Going to university provided me with the chance to live in a different part of Canada for four years. As such, I spent my university days on Canada’s East Coast, in a little town called Wolfville, only an hour from Halifax. I had never been a big seafood or fish fan, but this quickly changed during my time out east. Eastern Canada is just gorgeous, as is the produce (example: mussels, haddock, lobsters, and scallops) that comes out of there. Now that I’m back in Toronto, I constantly find myself craving fresh East Coast mussels. They just don’t compare when they have to travel before they are served up!
Seafood can be tricky to learn to love, and many think that seafood is too fishy for them. This was the best part about learning to love seafood on Canada’s East Coast… all the seafood out east is incredibly fresh, and doesn’t have any hint of “fishiness” or slime that many associate with seafood. As Nova Scotia is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, they are a leader in high quality seafood, with great retailers serving up over 50 different types of seafood. After spending four years there I became quite familiar with my favourite products and places.
My favorite mussels are from Indian Point. Indian Point Marine Farm Limited is where the mussels come from, collected from the waters of Nova Scotia’s beautiful Mahone Bay. The great part about Indian Point is their strong commitment to practicing sustainable mussel cultivation. The crew at Indian Point goes the extra mile to ensure that they are harvesting the seafood at high quality standards, by cleaning, inspecting, and grading them before sending them out for purchase. Haddock is always line caught in Nova Scotia. Line-catching is a more selective fishing method compared to the traditional “bottom-trawling,” a destructive process where large nets weighted with chains tear up the oceans seabed’s, catching unwanted sea creatures. The line catching method uses hooks on a long line to catch the fish, which in turn does not disrupt the ocean’s other creatures. The lobsters are always Fundy Lobsters, meaning they come from the Bay of Fundy, a northern point in Nova Scotia. Fundy Lobsters are incredibly popular as they have the largest average size at maturity, due to their colder habitat waters. The cold water also contributes to the high quality of meat, and their diet on the bay contributes to a delicious flavour. Digby scallops are always talked about, and indeed, are the only ones to get in all of Nova Scotia. They are incredibly sweet and fresh, due to quick fishing trips and efficient processing at the plant, and customers can be assured a quick turn around from ocean to land.
My two suggestions for seafood in Nova Scotia are in both Wolfville (where my school Acadia University is located) and Halifax (the capital of Nova Scotia, and only an hour from Wolfville!). Halifax is an extremely important historical city in Canada, as it is the city where all immigrants coming into Canada first landed in, going through the famous “Pier 21” customs once off the boats.
For the freshest and most wonderful mussels and scallops head to the Tempest (117 Front Street, 902-542-0588) in Wolfville. Their mussels are my favourite: Indian Point, flavoured with Spanish chorizo, parsley, garlic, and white wine. (Approx $12 cad). The scallops are generally dressed differently month-to-month! A few of my favourite were the simple flavours, like a lovely beurre blanc. For lobster, McKelvie’s in Halifax, (1680 Lower Water Street, 902-421-6161) serves whole lobster with succulent melted butter (in my opinion, the perfect companion to lobster!)
I hope in reading this post your mouth is watering for East Coast seafood and that you’ve put Nova Scotia down as place to food trot to! They do seafood so well; it is some of the world’s freshest and the flavours and textures are incredible. I loved living there and am grateful for the ability to have been so close to fresh seafood.
For more information on dining at the Tempest visit http://www.tempest.ca/ and for McKelvie’s visit http://mckelvies.com/ . Food trotters, have you tried any of the bountiful wonders the East Coast ocean has to offer? Or can you suggest somewhere an enthusiastic seafood lover like me might find something equally delicious to satisfy my cravings?!
[Pictures courtesy of Indian Point, ..shazza.., Much Music, and jjphotos.ca]
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You are so right, Seafood from Toronto is just not the same! Good recommendations for the best places to eat seafood in Nova Scotia, your post made me want to fly over and make a reservation! Thanks for the info about Indian Point, I didn’t know that and it’s quite interesting!
Now we may be biased here, but we think Chedabucto Bay lobster is the best in Nova Scotia. The largest bay on the Nova Scotia Atlantic coast with more than 600 kilometres of shoreline, Chedabucto Bay’s cold waters and sparse population along the bay make it the ideal spot for delicious lobster. Lobster season on Chedabucto Bay only runs May and June with special lobster packages available.
Northumberland Strait lobster is another gem of Nova Scotia! Watch the boats go by out on the strait all summer and pick up fresh beauts at Chase’s Lobster Pound just outside of lovely Pugwash. Mmmm! We are lucky on this coast.
What time of year is the seafood in Eastern Canada the best?