What do Canadians consider their national dish?

CanCulture asked Canadians on social media to vote for the food that best represents Canada from 10 strong contenders.

By: Kaitlyn Stock

(Cedric Fauntleroy/Pexels)

Due to Canada being an incredibly diverse and multicultural country, it may be difficult for Canadians to think of a food that screams Canada. Could it be sweet old butter tarts and Nanaimo bars? What about our infamous ketchup chips? And how could we ever forget salmon jerky or muktuk, both treasures from Canadian seas?

In a poll CanCulture conducted on social media, 55 Canadians were given 10 examples of popular Canadian food and we asked them to select the one that they thought most represented Canada. Take a guess of your own, see the top five results below and let us know how you would have voted!

4. In a tie for fourth place, with 7.4 per cent of votes each, we have peameal bacon and Timbits!

A plate of cooked peameal bacon. (mhaithaca/Creative Commons)

Peameal bacon, also known as “Canadian bacon” to Americans, was originally made by William Davies, a ham and bacon curer from Toronto. If you are not vegetarian, you may know that it is made from pork loin instead of pork belly like typical bacon, and is then rolled in cornmeal — hence its yellow crust. 

The Carousel Bakery, located inside St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, is famous for its peameal bacon sandwiches. As peameal bacon is hard to find outside of Canada, Torontonians should seize their chance to visit this hotspot and learn about a food created in their city.

A box of Timbits. (Conor Samuels/Unsplash)

If you are Canadian, you will definitely understand the hype around these tasty little cakes from Tim Hortons known as Timbits. Timbits are bite-sized versions of the chain’s doughnuts and are a good treat to bring to meetings, gatherings and parties. 

Timbits were first introduced at Tim Hortons in 1976, 12 years after its first restaurant opened. The most popular flavours are birthday cake, old-fashioned glazed, chocolate glazed, old-fashioned plain and honey dip.

3. In third place: beaver tails (and not the animal part…)

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9.3 per cent of participants chose this sweet treat as the peak Canadian food. The beaver tail is a fried dough pastry that is pulled to resemble the tail of a beaver. It is then topped with anything from Nutella to cinnamon sugar. 

Beaver tails were first sold in the late 1970s at a Killaloe, Ont. community fair, by Pam and Grant Hooker. In 1980, the first BeaverTails stand was opened at the ByWard Market in Ottawa and is still there today!

2. In second place for what Canadians think of when they hear “Canadian food” is maple syrup!

A bottle of Canadian maple syrup. (Nadine Primeau/Unsplash)

25.9 per cent of participants chose maple syrup, also known as “liquid gold,” as their top Canadian food. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, maple syrup first came from “Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, including the Abenaki, Haudenosaunee and Mi’kmaq”, before European settlers discovered this treat. To get the sap out, Indigenous people tapped the trees by cutting v-shaped patterns into the bark. 

The production of maple syrup took off in the late 1700s and was collected by colonists drilling holes into maple trees and fitting them with wooden spouts. This way the sap would flow out for collection. The production of maple syrup in Canada is so huge that we produce 85 per cent of the world's maple syrup!

1. Finally, in the number one spot is, unsurprisingly, poutine!

A plate of Canada’s most popular dish, poutine. (mttsndrs/Creative Commons)

38.9 per cent of participants selected this classic dish as their pick for Canada’s top food. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, poutine first appeared in rural Quebec snack bars in the late 1950s. The pronunciation of poutine also varies throughout Canada, with Quebecers pronouncing it as “poo-tin” and those outside of Quebec pronouncing it as “poo-teen.” Not only is the pronunciation of poutine unclear but so is the founder of this dish, with several individuals claiming the credit for inventing poutine. 

It was not until the early 1990s that poutine entered popular fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s, Harvey’s and Burger King. Poutine is popular across Canada, however, it is especially liked in Quebec, its place of origin.

Canadian celebrity chefs take on a whole new challenge in 'Fridge Wars'

By Ruby Asgedome

Photo: fridgewars via Instagram

Fridge Wars is bringing something new to cooking television. The show, which premiered on CBC on Feb. 27, hosts two different Canadian celebrity chefs each week who compete against one another to create exceptional meals for two different families. The twist? The meals are prepared using ingredients from the fridges of these families. 

Canadian actress and host Emma Hunter goes searching for families of different cultural backgrounds every week so that the chefs are challenged in what they create. Every episode starts with Hunter visiting the homes of the families where she shows viewers what’s inside their fridge, then selects what she will bring back to the Fridge Wars studio for the chefs to cook. 

The show invites world-renowned chefs to appear, bringing their various backgrounds of cooking along with them. In the first episode, Matt Basile and Massimo Capra went head to head. Basile is known for his famous Toronto-based street food and Capra is a restaurant consultant who has been featured on many Canadian cooking shows. Both chefs come from very different cooking backgrounds which is exactly what spices things up. With the rotating and diverse roster, viewers will constantly be finding themselves cheering on their favourite chefs.

The chefs at the studio are given a mere 45 minutes to cook up the most creative recipe they can with what they are given. You may be asking yourself, how do they declare the winner? Well, that’s up to the family who provided the ingredients to decide. These chefs are expected to cook for families who they know nothing about and the most they can do is get an idea on their taste based on what’s in their fridge. What could possibly go wrong?

