"We're surrounded by water and we're not really a seafood-eating place." — Dale Jarvis, Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Anthony Bourdain does his best to eat the seafood and wild meat of Newfoundland in the latest chapter of Parts Unknown on CNN. Newfoundland is the second province in Canada to be featured on Parts Unknown, besides Quebec. Bourdain reaches into his knowledge base of Quebec to bring in Joe Beef's Frédéric Morin and David McMillan. Joining these masterful eaters are head chef Jeremy Charles and restaurant manager and sommelier Jeremy Bonia from Raymonds in St. John's.
"How Canadian is Newfoundland?" Bourdain asks Jarvis. Jarvis spoke of the history of Newfoundland before joining Canada in 1949. He talked about the perception of the "goofy Newfie" and how there is a real shift as to how Newfoundlanders perceive themselves.
Bourdain goes into the history of cod and then the cod moratorium back in 1992.
Bourdain points out one crucial difference between Newfoundland and Quebec: In Newfoundland, you can shoot wild game and served that in restaurants where that "would get you arrested in Montréal."
The 5 of them go off to hunt moose in Buchans, over 300 miles (500 km) from St. John's. The weather starts out good but turns quickly "4 seasons in one day." They don't get to shoot a moose but there is an already dead moose being savored including moose ribs. They also enjoy a cured ham from Martin Picard of Au Pied de Cochon in Montréal.
As the crew is enjoying moose, cans of jellied foie gras, and other wild game, the Joe Beef gentlemen confess that they have never been to Newfoundland before this trip. "It's not a prime travel destination." Bourdain told Anderson Cooper in a separate interview that Morin and McMillan encouraged him to visit the island.
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They do spend time on a boat catching fish and diving for scallops. They return to Raymonds to feast on a local seafood tower. They also had heart of caribou tartare, rabbit, partridge, a reinvented Jiggs Dinner (more on this later) as a pasta dish, and chanterelle ice cream. We will get our share of sea urchins along the way in this episode and even fried swim bladder of a cod.
Your humble narrator has been to Newfoundland so I had already discovered scrunchions, which is salted pork fat that are crisped up. Bourdain was very excited to discover scrunchions with the fish stew. He has taught us much but I could have taught him the joy of scrunchions.
They sat down to a Jiggs Dinner at the Big R diner in St. John's. The Jiggs Dinner was described as boiled salt beef, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, and pease pudding with lots of gravy on top.
That meal also included fried bologna, liver and onions, fried clam strips, and pan fried cod tongues. I've also had cod tongues though they were less tasty than scrunchions. They didn't identify Newfoundland dressing, but I did recognize the fine seasoned bread crumbs.
The crew have a segment where they throw axes. Bourdain and the Joe Beef guys are really not good at throwing the axes.
The show ends with a screech ceremony. I wondered about this because I didn't participate (timing never worked out). You get the story of how the ceremony works. They get a taste of Newfoundland steak, which turns out to be fried bologna. The bartender tells the story of John Cabot landing in Newfoundland. The story of screech stems from the trading of cod with Jamaica for rum, essentially screech. The final part of the ceremony is the kissing of the cod and then downing a shot of screech. Would be rather difficult to include an hour on Newfoundland and not mention screech.
They do take part of the hour to stop off at Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago south of the Newfoundland. Flying there from St. John's takes about 45 minutes. They enjoy a feast on the island featuring stuffed squid.
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The show is only an hour but some missed moments: Cape Spear, the eastern most point in North America; Gander or some mention of what happened on 9/11 now featured in the Broadway play Come From Away; places such as Dildo and Paradise that really exist; eating seal meat; and George Street, home of the most bars per block of any street in North America.
videos and photos credit: Parts Unknown/CNN
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