimp or fish and chips for you on the spot.  In the winter I enjoy the sausage maker who sells small duck or wild boar sausages on a stick hot off the BBQ.

The highlights are too numerous to mention.  There were leeks the size of your arm; duck, chicken & quail eggs; white and purple eggplants of every shape and size; an entire booth dedicated to heirloom tomatoes.  But I was most impressed by ‘les Cochons Tout Ronds’.  I thought for a moment that I was back in Spain!

Cured ham, Rilettes, Terrines, and Sausages hanging to dry.  Not sure what you want?  No problem.  The knowledgeable staff are happy to let you sample their wares.  I was hard not to leave with a little bit of everything!

Then, after a long day of shopping, we agonized over our final decision.  Where to eat?  The perimeter of the Market is lined with small restaurants offering up every type of ethnic cuisine you can imagine!  You can choose from Moroccan, Asian, Mexican, Italian, Portuguese, the possibilities are endless.  After considerable debate, we settled on Mexican, mostly because the most lovely woman was grilling hand made tamales, tacos, and gorditas right in front of us, and the smell was irresistible.

After a hard day of marketing, it was just what we needed to fuel ourselves for the 2 hour ride back to Ottawa.

What a delicious end to a fantastic weekend!

Opened in 2001 by chef Martin Picard, this restaurant celebrates ’snout to tail’ eating.  If you think I’m joking, the current menu features bison tongue, boudin noir (blood sausage), head cheese, stuffed pig trotters, and many more delicacies that have evolved over time out of the necessity of making use of every part of the animal.

So, armed with a healthy appetite, and a late reservation, we arrived at our destination.  You know you are in for an experience when the restaurant doesn’t even need to have their name on the front of their building!  Their reputation alone fills up the space every night of the week.

After waiting an extra 20 minutes for our 9pm reservation, we sat down to a complimentary plate of house made charcuterie and piping hot cod fritters.  The fritters were too salty for my taste (and I like salt) but the sampling of tongue, head cheese, boudin and aspic was lovely.

Between the 8 of us, we made every effort to sample the whole menu.  When the Bison Ribs arrived at the table, I felt like I was dining with the Flintstones.  They were juicy, meaty and were almost 18 inches long!

Another highlight of the evening was the ‘Duck in a Can’.  Containing braised cabbage, duck breast, and fois gras, then heated in a can, this meal was opened table-side, and the contents poured onto a slice of crusty bread smeared with mashed potatoes.  The presentation was unique and the meal was tasty.

The Seafood Platter for Two was beautiful to look at and full of vegetables including some lovely deep fried zucchini blossom, but quite honestly did not contain a lot of seafood.  There was a one crab claw and some whelks (sea snail).

We finished the meal off with a sampling of the dessert menu.  The wine flowed freely, and it was a beautiful evening.  Sometime after midnight we spilled out into the streets, happy and full.

Flower Shop at Atwater

The Atwater Market opened in 1933.  The interior of the market is permanent home to many butchers and a bakery.  The outside market has farmer stalls where they sell both local and imported produce.  There are two cheese stores and a wine store that specializes in locally produced spirits.  You can also buy fish, flowers and seasonal items like Christmas trees in November & December

The Art Deco building is located on Atwater Street near the Lachine Canal and the Lionel-Groulx Metro Station.  It’s central location makes it popular with cyclists.  The market is easily accessed from Old Montreal by bike, metro, car or taxi.

Atwater is really the place to go if you want to buy meat.  There are many fine butchers on site, each with their own specialty.  If you are looking for sausage, you can choose from hundreds of flavours.  If you need charcuterie, there are a number of places that make this their specialty.  If you are looking for Boudin Blanc or Boudin Noir, it’s there too!

My favourite charcuterie stall is run by a group of women (they claim they have male employees too, but I have never seen one).  Their terrines are rustic and flavourful, their presentation is lovely.  They offer a number of items dressed & oven ready, including rabbit.  They make a selection of their own sausages, and will sell you a package of assorted flavours.  They confit their own duck legs and much, much more!  While we were there the proprietress was rolling pastry and making samosas, which we got to sample hot out of the oven.  They were divine!

We stopped by one of the fromageries and sampled cheeses.  Most of the shops are willing to give you a taste of any cheese you would like to try before you buy.  We were able to pick up a number of unique Quebec cheeses from our samplings to bring home.

Since we are at the peak of our growing season, fresh local produce was in abundance.  Local strawberries, Ontario peaches, wild blueberries and every kind of vegetable you could imagine, was on display and at it’s peak.  It was hard not to buy too much!

But one of the highlights of our trip was the warm, fresh from the oven, garlic bread stick from the Bakery.  I think this picture speaks for itself!

It’s a mere 30 paces from our deck to the beachfront, which is really what these weekends are really all about.  Long lazy days are spent swimming, fishing and kayaking. Evenings are spent around a roaring fire, laughing, discussing and generally enjoying being together as a family .

What is most enjoyable to me about these weekends is that we choose to cook over an open firepit. Most Saturday mornings, after drinking a pot of campfire coffee, we drive to the Combermere Farmers Market and source out the ingredients for that nights dinner.

The market is not yet in full swing and the variety of vegetables is lean (growing season is slightly behind Ottawa’s). Nonetheless, we have been able to piece together some memorable meals.

Recently, our Saturday night ‘Farmer’s Market’ feast consisted of delicious ‘Schulist Family Farm’ grassfed beef T-Bone steaks.  We also purchased a pound of organic shiitake mushrooms from Henry at the ‘Aldergrove Mushroom Farm’ booth. After adding local organic asparagus to our basket and some of the world’s best butter-tarts, we were ready to head back.  A quick detour into Killaloe for a bottle of Bonneterra Organic Cabernet Sauvignon and we were set.

Escaping for the weekend always rejuvenates and prepares me for the busy work week that follows. This is truly our little piece of paradise!

Coming from the East, we have the perception that those living on the West Coast can ‘eat locally’ all year long.  The west coast was the home to the 100 mile diet authors Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, who spent 12 months eating only foods that were grown within 100 miles of their downtown Vancouver apartment.

Bruce's Kitchen on Salt Spring Island

While visiting Salt Spring I spent time with my good friend Bruce Wood in his new business, Bruce’s Kitchen located in Ganges Harbour.  Each Saturday night, Bruce hosts a farm-to-table dinner featuring a locally inspired menu using seasonal ingredients.  The Saturday night I was there we were enjoying morels & stinging nettles served with a house made, Moonstruck cheese, and the season’s first halibut served with prawns & mussels.

My Saturday & Sunday were spent visiting the island’s farmers & cheese makers, collecting local treats for a dinner Bruce and I planned to cook together on Sunday night.

Pauline picking leeks in March!

We had the pleasure of visiting Foxglove Farm, a 120 acre organic farm that grows strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, and a wide range of Mediterranean vegetables.  The farm also boasts fruit orchards where they grow peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, fig, chestnut & cherry.

The farm hosts a series of workshops for artists, writers, farmers and children.  On this cold wet Sunday we were able to pick lettuces and leeks for our farm-table dinner, as well as watch Pauline collect eggs from their flock of hens.

We visited both Moonstruck Organic Cheese & Salt Spring Island Cheese Company, where we were able to sample all of their lovely cheeses.

Feisty Crabs

We visited a sheep farm to pick up our organic leg of lamb and returned to Ganges where we sent the kids off to the docks to procure the live crab that would serve as our appetizer course.   The crab were so lively that we ended up chasing them around the kitchen until Bruce was able to corral them in a big bowl and put them in the fridge to ‘cool off’.

I can’t talk about this trip without mentioning the stunning breakfasts that we enjoyed at the Sky Valley Inn.  If you are looking for peace, quite, beautiful views, stunning gardens, and a breakfast that will knock your socks off, then this is the place to stay.

Baked Oatmeal with Fresh Berries & Cream