Paddy's Pub

A few weeks ago, some family members were traveling around Nova Scotia, and came home telling me they had a few places I just *had* to review. While working in the area this week, I had an opportunity to try one of these- Paddy's Pub and Rosie's Restaurant, in Wolfville. Paddy's has a great location right on Wolfville's main drag (protip: you can also park around back and enter through that door, as we did). Coming in through the back, the first sight I saw was a cooler of growlers, filled with a variety of brews. Since I was just stopping in for lunch, I didn't get the chance to try any of them, but there was a wide variety available and the prices, of growlers at least, were reasonably priced. The menu at Rosie's includes a wide selection of locally-produced and house-made products, including local beef, restaurant-made sausages, and local cheese. Many of the sauces appear to be made in-house as well, including the dill veggie dip, an option offered in place of fries for no extra charge. I chose a hamburger with local Havarti and local beef, with bacon and house-made garlic aioli. When it came, I took the burger apart, trying each individual component. The cheese had a good, subtle taste and melted nicely; the hamburger was tasty and juicy, and the aioli was nice and creamy, without being overpowering. As a combination, it's absolutely fantastic, and came in at under 15 dollars. I very much enjoyed my meal, and the service was friendly and quick. After chatting with a few people about the restaurant, I've heard that pretty much everything they do tastes fantastic, especially the meals which include their home made sauces. Local food, good services and great prices? This place is fantastic, and well worth a visit!

Fans Chinese Food

Fans has been a favourite in my family for almost two decades now. No one can quite agree who first spotted this gem, but we can all agree on one thing- it is easily the best North American Chinese food in the province, if not the entire region. Having gone to Fan's over the yeas, I've seen a lot of changes to their North End Dartmouth location. It's gotten much bigger, and nicer, and the name has changed. But the fantastic food certainly hasn't. I'll cut right to the chase: the showstopper at Fan's is the ginger beef. Undoubtedly the best I've had, when it's good it's amazing; when it's bad it's still very good. Just spicy enough, but not too much so that you can't taste the food, this dish is what has kept us coming back for years. Their spring rolls, lemon chicken, and chicken fried rice are also family favourites. All are deliciously well-prepared. I've also heard fantastic things about their weekend dim sum, although I haven't had the opportunity to try it in recent memory.

Cows Ice Cream

Cows is an institution. You'll find it around PEI, as well as at the waterfront in Halifax. Each store has a copy of a list boasting that its ice cream is the world's best- and this is hard to argue with. Cows offers a variety of delicious flavours, which can all be served in delicious, freshly made waffle cones, or as an equally satisfying milkshake. The prices are extremely reasonable: just under 4 dollars (plus tax) for a single scoop, and around five for a shake, putting the prices in the same league as many cheaper ice cream shops, while the quality can go head to head with the best of the best international chains. Many of the flavours are also specially unique to Cows, including several which make use of PEI-grown apples or berries. The charm of Cows extends beyond the food itself- the entire place is full of cow-pun-themed merchandise, from the names of some flavours (including my favourite, Messy Bessie), to a line of t-shirts, mugs, and other souvenirs sporting pop-culture cow-puns. In PEI, at least (I haven't been in Halifax in a few years), you'll also find chocolate-covered potato chips (very good!) and merchandise from Anne of Green Gables chocolates (fans of the books will probably want to give the Raspberry Cordials a try). There's also a location in PEI where you can go on a tour of the factory- I personally haven't tried this, but it looks like a fun family outing. This is easily a favourite of mine- I'm certain I've never had better ice cream in my life. Uodate: I've recently been back to a different location of Cows, and wanted to add a little note regarding the Factory Shops location. I visited this location in the middle of a week day- not a particularly busy time. And yet, to me it seemed that the staff weren't experienced enough to handle the two or three groups in line: they outright skipped the people behind me, and didn't really react when I let them know that. They also seemed generally disorganized, running here and there without letting us know why we were being served (although they did occasionally apologize on return). This bugged me- Cows is an institution, and this location, right on the side of the Trans Canada, catches a lot of tourists' eyes. Yet, I don't feel it offers the best service- rather, the staff were inattentive and seemed overwhelmed by three or four groups. I also disliked very much that the merchandise which takes up the bulk of the store can't be paid for at the same time as ice cream: this seems like bad business sense to me, since as a customer I chose not to have to wait in a second line and use debit again for a small purchase. These comments, however, don't apply to the other locations, where I've found the staff very helpful indeed!

