This Canada Day, taste your Canadian pride

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Canada Day is coming up, and never in recent memory (or perhaps back in 1867 when the nation officially became a new federation with its own constitution) has this country seen such a massive surge in national pride.

We’re practically shouting it out from the rooftops and encouraging everyone to think Canadian, buy Canadian — cook Canadian. And enjoy the foods reflective of everything that is great about our country.

As Canadians, we enjoy foods that pay homage to the places where we live, be it poutine in Quebec or lobster from the Atlantic provinces. There’s Montreal’s smoked meat, Ontario’s butter tarts, Alberta’s beef, and, of course, maple syrup.

And let’s not forget our beer! It wouldn’t be Canada Day without quaffing a cold one (even a non-alcoholic one) and a barbecue.

We have wheat that is one of the most coveted food products across the globe, and 80% of Canada’s mustard seeds grown out west supplies to the rest of the world.

Of course, the earliest cuisines can be traced to First Nations, the Indigenous along with the English, French and Scottish settlers. Research shows Canadian cuisine has historically been shaped by Indigenous influences which have remained a constant in Canada’s food identity.  Foods we celebrate to this day.

And Canadians love to celebrate with dishes reflective of the country’s great bounty — dishes like the famous French-Canadian Tourtiere pie filled with rib-hugging pork, veal and special spices, a dish that’s been around since the 1600s and one of the most popular in the Canadian food repertoire.

We’ve got an awesome selection of award-winning wines and spirits — vodka made from our icebergs, ice wines made from grapes in Southern Ontario and British Columbia — and some of the greatest, award-winning cheeses in the world.

For those with a sweet tooth we have sugar pies and butter tarts and Nanaimo bars and some of Canada’s most famous ice cream companies — Chapman’s and Kawartha Dairy, deeply entrenched in pure Canadian products.

But what exactly is Canadian cuisine? Truth be told, there really is no one food that defines the nation. This country is huge and each region has its own identity with various dishes identified with ingredients particular to that region. Throughout the decades, the cuisine has evolved and incorporated to reflect the multicultural fabric that envelops this great country, exhibiting the diversity of everyone who lives and cooks here.

Every new resident from the of hundreds of countries that call Canada home has brought along customs and culinary heritage, firmly entrenching the diverse dishes into the soul of the nation.

So, along with the Nanaimo bars and bacon, you’ll find pierogies and beef patties and curried dishes. You’ll find onion dip next to hummus, and falafel next to sandwich wraps. Pizza and veal cutlet sandwiches are firmly entrenched as the snack of choice after a late-nigh hockey game among friends. Portuguese custard tart next to a Tim Hortons maple-flavoured doughnut.

There are thousands of more dishes that fall under the Canadian label. In fact, from far and wide, the multicultural mosaic of the nation has certainly inspired global flavours to infuse traditional Canadian meals. International flavours and spices, such as za’atar, turmeric and togarashi sit shoulder-to-shoulder next to salt, pepper and garlic powder.

We have amazing Canadian success stories, like that of the Hadhad family, luxury chocolate makers from Syria who had to flee their home after their chocolate factory was bombed during the Syrian civil war. The Hadhads came to Canada as refugees, bringing with a wealth of chocolate knowledge, and opening up a chocolate factory to great success in their new home in Antigonish, N.S.

Today, Peace by Chocolate, a name given to the company by the family to reflect their hopes for the future, is considered one of the most successful confectionary companies world-wide.

There are so many other food stories like this, making one realize just how unique Canada is in the food world, and oh so flavourful. What makes us so proud to be Canadian.

And something to celebrate this Canada Day.

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