Shopping in St John

July 24, 2007
Grand Bay-Westfield, NB

Today, we took our time getting started, since we didn’t have a specific plan or destination in mind. We knew we wanted to go back into the city of St John for some food shopping, particularly looking for some seafood for dinner. We’d read about the City Market in the various tourist guides, so we decided to go there. Warning: tourist guides are for tourists! We were somewhat disappointed with the place on several fronts. First, it was pretty small (about 1/6 the size of the Reading Terminal Market in Philly), with only three shopping aisles in a short block-long building. Second, there were more tourist-y stalls than food shops. There were two produce shops, two meat counters and two fishmongers and each pair looked pretty much the same, with the same goods at the same prices. Second, the selection on the food front was pretty weak. Nothing was organic, and most of the meat and fish (with the exception of the pork) looked less than fresh. In addition to the fish for tonight, I was looking for some good Canadian beef for later in the week, but nothing appealed to me (and if you know me, you know Ican be picky when it comes to beef).

We ended up buying a few things to tide us over. I picked up a Hake fillet and 2 crab cakes at one of the fishmongers (not bad on the price; out the door for C$5.25). Geri found new potatoes (great for fries; too bad we didn’t find steak!) at one of the produce vendors. We picked up some Italian deli from one of the better looking stands, and I grabbed a ripe tomato for sandwiches for tomorrow, but that was it. In the tourist traps, I saw an oyster shucking set (board and knife) that might have been interesting (now that Geri’s an oyster aficionado), but it was C$24.95 and felt like it was ready to fall apart. The one thing I know is that an oyster knife needs to be pretty sturdy, so it was a pass.

We stopped at the local shops in Grand Bay on the way home, but nothing seemed too appealing (other than the cinnamon rolls Geri picked up for breakfast – yum!!), so we headed home. I realized after it was 5:00 that we should have stopped in at the provincial “packie” for a bottle of gin so we don’t use up all the Hendrick’s on Gin & Tonics; we need to save that for Al-tinis. I need to get Al to pick us up some so we have a supply for the road post-CT.

I had a little time this afternoon, so I got out the postcard stock, and developed a customized front and back templates for printing our own cards. I developed the “back” in PowerPoint, to look similar to a commercial card with space for a message on the left and the addressee on the right. The template for the “front is simpler, with space for a photo, but selecting, enhancing, sizing, and placing the photo is a little more time consuming. I printed out a few (the paper stock is 4 cards per sheet) and we’ll mail them tomorrow at the local Canada Post location.

We decided to have fries anyway with the fish, and I thought I’d try the fish a little differently. I wrapped the fillet in foil with a little olive oil and sherry, topped with thin tomato slices and minced garlic. I cooked everything outside – because I can! The outside stoves and grill are turning out to be a good investment, since we use them a reasonable amount while we’re stopped for any substantial length of time. I sautéed the crab cakes as an appetizer, and then we had the fish, fries, and leftover snow peas from last night for dinner. The Hake was OK but not fabulous, the peas were OK but a little stringy, and the fries were fine. The crab cakes were the best potato pancakes I’ve had in a while (I couldn’t taste any crab in them). We had a Foxen Santa Maria Valley 2005 Pinot Noir that was absolute delightful. Foxen is one of the wineries on the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail that runs from Los Olivos to Santa Maria in northern Santa Barbara County, near where Geri’s sister Kathy lives (Lompoc). We’ve been going by there for years, and finally stopped by for a visit early this year; we’re glad we did! Unfortunately, we’ve heard that the area has been impacted by wildfires over the last few weeks, and we hope the vineyards are OK.

As we were eating dinner at the picnic table tonight, we started hearing a tap-tap-tap noise. Merlin heard it as well, and started growling. He finally figured it out before we did: there was a woodpecker in the tree right over our head. I finished my meal and went for the camera, and he (or she) was still at it, so I got off a few shots. Here’s a link to a couple of shots:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/DinnerVisitor

Tomorrow, our plan is to make a day trip up the coast from St John to Moncton and back. We’ll need to get an early start (OK, an 8:30 start, but that’s early for us), so we’ll do some of the prep work tonight (getting the car ready, making sandwiches, having the coffee ready in the AM). I hope the weather’s OK. Today was generally cloudy all day but the cleared up almost instantly around 3 PM. We were all set for a nice sunset when a marine layer rolled in and created a cloud-fog obstruction by the time the sun was going down. Oh, well; there’s always tomorrow!