Fern curls...

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People from Hull say things like 'the purp made a fern curl to ask to ask for curka-curla for the rurd'. Which is obviously nonsense about the holy father, a mobile and his penchant for a particular soft drink beverage, but is also something I couldn't forget when I recently sampled a unique Canadian vegetable - Fern Curls.

So if you haven't arrived here from my other blog - Eat Meet Supperclub

http://eatmeetsupperclub.blogspot.com/ then it'll be news to you that I also do a supperclub, and besides it being loads of fun, you occasionally get invited to food-based things to blog about them and generally help spread the foodie love of that particular ting.

Well it was the turn of the Canadian Tourism to recently share with me and other foodie bloggers how good their produce is. We learned lots about their cuisine, different culinary influences and how utterly horrible scallops and liquorice can be!

Here's what they cooked for us:

Scallops three ways:

With liquorice maple syrup (ergh)

With sauce vierge (shallots, tomato, olive oil, basil, garlic and hemp seed oil - yum)

With pancetta and maple syrup (pancetta = good + maple syrup = nasty)

Seared Duck with pumpkin purée wild rice and chocolate

Baked cod with mash potatoes and morel sauce (madeira, the morel liquor and cream)

Bison with a port and green peppercorn sauce

Fiddleheads (these are the fern curls... literally made from fern buds and when fresh, taste like tiny delicate asparagus apparently. We sadly only got frozen ones as they had a nightmare trying to import all the Canadian produce it seemed.)

Chocolate Soufflé with maple syrup

Apples with ice wine cream

Buckwheat pancakes with loganberry sauce

Ice Wine and Ice Cider is made by leaving the grapes (or apples) on the vine to freeze in the frosts, and is sweet and lovely.

So, as a far as a recommendation goes... I would certainly suggest you go to Canada, not only to be genuinely convinced that the cuisine is more exciting than maple syrup with everything (with scallops though? Seriously), but also to try the bison steak – which was pretty phenomenal when rare, and to sample one of the weirest but nicest vegetables I've tried in years - Fiddleheads / Fern Curls. (Now try and think of them without thinking about Hull or the purp.

*Caveat (confession actually) – I forgot to take photos, and so the one above is nicked from the people at this lovely blog courtesy of google images... www.thenourishinggourmet.com please don't sue me... I think you're great.