Let's Kiss the Cod in Newfoundland!

You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

Yes, well, what's that mango?

So you know how small towns like to beef up their tourism by advertising a weird claim to fame, Like how Riverside, Iowa prides itself as the future birthplace of Captain Kirk. I really love that's right, And how Montpelier, Vermont claims to be the rotten sneaker capital of the World.

Yeah, though I'm not convinced that gross old sneakers are that much of a draw.

Maybe it's just me.

I don't know. Well, sometimes I think it pays to think outside the box, and that's especially true on the remote island of Newfoundland. The top three attractions in the

Sell I mean, I got to say, I'm surprised more people haven't visited just to see all those root sellers. Mango speaking, which what what's a root seller?

I mean, it's basically a cold, underground storage spot for storing root, vegetables and sometimes fruit. The oldest sellers are nearly two hundred years old, and from the outside they look like cozy, little hobbit homes built right into the hillside. And while it might sound strange to take a tour of, you know, a bunch of random root sellers, the underground structures actually reveal a lot about the story of Newfoundland.

Yeah, I have to met, you're winning me over with the dinner angle here. But you know, if Jigs is a regional dish, then I'm guessing root sellers aren't exactly unique to Elliston, right, Yeah.

So underground sellers are scattered here and there throughout the province, but Elliston is definitely home to the highest number of them. It's also the town that still makes most use of them today, not only as a tourist attraction, but as a part of daily life. So many local families still depend on the food that's stored in their cellars, whether for their own subsistence or as a commodity to sell

That's pretty cool.

You know.

It's funny because root sellers seem very much like a thing of the past, but if you think about the residents of Ellis ten, it's like they're using them to make the community more sustainable going forward.

Yeah, and actually that's a very new Finland approach to cultural traditions. Like the whole spirit of the region is sometimes likened to a fisherman in his boat. He moves the vessel forward to his destination, but he sits backwards while rowing. And the idea is that sometimes in order to get where you want to go, you kind of have to keep your sight on where you came from.

Yeah.

I like that, And I'm guessing by now our listeners have probably figured out our next destination. Newfoundland is one of those mysterious places that we've always been curious to visit, and today we are finally getting that chance.

Yeah, I mean the US and Canada I haven't been getting along too lately, but it's a country we adore here on the show. So in the spirit of friendship, we thought we'd spotlight one of the country's most unique and far flung destinations.

So let's dive in.

Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome the part time genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh Ticketer. On the other side of that soundproof glass showing off his Royal Order of Screecher's Certificate, that's our friend and producer Dylan Fagan. Now he claims the certificate makes him an honorary Newfoundlander, but it looks like the kind of thing you could just print out online.

Yeah, so I read up on this and taking part in a screech in ceremony is pretty obscure and wonderful, And of course it's no surprise that our show's most interesting person, Dylan, has screeched.

Wait wait, wait to back up a second. What is a screech in?

So getting screeched is basically a tongue in cheek tradition for welcoming visitors to Newfoundland. It started in the capital city of Saint John's back in the nineteen seventies, and while the exact ritual varies from one pub to the next, it mostly consists of three parts. First, you recite a vaguely vulgar oath loaded with maritime lingo. Then you take a shot of locally bottled Jamaican run called screech, and lastly, you plant a big wet kiss on a frozen codfish.

You are lobbying hard for that trophy for this week's episode with just that fact. What a ridiculous tradition and I love it, But does getting screeched have any basis in the region's history year Is it just some drunken nonsense and fish kissing.

A little both? Actually, there are stories of Newfoundland sailors performing similar joke initiations, and this goes back to the nineteen forties. And as for the rum of the fish, that's a nod to the region's colonial history, when French and British settlers traded salted codfish in exchange for rum from the West Indies. Now, I'm not sure exactly how kissing got added to the mix, but I'm guessing a lot of rum definitely had something to do with that.

Only you, though it sounds like tourists are the ones who are kissing the cod. I know that Newfoundlanders are pretty fond of the fish themselves. So for hundreds of years, codfishing was the backbone of the region's economy, and even though the Canadian government put a stop to commercial codfishing from nineteen ninety two all the way to twenty twenty four, the lean whitefish still holds an outsized place in the

Kind of How like coke is a word for soda in the South.

Yeah, I don't know what other words.

And when you say what kind of coke do you want, the answer is always great bica.

Salmon is a salmon and tuna is a tuna. But fish only is ever caught there.

