And in this case, simplicity is the best recipe: water, salt pork, white beans, and just a bit of ketchup, owner Roger Levasseur explained from the back of the tiny combination store/restaurant.
Another French-Canadian specialty is pork-scrap, known as cretons or guton, depending on where you’re from. While it might sound like leftovers, it is a breakfast spread typically served on toast, bread, and crackers.
Mayo, a Cote’s regular, described it as “kind of a pate … it’s really good.’’
Then there are the other delicacies; various meat pies (pork pie being a top favorite), pea soup with ham, beef stew, salmon puffs - and, for dessert, giant whoopie pies bursting with frosting. All this is prepared in a snaking, cavern-like kitchen with cinderblock walls, 13 ovens, and an assembly of deep pots lined up on burners.
The tour, with its nearly three dozen curious gastronomes, was also scheduled to visit the Fill N’ Chill in Billerica; a bus malfunction, however, cut the culinary quest short. An unlikely spot for an ethnic market, the family-owned Fill N’ Chill has what it calls a “Euro Deli’’ tucked at the back of its gas station/convenience store. Its offerings span Eastern Europe’s many tastes, including pierogies, kopytka (potato dumplings), kabanos (dry Polish sausage), baked ham, smoked loin, and kielbasa.
Floridian Noel Peterson picked up a salmon pie from Cote’s to enjoy with her grandkids; all three attended the tour.
“I like learning about the different cultures and the different food,’’ said 24-year-old Ashley McPhillips of Billerica, her granddaughter.
And as far as her 13-year-old grandson Daniel McPhillips is concerned, it’s better than just reading about it in a book.
“I like visually seeing it and experiencing it,’’ he said.
FILL N’ CHILL
PAILIN ASIAN SUPERMARKET
COTE’S MARKET