Some Good!: Treasured Secrets from Nova Scotia's Favourite Country Restaurants

Margaret Bremmer was an artist and illustrator in Chesterville, Ontario.

“Some good”: Nova Scotian dialect meaning “extremely,” “very,” or “truly” good, “usually expressed with gusto, relish, zest, and a hint of irony.” Judith Comfort travelled the province seeking out people who cook restaurant food home-style. Twenty of this rare breed of restaurant are shared with us, as well as the forty most-asked-for recipes, generously contributed by the owners and cooks.

At the front of the book, after the list of recipes, is a list of restaurants and addresses, and following that is a map of Nova Scotia clearly labelling the towns and restaurant names (a great gift for a food lover planning a summer trip to that province!). The twenty restaurants are presented in alphabetical order. Each begins with a two-page introduction to the place and the people who operate it. Following this are usually two recipes from each. The directions are clear and metric measurements are given in brackets. There is no index, but the recipes are listed according to type at the front. There are no color photos, but I didn’t feel a lack as the black-and-white illustrations by Kevin Sollows are lovely — homey and classy at the same time. And they’re not of food, but of places, as each is shown in either an interior or exterior view.

This collection is of not-necessarily-traditional Nova Scotia food, the recipes ranging from Chilled Scallops in Green Mayonnaise to Poor Man’s Pudding, from Fisherman’s Soup to Lime-Honey Ice Cream, from Curry Schnitzel to Oat Cakes.