Yeah. I love that, And it also highlights just how crucial cod was to New Finland's development. Like think about an indigenous group settled there thousands of years ago because of the rich cod filled waters, and then English, Irish and French settlers did the same throughout the sixteenth all the way to the nineteenth centuries. Cod was so tasty and so abundant that it lured people from all over the world and convinced them to plant roots in this really rugged and honestly very isolated area.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean the lure of the codfish is a big reason why Newfundland is the cultural melting pot that it is today. But for all of our fish reverse listeners out there, don't worry. Even though seafood is king on the island, there are plenty of other local delicacies that don't have fins, chief among them moose meat and in particular, moose baloney.

What do you think about that, mango?

I've never heard of moose bolony.

I had not either before we were talking about this episode. The largest member of the deer family was introduced to the island in the early twentieth century. This was back when Nufouland was still a British colony, and its meat quickly became a staple and mini island kitchens and moose boloney proved especially popular with the locals, not only due to its low cost and long shelf life, but also

So is all this bolooney on the island moose bolooney in the same way all fish is shorthand for a cod.

I mean moose BOLONEI is definitely the default, but you might not see it called that on a menu. Instead, people there have their own joking nickname for it. They called it noofy steak.

Oh I like that.

And you know there's another unique island cuisine I want to tell you about. But before that, let's take a quick break. Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, Well, so, going back to what you said about Newfoundland being a melting pot, did you know the island has its own style of Chinese food?

You know, I actually saw something about that in the research and it seems kind of an outlier for an island in the North Atlantic. So I'm curious what the story is.

Yeah, So this goes back to the late eighteen hundreds when a large number of Chinese immigrants came to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway and many of the families stuck around once construction was completed, and because the laws were racist at the time, and they barred Chinese men from working most professions. A lot of them wound up opening their own restaurants. Now, just like in the States, Chinese immigrants weren't able to find many of

I mean, that actually sounds pretty incredible, I know, and I'm surprise there hasn't been like a Canadian Chinese place that opened in Brooklyn like that. Sure there is one actually, but those improvised dishes, which became known as Chop suey cuisine, were served all over Canada by the mid twentieth century, and as chefs continued to expand into more remote regions, the search for Chinese ingredients got even tougher.

That was especially true in Newfoundland, where it was next to impossible to even get the basics like soy sauce, bock choi or things like egg noodles, you know, which were hard to ship onto the island, and this meant that tried and true dishes couldn't be prepared as they were in other parts of Canada. So once again China, these restaurant tours got creative and gave the island their own regional specialty, New Finland style chow Maine.

But actually I'm thinking about this. Chow main literally means fried noodles, So how do you make it without egg noodles?

Well, apparently you substitute cabbage, or at least that's the solution that one of their resourceful early chefs came up with. He sliced the cabbage into long, thin strips so that they'd at least look like noodles, and then he stir fried them with veggies and chicken, and whil New Finland style chow Maine was worn. The dish proved such a hit with locals that it was quickly added to Chinese menus all over the island.

And is this something you can still get today?

Yeah? So these days it's obviously much easier to import noodles to the island. But just like with cod and moose boloni, this new Finland original remains the default. So if you order chow Maine there, you'll absolutely get a big bowl of cabbage strips. But if you want noodles instead, you have to ask for them specifically.

I do love that they serve fried noodles without the noodles, and nobody thinks that's we somehow, and it does make me wonder though, like, is there the same stigma surrounding Canadian Chinese food as there is with you know, like American Chinese food, because we always hear that our take on the cuisine is inauthentic and shouldn't really be considered Chinese.

I'm curious is it the same up North?

Yeah, Canadian Chinese chefs definitely feeled many of the same criticisms, But it really comes down to what someone means by real Chinese food. Like there's this book called Chop Suey Nation. It's by this Chinese journalist and we and in it, she goes on this big road trip to small town Chinese restaurants in Canada, including the ones in Newfoundland, And while she starts out kind of dismissive of this food, the island's take on cho main ultimately wins her over.

It was as.

Canadian as it was Chinese. The families behind it had created cuisine that was a testament to creativity, perseverance, and resourcefulness. It wasn't fake Chinese, but instead the most Chinese of all.

The most Chinese of all. Wow, that's pretty cool.

Well, I'd say that's a pretty strong endorsement, and it does make me want to give this noodle free noodle dish a try.

I just somehow can't get past this.

But all right, now that we've covered some of Newfoundland's history and food culture, feel like we should run through a few of the favorite activities to try while visiting the island. After all, we don't want to spend our entire vacation hanging out in root sellers. So beyond food, Newfoundland really has a lot to offer, and visitors to the island are especially spoiled for choice. When it comes to wildlife watching, You've got puff and breeding season in

Oh I love that, and it really sounds kind of spectacular, all this wildlife, you know. I actually checked to see if there was a good moose watching tour I could book, But it turns out that's not a thing. Like moose are just such a normal part of the scenery there and you don't have to go out of your way to spot one, Which brings me to my next travel tip.

If you want to.

