You Are What You Eat: September 16 through September 19
We went to Prince Edward Island. We ate out a lot, and unsurprisingly all the restaurants were new to us. Most of them had seafood, and we hit that as hard as we could. It was a pretty fantastic vacation, both overall and in the culinary sense. Eventually I'll have a full diary, but for now we'll start it with the food. This is part one.
Monday, September 16 - M and I drove down to Columbus Monday night to drop Chucha with M's folks. We then ate at the Condado's Tacos near our hotel. When we walked in, M said "oh, it looks just like Barrio." And it turns out that the owner was previously involved in Barrio, and now isn't, and there were lawsuits and a whole mess. The tacos taste pretty much the same as Barrio, which means that by Ohio taco standards they are pretty good.
Tuesday, September 17 - We got up absurdly early, well before Holiday Inn starts serving breakfast. Our connection was in Newark. Thankfully I had some spare United Club passes and the United Club was near our gate in A terminal, so we had breakfast there. And yes, of course there's a Yelp entry specifically for the Terminal A United Club.
We landed in Halifax in the early afternoon, and after wandering the waterfront for a bit we chose a touristy place on a the old cable wharf called Murphy's. I had a nice bowl of chowder and a lobster roll to kick off our seafood consumption for the week. The service was having some challenges (the waiter apologized profusely, comped us a beer and said they didn't have enough kitchen staff), and being touristy it was a tad overpriced on the menu, but the exchange rate (roughly $1.00 CAD = $0.75 USD) made it all pretty reasonable. Also, M got to sit on the water, which she loves.
From there we wandered over to the Halifax Public Gardens. I had ice cream at the stand there.
We had to drive north that night so we could catch the ferry the next day. We got into our hotel in the early evening, and found one nearby restaurant, The Appleseed Modern Diner, just before it closed. I had chicken parmesan because it looked good on the menu, and it was actually above average.
Wednesday, September 18 - We stayed in a Holiday Inn, slept in a bit and then had the usual Holiday Inn breakfast, which was exactly the same as the other Holiday Inns we've had breakfast at this year and as such will be called a repeat.
We took the ferry over to PEI and started driving the coast road to the east. We ended up having lunch at a place called Windows on the Water in Montague. This was a restaurant in an old house that is only open for the tourist season. As with most of PEI, the season for this place ends in late September. We had an excellent meal here. The seafood chowder was very good, it came with fresh rolls, and while I don't recall what else I had, I know it was seafood of some kind and very good. Dessert wasn't bad either. I had a lot of dessert on this trip :-)
We had a reservation at The Inn at Spry Point that night. When we got there, David the innkeeper informed us we were the only guests that night. The closest dinner restaurant wasn't all that close, so we opted to eat heavy appetizers at the Inn instead. David made us an excellent cheese plate with 6 cheeses and assorted pairings, plus six PEI oysters in the nicest oyster presentation we had the entire trip. We also bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white. We took the whole lot outside and watched the sunset. It was glorious. Then we took the remainder of the wine to our room and looked at the Milky Way.
On a side note, the Inn at Spry Point is on the short list of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in anywhere in the world. We strongly recommend it.
Thursday, September 19 - Breakfast was at Spry Point, where we had a very substantial and tasty continental breakfast on the patio while we watched the warblers. It beat the heck out of Holiday Inn. I guess I'll call this a repeat.
For lunch we ate in North Lake at Pirates Boathouse Cafe. Coincidentally, it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, which added that little je ne sais quoi to my scallops and strawberry milkshake.
Our final meal of the day was at our next hotel, Dalvay By the Sea, which had a star turn as the White Sands Hotel in the Anne of Green Gables movies M loves so much. It was also where William and Kate had part of their honeymoon, which they loving documented in a gigantic scrapbook in the lounge. In any event, after a long walk on the beach we had dinner in their dining room.
Our meal was superb. I had a very nice Bouillabaisse with lots of mussels and a nice chunk of salmon not to mention a bunch of other seafood ingredients. The tea rolls served beforehand were perfect artifacts of the baker's art, and the "sea glass" cocktail went down like water. We both ate very well, including sharing another half dozen PEI oysters, and while it was a bit pricey, the exchange rate kept it from being utterly outrageous. It was the kind of place where even I almost felt like I should have dressed up a bit, with dim lights and a generally classy decor. It worked well with the hotel as a whole, which began its life as the summer retreat for a rich American millionaire back in the 1890s and looked the part.
Totals For This Post
Days Covered: 4
Meals / Dishes Cooked: 0 / 0
New Recipes: 0
Leftover Nights: 0
Eating Out / Take Out Meals: 10
Eating Out Drinks/Dessert Only: 1
New To Me Restaurants: 9
Repeated Restaurants in 2019: 2
Parties / Friends / Family Cooked: 0
Repeated Recipes: 0
Overall Totals 2019 (less January 1)
Days Covered: 261
Meals / Dishes Cooked: 155 / 212
New Recipes: 93
Leftover Nights: 9
Eating Out / Take Out Meals: 132
Eating Out Drinks/Dessert Only: 54
New To Me Restaurants: 73
Repeated Restaurants in 2019: 47
Parties / Friends / Family Cooked: 20
Repeated Recipes: 24
Monday, September 16 - M and I drove down to Columbus Monday night to drop Chucha with M's folks. We then ate at the Condado's Tacos near our hotel. When we walked in, M said "oh, it looks just like Barrio." And it turns out that the owner was previously involved in Barrio, and now isn't, and there were lawsuits and a whole mess. The tacos taste pretty much the same as Barrio, which means that by Ohio taco standards they are pretty good.
