Eating Wild by the Ocean in Newfoundland and Labrador
by Globe Content Studio
This article is part of a series about the unforgettable experiences and exceptional people that bring visitors back to Newfoundland and Labrador again and again. From stunning landscapes to playful whales to heartwarming entertainment, there’s a never-ending list of things to see and do. The people are warm, welcoming, and funny to the core. So have a read and plan your visit.
A beach boil-up featuring fire-cooked mussels.
Whether it’s a cup of tea in the woods or a pot of mussels on the beach, a proper Newfoundland and Labrador boil-up – among the most beloved of local traditions – combines two elements: a kettle over an outdoor fire and friendly faces to share it with.
A boil-up hosted by Shelby Beals always includes a third element: foraging food from the natural bounty of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Avalon Peninsula. Beals is owner and operator of tour company Wildera, which offers a range of guided experiences built around foraging and fresh sea air. The half-day boil-up, available year-round, is popular with visitors and locals alike.
“We start with a bit of a foraging walk on the way down to the beach,” Beals says. “You never have to go far to find things to forage here if you know what you're looking for.”
Depending on the season, guests might pick alder catkins, which can be ground and used as a zesty pepper substitute. Sweet and grassy beach pea flowers “add sparkle and colour to desserts,” Beals says. Scotch lovage, which has a woody flavour similar to parsley or celery, can be used as a garnish.
On the beach, locally caught seafood is cooked in a pot over an open flame. “Classic examples for us are fire-cooked mussels and lobster rolls using a generational family lobster salad recipe,” Beals says. “We will also be serving salt cod fish cakes and cod stew as we move into the colder months.”
Beals says there is “magic to be found” on the island, no matter the weather. Credit: Greg Locke
In addition to fresh greens just foraged from the beach, guests can dress their meals with oils and seasonings Beals makes from the local vegetation, such as spruce- and alder-infused oil, balsam fir-infused apple cider vinegar, and rose sugar.
Every meal includes dessert, which is usually baked tea buns with decadent Fussell’s cream – a beloved staple of local pantries for generations – and preserves made of partridgeberries or bakeapples. There are also steaming mugs of hot tea.
“Are you even friends with a Newfoundlander if you don’t have tea together?” Beals says with a laugh.
Cooler weather isn’t a deterrent, she adds. Wildera has partnered with a local park to move the boil-ups into a protected forest area, and there’s a nearby yurt that can be a back-up space. “If the weather is unsafe or truly miserable, we will reschedule as needed,” says Beals. “But we do believe that there is magic to be found in many weather conditions here on the island.”
Foraging hikes with Wildera include a walk along the scenic East Coast Trail to gather edible plants and berries. Credit: Greg Locke
Wildera is one of the unique and delicious food experiences available along the Irish Loop, a picturesque 300-kilometre road trip around the southeast Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. (The name stems from the area’s 400 years of Irish heritage and the landscape’s striking similarities to Ireland.)
Dining along the Irish Loop isn’t just about filling your belly, it’s about being welcomed to share in a communal experience with locals who soon feel like friends. The local cuisine combines centuries of tradition and resourcefulness with modern influences and an enduring love of the land.
Overlooking the wild Atlantic Ocean, the dining room at The Cape Retreat features a single, long, wooden table. A maximum of 14 guests per night gather for The Cape’s signature Land to Sea dinner: seven courses built around the freshest ingredients from forest, shore and sea, served with a healthy side of storytelling.
At The Cape Retreat, dishes highlight local and foraged ingredients. Diver scallop ceviche with lemon balm oil. Credit: Johnny C.Y. Lam
Wild chamomile cake with wild blueberries and local maple syrup. Credit: Johnny C.Y. Lam
“This is not just sitting down to have dinner, it's sitting down to be immersed in an experience.”
“This is not just sitting down to have dinner, it's sitting down to be immersed in an experience, to hear the stories and connect with the people that provide the food,” says Alex Blagdon, The Cape’s culinary director.
