A guide to little-known Quebec flavours
Isn’t it amazing that products from other parts of the world are so well known (bananas, almonds, chocolate, mango, olive oil…), while other local flavors, such as those discussed in this article, are less well known? Let’s remedy the situation by shining a light on local products that deserve to be better known! 💡
Seaweed
A real sea vegetable, abundant in the St. Lawrence, nutritious, diverse, sustainable and delicious with a touch of umami… seaweed seems to have it all! 😎 And yet, for all their benefits, we eat very little of it, apart from the rarely local seaweed used in popular sushi dishes. 🍣 When we consult the list of species to be promoted by Fourchette bleue, we quickly realize that many of these species (a third!) are… Seaweed.
Discovering their universe is fascinating! Their names sometimes ring bells (nori, kombu, sea lettuce…) and other times take us on a poetic journey (black seaweed, webbed sea hand, succulent alarie…). If you can’t always have fresh seaweed on hand, a great way to tame them is by using dried local seaweed, often available in leaves, chunks or flakes. Some offer them as ready-to-use seasonings, such as seaweed salt. Other companies transform them into condiments (e.g. seaweed pesto, seaweed relish). Seasonings and condiments can be an easy first step to integrating seaweed into a menu without being overwhelmed. You can then explore adding seaweed chunks or flakes to sauces, soups, salads or other recipes.
Keep your eyes open and your curiosity sharp as you visit fishmongers who strive to put local produce on the menu! 🐟 👀
Salt
Let’s stay in the St. Lawrence. 🌊 Did you know that local companies from the Côte-Nord to the Îles-de-la-Madeleine are successfully harvesting and marketing salt from our waters? These are fine, finishing salts, ideal for spicing up the taste of our dishes with the perfect little salty, well-textured touch that has traveled far less than imported salt.
Seal
The seal population – also known as the sea wolf – is abundant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. So abundant, in fact, that it has an impact on fluctuations in fish and seafood stocks. Voracious, seals are predators of numerous marine species, and this has an impact on the balance of marine ecosystems, as well as on fishermen. Although the seal population is high, consumption of seal meat remains marginal. Hunters could increase their catches, but they still need to make the most of the resource, and that starts with being able to find it. For the time being, a butcher’s shop on the Magdalen Islands processes seal meat into a variety of charcuterie products, some fishmongers offer it and a handful of restaurants dare to include it on their menus, but it’s still hard for gourmets to get their hands on it. For others, the challenge is to familiarize themselves with the ferrous character of the taste of this lean meat, which will vary according to seal species, cuts and ways of preparing them. Let’s be curious and taste it when the opportunity presents itself! 🦭
Redfish
Still on the marine side, a fish from the St. Lawrence is gradually carving out a place for itself on fishmongers’ shelves, and is just waiting to be added to your plates: redfish. The small white fillets of this delicious groundfish are easy to incorporate into your menu: it’s easy to cook and its mild flavor is not off-putting. It’s an all-purpose fish to be cooked just as you’re used to cooking white fish, except that rather than coming from the other side of the world, it comes from the St. Lawrence. Better still: unlike other local marine products, redfish resources are abundant. According to Mange ton Saint-Laurent (consulted in October 2024), it’s one of the most abundant fish available today. Discover it if you haven’t already!
Small fruits
If we’re familiar with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, do you know about argouse, saskatoons, elderberries, chokecherries or pimbina? 🤔 Less well known, emerging fruits are sometimes cultivated, sometimes found in hedgerows, fields, woodlands and other wild environments.
In some cases, such as the pimbina (three-lobed viburnum), our grandmothers knew them better than we do: these are not always “new” fruits, but flavors that have sometimes fallen into oblivion. Others, such as the saskatoon (a small fruit with a flavour reminiscent of almonds), exist in the wild, but selected varieties are now also planted in orchards.
In other cases, as in the case of sea buckthorn, it’s not a taste our grandmothers were familiar with: introduced more recently to Quebec, sea buckthorn is a shrub that adapts very well to our environment, producing an abundance of small, tangy orange berries with a uniquely exotic fragrance. Our woodlands, hedgerows and orchards abound with berries – forgotten or emerging – that are well worth (re)discovering, for the pleasure of varying colors, shapes and flavors. 🫐
As they are not yet widely distributed in supermarkets, the best way to discover them is to visit farms, public markets and delicatessens, all of which give pride of place to local produce. You’ll love them fresh in season, but you’ll also find them frozen and transformed into all sorts of delights all year round (jams, spreads, marinades, confits, etc.). Then it’s just a matter of daring to try them, and gradually incorporating them into your cooking. The producers and pickers we meet at local markets are excellent sources of inspiration! 🧑🌾
Forest Products
All it takes is a walk in the woods with a picker to realize the immensity of the forest larder. If maple syrup needs no introduction, are you familiar with birch syrup? If wild mushrooms are all the rage, can springtime fiddleheads find their way to your plate? Edible forest products are both well-known and yet to be discovered. In the latter category, we can think of various herbs such as pine nard (the male catkin of the traveller’s comptonia), the needles of many conifers (fir, spruce…), and vinegar sumac, whose mild acidity is appreciated. Websites and books are available to help you learn more about the flavours of our woods and forests. There are also guided nature outings: enriching, immersive experiences. Another accessible way to familiarize yourself with the flavors of the forest is to talk to the pickers at a farmers’ market, for example.
There’s no need to buy 50 new products at once, which can be dizzying. It’s better to integrate new flavors one by one, taking the time to smell them, taste them, and try them out in your kitchen in different ways, so you can get the hang of them and gradually integrate them into your local culinary reflexes!
Our vast territory abounds in resources and flavors. It’s rich in gatherers, producers and artisans who know how to cultivate, harvest and showcase them. As eaters, let’s keep our curiosity wide open and be there! 😋
While some local products remain a challenge to find, the majority can be unearthed by visiting the markets that line our regions, by travelling the gourmet routes, by choosing local grocers and by visiting the online boutiques that provide access to so many products in just a few clicks. As the holidays approach, the Christmas markets that are springing up across Quebec are also great places to stock up on home-grown products. 🎄Invitation you to take advantage of the festive season to offer some as gifts when you are received, to try some on the menu and to slip a few into your Christmas stockings!
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