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FOOD
A Taste of Canada
By Margaret Swaine
The culinary scene in Canada boasts delicious taste trails and unique regional dishes from coast to coast. Creative young chefs reinterpret Canada’s regional dishes, showcase diverse influences and play with exotic spicing. Heirloom produce from local farms, indigenous wild foods foraged from the forests, organic meats and fresh seafood are among their cherished ingredients.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: Bounty From The Ocean, Forests & Land
Specialties on the menu in British Columbia include wild salmon, golden honey mussels, spot prawns, Dungeness crab, B.C. bison, Haida Gwaii halibut and Salt Spring Island lamb.
There is a wide range of guided culinary tours—sometimes led by chefs—in southern B.C., particularly in the Okanagan Valley, the new home turf of Canada’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Be sure to head to Kelowna. Go for city tasting tours in Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler (www.hellobc.com).
Cornucopia Whistler is an annual 11-day indulgence of local food and drink that pairs homegrown chefs with top B.C. producers, breweries, distilleries and wineries (www.whistlercornucopia.com).
In Victoria, Off the Eaten Track continues to lead small-group culinary walks through historic districts (www.offtheeatentracktours.ca). Foraging tours are now popular across Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Participants discover B.C. ingredients in the forest: nettles, mushrooms and spruce tips (www.swallowtail.ca).
THE PRAIRIES: Grassland Grains And Ranchland Meats
Manitoba’s Parkland region has a self-guided Cinnamon Bun Trail with additional bakeries and cafés (www.parklandtourism.com/attraction-category/cinnamon-bun-trail). In season, Winnipeg’s Exchange District and West End remain culinary hotspots, offering guided and self-guided tours through diverse restaurant scenes shaped by Ukrainian, Filipino, and Indigenous influences (www.exchangedistrict.org/food-tours).
Saskatchewan has more than 40 percent of Canada’s cultivated farmland, and Saskatoon’s culinary scene takes full advantage of it. Saskatoon anchors the province’s culinary identity, with restaurants emphasizing hyper-local sourcing, heritage grains, and nose-to-tail cooking.
In Alberta, as Canada’s ranch heartland, wild game is plentiful. Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts has its own game ranch to provide for its lodges in Banff, Lake Louise and Emerald Lake (www.crmr.com/culinary).
ONTARIO: Countless Taste Trails And Food Festivals
Ottawa is home to the only Canadian campus of the renowned Le Cordon Bleu French cooking school (www.cordonbleu.edu/ottawa). C’est Bon’s gourmet walking tours are an ideal introduction to the National Capital Region’s vibrant food scene (www.cestbonottawa.ca/food-tours).
In Prince Edward County, check out the cool cocktail and food scene at the Drake Devonshire (www.thedrake.ca/drakedevonshire), enjoy fresh laid eggs for breakfast at one of the bucolic B&Bs such as Wilfrid Boutique Farmhouse (www.thewilfrid.com) or sign up for a cooking class to learn the tools of the trade at The Waring House (www.waringhouse.com).
Butter tarts were a staple of pioneer cooking in both Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Québec). The Kawarthas Northumberland Butter Tart Tour has grown to over 50 locations throughout the area (www.buttertarttour.ca). The townships of Minto, Southgate, Wellington North and West Grey’s have a self-guided Butter Tarts Trail (www.wellington.ca/en/business/tr-buttertart.aspx).
QUÉBEC: A Goldmine Of French-Canadian Specialties
New France’s first inhabitants ate hearty meals to cope with the rigours of everyday life. The rugged lifestyle enhanced a distinct home-cooking style over the centuries that became Québec classics. Think tourtière, a meat and pork pie; cipaille, a layered wild meat pie; fèves au lard, baked beans; and cretons, a fatty pork spread (www.bonjourquebec.com/en-ca/to-see-and-do/delicious-discoveries).
Maple syrup plays a big role in traditional food, with some 13,300 producers in the province. In spring, Québécois gather at cabanes à sucre (sugar shacks) to enjoy baked beans and pancakes all drenched in maple syrup (www.bonjourquebec.com/en-ca/to-see-and-do/delicious-discoveries/sugar-shacks).
From Petite-Rivière-Saint-François to La Malbaie, epicureans treat themselves to a gastronomic adventure on the Charlevoix Flavour Trail which features specialty producers and 16 restaurants (www.tourisme-charlevoix.com/en/what-to-do/routes-and-circuits/flavour-trail).
The Eastern Townships, renowned for its gourmet cuisine, has dozens of local producers and agritourism locations (www.easterntownships.org/tag/296/createurs-de-saveurs-local-producers) as well as a good number of restaurants with a history and tea stops (www.easterntownships.org/taste-the-townships).
Montréal counts several hundred chefs including many top names. But it is also famous for bagels (St-Viateur and Fairmount) and smoked meat (Schwartz’s and Main Deli). The city is host to many annual food festivals and events, from the most famous Montréal Highlights Festival to La Poutine Week (www.lapoutineweek.com).
ATLANTIC CANADA: The Glory Of Seafood
The culinary scene has exploded in Nova Scotia. The two seafood trails—the Nova Scotia Chowder Trail and the Nova Scotia Lobster Trail—offer a collection of restaurant, retail and fisheries experiences that highlight the province’s incredible seafood products (www.novascotiaculinarytrails.com).
In New Brunswick, travellers can build their own trail to farmers’ markets, restaurants and sites via the website (www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca/food-and-drink).
Canada’s Food Island Culinary Trail and Dining Guide in PEI directs people to the Island’s distinct regions (www.canadasfoodisland.ca/culinary-trail). Newfoundland is known for its seafood and traditional dishes such as salt fish and brewis (made with hard tack or dry bread) and Jiggs’ dinner (boiled salted beef and vegetables) (www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/things-to-do/food-and-dining).
THE NORTH: Wild Harvests Under The Midnight Sun
In the Yukon, Michele Genest and Beverley Gray are authors of the books The Boreal Gourmet and The Boreal Herbal. They explain what you can harvest in the “Land of the Midnight Sun.” At Gray’s Aroma Borealis Herb Shop in Whitehorse, visitors can arrange to join her on a seasonal foraging outing (www.aromaborealis.com). Also in Whitehorse is Wayfarer Oyster House, where local produce anchors each dish.
Whatever their fancy, wherever travellers go in Canada, they are sure to find their taste nirvana.
