An Inauspicious Beginning, or the Worst Meal Ever (Canada part 1)

Canadian roadside restaurants are to be avoided at all costs. No offense meant to Canadians, but... ewww! McDonald's would have been better.

Joe and I got off to a late start, and so we didn't want to waste the time at a sit-down restaurant. I declared that we would arrive at the B&B before midnight, so "fast" was an important criteria. We stopped at one of those large gas station-restaurant-truck stops somewhere near London, Ontario. Joe says to me, "I bet you $20 dollars that this will be the worst food we've eaten in two years."

Uh, yeah, right. "You don't understand," he explained. "Canadian roadside restaurants are bad." I look at him doubtfully, but I don't take up the bet. The restaurant boasted a buffet. Perfect. Fast, but not fast food chain foodstuff. We look it over. A small selection, but otherwise very similar looking to the U.S. Old Country Buffet chain. Ham, fish, battered shrimp, a selection of vegetables, rolls, salad bar, and dessert bar. How bad can it be?

We dive into the food. Broiled fish for me, ham for Joe. Side dishes, gravy.

I have never tasted such awful fish as I had that night. In fact, "tasted" is the wrong word because there was no taste. It was like eating boiled water with texture. It must take some special skill to make fish taste like boiled water. And the gravy.... I had to choose between dark and light for my mashed potatoes. (Beef and chicken gravy?) I chose the one more people before me had choosen. It had decidedly strong celery-aftertaste. This was less surprising when I saw that the coleslaw was heavily spiced with celery seed. Joe said the ham was on the mushy side, but edible. I'm particular about ham, so I passed on that. The boiled vegetables looked less than appealing, so I left them alone. I ended up eating a big plate of breaded shrimp, the kind that comes out of a big frozen bag, until I got worried that the shrimp cocktail sauce may have been sitting out too long.

But that was nothing compared to the dessert. Most of them were old and dried out — not surprising given that the buffet was near to closing down. But one was very special. It didn't have a name, so I will name it: Purple Grape Chocolate Trifle. And it deserves a post of its own... (coming soon)

Comments

[TerryP]

Bravo on your site.

You may want to try the roadside restaurants in Quebec. Have you ever tried poutine? French fries smoothered in curd cheese and gravy. Sounds awful? You'd be surprised. It is practially a national dish in La Belle Provience of Canada.

You'll also find some of the finest restaurants, hottest nightlife and interesting cultural experiences in NA. The European influence is strong here.

TerryP
Montreal, Canada

[Joe]

(This is KitchenChick's husband)

We've heard great things about Montreal, and would like to go there at some point. Unfortunately, we probably wouldn't get to experience the roadside food since it's far enough away that we'd probably fly (or take the train from TO).

I'm guessing the non-roadside restaurants are even better, though... ;-)