BRACKLEY BEACH, PEI -- I am haunted by the taste of a particular lobster. Certainly, I had savoured other crustaceans before this tender burst of salt tang arrived on my plate one summer evening about nine years ago, but this was different.
It was my first trip to my partner's hometown of Windsor, N.S. As a landlubber from Toronto, I would forever be "from away," but, as a welcome, my in-laws brought home "the feed" of lobster, as East Coasters say, "right off the boat." (Though it was purchased at seafood wholesaler Paturel's International, and boiled in a pot of ocean water.) It was a brilliant ploy.
The first taste made me instantly and insatiably hungry for the sea. Try as I might to satisfy my new craving at Toronto's fish markets and oyster bars, nothing could rival the explosion of flavour that comes from seafood just hours out of the water. Yes, we would have to go home and go often.
Autumn is a sweet time to travel the Maritimes, especially if your goal is to eat. Harvest is in full swing, the turn of leaves makes for stunning scenery and the ocean is still summer warm. Best of all, there's little traffic to thwart coast-to-coast dashes for dinner and few crowds to disturb long walks on the beach.
So, on a recent 10-day visit, my partner and I decided to create the ultimate road trip, a drive that would take us to the Maritimes' most celebrated seafood regions: Halifax, to sample its restaurants; Digby, N.S., home of the world-famous Digby scallop; Shediac, N.B., lobster capital of the world; and PEI, for the oysters first voted best in the world at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. Our plan was to go to the source, dine in seafood restaurants or buy from wholesalers and take the catch home to cook. For that reason, we planned to stay at rental cottages with kitchen facilities and start our gastronomic adventure at a cooking school.
From our first home base, a cottage at Evangeline Beach near Wolfville, N.S., we drove across the province to 100 Acres and An Ox, near Barss Corners. We chose to stay here because proprietor Ardythe Wildsmith, a nurse-turned-Maritime chef with Cordon Bleu credentials, offers cooking classes. She stressed two things: using the freshest local ingredients and having fun. An hour into the morning class, we were well into the sauces -- persillade (garlic and parsley for the scallops), remoulade (fancy tartar for the crab) and wine (for us). We spent the afternoon eating our creations: crab cakes and scallops, which we first sampled raw, to emphasize that thou shall not overcook these delicate wonders.
Our next stop: the home of the famous Digby scallop. This port town sits above the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, where marine life from whales and porpoises down to the Timbit-sized sea mollusk thrive.
We headed straight to the wharf, home of the world's largest inshore scallop fleet -- and an offshore fleet that trawls for scallops on George's Bank, southwest of Nova Scotia. That means that all Digby scallops are not Digby scallops (though if they're caught on a Digby boat, they're called that). More accurate is the terminology "inshore" and "offshore," according to O'Neil's Fisheries on the wharf, where you can pick up inshores to take home. Offshores are slightly larger and denser, but there's little chance of tasting one fresh as offshore boats, at sea for up to 12 days, freeze most of their catch onboard.
To savour fresh inshores, we bypassed Digby restaurants (which tend to treat these delicacies like common haddock, battering and deep-frying them) and headed five minutes up the shore to The Pines Resort for lunch.
121