Gourmands know that the best meals occur at both ends of the spectrum: the white table cloth restaurant featuring the rare delicacies of the globe and local, heritage recipes presented in a home-spun ambiance.
Cupid’s Haven in Cupid, Newfoundland, Canada, serves the ultimate comfort food in the ultimately comforting environment: the former St. Augustine’s Church! I was happy to be hosted to experience it.
Cupid is about an hour away from Newfoundland, Canada’s port city of St. John’s. Certainly during harsher weather, this can feel like a more remote part of the world. But community and thriftiness reign supreme here. Way down the coast in the US’s New England, they have the saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” The area also brings to mind the New England Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts opening stanza,”‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free/ ‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,”. Eating at vintage church pews, looking through hand-crafted stained glass and enjoying the blessings of a filling meal leaves one wanting for nothing else.
Cupid’s Haven is a B & B with a tearoom. The various alcoves of the church would be perfect for a small corporate, church or family retreat.
They serve Northern Atlantic coastal classic dishes like salt fish cakes, baked beans, pan-fried cod. When I was there, they had a (good for what ails ya’) turkey and homemade dumplings with local salt pork, carrots in a rich broth. Try that on a blustery day!
This was followed by “touten”: leftover fried dough from that day’s bread making. It’s served with butter and that integral part of the historic “Rum Triangle” — molasses. Molasses provides nutritious iron to diets. Folks from the rural parts of Newfoundland have a saying, “Have a touten, do withouten.”
Luxe & Down-Home Cuisine/Culture/Travel/Style 