The Aroma of Paradise / Gaspe Quebec

The ride after the ferry landing on the south shore of the St Lawrence to Gaspe took longer than my father and I had anticipated, even counting for a Quebec trooper stopping my father for speeding. 160 KPH in a 100 KPH zone. My father received a warning and we were back on our way, wheeling along the rugged coast line. The peninsula ended at our destination. We didn't make it that far. My father argued with me about speeding and threw me out of the car. In the middle of a forest with a view of the St. Lawrence. The Mercedes vanished over a hill. He wasn't coming back.

I started walking. Gaspe wasn't that far. The trooper stopped, heard my story, and took me to the small fishing town famousized by the monolithic islands trailing into the Atlantic. It was almost sunset. I spotted my father's car before a restaurant with a spectacular view.

I thanked 'flic' and walked to the restaurant. A delightful fragrance traipsed with the breeze. The source was inside the restaurant without a name. I entered like a Lagotto Romagnolo hunting a motherlode of truffles. My father sat at the window. I knocked on the wall of the kitchen. The chef turned from his frying pan filled with seafood. A bouillabaisse from the wild North Atlantic.

"Deux plats comme ca." I lifted two fingers. He smiled back at us. Every cook likes someone appreciating their efforts. The hostess sat me with my father.

"Bonne Vue."

"Tres bien." My father had learned his French in college. 1940. Mine came from working at the Bains-Douches in the 80s. The clerk didn't understand either of us. Quebec's dialect dated back to the 1600s.

Two glasses of Syvval white wine from Nova Scotia on the table, as if my father had been expecting me. Our meal was a bouillabaisse of local fish, clams, and shrimp. Delicious was an understatement. We were transported to paradise. Canada was a foreign land. Tomorrow we would be heading back to America. We said nothing about our fight. We toasted my mother and his wife. We were together with her tonight.

Here in the distant Quebec and its food.

Nothing like it south of the border.