What is Canadian Food?
Today, I am going to take a journey away from academics, admission requirements and universities. I’m taking you on a Canadian food excursion. The adage goes, all work, and no play makes Jill a dull girl. No one wants to be dull, so let’s enjoy life in Canada and have some fun over food.
Are you an international student who is wondering what you will eat when you go to Canada? What kind of food will they have in the university cafeteria? You may ask, “What if I don’t like the food?” While there is always a possibility that you won’t like all the food all the time, you will like some food sometimes, or maybe always.
University and college cafeterias try to give a wide menu selection to satisfy food requirements and restrictions and of course your taste buds. For example, for those who have religious food requirements, there is a halal menu at some universities like the University of Alberta or Waterloo. Other students who are vegetarian or limited to certain meats, will find an extensive salad bar and fruit, vegetable, pasta, and bread selection.
But if you are a person who wants to try everything and eat what Canadians eat or what is traditionally Canadian food, then here are some items you will want to try.
Poutine – Poutine is a French-Canadian dish that originated in Quebec. It is fries with curds (soft cottage or farmers cheese) and gravy. You won’t find it in every city or restaurant in Canada’s English-speaking provinces, but it will be available in larger cities, and you will certainly find it in Quebec. And if you are attending Carleton University or Algonquin College, then there is poutine right next door to you.
Indigenous Cuisine – Canada’s indigenous people have their own traditional food which they introduced to the rest of Canada’s population. Nowadays some of these dishes are household words. Bannock is perhaps the most famous and best-known Indigenous food. It is bread cooked over an open fire. So good – so yummy. Winnipeg, home to the University of Manitoba has an Indigenous restaurant so you might want to try it out.
Nanaimo Bars – Nanaimo bars are delicious. They were one of my favourites as a child and I learned to make them as they are so tasty. Nanaimo bars are purely Canadian as they were first made in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Nanaimo is on beautiful Vancouver Island. It’s a no baking sweet bar with three layers of yummy – 1) a wafer crumb base, 2) a center of creamy custard butter icing and 3) the chocolate top layer. These are a must try for the sweeter tooth and please, just don’t think about calories when you are eating one of these delicious bars. While you can pick these little bars up in some bakeries and grocery stores, you are best to find a friend and make them yourself. They will be tastier that way.
Butter Tarts – although the origin is not absolutely known, it is contributed to Canada and are small pies consisting of a baked pastry crust that is stuffed with butter, brown sugar, cream and either walnuts or raisins. Again, so sweet, and yummy, indeed for the sweet-tooth dessert lover. You can find them in bakeries and grocery stores, but try getting together with a Canadian family through a host family program offered by your university at Christmas and hope they make some. (They are a Christmas favourite.) Or try baking some yourself.
Maple Syrup – Eastern Canada has maple-trees, beautiful, tall, majestic trees whose leaves turn a fiery red in the fall. But underneath that red-headed canopy of leaves, syrup runs through the tree trunks. Each year maple tree farmers extract the maple syrup form the trees. It is used to spread over pancakes, waffles, and crepes. Syrup is available in all Canadian grocery stores, but it is expensive so you only want to buy some to taste. Even Canadians can’t afford it all the time and opt for Pancake Syrup or Roger’s syrup to spread over their waffles and pancakes.
Saskatoon Pie -At one time, the only Saskatoon trees were those that grew wild in the prairies and every summer, we would head out to the tree clumps to pick plumb blue berries to be brought home to make jam, jellies and pies. But I am afraid more of them went into our mouth than into the pail. There is nothing better than eating berries right off the tree. So delicious! Our mom always knew because we had tattle-tail blue lips and tongues from eating the berries. But now there are hybrid Saskatoon trees and with all the Saskatoons that are produced on the Prairies and elsewhere in Canada, many Saskatoon pies are in the making. If you get the change, try Saskatoon pie. Your taste buds will thank you for it. Unless you go to university in Saskatchewan, you might not be able to get ready-made Saskatoon pie filling, so you might just have to pick up a pie at your nearest grocery store. Too bad I wasn’t close by to bake one up for you!
Tourti`ere – is another French-Canadian dish. It is a meat pie baked in a pastry crust and eaten hot from the oven, or even cold. It’s great as a left over, cold from the fridge to snack on. I love mine with mustard, but you may have your own choices of condiments. For those that restrain from eating pork, make sure to find out what meat is used in your pie. Pork and or beef are the 2 main meats used. Honey Salt in Vancouver, close to Douglas College, offers this scrumptious meat pie but do check out the ingredients before ordering it.
The Canadian Barbecue
Now I have left the best to the last. The great Canadian barbecue. Better written as BBQ.
No, Canadians didn’t invent it but we sure love it. The root word for barbecue comes from the Caribbean. According to Wikipedia Barabicu comes from the Arawak people of the Caribbean and the Timucua people of Florida. This term was taken up but the Spanish and became barbacoa and this word in turn because the North American word barbecue.
Canadians will stoke up their barbecues at least 2 nights out of the week, throw on some marinated steaks or chicken, make a salad and serve with buns, bread, or baked potatoes (potatoes are also done on the grill). It is even known that a family will do a BBQ in the winter to ward off the winter blues and bring in an early start to spring long before the snow has melted. It doesn’t matter if it is -20 degrees Celsius, the BBQ is done, albeit food is eaten inside and not outside.
Photo by samer daboul from Pexels
It should be noted that Canadians love to BBQ so make sure you are somewhere to savour this summertime activity. Most universities and colleges will at some point provide international students with the BBQ experience. Or better still, international offices on campuses may have a host family that will invite you to their home for the traditional Canadian BBQ. Make sure to ask your university or college International Student Services if they have a host family program at their university. There is also an independent Friends for Dinner group in Ontario where you can sign up to be connected to a Canadian family.
Now BBQs are not exclusive to Canada because I have had some very good barbecue in Pakistan. Tandoori chicken and kabobs top the list in fine Pakistani cuisine. Whether you have had it at BBQ Tonight or straight from your mother’s kitchen, you know what I am talking about. It’s good. But almost every Canadian city offers tandoori dishes at their many Indian and Pakistani restaurants. For example, Toronto is full of Pakistani restaurants and some of them are accessible from Seneca College by car or transit. Or if you have a kitchen in your apartment, consider making tandoori chicken in the oven.
Food experiences happen in every country. Whether you meet with friends over a cup of coffee or sit down to a pizza or try one of the ethnic restaurants near your university, life will be sweeter because of it. Just be careful not to spend all of your money on dining out, make it a special treat every now and then.
For more information on living in Canada and for all your university and college inquiries and application processing, make sure to contact a Canadian who has over three decades in Canada’s post-secondary education sector.
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay on Pexels