After living and working in Wisconsin for over a decade, it is tough for me to say what I am about to say. Here we go… Canada has the best cheese curds. Yes, I said it. Please do not cancel me, Wisconsinites!
One of the categories on this blog is devoted to food. And while Canada is more known for its national parks and outdoors, it is worth describing the cuisine of our northern neighbors. This post is not intended to catalog everything that comprises Canadian cuisine but rather highlights our culinary escapades up north.
Our first encounter with Canadian food was during the first trip to Canada back in 2005. After an obligatory breakfast at Tim Horton’s (how could we miss that?), we stopped for lunch at Muddy Duck, a popular restaurant outside of Toronto. As I was preparing to write this post, I learned that Muddy Duck did not survive the pandemic and closed its doors for good in November 2021 after more than 40 years in service. Too bad! The restaurant will always have a fond place in my memory as it is there, I tried two iconic dishes for the first time: French onion soup and poutine.
As its name suggests, French onion soup originated not in Canada but in France, but Canadians embrace it as its own. A bowl of soup consisting of beef broth, caramelized onions, and bread, topped with melting cheese is as Canadian as it can get and has its own identity there. From the first spoonful of melty cheese, a bit of rich broth, and some soft bread, I was in love. For years, French onion soup has been our go-to order, especially on chilly fall or winter evenings.
If French onion soup is an adopted child, poutine is Canada’s own proud invention. Started as a bar snack in the 1950s, the dish quickly became popular and grew into the phenomenon it is right now. Nowadays, poutine is served not only as fast food in chain restaurants but is also featured as an item of haute cuisine with upscale restaurants offering creative takes on this Canadian classic. French fries loaded with cheese curds and smothered with brown gravy are a delicious calorie bomb. The first time we tried it, it nearly sent us into a food coma. But eating a portion of poutine is now almost a mandatory item on our checklist every time we visit Canada. Noteworthy, in 2022, several Canadian restaurants temporarily renamed poutine due to it sounding very much like “Putin”, the Russian autocrat who launched the unprovoked and barbaric invasion of Ukraine.
We kept coming back to Canada. In 2015, we spent four days in Quebec and every day was filled with gastronomical adventures. Driving around the French-speaking countryside, we enjoyed the French-inspired dishes such as foie gras, cheese plates, and cider. The food was very similar to Normandy's food, which we visited several years later. And it is there while visiting one of the creameries near Baie-Saint-Paul, we had the best cheese curds that were so creamy and soft that they were melting in our mouths. I love Wisconsin’s cheese curds, but Canada’s were much better. In Quebec City, we dined at Aux Anciens Canadiens, a cozy restaurant located in one of the oldest homes in the Historic District, and serving traditional Quebec fare: meat pies, stews, baked beans, and smoked bison. The food was filling and hearty and exactly what one needs to endure a never-ending Canadian winter.
The foodie destination in Quebec, however, is unquestionably Montreal. The options for fine dining here are endless. But our eyes were on Au Pied de Cochon, a Michelin-star restaurant with one very particular offering – “Duck in a Can”. The dish is exactly what it sounds like. The duck breast is prepared and canned and then delivered to your table, with a waiter opening the can in front of you and emptying the contents on a plate. It may not sound very appetizing, but the dish is quite exquisite. The tender duck meat cooked in its own juice is delicious and worth traveling for. We kept the can as a souvenir and took it back home, even though at the airport, we had to take it out of our carry-on and explain to a bewildered TSA agent why we were traveling with an empty can.
Finally, our trip to Banff last year revealed another angle of the Canadian food scene. Flying in and out of Calgary, our first and last meals were there. Considering Canada is a welcoming place for immigrants, and Calgary is home to diverse immigrant communities, the ethnic food in Alberta’s largest city is simply superb. On arrival, we had our breakfast in a cute place called Turca Breakfast House serving authentic Turkish food. Its crunchy simit was so chewy and so good that it tasted as if we bought it on the streets of Sultanahmet in Istanbul. On the way back, after spending several days in the wilderness and relying mostly on snacks, we were ready for a big, hot meal. Because we saw so many Indian families on trails and at various viewpoints during our trip, we also started to have a very specific craving for Indian food. And, to no one’s surprise, Calgary did not disappoint. There were plenty of highly-rated Indian restaurants in the city, and we happily concluded our hiking trip by stuffing our hungry faces with fragrant, steaming rice, samosas, and palak paneer at one of the restaurants, the name of which escapes me.
I am fully aware that in terms of Canadian food, we just barely scratched the surface, and there are many more dishes left to try. In several weeks, we are planning to visit the Great White North once again. And, of course, during our stay, we’ll fall back on our old acquittances: a bowl of hot French onion soup to get us warm on a cold November day and a portion of poutine to deliver a tasty calorie boost. But most certainly, we are also excited to find something new and delicious to update this post later.