The menu varies weekly, sometimes daily, based on what is available locally and Blagdon’s creative impulses. Dinner might include wild mushroom pasta, juniper-smoked partridge or cold-water shrimp dumplings with lemon balm and beach greens. Gently steamed cod, fresh-caught by handline (an ancient method of fishing without a rod), might be served with local potatoes and mustardy wintercress.
Diners sit at a communal table and enjoy seven meticulously crafted courses during The Cape Retreat’s Land to Sea dinner.
Credit: Johnny C.Y. Lam
Blagdon and The Cape Retreat offer private and small group cooking classes, as well as immersive, multi-day experiences with guest artists. Hands & Heritage, offered at the end of October, includes three days with Blagdon and cultural ambassador Lori McCarthy, a skilled basket weaver and storyteller. Guests stay in The Cape’s beautiful cliffside cabins.
“We built Hands & Heritage to tell the story of what our ancestors and the people around us did when they were growing up,” Blagdon says.
The first evening, everyone gets to know each other over a meal, Blagdon says. The next day, McCarthy will teach guests to weave a traditional basket using foraged materials, and Blagdon will lead a cooking class based around wild food. On the third day, guests will head out to the surrounding terrain to fill their baskets – with berries, mushrooms and Labrador tea – then process and preserve the found food to take away with them. Along the way, participants will learn about the traditions, life and culture of the area.
La Roca at The Bread and Cheese Country Inn serves cuisine inspired by the flavours of Newfoundland and Labrador and Galicia, Spain. La Roca’s signature cod and cauliflower.
Mackerel with salmorejo, a rich, refreshing cold tomato soup.
Not far up the shore, at The Bread & Cheese Country Inn in Bay Bulls, the traditional food of Newfoundland and Labrador meets the vibrant flavours of Spain. Owners and chefs Paula Hanna (from British Columbia) and Pablo Martinez (from Galicia in northwestern Spain) welcome a maximum of 10 diners per evening around the communal table in their restaurant, La Roca. They never publish a menu, and they never serve the same meal twice.
“When we seat our guests, they still don’t know what they’re going to eat,” says Martinez. “I come and talk about each dish as it comes out.” He builds the menu around what local fishers, farmers and foragers have on offer that day, infusing his dishes with elements of Spanish and Newfoundland and Labrador cuisine. Martinez says he sees a lot of commonalities between the two food cultures.
“Where I grew up, we ate cod tongues, we ate cabbage, we ate salt beef, all that I recognized when we moved here,” he says. “Our food presents the experience of Newfoundland and Labrador in a slightly different way."
Martinez says one of their most emblematic dishes is salt cod and cauliflower, “as that fish is so important to both Galicia and Newfoundland.” Other dishes have included scallop semi-crudo with thick salmorejo (a rich, refreshing cold tomato soup), salt-baked beetroot salad and local panfried mackerel with rich and nutty ajoblanco (a soup made with almonds and garlic).
La Roca’s local blueberry and Galician fig panacotta.
Guests share a meal featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients at La Roca’s communal table.
There’s also La Roca’s famed culture-blending signature dessert: a combination of rich and creamy Basque cheesecake, homemade blueberry jam and banana bread.
If there is one thing the wild and wonderful food of the Irish Loop has in common, it’s community. Whether gathered around a crackling fire on the beach, sharing tea in the forest or dining at a table with a view of the Atlantic, conversations flow naturally, and connections run deep.
“It really is a beautiful time where we make space for connection, and we actively talk to each other,” says Beals. “Everyone gets to hear each other's stories.”
Blagdon adds that while the food is the reason many people come to the Irish Loop, the connection they feel is the reason they stay.
“If people aren’t talking about the food because they’re too busy talking to each other, well, that’s my goal,” she says. “It takes something special to create a space where people feel comfortable to open up to strangers, to be vulnerable and allow people in, without knowing them for long.”
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Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.
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