5 minute read
A place between continents
The Magdalene Islands marry European techniques and New World flavours
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARCY RHYNO
The air inside the shop at Le Fumoir d’Antan is saturated with a warm, oily smokiness. This is despite the lack of any maple wood chip fires smouldering on the floor of the smokehouse next door. At its peak, 40 herring smokehouses across the Magdalene Islands employed thousands, processing tons of fish annually. None survived the crash in herring stocks half a century ago, and only the Arsenault family saved their smokehouse building from demolition. About 20 years ago, Le Fumoir d’Antan opened for business again. Decades of smoke and herring, curing in the smokehouse rafters for a month at a time, year after year, left a permanent aroma.
These days, annual production varies from about 15,000 pounds of imported herring to none at all. Expansion into other foods and fish species has helped business thrive. Inside the shop, I find coolers and shelves full of d’Antan smoked goods and Madelinot foods from other producers. Bar clams, whelks, cranberries, and raspberries are sold by the jar, as is lobster, today, the most lucrative fishery, and a rare delicacy, tomalley, or lobster liver.
Lobster is now king on the Magdalenes, replacing herring, which replaced seal in earlier times. A small English-speaking population of Irish and Scottish descent has lived here alongside the larger French community for centuries. Originally, both came here to harvest from the sea, and they continue that tradition, adjusting to changing conditions.
Madelinot foods are firmly rooted in the archipelago’s history and location isolated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, far from mainland Quebec, to which the Magdalenes belong. At the same time, European and Canadian influences run deep. Self-reliant Madelinot have turned homemade foods and drinks into cottage industries. Behind each specialty is a passionate producer or a cook who might forage beach plants, grow shellfish, hunt seal, or harvest apples and berries.
At Barbocheux, fruits and berries are fermented into la bagosse or island beer. More accurately, these are wines like dandelion-cranberry or strawberry-raspberry. Tart rhubarb sparkling wine pairs well with island seafood. Blueberry port makes a delicious aperitif. At Verger Poméloi, island apples are fermented into ciders, gins, and a brandy with one ripe apple inside each bottle.
Réjean Vigneau, the founder and co-owner of Côte à Côte, a butcher shop and delicatessen a stone’s throw from the ferry terminal prepares sausages, pepperonis, terrine, and jerky made with pork, beef, and seal. Vigneau processes about 3,000 seals annually, preparing foods according to European tradition.
In his office on Cap-aux-Meules, Gil Theriault, director of the Intra Quebec Sealers Association, says, “Réjean is more advanced than anyone on the planet for marine mammal meat.” Theriault pulls out cookbooks from Denmark and Sweden he’s collected on his travels to show me recipes using seal. “It’s something new for some people, but it’s been around for a while.” As it’s always been on the Magdalenes, and like many other foods, seal is intercontinental.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, international influences and contemporary trends and values show up in many vegan options at L’Îlot Café-Buvette, where a burrito stuffed with black beans, spicy tofu scramble, and salsa is as delicious as a cappuccino. Down the street, the Patisserie Rabiole prepares buttery croissants, delicate macaroons, and chocolate pastries that wouldn’t be out of place in a Parisian shop.
Pied de Vent makes soft, young cheeses as buttery and complex as a fine French Camembert. Their cheese gives dishes at L’ilot Cafe-Buvette and other island restaurants a special Magdalenes’ flair. The cows at Pied de Vent graze on hilly, seaside pastures and in winter, island hay. Eric Longpre, owner of Les Biquette à l’Air, regularly herds his goats to the beach where they forage on seaweed and beach plants, giving their milk and cheese distinctive island flavours.
A fisherman steams his boat, l’Alcyon, beyond the harbour to collect seawater in tanks, which he trucks to Alcyon Sel de Mer, where Joëlle and Élisabethe Arseneau process it into fine sea salt flavoured with herbs or spices. At Gourmand de Nature, wild cranberries, mushrooms, and foraged beach herbs like sea parsley are transformed into gourmet condiments, sauces, vinaigrettes, and oils.
Flavours at Miel en Mer are just as distinctive. At the small family-run operation, Victor Arsenault and his father sell honey, naturally aged, creamed honey, mead, and a few small treats like Greek-style baklava drenched in honey. Their bees feed on island wildflowers abundant around their property.
“All honey is different, depending on the place,” says Arsenault. “If you visit the islands, you’ll want to have a taste of the honey because it’s the way to taste the terroir, the essence, the vibe, the place. You can get it all in a small jar of honey.” The same goes for bagoose, tomalley, and apple brandy. Each is a bottle of Madelinot terroir, the essence of a place between continents.
Scallop Asparagus Grapefruit Salad
Recipe from Auberge de Salicorne on the Magdalene Islands.
Ingredients
6 large Atlantic scallops
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
6 asparagus spears
2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil
6 grapefruit pieces generous handful of mixed greens
4 thinly sliced red onion rings
Method
Lightly sauté scallops in butter. Quickly sauté asparagus in olive oil. If you prefer, toss the greens in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place a bed of mixed greens on a plate. Arrange scallops, asparagus, and grapefruit in a circle around the plate (alternating the three) with asparagus tops placed inward. Place red onion rings on top. Serve.
