Food
What the EH is Canadian Food?
Last week I waited in a line for an hour and a half at the Atlantic Canada House, stationed in the Backstage Lounge on Granville Island, waiting for a taste of Canadian food. With free samplings three times a day during the Olympic Games (11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.), and line-ups that wind all the way down the block, I was expecting good things.
After the much-hyped wait in the chilly shadows of the Lounge's awning, with stiffly cold legs I was finally allowed to climb the stairs up to the tasting room where I received five bland mussels, Solomon Gundy (a cracker with pickled white fish), a shot of a blueberry smoothie and two fairly undercooked scallops. It was over in seconds.
The next day, I hopped from menu to menu in the food area of the Olympic Yaletown LiveCity, trying to find the best bang-for-my-buck while waiting for Sam Roberts. One of the food stalls was offering Canadian Food. The selection included the usual poutine -- along with hotdogs, bison burgers and French fries. I opted for Chinese.
These displays of "Canadian" foods got me musing over the vast selection of grub in this country. Does Canada really have a defined cuisine specific to our borders?
I was once asked to cook a Canadian meal while staying with a family in Normandy, France. All I could come up with (in part, based on available ingredients) were pancakes or a pre-made frozen macaroni and cheese dish. Because I was nineteen at the time and hadn't yet honed my culinary skills, I of course opted for the frozen macaroni and cheese. I figured that my French hosts would buy it. It was no KD, but it was a good substitute.
Prior to the start of the Olympics I threw a "Dress As Your Country" theme party, and at the request of some of my red and white friends, whipped up a batch of bacon and chocolate chip pancakes. Apparently they are a Canadian staple. I usually use bananas or apple chunks, but I can understand the draw of bacon and chocolate-stuffed dough. I'm now a huge fan.
But despite our apparent wide selection of foods, I still usually just come up with poutine if asked what we eat... even though I have never been to Quebec, and only eat poutine when I am snowshoeing on Cypress or staggering home past Fritz on Davie Street after a late night out.
I suppose our food is just a reflection of Canada's people -- a little bit of this and a little bit of that borrowed from every corner of the planet. I mean, we have some of the best Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Greek, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Portuguese... the list is endess. TheConde Naste Traveler even agreed in a recent article that Vancouver has the best Chinese food.
Every country is know for a few stereotypical bites. Australia has kangaroo and vegemite, New Zealand marmite, meat pies and lamb, Argentina has steak and empanadas, the Ukrainians have their perogies and the English bangers and mash, the New Yorkers have pizza and the Portuguese have sardines and egg in/on everything, the French have all the tasty dishes that clog your arteries...
But is there more to Canadian cuisine than fries, fish and maple syrup?
These great photos were taken by Kimberley Blue on Flickr.
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http://lmgtfy.com/?q=canadian+cuisine
have a look at the wikipedia article, perhaps.
You alluded to this briefly, but this whole notion of one food representing a whole country is based on a false notion of cultural homogeneity. Only countries that do not have enough diversity like Argentina, Ukraine, etc. have national foods that are essentially the food habits of the dominant community. The US, which tries to think of burgers, fries and hot dogs as "American" food is culturally imposing the food habits of the dominant White European community on others.
I think it is a feature, not a bug, that there is no "Canadian" food!
marmite is english ... and i suspect after the olympics media onslaught vancouver will be known as the city with no proper winter and the home of japadog, so ... yay?
Chili in a bread bowl with a chocolate timbit and double double. But seriously, what defines our cuisine is its self-assuredness in being an ever-evolving amalgam. Much better that way.
I wouldnt say that canada has no national foods, but very few. After all the country is hardly 100 years old, most of the foods had already been made by then. How many foods has england or italy come up with since 1867? Probably not many, a few tweaks, but not a lot of actual new foods.
What about the Tim Horton muffin? No really, smoked salmon?!
Generally national foods are ones unique to that country. It doesn't mean we eat them all the time. Haggis in Scotland is the perfect example. So Canada has things like poutine and beaver tails. Maybe maple taffy? Then there are other foods that are popular (often regionally) but not unique to the country, eg in Canada that would be things like doughnuts (everywhere), smoked meat (montreal), peameal bacon (toronto), fish and chips (halifax) and sushi (vancouver).
Poutine would have to be Canada's signature dish as it's very popular and no-one else makes it.
Regional:"hot smoked" salmon and blackberry or huckleberry crisp on the left coast.
I'm not Canadian but every year on Thanksgiving I celebrate with friends. The menu always includes poutine, Kraft dinner, a soup made with Maudite, some maple glazed squash and green beans (recipe from Canadian Living magazine. There are always Tim Horton's coffee, Dare Maple cremes and Nanaimo bars after dinner!
I love Canada and these foods remind me of my trips there and seem the most Canadian to me. I may have to add the bacon, chocolate chip pancakes to my repetoire. Thanks!
I think it is funny how Tim Hortons comes up...either in seriousness or poking fun at the predominance of this brand as part of Canadian identity! Do other countries have a strong brand that they tie to their identity? Marks & Spencers perhaps?
Marie C - love your Thanksgiving spread!
Bison
Muskox
Jackfish/Northern Pike
Poutine
fresh, hot maple syrup on ice wrapped on a stick
Tortierre
Roti (it's always at the French-Canadian festivals)
KD
Hawaiian pizza (really)
Caribou
Muktuk
Nanaimo bars
Most of these can't be found anywhere else, at least in the same culturally relevant context. And isn't "Canada" really about diversity and the lack of a single identifying reference point?
In some ways I consider myself very "Canadian" in that I "get" most of the cultural touchstones that are stereotypically Canadian. I know Stan Rogers and the McGarrigle Sisters. I've been to Grand Banks and Cambridge Bay, Estevan and T-Bay. I know hockey and Molson Export, or Labbatt Blue depending on where I'm at. I've danced a jig and members of my family are champion clog dancers. I've hunted and fished and got wasted at a bush party.
But despite all these things, I've come to recognise that I am no more Canadian than someone who scratches their head at all my references and prefers their mother's village Cantonese home-cooking and a trip to the night market over my hosered out weekend. Canadian is an open definition.
KETCHUP CHIPS!!
Raw seal, freshly hunted.