Food and recipes

The particularity of the Lower North Shore is that we don’t have bakeries, pastry shops or big restaurants. So, the population had no choice, but to learn to make all that stuff. The people need to know how to cook if they want good food. Each season, we have some principal recipes.

During summer, we eat a lot of seafood. Each person tries to have some lobster, crab, scallops and mussels. With these aliments, we can make seafood pizza, spaghetti, lasagna and the coquille Saint-Jacques. Also, one of our main summer meals is salt beef boiled with vegetables. We eat some fish too, like cod and salmon, and we have some recipes with fish.

In the winter, we eat more wild meat, like moose, partridges, rabbit and even small prey. We can make some pizza with steak or mince meat. We make a lot of meal in the oven with small and big prey. Sometimes, we eat seafood that we kept frozen or vacuum sealed.

But during the fall and spring, we don’t really have main meal, because the seasons are not very long. We eat mostly the meal closest to the next season.

Hélène

In Tête-à-la-Baleine, we have many dessert recipes. We make our desserts with many little berries that we found around the place. We can find these berries in the islands or in the plains. We use red berries, black berries, blueberries, pembina, chicoutai (bakeaples) and raspberries. The desserts we made are pies (with blueberries, blackberries, redberries and all the berries I named). We make cakes too, like chocolate cakes, angel cakes, black forest cakes, Strawberry and chocolate cakes, etc. And, of course, we have other desserts like chicoutai squares, blackberry squares and redberries pudding. We make sugar pies too, and a many of other desserts. And, of course, we have fudge and old fashion pancakes.  And now, let me introduce you to some recipes.

Philippe

Chocolate cake:

-1 chocolate cake preparation.

-3 eggs

- 540 ml Vashon strawberry pie filling

-Mix all
-Cook at slow fire to 250 degrees

Garnish :

-1 cup of sugar
-1/2 cup of 35% cream
-5 table spoon of butter
Boil all in 3 minutes

Get out of the fire and add on 1 Hershey chocolate chip spoon.

 Old fashion pancake:

-2 cup of flour

- 2 magic backing powder spoon

-3 sugar table spoon
-2 eggs
-Water until smooth.

Gilles Vigneault

A very well known artist in Québec was born on the North Shore on october 27, 1928. Gilles Vigneault is a very talented and unique artist from Natashquan. He is a signer, song-writer and poet. He received many prices and honnors during his long carrier, including the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2006. He is 85 years old and still performing today. A lot of his songs and poem are about the tradition of his hometown village and the North Shore. For example, one of his song is called Joe Hébert. Jos Hébert was a mail carrier and was one of the most popular and best known men of the Shore. He lived here, in Tête-à-la-Baleine. It is Vigneault's way to present that part of the country to the other Canadians. Maybe some of you had the chance to see Gilles Vigneault perform.

Madison

 

Four wheels

                In my small village, a lot of people use four wheels as a way of transportation. Some do not have a car, they just have a four wheels. The people do not use it just for transportation. The use it to go where the truck can’t go, like in some little trails. Personally, I have one and I like to go for a ride on my four wheel because it’s fun and you feel free with the wind in your hair. Some time I race with my friends. I always win because my four wheel is more powerful. I like riding on four wheels because it goes faster than truck. Why I don’t like four wheels; It’s because when it’s raining, you are all wet, and you see unclear. And when you meet someone on the road, all the dust come in your face and in your hair. This is the two negative sides of four wheels. This type of transport is more economic than a vehicle and it is very adapted for my village. Some people use  four wheels to go hunting because it can go in the little trails and it’s better to transport hunting material.

Claudie

 

Mooses

Mooses are very large terrestrial mammals. They eat plants and wood. Men hunt this magnificent animal for its very tender meat. Men are not the main predators of moose. The main predator are wolves. Even if a lonely wolf attacks a moose, it will die. It will take weeks, but eventualy the wolf will eat its legs, the moose will fall and the wolf will kill it to eat. I can understand wolves to eat this very good animal. But if they keep attacking and killing mooses, they will become rare. On the roads of Newfoundland, there are several mooses to see. On this enormous island, mooses are abundant. We have a good moose population around Tête-à-la-Baleine, but not in the village.

Audrey

Hunting

Hunting is a sport that you practice with arches, rifles, crossbows or shutguns. My favorite hunting is moose hunting. I like hunting for mooses because my family comes with me on the Mecatina River. We ride in a boat and it is very cool. On the Mecatina River, the landscape is very nice with all fall colors. We spot the moose and we wait for the moose to come. This is very long. Also, we hunt the rabbit with snares, for eating. I love eating the rabbit. Also, we hunt partridges to do soups, it is very good.

 

I really enjoy my moose hunting trip with my parents.

 

Charles

 

Providence

The Providence is an island. It is big. On the island, we have a cabin. In the summer, we go to Providence. When we are on the island, we can go fishing, we can go kayaking, we can pick berries, we can search for little crabs in the seaweeds, we can make fires and eat marshmallows, saussages and hot-dogs, we can swim, we can do a picnic, we can sleep in a tent, we can go for a ride in a boat and go to the lobster pot with my father. We can also go picking clams and mussels.

Joanie