St. Luke's Turkey Supper
Rhodes Corner, NS
Holy moly, this review is long overdue!!!
We were anticipating this supper as soon as we saw it appear in the classified section in The Bridgewater Bulletin. It's pretty much a no brainer. You attend, they fill you with amazing food. End of.
We had spent that afternoon dutifully splitting this season's delivery of firewood and as you can imagine, we had worked up a healthy appetite. We arrived around an hour after the official start and were greated with a modest lineup (see below). According to an unnamed, inside source, folks started lining up a full 1 1/2 hours before the doors opened!!! As far as I could tell, there was a steady line of 15 or so people waiting outside for the duration of the dinner. A good sign of the quality of food indoors!:
While waiting outside, I got to do my good deed of the day. I helped an elderly woman up from her chair. It was too low for her to get up on her own, but with my help and another person we managed to get her up. Folks in the line were commenting on the nice weather, how much (or little) they spent on their recent Frenchy's purchase and the usual chatter about how long it was going to take to get in. The intoxicating smells of turkey, dressing and all the fixins wafted out the front door...tantalizing the senses, making us hungrier by the minute.
Eventually we made our way inside, paid the ladies and were quickly seated:
As you can see, this joint was jumpin!:
Before too long, our cheerful server arrived and shortly thereafter, this gorgeous spread of food was presented to us:
Last year, the turkey was a little dried out, but the good folks at St. Luke's redeemed themselves with this plate full of love! The usual fare: potatoes mashed to perfection, turkey and stuffing, hand cut carrots and canned peas, cranberry jelly, pickled beets and mustard pickles. The mustard pickles were perhaps the best I have ever sampled. Not too sweet, not to 'vinegar-y', simply amazing. The elderly woman across the table, however, had a much different opinion.
"Someone forgot the sugar in these!"
"You don't like them?" I asked.
Her old lady 'waddle' under her chin jiggled left to right as she shook her head in displeasure after sampling them.
"No, I don't care for them."
I left it at that, I doubt she wanted to hear how much I was enjoying them. Oh well, different strokes and all that...
We continued to slog our way through our dinner, ravenously devouring each tender morsel until all that remained was a plate stained with beet juice and gravy. And then dessert arrived...
It was hard to choose, I went with the apple pie, Lisa chose her fave: coconut cream. They all looked sinfully good:
After a welcome cup or two of tea, we made our way out of the hall, but not before I snapped some more pics of the delicious condiments. I tried to find the person who made the mustard pickles, but no such luck. I would have bought the whole jar, given the chance:
Another successful outting, brought to you by the hard working, cheerful and generous people from St. Luke's in Rhodes Corner. Thanks again for all the wonderful food!
