Distinctly Canadian

[prasantrin]

I don't think Kit Kats are particularly Canadian, but I think Aero bars are.

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I always though Aero bars were British, as well. They sell a Japanese version. Haven't tried them, yet, as I've never really liked them!

Canadian KitKats and Japanese KitKats are much more similar to each other, than to US KitKats.

Fiddleheads are also available elsewhere in the world...

So that leaves....sesame snaps! They've been a popular snack in my family for decades, and I've never seen them in the US, though the website I linked to is from the US.

[Pan]

Pemmican is a Plains Native American/First Nations thing. There's nothing peculiarly Canadian about it, I think. Also, it's sold widely in convenience shops in at least my area of the US.

[Pam R]

So that leaves....sesame snaps!  They've been a popular snack in my family for decades, and I've never seen them in the US, though the website I linked to is from the US.

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hmm... I've had them from Israel. Not just Canadian.

[prasantrin]

[hmm... I've had them from Israel. Not just Canadian.

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I was afraid of that! Oh well. I still love them!

How about Cuban Lunch? I used to love them when I was a child. I did a search, and could only find recipes involving chocolate, peanut butter chips, and potato chips, but the Cuban Lunch I knew was just chocolate and peanuts. Made by Paulin's.

While searching, I found an article where the first two paragraphs discuss Canadian sweets. Also mentioned were Lowrey's Cherry Blossoms (I always thought they were disgusting), and Ganong's Roman Nougat (which i don't remember at all). Can we add those to the list?

[*Deborah*]

Neilson's Treasure Bar!!

[annanstee]

Edited June 30, 2005 by annanstee (log)

[3WholeCardamoms]

There's also bannock and fry bread (the not-so-sweet cousin of beaver/whale tails).

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Stickler: Bannock/ fry-bread existed b4 Canada. As did smoked salmon (candy). If the Chinese claimed momo's or the Spanish claimed longanisa...there would be fighting.

ps. happy birthday (belated), thanks for sharing the cake.

[Daddy-A]

How about Cuban Lunch? 

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Oh my God! I used to love these when I was a kid- I remember it as 3 hefty chunks of milk chocolate with peanuts in it.

I wonder why it was called a Cuban Lunch?

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I loved those things! But the only time I remember seeing them was Halloween.

Speaking of which ... how about those molasses candies in the Halloween wrappers? I hope to hell nobody else has those!

Good beer? No, wait ... the Belgians have that too. Just us and the Belgians. Sad.

A.

[lexy]

Speaking of which ... how about those molasses candies in the Halloween wrappers?  I hope to hell nobody else has those!

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Oh ugh, those were so foul! Every year I'd leave them until last (nobody would trade for them obviously), and when there was no other candy left I'd try to eat a few, hoping they were better than I remembered - they somehow were always worse actually.

[Arghavan]

How about canadian ice wine?

Also canada produces 90% of the mustard seed used in the world (exported to France) as well as buckwheat (exported to Japan)

[debler]

Smarties

Smarties? These? If so, I beg to differ on their Canadiality.

Canadianity.

Canadianess.

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yeppers! Canukian all the way!!!

how about Clodhoppers!!!

and dill pickle chips................

[debler]

oh! ............... p.s. ..................I love thiose mollasses halloween candies!

Mmmmmmmmmmm!

[nwyles]

Wow, I had no idea some of these things were not available outside of Canada - and so many good things too! (mmm, beaver tails).

I've never heard of Clamato juice outside of Canada (I always get funny looks if I try to explain - "Clam juice? You want clam juice?").

Also, la tire, Nanaimo bars (well, I'm guessing - they're named for a Canadian city after all), a sort of pickle/relish called chow-chow that only seems popular with Nova Scotians of my grandmother's generation.

Red River cereal is a mix of grains (mostly cracked wheat and flax seeds I think). I mix some with steel cut oats to make porridge, some people make a porridge just using Red River cereal.

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When I was in London England, there was a pub call the Maple Leaf and they imported Clamato. It was so nice to have a Caesar after being away from Canada for two months.

[prasantrin]

Oh my God! I used to love these when I was a kid- I remember it as 3 hefty chunks of milk chocolate with peanuts in it.

I wonder why it was called a Cuban Lunch?

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Because they used Spanish peanuts? I never really understood the Cuban connection, either, though I don't think I even knew what/where Cuba was back then. I remember it as being one bar and it was in a brown paper rectangle thing, kind of like what Reese's peanut butter cups come in. And part of the chocolate would stick to the wrapper, so you'd have to lick it off. Well, I did...

Edited to add: Glosette Peanuts and Raisins! I loved the peanut ones, but hated the raisin ones. Chocolate-covered peanuts/raisins are available elsewhere in the world, though, so I suppose those don't really qualify.

However....Eat-More chocolate bars are definitely Canadian! I used to hate them when I was a kid, but I love them now!

And according to the Hershey's Canada website, Pot of Gold chocolates are also Canadian...

Edited June 30, 2005 by prasantrin (log)

[Daddy-A]

When I was in London England, there was a pub call the  Maple Leaf and they imported Clamato. It was so nice to have a Caesar after being away from Canada for two months.

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Totally OT ... but I was in The Maple Leaf when they announced that Ben Johnson had tested positive for steroid use at the Seoul Olympics.

I was drinking a Canadian at the time.

A.

[DeVeaux]

We had a Pop Shoppe in Niagara Falls, NY - I really liked it, because my sister, brother and I could each pick out the type of pop we wanted.

My favourite Canadian food was the Chip Wagon on Queen Street in Niagara Falls, ON. In the summer, thsi guy had a wagon with deep fat fryers that would be parked on Queen Street, selling cones of chips made from scratch - you could smell the chips from blocks away, and just HAD to go over and get some - no ketchup, only vinegar & salt, and a little wooden two-tine fork to eat the chips out of the paper cone as you walked along. I can still taste them.

[Pam R]

My favourite Canadian food was the Chip Wagon on Queen Street in Niagara Falls, ON.  In the summer, thsi guy had a wagon with deep fat fryers that would be parked on Queen Street, selling cones of chips made from scratch - you could smell the chips from blocks away, and just HAD to go over and get some - no ketchup, only vinegar & salt, and a little wooden two-tine fork to eat the chips out of the paper cone as you walked along.  I can still taste them.

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We had several of these chip trucks in Kenora, Ontario as well. It was a treat for us to drive into town and each get our own container - fried in peanut oil - soaked in white vinegar that came out of an old 7-up bottle that had holes punched into the cap. I love them (and may need to take a trip out there this summer for some) BUT, is it distinctly Canadian?? I would guess that there are other places (UK perhaps) where you could get the same.... malt instead of white vinegar, but still...

[Mallet]

I think salt and pepper chips are Canadian .

[debler]

I think salt and pepper chips are Canadian  .

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Nope...sorry, they arn't.

[jayt90]

How about canadian ice wine?

Also canada produces 90% of the mustard seed used in the world (exported to France) as well as buckwheat (exported to Japan)

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Too bad we can't make a decent mustard with our own seed!

As for Canadian Ice Wine, it is original and unique only because most bottles are from Vidal, a French hybrid grape shunned in France, but well suited to late harvest or deep freeze harvest as it is thick skinned.

There is Canadian Riesling Ice Wine, as well, but this would have to be a copy of excellent, and sometimes very expensive Eiswein from Germany and Austria, made for many years. I haven't heard of a trockenbeerenauslese eiswein from Niagara.

[gourmande]

...Oreilles de Christ

Maple taffy ice cream

Hot Chicken (the sandwich)

St-Hubert/Swiss Chalet-type "barbecue"

Pouding chômeur

Cipâte

Salmon pie (pâte au saumon)

Herbes salées

...

oreilles de christ, pets de soeurs (both fabulous treats) ... but what was it with the religious overtones anyway

and to add to your list

- glissants

- cretons canadiens

- ragout de pattes et boulettes

- kik cola?

- poutine flavoured potato chips

[estufarian]

How about canadian ice wine?

Also canada produces 90% of the mustard seed used in the world (exported to France) as well as buckwheat (exported to Japan)

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Too bad we can't make a decent mustard with our own seed!

As for Canadian Ice Wine, it is original and unique only because most bottles are from Vidal, a French hybrid grape shunned in France, but well suited to late harvest or deep freeze harvest as it is thick skinned.

