We do quite a bit of travel all over the world, which offers us the opportunity to experience different cultures, varied geography, and, most importantly, food. Now I am game to try anything. I ate fried caterpillars (tasted like bacon)  and live ants (tasted like lemon)  in Costa Rica, as well as a host of other delicacies in other countries.

One of the more universal choices for breakfast worldwide is soup.

Now who doesn’t like a nice hearty tomato soup with a well-made grilled cheese sandwich…for lunch? Breakfast, I don’t think so.

Not so fast!

Not so fast!

On our most recent ventures deep in the heart of our enemy to the north, Canada, we had little trouble sneaking across the porous border. All they did was look at our passports and say Bon Jour, The crossing took mere moments.

We headed up to Nova Scotia, where some of my relatives first arrived from Ireland and remain here (all buried, unfortunately) to this day.

In planning our trip around the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton, we saw a place highly recommended for breakfast called Charlene’s Bayside Restaurant in Whycocomagh. (One of the truly enjoyable things here is trying to pronounce the names of places which are written in English, Gaelic, and Mi’Kamaw, the local natives to the area.)

But back to the food.  The highly recommended breakfast was fish chowder, fish cake, and a biscuit.

Pass!   I am a purist with my breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and 2 -3 gallons of coffee. Or, in the alternative, a couple of honey-dipped donuts. But, when in Rome…

So I ordered this breakfast and…

O  M  G!

All I can say is that while I may not be ready for other soups for breakfast, this one is more than worth it. Loaded with lobster, scallops, shrimp, and fish, it is nirvana. As a topping to the fishcake, they offer this magical condiment called chow. A sort of piccalilli made with just green tomatoes and onions. I already downloaded the recipe!

This breakfast is so good, it’s worth making the harrowing trip through Canada, where everyone said hello and chatted with us like we were old friends, even if that’s all you do. 

But I recommend wandering around a bit. The people are not the least bit affected by the current political nonsense and are warm and welcoming. I could almost sense they felt sorry for us. And I can see why; we don’t have anything even close to this kind of breakfast.