Oyster Boy

Sunday 16 November

We took Sunday entirely off and spent the day with some new friends, Peter and Athalie, who took us to and around the Royal Agricultural Show in Toronto. This is essentially a national version of a county fair, but held in the early 20th century exhibition halls in the heart of the city. It had the usual displays of prize cows, horses pigs, sheep, goats, bunnies, the odd llama or two, giant vegetables (including the Guinness book of world records largest rutabaga, which looked like a ventriloquist's dummy, and a 1200 lb. pumpkin), and butter sculptures showing jumping cows and real-sized equestrian saddles.

In the commercial halls were plenty of booths giving out freebies, and we're glad we got the Ontario local foods cloth sack (for which we had to sing the rather forgettable "Good things grow-o-o in Ontario" song) before we got the apples, the toilet paper, and the large bag of Prince Edward Island potatoes apiece.

Of course, unless you're a funnel-cake fan, there's not usually much that's good to eat at an agricultural fair. So we bolstered ourselves beforehand by going out for dim sum. The restaurant, Sun Sun, was outside town in a Chinese cultural center, the sort that has giant painted gates and painted sculpture in the courtyard. It was not as good as the place we used to go in Philadelphia - though I can't remember the name of that place - but it was pretty good. Then we exhausted ourselves at the fair, and at the end we went out for EXTRAORDINARY oysters at a local place called Oyster Boy.

The Cape Bretons were small and sweet, the Malpeques were large and briny, but even better than either were the Colville Bays, which were fat and creamy yet still briny and fresh. You can see these appellations, by the way, on the maps of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (where the potatoes also came from) here.

Oh, and the French fries were to die for (with tasty mayos on the side).