Blend in with the locals, don't let on that you're excited to see a move.

I don't know.

That may be hard for me to do, but I also know we've got a couple non moose related sites to recommend. Before we get to that, let's take another quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius and we're sharing our muscye stops while touring Newfoundland.

All right, Mengo.

So, staying on the subject of animals that evoke a profound sense of awe, there's a sign on Newfoundland's code called Mistaken Point, and it's actually the final resting place

So I assumed these guys were some kind of sea creature. But you said there's a fossil site, So what exactly did they look like?

All right?

Well, based on the more than ten thousand fossil impressions found along the coastline of Mistaken Point, Eddiochrins ranged in size from a few centimeters to nearly two meters in length. They were soft bodied creatures that lived on the deep seafloor, and they had several different body types, all of which were incredibly bizarre.

Mango, that is so rude.

Well, we don't body shame on this episode.

I'm just saying I just can't help it.

And some of them were tubular blobs, others look like fern leaves. But the strangest of the bunch had to be one of the ones that looked like these flat ribbed pancakes. So here's a fossil photo so you can see what I'm talking about.

Yeah, that's definitely a pancake with.

Ribs, exactly what it is.

But the really cool thing about mistaken point is that hundreds of fossil impressions are readily visible on the surface of the rock, including ones left behind by those pancake looking guys. Now, if you look closely, some of the impressions actually formed trails. They're sort of like footprints.

Wait, so did eddie acrans have feet?

They did not.

In fact, feet did not exist at that point, either did walking or swimming or really any form of locomotion. So most living organisms just sort of floated along wherever the currents took them and ate whatever bits of food happened to pass by. But that's what's so amazing about these fossil trails in Newfoundland is that they're thought to be the earliest known examples of an animal moving on

And this is all going off those ancient proto footprints.

Yeah, I mean, thanks to the research of paleontologists Alexander lou we now know that the crescent shaped impressions left in the rock were likely made by this suction cup like appendage that some of these creatures may have had, and they used it to adhere to these flat surfaces, just like you know, see an enemies and other creatures like that. And in some areas of Mistaken Point you can actually see a whole bunch of those crescents nested

Cool.

Anyway, next time you're in Newfoundland and you want to mix a little science history and your animal sight seeing, you should check out the fossils at Mistaken Point and tip your hat to the planet's og travelers.

All right, Well, eddie Acrians might be embedded in for the whole world to see. But there's another kind of island wildlife that is far more elusive. And I'm talking about the Newfoundland faerry.

And I'm guessing that Newfoudland fairy was just another word for cod No.

It turns out the province is home to a surprisingly rich fairy folklore tradition. Fairy sightings in the region date back to long before the rival of Europeans, when indigenous groups told stories of reclusive little people with supernatural powers who supposedly lived alongside them. Then, when settlers from Celtic cultures came to Newfoundland in the sixteen hundreds, they added to the island's lore by drawing on the fairy legends of their hometowns in Ireland, England and Scotland as well.

This sort of proves our earlier point that Newfoundland is much more of a melting pot than you might expect exactly.

And the result of all that cultural blending is this distinct oral tradition and folklore that really doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada. So even though Newfoundland fairies don't actually exist as far as we know, there's still a super important part of the island's culture. Most locals have at least a few fairy stories to tell you, many of which have been handed down through their families for generations.

And I'm curious, though, what are these stories about, Like, are they cautionary tales or adventures or what?

So the main through line in all these legends is that fairies are mischief makers, so a lot of the stories are recountings of people's supposed encounters with fairies and the different pranks they like to play on humans. Some of the fairi's favorite tricks include knocking over stacks of firewood, braiding together the tail of all horses in a stable, and confusing berry pickers by conjuring a bunch of trees in the middle of a pathway.

As little trouble makers.

Like it's more like a leprechaun than your typical Disney fairy or something like that.

Yeah, and another difference is that Nuflin fairies don't have wings. In fact, their physical appearance changes depending on the story, and sometimes they look like children or knee high adults, so again much like leprechauns. But in other cases they just appear as glowing lights or.

Even as animals.

They can use their shape shifting power to play some pretty mean tricks too. Like there's this old belief that if a happy baby suddenly gets temperamental, or a healthy baby grows sickly, then it's probably because a fairy has swapped the real infront with the changeling, which is basically a fairy in disguise.

I mean, that seems like a pretty low bar for deciding your baby's an imposter like that, How do you know it's not a real baby who just needs a nap.

Yeah, or a snack or something. Right, But apparently it's easy. According to legend, if you sneak into a nursery really quiet and you catch the baby's doppelganger smoking a corn cob pipe, then you know it's a fairy and which point the spell will be broken.

Okay, well that's a good good rule of thumb there.

