Ducks aren’t Real, Sackville, New Brunswick
Sackville’s a thriving university city, home of massive wetlands and “Ducks aren’t Real“. Finding a restaurant of this calibre in relatively rural New Brunswick is an utter joy. Chef Alan Barbour is at the stoves. Sarah Evans, his wife and partner, is one of the most dedicated foragers I’ve met. It’s an ultimately seasonal dining experience. If you’re there in the spring, begin with the “Seaside Negroni”. This includes pickled samphire greens that Sarah harvested. Hop shoots, snipped from the courtyard, are a most special springtime, wrapped in paper thin slices of house-cured stesa bacon. The pencil shaped bundle is served with yarrow leaves and steamed wild mustard. Sarah makes the raspberry vinegar to top the fat Brunswick oysters. 
The P.E.I. mussels filled the shells that he steamed in Sarah’s homemade chokecherry wine and heaped with ‘frites’. The sauce was enriched with cream and may have been the most delicious rendition of this dish I’ve ever tasted.
The lobster noisette was spring in a bowl…sweet local bay lobster, curled fiddlehead fronds, browned bits of their cured pork and small strips of Irish Moss, a seaweed that is too-rarely used on regional menus.
Cheeses from the province and also Nova Scotia were, for me, a perfect ending but the crème brulée is a favourite amongst the regulars.
The motto of this creative pair is simply “Our food tells our story” and from the ever changing menu, it certainly does.
Contact Ducks aren’t Real at the number below to reserve a Food Day Canada table.
Contactez Ducks aren’t Real directement, au numéro ci-dessous, afin de faire votre Journée des terroirs réservation
T: 506-536-8084
19 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, E4L 3N6, Canada
theblackduck.ca
