Ultimate Fish & Chips

Day 2 – Ellsworth, Maine to Summerside, PEI

Breakfast Report: the Lucerne Inn did beat the Comfort Inn standard – but not by a lot – certainly prettier table and nice fruit. But I’m not sure about the cup and saucer coffee delivery system – they didn’t hold much coffee and I think I’ve lost the ability to balance a cup on a saucer.

Maine coastline is beautiful – seemed a shame to be rushing along… we cut north through wild blueberry country , finding many reminders that we were in moose country. We crossed the border into St. Stephens, New Brunswick –and ran across the highlight of the day. …a fish and chips shack on Main Street.

So now I will swoon – especially over the French Fries, better than anything in recent memory. They were sweet-tasting and nicely browned without an off-oil taste – tho they were a bit greasy. They were not large potatoes as the bits were small – and I will guess that they were local potatoes. The fish was haddock – moist with a crunchy exterior. The Kraft tarter sauce, was slightly yellow in color – and after tasting, I think there was a bit of mustard in it – nicely different. We couldn’t finish our fries.... The Poutine fries are mixed with cheese curds and topped with gravy. The waitress rolled her eyes and with an emotional catch in her voice, said “delicious.” I’m not so sure ...

And still on the subject of potatoes – McCains of New Brunswick, according to AAA – “is reportedly the world’s largest producer of French Fries.” But I think I should check with ConAgra. At the factory they have a café – serving potato dishes of all kinds – with 4 gourmet versions of French Fries – we dearly wanted to check it out, but seemed too big a diversion.

Rushing thru New Brunswick as well. We went into St Johns, around a few blocks, but decided not to tarry. It seems like a lively town and very pretty. Huge cruise ship docked as they have a grand harbor.

We also bypassed Moncton as too big and we weren’t ready to stop for night. This is Acadian country, and a little French food would be a nice thing – many French placenames - and we went to a coastal town north of there for gas and found French flags flying , immaculate houses with perfect lawns, luscious flowers, schoolbuses labeled “Ecole,” and a café, Chez Colette.

We took the very long causeway across to Prince Edward Island and Summerside. The water on this side of the island, is “the warmest water north of Virginia”, we heard on a Canadian info station. Summerside a modest town in every way, but some chateauesque touches to some of the houses . We checked out all the restaurants we could find – slim pickings. Good creamy seafood stew at Gentleman Jim’s but wouldn’t recommend anything else. Maybe Mi Ching on Main Street was the way to go.