Canadian Food

Poutine is arguably the country’s most famous dish, as well as one of the simplest. It is believed that the recipe dates back to the 1950s, when a café’s regular customer requested a dish to go, thus cheese was added to a usual serving of chips, with the care owner stating, "ca va faire une maudite poutine!" or, "it will make a damn mess!"

In order to have an authentic poutine dish, the cheese should be from the curd and have a squeak when bitten into. This combined with a well-seasoned gravy and freshly-cooked chips create a combination perfect for any time of day. Although the first creation of the dish contained some of the café’s surplus cheese curd, the gravy was added at a later date to keep the chips warmer for longer.

Whilst browsing what’s on offer from Vancouver’s food scene, the Nanaimo bar, named after its namesake city, is sure to feature. If you ever find yourself in the ferry port of Nanaimo, this no-bake dessert would make the perfect sweet treat to try.

With chocolate ganache, soft custard and a coconut-graham cracker base, this layered dessert was first created in 1952. Originally named the chocolate square, its popularity grew in the years following the Second World War, with its recipe included in a book called the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook.

In 2006, the Nanaimo bar was named Canada’s favourite confection. Although the original recipe uses a coconut base, variations have been made including flavours such as mint and mocha. Today, they can be purchased across the city, with versions even sold in major retailers such as Starbucks and Costco.

Flaky pastry tarts filled with a delicious combination of butter, sugar and syrup make up the butter tart—another of Canada’s sweet offerings.

Quintessentially Canadian, there are questions as to whether or not a traditional butter tart should include raisins or not, however, the sugary baked good has a cult following, with many attending Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival each year to sample one of the 125,000 baked fresh.

Synonymous with Canada, authentic maple syrup is free of additives, colourings and artificial flavours and has remained undiluted by cane sugar or corn syrup. 

The art of maple tapping was shared by the Indigenous people of Canada upon the immigration of Europeans. 

Since then, the maple leaf has gone on to become the country’s national symbol, with pure maple syrup acting as a healthy alternative to processed sugars.

Not only can it be used in cooking, but maple syrup can be added to dishes such as pancakes for an indulgent treat. Alternatively, Québécois children love maple taffy, where boiled maple syrup is poured over snow before eating.