Seoul Food

A few years ago, I found myself spending a couple of weeks in PEI. After a little while, we were looking for something different from the burger-pizza routine, and spotted this little place alongside of the main road in Charlottetown. Seoul Food was my first introduction to Korean food in Canada (I had had Korean BBQ previously in Asia), and so neither I nor my friend really knew what to order. We both grabbed bulgogi with rice. I can distinctly remember feeling that the food was fantastic, but way too small of a portion for the price. Fast forward to this year. I've had a good amount of Korean food, and was anxious to see how I felt about the place now. A few years later, Seoul food is still a very clean, well decorated establishment with friendly and helpful staff. The menu prices no longer seemed high to me- for Korean food, they're relatively cheap. This time, I ordered my favourite dish- bibimbap- and my friend ordered gimbap. The first thing I noticed was that the food was spicier than I'm used to. I've had a lot of Kimchi with little to no spice in it, and this place certainly does not fall into that category. There was also a very generous amount of hot sauce in the bulgogi- I removed as much as I could before mixing the food, and still found it too spicy. Now, I'm going to admit that I'm a bit of a wimp for spice, and so I'm sure that the amount given was probably actually pretty typical for Korean food. However, I would have appreciated had the sauce been on the side, or put on in a way easier to remove. The food itself was actually excellent, very flavourful, both dishes. The seaweed on the gimbap and the beef in the bibimbap were particularly high quality. Overall, the food is good, and the prices reasonable for Korean food. It would be nice if they asked how spicy you wanted, or made it easier to remove the spicy sauce, but don't let that stop you- the food is definitely worth a try. Also, I have to give them big props for the pun- that's what drew me in in the first place!

Donair

This is the first of a series of posts about the local specialties that you'll find across the Maritimes. I'll start with one of the quintessential Maritimer dishes: the donair. The astute amongst you may be saying "but donairs are Turkish!" Not this donair. The Maritime version of the donair- often called a Halifax Donair, is similar to Lebanese Shawarma, or Greek Gyros, and was, according to legend, invented in Halifax's fabled Pizza Corner. The donair experience is very archetypical: walk in to almost any small, locally run pizza place in the Maritimes, and you'll see a rack of beef on a spit behind the counter, cooking vertically. You'll usually pay around 6-8 dollars for one, sometimes ten. Donairs consist of meat, sauce, tomatoes and onions. In New Brunswick, you'll usually also find lettuce. There are two signature aspects to the donair: the meat, and the sauce. Donair meat is a spicy rotisserie-style beef, cut into long thin strips. Donair sauce is a thick and creamy sweet sauce, with a hint of garlic. Both have been incorporated into a wide variety of other dishes. Most pizzerias also serve donair pizza, which incorporates all of the above ingrediants, with the donair sauce replacing tomato sauce, with the whole thing being covered in cheese, of course. Donair sauce is also a common dipping sauce with garlic fingers (or the Maritime variant, cheesy garlic fingers), or other types of pizza. Recently, donair egg rolls have also become a popular gimmick. Anyone in the Maritimes for their first visit has to try a donair before leaving. Below are some suggestions for memorable donairs, but by far these are not the only options: I've had relatively few donairs that I didn't like, so don't be shy about going to the nearest pizza place and trying what they have on offer! Metro Halifax: For the biggest donair I've seen in my life, try Robert's, in North End Dartmouth. The place seems pretty run-of-the-mill, but a small donair is easily the biggest single serving of meet I've seen in my life, and for a low price. If you're a vegetarian, The Wooden Monkey, in Downtown Halifax, offers a seitan variant. I've never tried it, so I can't comment on how it compares to the traditional meat variety, but it does offer an opportunity to try this regional specialty. Fredericton: Donairs are on offer all over the Fredericton market By far my favourite donair in the province comes from Richie's Barbecue. This is a good option for people who are trying the dish for the first time, since it's not overloaded with meat, and they're quite generous with the sauce.

Frank and Gino's

Frank and Gino's is a personal favourite spot to stop when going to or from Halifax, since it's only a few minutes off the highway, and the food is really good. The restaurant might remind you, at first glance, of a cross between Olive Garden and East Side Mario's, but don't let the quality of the advertising and branding fool you- this is a local restaurant. It definitely has the elements that make those sorts of chain restaurants appealing- it's clean, large and open, with nice decorations and well-designed menus. But it definitely has the quality of a good local restaurant, with friendly staff, and excellent food. I'm a big fan of the classic- Spaghetti and Meatballs. It's a little pricier than I like to pay, at 14.99, but the sauce and meatballs both taste fantastic, and the portion is fair for the price. The only downside, in my mind, is that the prices are a little bit high, making it more of a treat than a regular stop while travelling. Definitely one of my favourites in Truro.