12 crazy only-in-Newfoundland foods you must try

From Climax candies to beer made from icebergs, here are 12 crazy Newfoundland foods to discover, if you dare. By Nikki Bayley.

If you’re curious about Newfoundland, you may also like our Viking adventure in Newfoundland, story eight in our ongoing series Meanwhile in Canada…

1. Jiggs Dinner

A traditional “Jiggs Dinner” consists of boiled salt beef, spuds, carrots, cabbage and turnip; comfort food at its best.

Named after an Irish immigrant comic strip character, if you’ve got Irish relatives you’ve definitely had a ‘Jiggs Dinner’: salt beef, spuds, carrot, cabbage and turnip all boiled to within an inch of their lives and pretty much the perfect thing on a rainy Sunday.

2. Cod tongues

Think of it more as a foodie nose-to-tail (or in this case tongue to fin) rite of passage; after all, it’s fashionable AND sustainable to eat what Anthony Bourdain called ‘the nasty bits’.

Nose-to-tail eating in Newfoundland is eating cod tongues, it’s dipped in flour and fried (photo: Edsel Little Flickr).

Yes, these are real cod tongues, dipped in seasoned flour and fried – and they’re surprisingly tasty. For more ways with cod, find out how to become an honorary Newfoundlander here.

3. Scrunchions

I feel that someone, somewhere was achingly hungover when scrunchions were invented: cubes of pork backfat, fried gently till the fat has rendered and they become salt-spangled porky puffs of pure joy.

Traditional Newfoundland food of scrunchions, fish and brewis (photo: Keith Pomakis Wikicommons).

These are usually paired with cod tongues or switched for croutons on chowder.

4. Bakeapple

Also known as cloudberries, this terrifically tart berry grows wild in peat bogs and is a little like a sour raspberry.

You’ll find bakeapples popping up on the breakfast table in jams and arriving at dessert time in a pie.

5. Oyster leaf

The name of this curious wild-growing herb is a bit of a giveaway. It tastes exactly like an oyster: briny and fresh, but with a crunchy consistency.

If you’ve ever wondered what a crunchy oyster tastes like, the wild-growing oyster leaf in Newfoundland will satisfy your curiousity (photo: Nikki Bayley).

There is something disconcerting about leaves tasting like bivalves, but this cheffy ingredient can be found in Newfoundland’s best dining spots such as Fogo Island Inn (read more about Fogo Island Inn here) and Raymonds.

6. Touton

Pronounced tow-ton, this is a deep-fried ball of dough, usually served with treacly black molasses.

Those with a sweet tooth will love toutons, they’re deep fried dough and drizzled with molasses. Two more please (photo: Nikki Bayley).

Eating it will make you happier than you ever knew was possible.

7. Caribou moss

Another cheffy hand-foraged ingredient that comes from the tundra.

Newfoundland’s caribou moss can be candied, brined or dried to a crunchy chip (photo: Nikki Bayley).

You need to soak it with baking powder to strip it of its toxic acidity, but then it can be candied, brined, dried to a crunchy chip or a dozen other things to add a taste of place to a Newfoundland meal.

8. Purity Candy

Impossible not to have a good giggle at this heritage candy company who sell bags of Climax Mixture and Peppermint Nobs with a perfectly straight face.

These are Christmas Nobs made by the heritage candy company Purity Factories, have a giggle at come of their more novelty candies (photo: Purity Factory).

Best purchased from the small town of Dildo (really, it’s a place) for maximum sniggering.

9. Iceberg Vodka / Iceberg Beer

Unique in the world, no one else harvests icebergs and turns the 10,000-year-old, pre-Industrial Revolution pure water into booze, but the Newfoundlanders.

No one else in the world makes booze harvested from icebergs, except for Newfoundlanders that is (photo: Nikki Bayley).

So raise a glass of Iceberg Beer from the excellent Quidi Vidi brewery and follow that with a shot of Iceberg Vodka to say ‘thank you’.

10. Partridgeberry

A little like a cranberry, this tongue-tinglingly sour berry comes with a side of amazing health benefits from fighting cancer to slowing the effects of ageing.

These scarlet berries are Newfoundland partridgeberries, they’re sour but have amazing health benefits
(photo: Warren Flynn Flickr).

Seek out the splendidly named Dark Tickle Company’s partridgeberry jam as a souvenir for home.

11. Flipper Pie

Not a euphemism. Flipper pie is made with actual seal flippers and I’m told it’s a delicacy; the seal meat is gamey yet fishy at the same time.

Alas, the pie I had precisely one bite of was on a boat and handed to me with the apology, ‘That flipper’s a bit oozy.’

Trust me. Never eat an oozy flipper.

12. Labrador tea

This most determined plant grows flat on the freezing tundra, its deep green leaves curled under and white flowers briefly blossoming.

Traditionally used by First Nations as a Vitamin C-rich tea, you can also find it as a botanical in Ungava gin.

Can’t get enough of Canada?

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• Newbies to Canada: Canada 101: A Beginner’s Introduction

• Need more inspiration? here’s 100 Things to do in Canada Before You Die