Well, the good news is that there are some ways to protect yourself from fairy mischief. Carrying bread in your pockets is a surefire way to ward off fairies, and if you wear a piece of clothing inside out while walking in the forest, they won't be able to tell

Better safe than sorry.

I guess I'm curious that, like, why are Newfoundland fairies so averse to coins and bread?

Yeah, I don't think there's an official explanation or anything, but I did read an interview in Canadian Living with this guy, Dale Jarvis, who works for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland, and he pointed out that the region's fairy folklore is deeply tied to the natural world, and that the fairies themselves are kind of a personification of nature. As he puts it quote, they're neither good nor bad. They don't follow human rules. Fairy stories are how we

You know, it is interesting that Newfoundland fairies are something to be avoided instead of a culture where you know, fairies grant wishes or improve people's fortunes. But let's just say one of our listeners wanted to throw caution into the wind and try to find one, like, where might they cross paths with a fairy in Newfoundland?

Yeah?

So, one of the most notorious gathering places for fairies is the so called Fairy Ring, which is in the town of Harbor Grace on the Avalon Peninsula. It's this eerie, perfect circle of thirteen massive beast trees and it's surrounded by an otherwise barren field. So you can imagine why this has sort of gained this loure, and according to legend, fairies meet there under the cover of darkness to dance

I do like that our sight seeing suggestions have highlighted an extinct animal and now a mythological creature, respectively. So one of the most practical travel advice guides here at part time genius.

I mean, whales and puffins are given, right, So we're taking people off the beaten path.

I guess that's right, especially given that Newfoundland is pretty out of the way itself.

Right.

Yeah, it is not the easiest place to get to. It's actually the eastern most part of Canada and of North America in general, and if you do make the trip out there, you're in for a one of a kind experience. But before we take off for the day, why don't we do a quick fact off.

So one of the most popular destinations in Newfoudland is the area known as Iceberg Alley. It's the stretch of the North Atlantic Ocean that runs along the eastern host of the province. In every spring, it's host to a slow parade of enormous ancient icebergs. Between four hundred to eight hundred icebergs pass through the alley each year, and the vast majority of them come from ten thousand year

That is amazing and it does sound so cool, But every time you say iceberg, I think of a boon yang and that iceberg.

It's amazing.

But if watching icebergs isn't your thing, you can also try drinking one. Several companies in Newfoundland offer beverages made with genuine, locally sourced iceberg water. They send out boats to collect bits of ice that have broken off from the berg, and once it's melted down, they use the water in the production of specially wines, beer and spirits. And there's also good news if you like your drinks on the rocks, because they also sell iceberg ice cubes.

Yeah, somehow that feels off all right. Well, here's a quick one about birthday celebrations. There In some parts of Newfoundland, there's an old custom called grease face, which is just fun to say.

Grease face.

It's where you sneak up on the birthday boy or girl and smear a blob of grease on their nose. Now, it's typically a parent who does the initial greasing, but the other relatives and classmates or even teachers have been known to join in throughout the day, which seems like that would just get pretty old. But the messy practice is thought to have originated in Scotland. There are a few competing explanations as to what it's supposed to mean. Some sources say the grease is to keep bad luck

I guess I really don't want that many people touching my.

Face, especially that one grease It sounds horrible, but anyway, if that wasn't weird and embarrassing enough, grease face is often followed by another birthday custom called bumps. This is when four people grab your legs and arms and lift you up and down, bumping your butt on the floor once for each year. This sucks as we get older,

Why are all these good birthday customs also vaguely traumatic?

Definitely are well.

Here's a quick one to keep in mind when heading to New Finland from the mainland. You have to set your watch forward half an hour when you get there. And that's because the island actually has its very own time zone. It's called New Finland Standard Time or NST. It is one half hour ahead of Atlantic Standard time and an hour and a half ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

Well, if you think of bespoke time zone as odd, you're going to like this next fact. So in the remote Fogo Island, roughly nine miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the locals recognize seven distinct seasons. In addition to the Big four. They have berry season, which runs from September first until Halloween. It's perfect time for foraging, of course.

I don't want to mainland explain Fogo Island, but that feel like way too many seasons.

I was on board with seven. You can't have.

More seasons than you have months. But I do like that you have something to look forward to, and I like that you were able to loop things back to Cod one more time. So I think you got today's trophy.

Thank you, thank you.

It does always come back to Cod, the first fish in the hearts of the Newfoundlanders, and now in mine as well.

Well.

I am still a goldfish man myself, but that's going to do it. For today's Part Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan, Will and myself. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, then come find us on Instagram at part Time Genius or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear which fish is the first in your hearts or any cool facts about Newfoundland that we forgot to mention. Be sure to tune in next week for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius