One think that I don't think you mentioned is how many of the Québécois culinary classics are enjoyed privately in the home, and never were widely commercialized. Tourtière, Sucre à la Crème, Tarte au Sucre, Oreilles de Christ, Soupe au pois, Pouding Chômeur, etc. Quebec has historically been a very poor place, and the everyday food of its worker population probably just wasn't considered noteworthy enough to be celebrated. I'd wager it could be similar in other parts of the country: the rich people ate whatever foreign food was fancy at the time, all the while the truly Canadian foods which were enjoyed by the working classes stayed as family recipes, never to see the limelight.
My family is from Newfoundland and I came to say pretty much the same thing. Canada has several rich, locally-focused food cultures, but we just don't serve it in restaurants. You have to stay at a Newfoundland auntie's house to get fed a scoff of cod tongues. Rowing up the next arm to rake up a bucket of mussels for dinner is just about the best thing in the world and you can't buy it. You will never buy seal flipper pie! Or scuplin pie, or bottled moose or an old-fashioned Jigg's dinner with blueberry duff boiled in an old pillow case on top of the pot. The only way to eat a murre is to know someone who shot one, and to shoot one you have to live there! Outsiders can't really eat our food.
indeed. the Acadian were making their own dish called Poutine in the 16th century. A ball of mixed mashed and shredded potato with salt pork in the middle, this was simmered for up to 24 hours.
As a Canadian, this is a great introduction. I doubt many Canadians know some of these information. There are many more traditions and ingredients that one day, I hope, you are able to cover. Can't wait for more next year!
They have really good burgers, but in Quebec it is like a hybrid of French food along with local ingredients like Venison, Lobster, maple syrup, etc...ok maybe you are right it is syrup and poutine
This is an absolutely terrific video. So interesting and informative, and very well produced/presented. I especially love your discussion of indigenous peoples, who are often forgotten when we talk and think about where cuisines come from. Can’t wait to see what more you have in store!
It's one of the most poorly researched videos on this topic I've watched. Canada doesn't have a cuisine if you get all of your information from what McDonald's sells.
If you're searching for Canadian cuisine, come to Québec: tourtière, cipâte, pâté chinois, ragoût de pattes de cochon, soupe aux pois, soupe aux gourganes, cretons, tarte au sucre, pouding chômeur, etc. Our cheeses are winning in international contests. We have many breweries and distilleries too. We have much more to offer than poutine and maple syrup.
As a kid in the 70's in a Toronto suburb, we used to joke that Canada's national dish was starch. My grandparent would sometimes drive to see us from the Maritimes & they wouldn't stop at a restaurant but would put a chuck roast, potatoes, carrots, turnips a bit of water, salt & pepper in a pot, cover with tin foil, wire it shut. The pot was secures next to the engine & when they stopped for the night they had "boiled supper" hot from the pot. Build supper was a staple when we went down east.
Just stumbled across your channel today and I'm glad I did. Can't go wrong with a very well edited and executed video in the style of a Johnny Harris/Vox doc. As someone who's just recently started their own YT journey I wish you all the best on yours! - Alex
I always learn something interesting from your videos, which keeps me coming back! First time hearing about the "Land v. Creole" concept, but applying it to Canada is quite illustrative. I had the thought that settler Canada is inventing a "Land" and a nation in the place of Indigenous food cultures that were co-opted or suppressed across the country's widely varied landscapes. The "Land", when framed as a singular element, should be recognized as a recent invention serving the settler state. For example, in British Columbia the native Bigleaf Maple has not been used historically for syrup production because the mild maritime climate is not conducive to traditional sapping as it is where other maple species grow in the east. In BC, maple syrup is arguably a "Creole" element that has been popularized by the region's inclusion in the new settler state, Canada. Now, with modern techniques, there are experiments in boutique production of bigleaf maple syrup by settler and Indigenous organizations in British Columbia, which could arguably be called part of a Canadian Creole cuisine.
Great video, Matthew! Living in Canada (specifically British Columbia) my whole life, you definitely hit the points about the seasonality of ingredients and the diversity of cuisines available especially within our larger cities. For example, we have an Afghan restaurant, a Spanish taperia, a Thai restaurant, and a French bistro within walking distance. If you love picking and eating fresh berries, I highly recommend visiting during the summer.
I've heard that ginger beef was invented in my hometown of Calgary, and the origin of the California roll is disputed but may have been invented in Vancouver.
alot of times i only figure out something i like is canadian only is because i cant find it in the states or people i know have no idea what im talking about. Its always so funny when people find out that Hawaiian pizza and California Rolls/Westernized Sushi is actually from Canada. It really doesnt help when we name stuff after american stuff though hawaiian pizza made sense since hawaii is known for its pineapple industry
You forgot New England, USA. We've been doing it as well since European Settlement began in the 1600's and it is a big industry in sections of VT, NH & ME. But this doesn't take away from the Canadian love of it.
The most canadian (quebecois) cuisine one can get is to go to a sugar shack, especially during the maple syrup season. It is a restaurant where they make maple syrup, but also serve a lumberjack menu, on which you will pour maple syrup on pretty much everything. The meal will finish with maple toffee. A fun experience, not something you want to eat everyday.
Canada's food is exactly like US. They have similar imigration patterns. US just has lots more latino food, but Canada is catching up with that. Canada seems to have more game entrees in restaurants though.
I grew up in Alberta Beef country and now live on the west coast of BC and salmon country! Agree Canada is widespread and diverse like it’s people really. Nanaimo bars are so easy to make, do it! I’d love to send you some candied salmon, it’s like nothing you’ve had before! Thank you for educating, I really love your content!
The canadian cuisine has been much more influenced by the cuisines of the colonial powers that created the country than it was influenced by the natives. British traditions are everywhere in this country and Quebec was influenced by France. We have a very different culture than Alberta for example. The natives had a big influence in the beginning of the colonization and a lot of knowledge of the land has been transferred to the colonists at that time. But after that the native culture was pretty much non existent in public spaces until recent years
Oh, I also recalled at least once a summer we'd have a salmon supper. In the 70's you could get wild Atlantic salmon, we always had dulce poached with the salmon. There was always was new potatoes, corn, maybe some clams & lobster & my Grandmother always brought fiddlehead she'd picked in the spring out of the freezer.
There are so many classic Canadian cuisines to choose from that you either need to be totally accidentally ignorant, or willfully ignorant to think Canada doesn't have it's own cuisine. From the Native Canadian dishes like Bannock, Pemmican, Barley stews, to the Quebecois Tourtières, Pea soups, and Fèves au lard -- Canada has a LOT going on food wise if you actually pay attention. As a Canadian who loves to cook, I think we have the market beat on the best dessert of all time, the glorious Buttertart. You haven't lived until you have tasted a warm Buttertart, with a wildly flaky crust, oozing with warm maple syrup and raisins. It's a sinful delicacy.
True. Australia is a true example of a country not really having a cuisine of their own. They mostly only have native ingredients, that they make into whatever.
omg i love sea hawthorn berry, 5:26 - 5:28, you have no idea how happy i got seeing those. and also my comfort meal is a side of casear salad, blueberries (or whatever is freshest from the bush), and salmon coated in lemon pepper sauteed with butter and maple syrup (technically candied IG) .
On collecting tree sap: in Poland we have a long tradition of collecting birch sap. Birch trees were one of the most sacred trees for slavic tribes ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_sap ). It's kinda similar to what native American tribes did with maple trees, how they treated them and what they symbolized
You mentioned Nanaimo Bars; that's truthfully very Canadian. Us Canadians have ignored the cultural gold mine that is "natively" Canadian for far too long. Keep an eye out, world; in a decades' time, we may have truly developed a national and authentic cuisine!
A few other Canadian dishes I'd highly recommend are beavertails, donairs, garlic fingers with donair sauce (no east coast pizza party is complete without it,) and fries with the works (which is loose ground beef, green peas, and onion mixed in gravy and put on top of fries.)
There are a lot of things that we've forgotten how to use. I'm not a forager, but i'm often finding things when I'm just walking around outside: black walnut, ramps, morels, griotte, myrtille, spruce tips, sumac, jerusalem artichoke, horsemint, nettles, service berries, mulberry, elderberry, chicken of the woods, lobster mushroom, butter nuts, salsify, camas plant. The thing I've never been able to find are Pawpaws, and i've actually put effort into trying to find them. Pawpaws are my holy grail. Game meat also used to be more common when I was a kid: moose, wapiti, deer. catching fish like walleye, pike, plaice, trout.