Tuesday, September 17 - We got up absurdly early, well before Holiday Inn starts serving breakfast. Our connection was in Newark. Thankfully I had some spare United Club passes and the United Club was near our gate in A terminal, so we had breakfast there. And yes, of course there's a Yelp entry specifically for the Terminal A United Club.
We landed in Halifax in the early afternoon, and after wandering the waterfront for a bit we chose a touristy place on a the old cable wharf called Murphy's. I had a nice bowl of chowder and a lobster roll to kick off our seafood consumption for the week. The service was having some challenges (the waiter apologized profusely, comped us a beer and said they didn't have enough kitchen staff), and being touristy it was a tad overpriced on the menu, but the exchange rate (roughly $1.00 CAD = $0.75 USD) made it all pretty reasonable. Also, M got to sit on the water, which she loves.
From there we wandered over to the Halifax Public Gardens. I had ice cream at the stand there.
We had to drive north that night so we could catch the ferry the next day. We got into our hotel in the early evening, and found one nearby restaurant, The Appleseed Modern Diner, just before it closed. I had chicken parmesan because it looked good on the menu, and it was actually above average.
Wednesday, September 18 - We stayed in a Holiday Inn, slept in a bit and then had the usual Holiday Inn breakfast, which was exactly the same as the other Holiday Inns we've had breakfast at this year and as such will be called a repeat.
We took the ferry over to PEI and started driving the coast road to the east. We ended up having lunch at a place called Windows on the Water in Montague. This was a restaurant in an old house that is only open for the tourist season. As with most of PEI, the season for this place ends in late September. We had an excellent meal here. The seafood chowder was very good, it came with fresh rolls, and while I don't recall what else I had, I know it was seafood of some kind and very good. Dessert wasn't bad either. I had a lot of dessert on this trip :-)
We had a reservation at The Inn at Spry Point that night. When we got there, David the innkeeper informed us we were the only guests that night. The closest dinner restaurant wasn't all that close, so we opted to eat heavy appetizers at the Inn instead. David made us an excellent cheese plate with 6 cheeses and assorted pairings, plus six PEI oysters in the nicest oyster presentation we had the entire trip. We also bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white. We took the whole lot outside and watched the sunset. It was glorious. Then we took the remainder of the wine to our room and looked at the Milky Way.
On a side note, the Inn at Spry Point is on the short list of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in anywhere in the world. We strongly recommend it.
Thursday, September 19 - Breakfast was at Spry Point, where we had a very substantial and tasty continental breakfast on the patio while we watched the warblers. It beat the heck out of Holiday Inn. I guess I'll call this a repeat.
For lunch we ate in North Lake at Pirates Boathouse Cafe. Coincidentally, it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, which added that little je ne sais quoi to my scallops and strawberry milkshake.
Our final meal of the day was at our next hotel, Dalvay By the Sea, which had a star turn as the White Sands Hotel in the Anne of Green Gables movies M loves so much. It was also where William and Kate had part of their honeymoon, which they loving documented in a gigantic scrapbook in the lounge. In any event, after a long walk on the beach we had dinner in their dining room.
Our meal was superb. I had a very nice Bouillabaisse with lots of mussels and a nice chunk of salmon not to mention a bunch of other seafood ingredients. The tea rolls served beforehand were perfect artifacts of the baker's art, and the "sea glass" cocktail went down like water. We both ate very well, including sharing another half dozen PEI oysters, and while it was a bit pricey, the exchange rate kept it from being utterly outrageous. It was the kind of place where even I almost felt like I should have dressed up a bit, with dim lights and a generally classy decor. It worked well with the hotel as a whole, which began its life as the summer retreat for a rich American millionaire back in the 1890s and looked the part.
Totals For This Post
Days Covered: 4
Meals / Dishes Cooked: 0 / 0
New Recipes: 0
Leftover Nights: 0
Eating Out / Take Out Meals: 10
Eating Out Drinks/Dessert Only: 1
New To Me Restaurants: 9
Repeated Restaurants in 2019: 2
Parties / Friends / Family Cooked: 0
Repeated Recipes: 0
Overall Totals 2019 (less January 1)
Days Covered: 261
Meals / Dishes Cooked: 155 / 212
New Recipes: 93
Leftover Nights: 9
Eating Out / Take Out Meals: 132
Eating Out Drinks/Dessert Only: 54
New To Me Restaurants: 73
Repeated Restaurants in 2019: 47
Parties / Friends / Family Cooked: 20
Repeated Recipes: 24