In the middle of the studio, a huge clock shows chefs and viewers how much time they have left. The pressure is on as the chefs scramble through a fridge with the family’s ingredients and conjure up some kind of recipe that incorporates everything. When the 45 minutes are up, each chef's meal is presented to the family. The family ranks each meal based on originality, taste and look and the marks are tallied.

Photo: fridgewars via Instagram

However, the chefs will have to wait for their scores to be revealed as a second challenge with a whole new family and set of ingredients awaits them.  The chefs are again given another 45 minutes to come up with an out of this world meal to present to this new family. But this time, the chefs are hit with a mini challenge as they prepare this meal. A ‘What the Fridge’ challenge, which changes from week to week, throws a curveball at the chefs. This challenge is a curveball for both the chefs and the viewers at home who are wondering what the challenge could be. During the premiere, the challenge was the addition of four new family members which meant that the chefs had to now prepare more food in the time they had left. 

The food is then presented to the second family and the chefs are once again scored on originality, taste and look. With all the scores added up from the first and second families, the week’s Fridge Wars champion is announced.

The show lasts about an hour but because everything happens so fast; time flies. As viewers watch, it’s very easy to learn new recipes along the way. The show also puts a great emphasis on how you can make so many different meals from your fridge items even when you think ‘there’s nothing to eat at home.’

Host Emma Hunter does a great job limiting how much she inserts herself into the show. Although she is the one who goes to the houses of the families invited on the show and picks what she wants to be used from their fridge, when the time comes, she gives the chefs space to prepare their meals. She checks in from time to time but her presence isn’t overbearing. 

Overall, Fridge Wars brings out a whole new side to cooking shows and has proven to be unique and fun to watch.

'Wall of Chefs' showcases diversity in the Canadian culinary scene

Food Network Canada’s newest competition show puts home cooks to the test

Photo: Wall of Chefs host Noah Cappe (noahcappe) via Instagram

 By Severina Chu

Every home cook dreams of getting to cook in front of their culinary idol, but what about cooking in front of 12 of them? Food Network Canada’s Wall of Chefs gives contestants the opportunity to cook for some of Canada’s most prominent culinary personalities.

Four home cooks compete for a $10,000 prize in each episode, taking part in three elimination rounds while under the judgement of a rotating panel of 12 Canadian chefs.

In the first round, the contestants must prepare their “crowd pleaser” dish – a dish that’s popular with their family and friends back at home. Next, one chef from the panel will reveal three of their refrigerator staples that the contestants need to combine into one cohesive dish. They’re thrown unusual combinations such as miso, whipped cheese and celery, but the contestants always manage to present something creative. Finally, if they manage to make it to the final round, the contestants are tasked to create a dish inspired by one of the chef’s signature dishes. Whether it be a rice dish or a dessert, whoever can execute their idea the best walks away with the prize.  

Photo: Toronto-based Wall of Chefs contestant Alison Anderson (kitchenstardust) via Instagram

The premise of Wall of Chefs is essentially the same as any other competition show, but what makes it stand out is the presence of so many Canadian culinary icons. The panel of judges — or the ‘Wall’ as the show refers to them — offer a wide variety of opinions. Established names like Mark McEwan, Lynn Crawford and Susur Lee head the panel, while the younger generation of Canadian chefs like Jinhee Lee, Christie Peters, and Danny Smiles give a fresh perspective. There is a good mix of seasoned and up-and-coming chefs, giving the viewer trusted insight and a glimpse into what’s in store for Canada’s culinary scene.

Canada is often referred to as a “melting pot” of cultures, and the Wall is no different. The chosen chefs represent a multitude of backgrounds that cover many parts of the world. You have chefs who were born in Canada, such as Newfoundlander Todd Perrin and Peguis First Nation member Christa Bruneau-Geunther, and chefs who were raised abroad, such as Turkish-born Fisun Ercan and Italian-born Massimo Capra. With such a wide range of experiences, each chef has time to let their unique expertise shine.

At one point in episode two, one chef exclaims that “This is Canada” as he watches the contestants prepare dishes from various cultures. The show has contestants from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life and their stories are reflected in their food. From Jamaican jerk chicken to Chinese dumplings, the diversity of the Wall of Chefs kitchen can be considered an accurate representation of Canada’s culinary scene.

Is saving money by eating in really worth it?

By Chloe Cook

One of my biggest guilty pleasures is eating out or ordering in. Getting to eat great meals without the hassle of cooking or cleaning up — count me in! However, this luxury often comes with a hefty price tag not suitable for my feeble student budget, so I decided to make a resolution in the new year to stop wasting so much money on food that I could make at home. I did a trial week of cooking all my meals at home and compared it to a regular week of eating out. Here’s how that went:

While eating in obviously saves a lot of money in the long run, I found that there were a few challenges with doing so. Firstly, there was a serious lack of variety.

I found myself consuming so much lasagna that I never want to hear the word again — perhaps this is an indication that I need to take some cooking classes. Secondly, there was the social aspect of not being able to go to a restaurant with friends. I found myself cancelling plans in order to eat at home or inviting people over and force feeding them lasagna in an attempt to get rid of it. I think that overall, eating out is great — in moderation.

In 2020, I am going to be a lot more conscious of my spending habits and I will definitely not be eating out nearly as much as I did before. However, I won’t set such strict boundaries on going out with friends in the future. I just need to delete the UberEats app off of my phone and hopefully that will snuff out my desire to order in.