Fun facts: Ice wine was really popular in the 1750s-1820s in the nobility of western europe. At first it was regular wine was used and the bottle where put into ice (so not really ice wine per say ). After ice wine was invented, they directly use ice wine instead. They even have some ceramic crockery specificaly design to cold the wine. the ice wine bucket in ceramic looked like a bucket with a wavy edge where you put the glass in the crook of the wavy edge. the bucket itself was full of ice and can maintain the wine icy. One of the butler task was to take care of the ice, changing it if it was melting too much. So when the nobility was fading away, so the butler with his bucket of ice. I know that because i assisted a guide during a conference about "the art of eating well in france from the middle age to the 18th century"
The fact that you can't just land in Canada and immediately just get "Canadian food" is wild. I spent 6 months there last year and everyone just asked me if I tried poutine yet.
You mentioned regions in Italy, well you may have to break that down even farther in Canada. We are a huge country, and each province has areas that cook and prepare food differently. Same thing goes with our dialects. 😅 (PS. I love eating cod tongues.)
As a kid visiting New Brunswick I always found Finnan Hardie a bit strong, but it grew on me more over the yeas, as did Pickled Herring & lunch of sardines on toast I always loved. Perhaps that's why New Brunswickers are referred to as "Herring Chokers". BTW, there are some Acadians who claim that Poutine is actually an Acadian dish imported to Quebec from New Brunswick.
Butter tarts are wide and varied. But for the basic butter tart. Image a handheld (I would say single serving, but really who can only eat one?) a pecan pie without the pecans. This could be with or without raisins. Very polarized about raisins. It’s either yes or no. No maybe; then again, raisins are just humiliated grapes. lol
interesting beginning on canadian food. Check the '' encyclopedie of food in new france'' not shure its been translated in english. i ve discovered it lately You would be surprise of the extent of the mix with the old world and the new and nature in cuisine . Some of the food you have in the us come also from that time. in that period our ancesters used many spice and product from nature witch is been rediscovered today. Plus in that period you would be surprise of the quantity of diverse food product coming from around the world olive oil, wine spice .... to culminate in a AKA Canadian cuisine.
Settler colonial states in general struggle with their own identity. As their existence starts of settler from the old world displacing the original inhabitants. Some will adapt the original inhabitant (indigenous) cuisine and mix it with the settlers and other immigrant groups like Mexico and Peru. And others will absorb others immigrants group to enhance the settlers food or create new ones like the US and Canada. But Canada has the misfortune of being overshadowed by its brother the US. It’s a very similar relationship with Argentina and Uruguay or Peru and Bolivia.
Though it falls under Canadian Creole, the Halifax Donair is worth looking into as well... especially the sometimes serious sometimes not fight Halifax has with Edmonton about being the Donair Capitol.
Poutine looks like fast food fries, but I'm sure with the right chef it could be made more unique!!! With all the berries and spices in the world that aren't used or known many nations could have far more ingredients for national dishes and I'm sure Canada has many berries and spices it doesn't use or hasn't even documented yet.
As a canadian, saying the americans are big on maple syrup as well is such a insult. Keep your high fructose corn syrup with artificial flavorings to yourself.
Canada is a nation made up of two colonies at the end of the day, a British one and a French one. And given that both have always disliked eachother to a pretty large degree for a pretty long time they both leaned into _their_ thing heavily. Poutine is basically the one dish both of them could agree on.
Dude, im 39 seconds in, and already there is an inaccuracy. It was the Huron who taught the French pioneers in what is now modern-day Quebec to make maple syrup and maple water. This wasn't taken. Nor was the land, but that is a much bigger topic.
obviously loved the video but , dude you used to be a Anime youtuber and now you live in japan , just restart RC Anime come on , i have to say as a Hotel Management student and who loves food and finding out you used to be a Anime youtuber , man i have become your fan , love you man and love your videos , it has great production and strong content CRAZY anyways all the best for your future endavours
It's a stretch to call this list of ingredients & limited number of dishes a 'cuisine'. There is nothing wrong with being cuisine of cuisine. With the genocide & marginalisation of indigenous people that pretty much sums up the Western Hemisphere. New, as in creole or what was created by Africans brutally transplanted is the only exception.
Actually in America we use Pancake Syrup, like Aunt Jemima which is only imitation Maple Syrup. Many Americans are not aware of this. They put syrup on their pancakes/waffles thinking it is Maple Syrup but is actually just HFCS (high Fructose Corn Syrup) mixed with other industrial chemicals. If you want 100% Maple Syrup you usually have to ask for it and may be charged extra.
Ive lived in Canada my whole life and I cant even tell you what Canadian food is. A lot of it is repackaged british and french food like Shephards Pie (Paté Chinois in quebec), or like you said, comes from immigrants. In Montreal, where I live, for example, we are known for our bagels and smoked meat, which comes from jewish immigrants.
My problem with this video is he says America has it's own cuisine but Canada doesn't. Pizza is italian, burgers are german, etc. Most american cuisine is just like Canadian cuisine, it's immigrant cuisine with the new world twist.
@@krazeeeyezkeithSort of, but Southern barbecue, many sandwich types(including the Hamburger) are largely American in origin, and the pizza types of the US are so different that they might as well be separate dishes. Addendum: and anecdotally my personal experience with food in Canada is that besides a few select dishes it largely emulates the US culinarily.
If you're curious about butter tarts, you'll also want to try tarte au sucre (sugar pie). Think butter tarts, but creamier and without the nuts. You're right though, as a country populated by immigrant cultures and where First Nations people are still discriminated against, most of our food is reinterpretations or recombining of other traditions' foods. The seasonality of ingredients is still a big things (probably because of weather), I, like a lot of people, will only eat strawberries or corn on the cob during strawberry or corn season, because that's when they are good.
Being such a relatively young country, Australia hasn't yet had time to develop a distinct culinary culture. It still has a lot of influence from the UK (due to colonisation) and the US.
Thanks for covering this subject. You're correct in that Canada's cuisine is not a singular homogenous story. The problem is that we're humble and don't feel the need to spread our culture. Nor do we have the resources to do so (ie. through media and movies). I think its a good thing that Michelin guide has come to Toronto to help organize and identify what makes Canadian cuisine. It turns out, much of it is borrowed from other cultures and fused with each other and traditionally Canadian cuisine. It's quite interesting. I sure hope we get the recognition we humbly deserve.
Hollywood promotes a very positive image of Canada so you get the affect of having a powerful face to the world while also not proclaiming it yourselves. You guys got a good thing going 😂
Natives, Quebecois and Acadians are part of Canada, but, to my knowledge, they find offense in saying that their cuisine is Canadian because it assimilates them to a greater identity while their cuisine is one of their way to stand out and maintain their distinct identity as a people. For example, maple syrup and poutine really is a quebecois thing that Canada seized for it's national identity. That said, 80% of the WORLD's production of maple syrup is in QC. How much does that leave to the rest of Canada? Also, poutine has become popular in Canada for the last 5 years. It has been eaten in QC for decades. In the same way that Bannock bread is native and not Canadian, tourtière is Quebecois and not Canadian. As long as Canada will culturally appropriate it's historical minorities' tradition, it will be in infringement of the idea of a confederation. The fact that Canada has to do this also bears witness to how empty Canada is culturally. Outside of native, acadian and quebecois dishes, there is basically no traditional meal aside from maybe nanaimo bars or beavers tail (which are more industrial dishes than traditional). Yes, this is political. Canada has tried to deconstruct itself into an empty husk to better accommodate its ideal of multiculturalism. To some extent, if this is the ideal Canada really wants, it's fine. However, they are in contradiction with themselves when they try to build a traditional unified national identity when multiculturalism is the co-existence of multiple cultures.
There are specific dishes from Newfoundland and Labrador (our eastern-most and newest province) which have a long history but not eaten elsewhere in Canada. NL was an independent dominion until 1949 and many of its traditions and accent are more reminiscent of Irish than North American English. Fish n’ Brewis, Cod Tongues (hence the book name) and Jiggs Dinner are some foods that come to mind.
