good question!

I am interested in real Canadian cooking now, so tell me, what is a traditional Canadian dish?

I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you earlier Dakota, but to be honest I didn't know. "Is there a traditional Canadian dish?" I asked myself. When one of my neighbours and friends was of the opinion that the answer was no because most people here have roots in other countries, I decided that my best bet was to Google. I'm glad I did because the first page I looked up, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), asked the same question: Is there such a thing as Canadian cuisine? Whew! At least I'm not a complete idiot I reassured myself. After all, if the CBC has to ask the same question, than the answer isn't completely obvious. And to be honest some of the dishes they end up mentioning, like poutine and tourtière, are in my opinion, more French than Canadian. Hmmm, okay what do other sites say?

Here we go! This blog entry discusses the whole thing in a much more intelligent, articulate way than I could, so I'm gonna let them do it for me.

Oh, and here's a thread tossing around some answers as well, but basically I think few foods would really qualify as being traditional Canadian dishes. At least, not items that the average Canadian would identify or consume on a regular basis. Except maybe Tim Hortons (a national doughnut and coffee shop chain), which is practically revered as a sacred institution.

Ahem, the following is my own personal rant, and NOT the view held by the vast majority of Canadians.

Come on people, what is this strange love affair you have with Tim Hortons? The coffee isn't that great (if you want to have REALLY good coffee then you need to fly over to Holland—on my last trip there I absolutely LOVED every single cup I had in every single restaurant and café) and are you that lazy you can't make your own? You'd really rather hand over your hard-earned money to drink their dreck than learn how to make a half-decent brew yourself? Hmmm?

Um, I hope these sites give you better information than I could Dakota, but I'm also going to use the excuse that since I'm technically not a Canadian, I'm allowed to let myself off the hook! :)