LA MALBAIE, Que. – The world leaders and dignitaries assembled for the G7 summit in La Malbaie will be dining on a few local specialties including Charlevoix duck and quail eggs – along with Canadian maple leaves and a lichen called caribou moss.
The three meals hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau draw heavily on ingredients from the host region, including quail eggs from nearby Baie-Saint-Paul, organic meats and Charlevoix mushrooms.
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On Friday, a working lunch at the Manoir Richelieu will feature Arctic char escabeche perfumed with Labrador tea and a buckwheat salad with red apple, rhubarb, and balsam fir spiral.
That will be followed by veal and a dessert described as a “haskap berry and cedar snowball,” with northern saffron creme anglaise.
Friday’s dinner, which Trudeau will host at Black Bear Cottage, will feature Charlevoix duck breast “in all its forms,” Canadian lobster tail as well as galloway beef fillet – the latter perhaps a nod to the United Kingdom, a fellow G7 member.
There will also be mushrooms, spelt fricassee and caribou moss – a bushy lichen that grows in abundance in the Arctic that is also known as reindeer lichen.
Dessert will be maple leaves on a French brioche, accompanied by buttermilk ice cream and raspberries.
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The final lunch hosted by Trudeau on Saturday will feature tomato gaspacho with lavender gel, a beet salad with apples and cranberries, club sandwiches, cheese puff with quail eggs and tiramisu.
All three meals will be washed down by wines from Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia.