Foody Goody

[shanmonster]

curtana wrote about the foods she misses, and it inspired me to do the same.

Partridge berry tarts. I think the last time I had them was almost a quarter century ago. My grandmother used to make them. Partridge berries are native to Newfoundland, and taste similar to cranberries, but are smaller and glossier--a gorgeous deep red berry looking something like the fruit of the deadly nightshade. The pastry was flakey and thinly spread with a tart partridge berry jam, then covered over with a lattice-work crust. Nanny's tarts were some of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

Bottled moose meat. When my family lived off the land in the Rockies, Dad and his friend Clayton managed to bag a big bull moose. The meat kept both our families fed that winter. Mom boiled the meat up and canned it. The stewed meat was so tender it hardly needed chewing, and the flavour was richer than any beef I've eaten, but without the intense gaminess of deer venison.

Lychee nuts, pre-taste aversion. I used to eat lychee nuts by the dozen with my friend Beatrix when I was twelve. But one day, I accidentally ate a rotten one, and the flavour was so horrid, I haven't been able to stomach them ever since.

Wigwag chocolate bars. When I was a little girl, I used to get these long, chocolate-covered toffee bars. Skor bars taste very similar, but they aren't chewy, and they're nowhere near as big.

Mutant strawberries. They grew in my neighbour's yard. He told us we weren't allowed on his land, but whenever he was away, my sister, my friend Amy, and I would ride my pony Dolly up to his yard and trespass willfully. Once upon a time, there'd been a domesticated strawberry bed where we went. But over the years, the big strawberries had cross-bred with the wild ones to produce large strawberries with the intense flavour of wild berries. The neighbour never did catch us, although now that I think about it, I don't know how he couldn't, considering ponies shit more or less indiscriminately.

Comments

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the post! However, I've never lived in the States.