Best of Home for a Short Holiday

Last week after an insanely exhausting and unhealthy month of working far too much, Darcy and I popped home to Nova Scotia for a quick holiday that involved lots of fresh sea air, walks along the coast looking at all the stuff that washed up, visiting family, and eating amazing food. If you're planning on visiting Nova Scotia, Halifax or otherwise, the best food really can only be eaten at someone's house. My advice would be to rent a place with kitchen facilities and a car and go out to buy your own lobster, crab, mussels, and smoked fish. Here is some of the best stuff we ate, in chronological order:

1. Dim sum at Zen Chinese Cuisine in Clayton Park, Halifax. Awesome dim sum in a relaxed, sunny restaurant with menus only—no carts. My parents go every week.



2. Lobster from Fisherman's Market. These were 1.5 pound hard shell; very tough to crack and full of meat. They were also selling jumbo lobsters that were two feet long. You could cook one and serve it like a turkey.



3. Lobster roll made from leftover lobster tails, celery, mayo,and the whitest white hotdog buns.



4. Prime rib roast with asparagus, Yorkshire pudding, and mushroom gravy. This is one my favourite mom foods that we haven't had in years. And we cooked it at Mom and Dad's new seaside house, which made it even more fun.



5. Soba noodle soup made from 80% buckwheat noodles bought at Sanko Trading Co. in Toronto. One of my favourite things in the world.



6. Japanese barbecue dinner: wakame salad, onigiri, and yakitori (I grilled the yakitori myself!)
   
   



7. Smoked fish from Willy Krauch's in Tangier. We went to the actual smoking facility and it's a tiny little place with just a small stock available for sale in store, but they do a huge mail order business. They use wood and brick ovens with hardwood smoke and they made smoked trout, mackerel, eel, and two kinds of salmon: hot and cold. The cold is the raw type and the hot is chunks of smokey cooked salmon.
   



8. Seafood Platter at Harbour Fish 'n' Fries in Musquodoboit Harbour. It's the best place for fish and chips in the world. They opened about 15-20 years ago as a chip truck that turned into a shack that they added onto and now they seat about 40 total (indoors and out), which is good because they're packed at lunchtime. They're open from April to November.



9. Scallop pasta chez Mom and Dad. Only at home can you get as many scallops as you want. Yum.



10. Dad's ramen. Made with egg white noodles and homemade pork stock and char siu.



11. Mom's gyoza. Made with chopped pork (not ground), garlic chives, shiitake mushrooms, and napa cabbage.