Day 12 - Dunes de Bouctouche / Soirée Acadienne - Sat, June 29

Today, after a very late wedding night, we relaxed in the morning, then Michel-Claude and Patti came to our "campground" in Jeeps and Lise's yard and hung out in our trailer as we made our morning shake. 

Le "camping" chez Jeeps and Lise

After our shake, we took the scenic coastal drive to the dunes at Bouctouche and had a very pleasant long walk along the beach! So awesome! Great company! Hard to beat!

On the scenic drive, a view of the 

Auberge du Vieux Presbytere

that MC and Patti stayed at...

 Bouctouche Dunes Beach

We went back to Jeeps and Lise's beautiful house on the water. 

We helped them set up tables in their spacious garage for the "soirée acadienne" she and Jeeps had prepared for all their out of town guests. Joel and Sylvie even joined us! There was a 4 course meal of traditional Acadian food, complete with an explanation of how the food was prepared and how to eat it. 

The spacious garage that Jeeps built

The Acadien Gourmet Restaurant

Pierre and poutine...

Their acadian friend Pierre explained that many Acadians were poor and food was not always plentiful but potatoes grew well here so that was a base for a lot of their food.  

Patti

We started with "une poutine acadienne" also known as "poutine râpée", and also another potato dish called "Pâté râpé". 

Poutine and Râpée - So good!

For the Poutine:
Potatoes are peeled, then grated, then the water is squeezed out. 2/3 amount of grated wrung out potatoes to 1/3 cooked mashed potatoes are mixed together and formed into a baseball sized ball. This is cooked in boiling salted water for 1 and 1/2 hours then a hole is formed to be able to stuff it with raw pork. The ball is closed up then cooked again for 2 and 1/2 hours in boiling salted water. It is traditionally eaten with molasses or brown or white sugar sprinkled on top. Some just put salt and pepper. It is good to add a bit of the cooking water, as a bit of gravy as well. Robert and I loved this dish!

For the " Râpée", or "Chiard" as they call it, is pretty much the same ingredients as their poutine, but layered in a dish and baked in the oven. It is eaten with the same accompaniments.

The next course was lobster. Acadians prefer to eat their lobsters cold. Dominique's boyfriend Eric entertained us by demonstrating how to dissect the lobster and what parts to eat. Basically, he ate everything but the shell, including the eggs if it was a female! 

 Eric, Dominique's boyfriend, lobster in hand...

"Then, you break the tail off like this...

Robert, anticipating the feast!

Then, we each chose a lobster to eat. I managed to eat the meat in the tail, but as I am squeamish when it comes to dissecting what I eat, I gave the rest to Robert to enjoy, and enjoy it he did! The lobster was accompanied by a potato salad - "patate à salade" (yes that IS how they say it) and a creamy coleslaw and home made bread.  

The 3rd course was du "fricot" which Pierre's wife Rachel had made for us.  She explained that this was best eaten the next day, so she had made it the previous day. It is a type of soupy stew with lots of potatoes, onion, chicken, salt and pepper. The whole chicken is cooked in the boiling water, then removed. This was eaten with buttered buns. Quite yummy!!

Rachel explaining about "fricot"

To finish off an awesome meal, we had desert. "Pet de soeur" that Rachel had made and a "Tarte au Sucre" that Lise had purchased from another local woman. So good that Mme. Privé had two deserts!

Then, it was time to socialize with the new couple and his superhero family!

 Dominique, Riel, Sylvie and Joel

SUPER LOBSTER !