Canadian cuisine

Pizza

Priscilla wrote:

Hi,

When living abroad, tasting the local cuisine is part of discovering the country.

What is your favorite food in Canada?

What is the local speciality?

Share with us the local tastes of Canada and why not your best recipe.

Thank you in advance,

Priscilla

There isn't any one particular cuisine that is unique to Canada as far as I can tell. There are some that are special but they are shared across in parts of US such as the chowder. Unique cuisines probably can be found more in parts of Quebec as having a French influence means that they are very unique in their food.

But what makes Canada very unique though are the special ingredients that are only available depending on which region in particular. The east coast like the Maritime region is rich in its seafood - like lobster, quahog, clams, oyster etc. And from the east up until Quebec, you'll find maple syrup as maple trees are in grown in this region. There's also fiddlehead which comes only in spring - its a type of fern. Also, unique to the maritimes is the seaweed - dulse and unlike the oriental seaweeds found in Japan, China or Korea, it has a reddish hue to it is pretty delicious. Up north north east in Newfoundland, you find unique fruits like the lingonberries. Apart from this part of Canada, it can only be found some Scandinavian countries. Newfoundland also have some pretty weird and strange food like the salted beef or Soloman Gundy which is pickled fish. If you move to the west coast, Salmon is awesome there. I prefer Pacific salmon rather than Atlantic as they taste better plus, you can still get wild ones. Atlantic ones are mostly farmed. Mid region like Alberta has some awesome meat.

Popeyes

I'm with Philip! This is a frequently asked question (we live abroad) and it's hard to explain to people the depth of food choices in Canada. Out west there is a heavy Asian influence and it is said that Vancouver has some of the best Chinese food in the world. Wild Pacific salmon is THE BEST,  When I come home, I'm going to have sushi, Pho, Korean sweet chili chicken and steamed dumplings, Indian food, Persian food, French food, West Coast fusion and anything else I can get my hands on an afford! Truly Canadian dishes are few: poutine - French fries with gravy and cheese curds, tourtiere - French meat pie, cloud berries (from Newfoundland), maple syrup (Canada provide the world with 80% of the supply), Nanaimo bars, French sugar pie, bannock, toutons (fried bread from Newfoundland) and of course, good Canadian beer and ice-wine. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

Oh my gosh...the food, service and whole dining experience here in Vancouver is amazing. The Sushi and Salmon have to be my favourite. So much so I wrote about this in my blog last month:

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J x

thank you so much
good information about Canadian food

Hang on there...When I was planning a trip to Canada, I was told of three things to eat...One is Timmy Hortons coffee and donuts...and ...I may have wrong...Patoonie (?)We ordered it three different times and each time it was a different variation go french fries, cheese, gravy and other things...It's definitely a heart attack waiting to happen...but I can see having this on a fall or winter night. 
     Personally, I feel ANY cuisine from Canada is special....they way it's made, the ingredients, the atmosphere of where you're eating it with the people you're eating it with....It's an experience.  Canadian potatoes are different than New New Mexico Potato's or Quebec potatoes or, or Nova Scotia Potatoes...Whether it's the way it's made or the soil....Just go for it...It's all wonderful.

poutine - French fries with gravy and cheese curds, tourtiere - French meat pie, cloud berries (from Newfoundland), maple syrup (Canada provide the world with 80% of the supply), Nanaimo bars, French sugar pie, bannock, toutons (fried bread from Newfoundland) and of course, good Canadian beer and ice-wine.
   THAT's it...My f]Canadian co-worker in New Mexico told me I needed to try Poutine (agreed a heart attack in the kings, but, OH so worth it), Nanaimo Bars, Canadian Beers, and the sugar pie).  We we discovered the ice wine...OMG....
   We did all local cuisine.  Never had a bad experience.  Loved it all!  What is Bannock?

What Phillip and PEI Red said  .
In addition, let's not forget what the early immigrants brought  to Canada. Who can miss a good bagel, stuffed with cream cheese and smoked salmon, from St Viateur or Fairmount  in Montreal w/o forgetting the smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz.
Best Lebanese food outside Lebanon , good beef Balti outside Birmingham ( where it was supposed to have been concocted) 
Lobsters from the Atlantic provinces that one can prepare either on the BBQ, or boiled.

For myself, the answer to this is easy ... in one word .... POUTINE!!!

Of course, coming from Scotland, Fish 'n' Chips is one of our most common dishes, so adapting to the Canadian food culture, the discovery of poutine was a great one!!! .... I do enjoy a traditional plate of poutine (chips, gravy and cheese curds) ... although there are a mammoth amount of variations/recipes out there.

If poutine is new to you, here is a traditional recipe to get you hooked! ...
- cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/chuck-hughes/chucks-awesome-poutine.html

All the best.