Boiled dinner, aka corn beef cabbage is popular on the east coast and something you never find in the west. Nanaimo bars are way too sweet, I'm surprised that the US didn't pick it up, it's really extreme. Butter tarts are one of my favorites, I always thought that they were Acadian, by the way that's the same as Cajun, it was just changed due to the southern accent!
so much diverse cuisine in canada was forcibly repressed during our colonial, genocidal history. i can't even imagine what we've lost and i really hope the renewed cultural pride we're seeing now saves these dishes from being forgotten. i think a big thing that sets canadian cuisine apart from, say, korean or scandinavian food is that the majority of what we eat isnt actually from this place, it's half a step removed from european food. not to say that cuisine cant have outside influences, but when france and england already have the same stuff but more prestigious, and for your whole history your powerful class is actively trying to destroy the 100s of unique cuisines already present while making themselves look as much like europe as possible...it's hard to make a name for yourself lol
Your other channel rc anime.The last video you posted was 5 years ago.And the community post was 8 months ago.I liked the perspective of the videos you make. Your way of presenting a complex and diverse topic in the most personal yet simple way to understand is good. I am following your channel for years .So is the channel dead or a new video might be on way. I think the best video you had was the naoka yamadas depiction and the background video. As a viewer your video makes us realise the importance of watching a content in general. I hope you post soon
Great video! In my family, we have a deep cuisine culture of canadian cuisine like cippate, poudding chômeur, gâteau au graine rouge and ect. I have always been surprised no one knows the food I have always loved! Thank you!
Another iconic Canadian food you might want to try: Peameal Bacon. It is a brined pork loin coated in cornmeal. Sliced thinly and pan fried It's fantastic on sandwiches, or just used as you would bacon for breakfast. Or you can roast the whole thing... It's delicious and versatile.
You didn't get to the East Coast? Jeez, you're missing stuff like Acadian poutine balls, poutine á trous, pets de souer. And the Halifax NS Donair, the Donair pizza based on it, Cows ice cream from PEI have a bewildering selection of ice creams. And they have chocolate covered potato chips they call Cow Chips, and hilarious merchandise. PEI with its rich red soil is the potato capital like Idaho is for the US. and Newfoundland has a cuisine of its own, like fish and brews (boiled cod and hard tack), peas pudding, boiled cod tongue like in the book title... the best part of travel is eating what isn't available at home, eh!
"...she went to different markets in cities across Canada and found that Canadians were very dependent on seasonal foods which dictated what they ate" Uh...because she was going to farmer's markets? So obviously? Or is there actually some data that Canadians rely more on farmer's markets than Americans? Obviously if you are already shopping at a farmer's market you are going to rely on local, seasonal food. The data I found says "a total of 86.6% of consumers primarily buy their fruits and vegetables at a grocery store, [and] 4.6% claim that they buy most of their produce at a farmers’ market."
I really appreciate that you made a video about this subject. But as a Canadian I can tell you that Canadian cuisine doesn’t really exist. It should be called Canadian cuisines and not cuisine. I can’t think of a single dish that represents the whole country even if I spent my whole life in Canada. In fact I never eat most of the foods that you mentioned. You could actually divide the country into four différent culinary zones (with some exceptions) : the western part (BC to Ontario), Québec, the northern part (mostly native people) and the Atlantic regions
Poutine is fries, gravy, and cheese curd. Cheese (not curd, actual cheese), chips, and gravy is the national dish of the Isle of Man. 😉 Being Canadian I do believe that seasonality is what mainly drives our food. Berries (although I have never heard of the 3 you mention by name, they aren't available in Ontario I guess) get ridiculously expensive and lower quality out of season, so they aren't worth eating then. Same goes for a lot of other ingredients. Regionality is also important. Lobster is big in the Atlantic provinces, but here in SW Ontario it's expensive and not as fresh, so it doesn't tend to be eaten. Freshness is important, and when you're dealing with the distances in Canada it makes eating local a lot more important.
The ice wine doesn't surprise me: The climate change is real - German winters are getting more and more mild...😬 Thank you for showing me something new I never thought about! 🧡 As someone who encounters cultures through food: I'm getting hungry! 😋
The problem is that most human dishes are pretty similar especially depending on the temperature and what you can grow etc so most canadian cuisine is ordinary homemade stuff that isnt commercialized or cant effectively be advertised to the world isnt gonna succeed. . .
