Dueling Breads, Gardens, and Chowders

Freshly baked bread, farm-fresh ingredients, amazing seafood chowder: these are all things that fine restaurants on Prince Edward Island are passionate about.  The Shipwrights and The Dunes are two of the lovely restaurants we went to with our Aunt Karen and Uncle Stephen, and each one had unique ways of expressing each of these passions.

The quality of ingredients is paramount at The Shipwrights, and this standard is ensured by growing their own fruits and vegetables and by keeping free-range chickens for superbly fresh eggs. Upon seeing this quaint countryside maison surrounded by gardens of fragrant day lilies, fruit orchards, sun-drenched vegetables, and fields dotted with neat bails of hay, I found myself thinking of the French countryside.  What a pleasure to be in Acadian PEI!

The bread at The Shipwrights is freshly baked everyday, filling the countryside inn with wafting, yeasty aromas that excite the senses and make you feel right at home.  Potato bread and molasses bread arrive at one’s table soft and warm from the oven and strewn with ADL butter packets.  The breads are sliced into little squares that display the bread’s tight and airy structure and hearty crust.  The potato bread is made with potatoes fresh from the restaurant’s garden, which bring an earthy sweetness and fluffiness to the bread along with the slight aroma of steaming potatoes.  The molasses bread offers a deep, rich flavor and color with a sweetness to match; it tastes wonderful with some of the fresh butter melted into it.

“You have to have the seafood chowder”  my aunt told me before we arrived at The Shipwrights.  The chowder at The Shipwrights is considered by many to be the best on the island, and after trying this delicious potage I am not in a position to disagree.  A generous array of fish and shellfish is finely flaked into the potato-thickened, creamy broth, creating the perfect assemblage of seafood, fish, dairy, and potato for a wonderfully satisfying rendition of classic northeastern seafood chowder.

Stone Buddhas meditate among wild bursting colors of blooming flowers and trickling, lily-strewn ponds of the sculpted, meandering gardens behind The Dunes.  We explored the gardens, strolling over the small footbridges in the warm, summer drizzle–following the twisting paths of flowerbeds past gray-stone sculptures of Southeast Asian gods and goddesses, transporting us to a place far away and spiritual.

The bread and butter arrives, like all the food at The Dunes, on beautiful handmade ceramic dishes.  They serve tiny, tender little cheese and chive biscuits, a PEI potato bread, and a dark Swedish rye.  The Swedish rye was fresh and springy, and had a mysterious yet familiar eastern spice, which eluded us at first and turned out to be the pungent spice, cumin!

The fish chowder at The Dunes is a world apart from The Shipwrights.  This fish “chowder” introduces Mediterranean fluttering aromas of saffron and chili that are grounded with rich flavors of garlic, tomato, and basil.  A tender mosaic of whole mussels, salmon, and scallops decorate  and fortify this soup which more closely resembles a southern French bouillabaisse than any American chowder, but is delightfully delicious nonetheless.

Prince Edward Island’s restaurants and diners alike revel in the sensual pleasures of gardens, breads, and chowders.  On an island where agriculture, fishing, and food are an everyday way of life for many, dining can be an exciting and pleasurable experience that can easily encompass all of these passions.