Canadian Dishes

To celebrate my citizenship, I decided to taste some dishes from Canada. Here is what I had.

If we ask about a typical Canadian Dish, very often the answer will be “Poutine”. This is a dish that includes French fries and cheese curds topped with brown gravy. This dish originated in the province of Québec. I include an old picture of poutine that I ate in Montreal in the famous restaurant La Banquise just for information to my readers who do not live in Canada.

A variation of Poutine

This weekend, I visited a restaurant called Le Papillon on Front Street. This the restaurant specializes in French food and the cuisine from Québec.

The main dish I ate was Tourtière, a meat pie originated from the province of Québec. The meat is usually a mix of minced veal, beef, and pork with potatoes. This dish is exclusive French Canadian and there are variations that exist among other French Canadian groups. We can find also the tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean and the pâte à la viande.  

I had Escargots as an hors d’oeuvre (starter). These are edible land snails. This restaurant serves it in garlic parsley butter. This is not really a Canadian dish but a popular French dish. 

   

My dessert was Pouding Chômeur, a popular dish from Québec.  This is a cake batter with hot caramel syrup that is poured before baking. It is served with a vanilla ice cream. The name of the dish, Pouding Chômeur is translated as “unemployed man pudding”. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia this dish was created by female factory workers during the Great depression in Québec, with the idea of having a simple dessert with few ingredients in a time of economic hard times.

Later on, when I went to the CNE, I had to opportunity to see and taste bannock. This is a variety of flatbread baked from grain. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the name Bannock is from Old English bannuc and this from Gaelic bannach.  The version that we know came from Scotland. Different indigenous groups in Canada adapted to their own cuisine and they use it in gatherings and festivals. It is deep-fried or baked. The kind of bannock that I tasted was the indigenous one from northern Ontario.

There are other famous foods that are Canadian. We have the Montreal style bagels, the California roll (Created in Vancouver), beaver´s tails, maple syrup, and Nanaimo bars. Here is an old picture of fried cod tongues, a popular dish from Newfoundland.