There is Canadian Riesling Ice Wine, as well, but this would have to be a copy of excellent, and sometimes very expensive Eiswein from Germany and Austria, made for many years. I haven't heard of a trockenbeerenauslese eiswein from Niagara.

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Couple of comments.

First mustard - we do make decent mustard - it's called "Dijon" - I know that makes no sense 'logically' but check the fine print. Even 'French Dijon' is usually made from Canadian mustard.

Icewine: Vidal is not only shunned - it's illegal! But as France doesn't produce Icewine, that's irrelevant anyway.

And Canadian Icewine (strictly Niagara, as I've almost no experience with Icewine from other regions) tastes very different from German for one overriding reason - in Canada there's virtually no market for botrytis affected wines so any botrytised grapes are routinely comingled with the frozen grapes harvested for icewine. In Germany the various levels of botrytised content have a welcoming market, so a trockenbeerenauslese is sold as such and similarly for icewine. There is no category (currently) in Germany for 'TBA-Eiswein'. And given that totally botrytised grapes don't freeze, it wouldn't strictly be Eiswein anyway. Of course, there's no VQA categort "Trockenbeerenauslese' either, so even if it 'theoretically' existed in Canada, it wouldn't be labelled as such.

I'm still waiting to try a 'botrytis-free' Canadian Icewine. The only ones I've tasted would now be illegal as they were made from healthy grapes that were subsequently 'freezered' then pressed.

Other than residual sugar, I can detect virtually no difference in structure between 'Canadian Icewine' and the various Canadian late-harvest offerings (for about 1/3 the price). So guess which I buy! But German (and Austrian) Eiswein has a very different structure (assuming riesling, not necessarily all the thick-skinned hybrids) - in particular the acid balance (pH) is much more dominant.

[jayt90]

comments.

First mustard - we do make decent mustard - it's called "Dijon" - I know that makes no sense 'logically' but check the fine print. Even 'French Dijon' is usually made from Canadian mustard.

Icewine: Vidal is not only shunned - it's illegal! But as France doesn't produce Icewine, that's irrelevant anyway.

And Canadian Icewine (strictly Niagara, as I've almost no experience with Icewine from other regions) tastes very different from German for one overriding reason - in Canada there's virtually no market for botrytis affected wines so any botrytised grapes are routinely comingled with the frozen grapes harvested for icewine. In Germany the various levels of botrytised content have a welcoming market, so a trockenbeerenauslese is sold as such and similarly for icewine. There is no category (currently) in Germany for 'TBA-Eiswein'. And given that totally botrytised grapes don't freeze, it wouldn't strictly be Eiswein anyway. Of course, there's no VQA categort "Trockenbeerenauslese' either, so even if it 'theoretically' existed in Canada, it wouldn't be labelled as such.

I'm still waiting to try a 'botrytis-free' Canadian Icewine. The only ones I've tasted would now be illegal as they were made from healthy grapes that were subsequently 'freezered' then pressed.

Other than residual sugar, I can detect virtually no difference in structure between 'Canadian Icewine' and the various Canadian late-harvest offerings (for about 1/3 the price). So guess which I buy! But German (and Austrian) Eiswein has a very different structure (assuming riesling, not necessarily all the thick-skinned hybrids) - in particular the acid balance (pH) is much more dominant.

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I'm not sure what Canadian Dijon mustard is worth looking out for. Most recently, I have tried French's Dijon (made in Canada but hardly a Canadian effort) and found it better than regular French's, but not at the level of Maille or Grey Poupon (Fr).

As for Eiswein, there have been TBA offerings from LCBO and the major New York catalogues on rare occaisions, very expensive, and not recent.

I have heard that freezered icewine is made in New York State, and if I remember, was offered in a Vintages catalogue three or four years ago. It was priced well below Ontario icewine, around $24/half bottle.

[carswell]

Liberty/Liberté. United Statesians regularly ask Montrealers to bring tubs of Liberty cream cheese (the only cream cheese worthy of being schmeared on a St-Viateur bagel) with them when they visit. And going by comments on the Montreal, Quebec and Eastern Canada forum and the Chowhound Montreal board, the dessert yogurt line (apple pie; cranberry orange; cranberry rhubarb; cranberry strawberry; cranberry blueberry; coconut; fig, date and raisin; orange marzipan; etc.) has developed a States-side cult following.

[annanstee]

ketchup chips

Tourtiere