For the past few summers, the Côte-Nord has been full of tourists who have come to admire its magnificent mammals and seascapes. Along the way, many also discovered a region rich in maritime and boreal flavors. A new gourmet circuit showcases them.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
From Tadoussac to Kegaska, Route 138 crosses the Côte-Nord for almost 850 km. Along the way, producers, fishermen, pickers, brewers and chefs, among others, sublimate the flavors of this corner of the country. But you still have to find them in this vast expanse…
Starting this summer, it’s easier thanks to the Taste of the North Shore circuit, which suggests twenty addresses for a treat.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES
The North Shore is rich in spectacular landscapes… but also in delights.
Variety of choices
Among them, renowned restaurants, such as Chez Mathilde in Tadoussac, where chef Jean-Sébastien Sicard continues his culinary explorations with the best products from the region. This summer, it offers three five-course menus (including a dessert) featuring products from the land, the river or in vegetarian mode, offered with (or without) judicious food and wine pairings. In the delicious dishes, between Stimpson’s surf clams and deer, the chef also offers some creations of his own, including fried lichen, sweetgrass snow and some elaborate fermentations during the off season.
The restaurants La Galouïne, also in Tadoussac, or La cache d’Amélie, in Baie-Comeau, Chez Omer, in Sept-Îles, and Chez Julie, in Havre-Saint-Pierre, are also among them.
The list also includes the St-Pancrace (Baie-Comeau), Chasse-Gardee (Sacré-Coeur) and Tadoussac microbreweries, as well as the Puyjalon distillery in Havre-Saint-Pierre, some of whose products can be found at the SAQ.
But the circuit, published on the Tourisme Côte-Nord website, also directs visitors to smaller artisans. Like Russel Tremblay’s Boreal Flavours, in Forestville, where visitors can stock up on wild products.
The company’s pickers collect herbs (lovage, glasswort), mushrooms (chanterelle, boletus, crab, chaga), spices (dune pepper, bayberry) and Labrador tea. On reservation, it is even possible to go picking in the forest.
PHOTO FROM THE SAVEURS BOREALES WEBSITE
In Forestville, Saveurs boréales pickers pick herbs (lovage, glasswort), mushrooms (chanterelle, boletus, crab, chaga), spices (dune pepper, bayberry) and Labrador tea.
In Clarke City, near Sept-Îles, Trésors des bois also offers products from the forests of the Côte-Nord in a small self-service kiosk, where visitors pay the price they want. In Sept-Îles itself, a stop at Fumeur en Nord allows you to taste scallops, mussels and smoked tofu.
Near Port-Cartier, the Chocolaterie Cartier makes delicious fair trade chocolate bars, some of which contain local aromatics (spruce, haskap and sea salt). In Natashquan, De baies et de sève uses ingredients to prepare tea blends, jams, syrups and jellies or a riverside pesto. And so on.
A circuit in development
Of course, the whole of the Côte-Nord, a region that has been honored twice at the Montréal en lumière festival, has more than 20 gourmet addresses worthy of interest. “It’s only the beginning,” explains Micheline Vallée, public relations officer for Tourisme Côte-Nord who has been very involved in the project. “We are going to add new addresses over the next few years, especially among the Innu, who are numerous in the region. »
At a time when agritourism is booming, the important thing for Tourisme Côte-Nord was to immediately put forward businesses and artisans who represent the best that is made with local ingredients in the region, explains Mme Valley. The North Shore thus follows the example of the Gaspésie and other regions which have been offering, sometimes for years, gourmet tours to guide visitors.
Even before the addition of good additional addresses, there is always a way to taste the delicacies of other producers and processors in certain establishments whose mission is to offer North Shore products. Among them, the Chez Julie restaurant shop (Havre-Saint-Pierre), the Renard Blue grocery store (Sept-Îles), the Treasure Market (Baie-Comeau) as well as the Kiboikoi café and the fishmonger’s at the Pêcheries Manicouagan restaurant (Les Escoumins). All these businesses are also part of the first version of the circuit. This is very practical.