Acadia Restaurant

Yesterday, as of this post, I visited this Korean/pizza joint called Acadia Restaurant. It's a small operation across from Gymnasia on Champlain St. in Dieppe. Previously, it served mainly pizza and was called Acadia Donair and was run by this grumpy Middle-Eastern guy who had a notice behind the counter that said he'd treat all requests to buy his business as harassment. It was easy to see why, considering he plastered the rest of the wall with compliments from customers. So, why he finally decided to sell the place, I don't know why. Regardless, I was excited that there was finally a proper restaurant that served Korean food, not just some glorified convenience store.

Anyway, I went to this place with my careworker Jonathan for supper. Upon entering the place we were greeted with a display of plastic models of the food, as well as the menu in both Korean and English. The owner then greeted us and took our orders. I asked for some sundubu jjigae, a dish I've been waiting to try for some time now, and my companion ordered a donair. In case you're wondering what a donair is, it is the Maritime variant of the döner kebab, served with a sweet, garlicky sauce made with condensed milk; I don't particularly care for for them. Afterwards, we were asked to choose a seat. The new owners had greatly improved the decor, which was wonderful considering it previously consisted of random furniture that seemed to have been scraped together from used shops and friends. At a table nearby, there were some fellow diners, about three Koreans and a white girl, presumably a girlfriend.

My companion got his food first, although he got his sauce on the side which he was a little surprised about. His only other complaint about his meal was that it was rather greasy (heck, it dripped grease), otherwise, he enjoyed it. Shortly afterwards, the owner brought my meal in on a metal tray. Along with my sundubu jjigae: a stew consisting mainly of silken tofu with shrimp and some sort of leafy vegetable, seasoned with gochujang (fermented hot red pepper paste) and sesame; I love sesame! I also got some egg in mine, but it was scrambled, rather than poached as in the display. However, my jjigae came extremely, literally, hot. I tried explaining this to my hosts when they came asking for comments later on; they claimed the extraordinary heat was for fighting off the winter cold. I later ordered some Mountain Dew to go with my meal. On the side I had a small metal pot of rice, and some banchan. Banchan are side dishes that usually accompany a meal in Korea and tend to be shared by all the diners. Ours were kimchi (natch), some rice-and-meat-balls, some pickled onions, and some gabchae (or, as they called it, jabchae), a jellylike starch noodle. He had two of the balls, and I had the other three; they were okay. Later on we got to share a breaded pork cutlet in a savory brown sauce; I didn't like it so my companion got the rest. The onions also seemed to be marinated in the same brown sauce. He also ended up with the kimchi, since I don't like the stuff, although I had the last few scraps.

Would I go back there? Maybe. It wasn't the best, but a least there is a sit-down joint that serves Korean food, and is open at any time.

Welcome!

So, I've decided to join the food blogosphere and start a blog documenting my alimentary adventures in the Greater Moncton area. Admittedly there isn't much besides a ridiculous number of pizza and pasta and "Chinese" joints, but I'll do my best to present what I consider the culinary highlights of the area. I also hope to promote the development of more and better restaurants in the area.