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It may seem like an unlikely place to write about, but Newfoundland, an eastern Canadian maritime province that is the fifteenth largest island in the world, is attracting quite a bit of attention lately. And it is impossible to write about Newfoundland without writing about the three F's that are the soul of the island-family, fishing and food.

A few years ago there was a New York Times best selling novel set on "The Rock," as natives like to call their easterly island province. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx has been made into a movie starring Kevin Spacey. The story concerns a struggling newspaper writer, Quoyle, (Spacey) who moves back to the fishing town in Newfoundland his family has long lived in, with his two young daughters, after the death of their mother.

Quoyle and I have two things in common. We are both newspaper writers, and we both came to Newfoundland and discovered family and a unique culture set in a place with a craggy, wind swept and terrible beauty. I knew that my father's mother, Mary Agnes Barry, hailed from a little fishing town called Carbonear not too far from the Trinity Bay of Quoyle's family. Unlike Quoyle, I know little else. That is when I turned to the Internet and discovered some new found family in the New Found Land. I also discovered some great recipes and people who love their homeland whether they still abide there or have emigrated to warmer climates long ago.

Newfies, as they call themselves, have a fierce loyalty to their rugged homeland and a very distinctive way of speaking that is not always easy to understand for off islanders. This is because many families, like my own, emigrated there in the 17th and 18th centuries from southern England and southern Ireland.

They found themselves isolated in a place with heavy fog and long winters. Short, dark days coupled with -20º temperatures were not unusual. There is a spike in the birth rate in the fall that is a testimony to the long winters. The insular, island lifestyle meant that they retained their dialects, much of their culture, and their small town warmth and hospitality, as well.

Two things they developed that are unique include many of their recipes and their names for dishes. For example, who would guess that Figgy Duff is a delicious breadcrumb, molasses and raisin pudding?

Or that the tradition of Jiggs' Dinner dates back to the time of the early settlers. There are many theories on how this tradition got its name. Some say it is based on a comic strip character named Jiggs, a man who loved his corned beef and cabbage. This dish is really a stew of salt beef, cabbage, carrots, turnip and potatoes (root crops are the main staple because they grow easily on the island and can be stored in a root cellar). Islands consumed a lot of salt beef and salt cod because Newfies had to preserve foods to last out the long winters.

It is impossible to discuss Newfoundland and food without talking about codfish and the codfish industry. People there have lived and died for cod and the economy has run on it since the sixteenth century. Here is a small sample of the newspaper announcements from 1889 of people lost at sea off the coast of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia, many of whom were cod fishermen:

JANUARY 17th - Andrew Munroe, of White Head, N. S.(Nova Scotia) and John Buffett, of Port Au Basque. N. F.(Newfoundland) of the schooner John G. Whittier capsized and drowned. Both unmarried.

JANUARY 28th - Michael Malone, a native of St. Johns, N. F., 52, was lost overboard from sch. Oliver Eldridge while outward bound for Georges, about four miles off Eastern Point.

JUNE - John Fayan, of St. Mary's Bay, N. F., and Thomas Thompson, of Sable River, N. F., went astray from schooner Ben Hur on Grand Bank in June.

JULY 24th - Schooner Herman Babson wrecked at Newfoundland

Do me a favor, will you? Look back on your life and recall a place that you loved that was also very closely associated in your mind with a particular food. It is probably hard to separate the food memories from the general memories of that place, right? This is particularly true of coastal communities that are famous for their seafood. In Newfoundland there is much bounty from the sea: lobster, shrimp, snowcrab, salmon, to name a few—but it is cod that rules.

My grandmother, Mary, was from a codfishing family. It was truly a family business because the men did the fishing and the women and children were responsible for salting the cod and placing it on flakes which were raised wooden platforms used to dry the cod. It has been said that as much as 5 million pounds of cod was produced per year in the heyday of the Newfoundland/Labrador cod fishing industry.

I didn't grow up in Newfoundland. I grew up in New England, where cod was also part of the history. My father used to make codfish cakes and baked beans for breakfast on weekends. Until I visited relatives in Newfoundland, I didn't know that codfish cakes for breakfast or lunch are an old Newfoundland tradition. They remain one of the delicious memories of childhood for me.

Here is a recipe:

In 1992, a moratorium was placed on large scale commercial cod fishing. Times are tough in Newfoundland for the cod fisherman. Many say that it is a dying business. One thing is for sure though—Newfies are survivors. They are tough, craggy, independent spirits who have made it this long and will continue.

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