Cogitation 43/220 Saturday 26 October 2019 How to eat right on the road? It’s both a challenge and a pleasure– with a dash of surprise thrown in.

Bites along the way

Poutine finally found us

For a long time I’ve wanted to try poutine. On Tuesday evening at the Snack Bar D’Amours in Riviere du Loup, Quebec, we got (my) wish of a dish of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.

I had planned to order a double salmon burger to share, with a side order of poutine. However, at the order counter, I said, in English, we’d like to order a double patty “saumon burger” to eat in rather than carry out. Before I could add a request for a poutine side, the order taker/cashier pointed to three sizes of boxes. I pointed to the medium one. Oh, a box for regular fries, no poutine tonight, I thought.

My French is rusty, truly rusty. I didn’t know how to ask for a clarification of the order. Order paid, next customer up. Only when “the box” arrived did the confusion become clear. We got a medium-size dish of poutine, without burger. Only then did it dawn on me how “eat in” could rhyme with “poutine.”

Moral of the story: be careful what you wish for, brush up on your French language, and be grateful you’ve had your fill of poutine for a long, long time.

More about potatoes

I had never heard about McCains of New Brunswick until we stopped for gas at the Florenceville, NB exit. I asked the attendant about the Potato World Museum. It turns out that the local McCain family is the world’s largest producer of frozen potato products, with operations on six continents. So the French fry you may be eating in various countries around the world could be a McCain grown or contracted, and processed potato. This was a travel day so we did not stop to visit the Potato Museum.

The company also processes some green vegetables and juicy desserts and potato chips. We did make the most of a bag of locally-processed potato chips.

Annapolis Valley apples

In grade school I learned about the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, home to apple orchards. Today vineyards have joined the fruit growing region. We did a day trip from Halifax and picked up some Macintosh apples at a farm market. Had lunch in the university town of Wolfville and circled back to Halifax on mostly scenic back roads.

Feeding body, mind & spirit in Quebec’s Eastern Townships

Basking in it all

We’re basking in our trek, about to enter our fifth and final week, this one in Ontario. We’re spending Friday evening and Saturday with cousin Dale in Brockville, on the St Lawrence River.

The time away tops out in people contact, supplemented with galleries, museums, fall colours, foods, walks. Rich!

Thankfully, we’ve been able to cover 103.5 miles (167 km) on foot so far in October. Our Hyundai Ionic Hybrid has been averaging more than 50 miles per gallon (81 miles per km).

On Sunday we’re headed to Muskoka lake country, spending overnight in Orillia, home of the late humourist writer Stephen Leacock. For the rest of the week we’ll be part of a party of 10 siblings and spouses who will be sharing a large home on Georgian Bay. We’ll walk, take turns preparing the evening meal, gather round the table for games, share stories, snack, and celebrate a milestone birthday for my oldest brother, Sandy. The journey leaves no hunger unattended.

-John