Peace out, poutine. There’s more to the menu is moose country than the gravy-slathered staple that’s made its way around the world.
Come to Canada hungry and you’ll be able to sample a slew of quirky delicacies unfamiliar to all but the most devoted foodies.
Fast food with flair in the Maritimes
“Fish and chips are on every single menu here, and they always offer vinegar,” said cookbook author Colu Henry, who lives part-time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a nod to the strong British influence that remains here.
Don’t be confused to see “hodgepodge” on a menu, either, she said: It’s a creamy, slow-simmered chunky vegetable soup spiked with nubs of new-to-Prince Edward Island potatoes Henry calls “insanely delicious.”
Any grocery store will stock bottled donair sauce, too, a mayonnaise-like condiment made from evaporated milk, vinegar, sugar and garlic powder. It was dreamed up in the 1970s by a Greek immigrant trying to convince locals to sample the gyros he made at his restaurant as a sweeter riff on tzatziki. Go to King of Donair, on Quinpool Road in Halifax, to taste the OG recipe.
And if you want to sample the best oysters from around the area? Hit up celebuchef Michael Smith’s spot in PEI, the Inn at Bay Fortune, for its summer interactive feast where they’re the star attraction.
Je-ne-sais-quoi cuisine in Quebec
The cold climate and acidic soil of Canada’s northeast primes it for blueberry farming of all ilk, but Quebec is known for Saguenay bluets (say it “BLOO-et”), named for the settlement north of Quebec City.
Toronto-based Raymond Cua of Travelling Foodie says these are smaller and sweeter than Maine’s staple with a punchier flavor that works best in a pie. You can graze on them on the fly if you follow the 159-mile Véloroute des Bleuets (Blueberry Route) which loops around Lac Saint-Jean — the best window for roadside bounty is August.
Cua is also fond of Quebec tourtière, a shallow, double-crust meat pie that’s a festive fixture which leans on warm, sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves. In cities, it’s usually pork or beef, but venture to rural areas and you can expect punchier riffs. “I had one with game meat, a mix of moose and raccoon,” said Cua.
Picnic fixtures in Ontario
Kevin Durkee’s mom ran a tearoom in the Ottawa Valley, so he grew up eating her tarte au sucre — think of the sweet recipe as a nut-free pecan pie.
Durkee had such an appetite for food that he turned it into his career and now runs Toronto’s Culinary Adventure Co. tours. Debates rage as to whether or not a true tarte au sucre contains raisins, so you’ll see both versions in any bakeries across the province (Durkee votes “yes”).
Fancy sampling a swankier riff on the concept? Go to Gerrard Street Bakery, which uses a whisky barrel-aged maple syrup to help with its sweet kick.
The other Toronto staple that’s unmissable on any visit: a peameal bacon sandwich. It’s a colonial-era holdover, explained Durkee. In the late 1800s, a local entrepreneur started pig farming here, shipping pork en masse to Europe — and making a mint.
The only issue was that the meat didn’t travel well, at first, so he stabilized it with salt. Brining meat, of course, extracts water, so he slathered the pork loin joints with ground peameal to absorb it (today, for cost-cutting purposes, it’s usually cornmeal, instead).
Don’t try it anywhere other than the grungy Carousel Bakery in St. Lawrence Market.
“It’s lightly fried, just enough to change the meat texture and served on a beautiful soft brioche bun,” said Durkee.
Eclectic & ethnic in the Plains
Manitoba is known for the schmoo torte, a layer cake which combines angel food sponge, whipped cream, nuts and caramelized sugar which was devised by a caterer there for her son’s bar mitzvah in the 1940s.
The oddball name’s likely a nod to the “Li’l Abner” comic strip of that era. Durkee suggests keeping an eye out, too, for honey dill sauce, another grocery staple, more like gussied-up mayo. “It’s become the go-to dip for everything — chicken fingers or pizza crusts,” he said. Alberta’s the spiritual home of ginger beef, a Chinese restaurant fixture which came about much like donair did: A chef tried to soften some of the unfamiliar flavors of his own culture. In this case, it was George Wong, who swapped out Sichuan spices for ginger and soy, coating crunchy chunks of beef in a glossy sweet-salty sauce.
“It’s a point of pride here,” said Durkee. Wong’s original spot shuttered three years ago, but you’ll see it everywhere in menus across the city.
Here, First Nations culture is at the forefront, too. Chef Scott Iserhoff opened Bernadette’s, a fine dining restaurant in Alberta last year spotlighting dishes like raw elk and the risotto-like ocheshishak.
Sweet treats in British Columbia
Raise the stakes on millionaire’s shortbread with a bar of Nanaimo (maple syrup-producing Canada certainly has a sweet tooth).
Voted the nation’s favorite confection 20 years ago, the Nanaimo bar was even served by Barack Obama to Justin Trudeau at a White House state dinner.
Named after a town in BC, said Raymond Cua, it’s a three-layer tray cake: a cookie-crumb base; a yellow custard center; and a chocolate-ganache topping. “But they’re not baked — you make the layers in a pan, chill them, then cut them into bars.”
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