CANUCK FOODS

Best Eats Gail Johnson

With July 1 nearly here, patriotic foodies might be designing menus featuring quintessentially Canadian items to celebrate. In fact, they might need to spend time paring the list. Think blueberries, and bison; fiddleheads, spruce tips, and cedar smoke; B.C. salmon and Atlantic lobster; maple syrup, Mcintosh apples, and Yukon Gold potatoes (which were developed in Ontario in the ’60s)—to name just a few.

Here are a few other classic Canuck foods to indulge in—and places in Metro Vancouver to find them—as we celebrate 151 years of Confederation.

POUTINE Ah, la

Belle Province:

Quebec, we thank you for this jumble of fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. These days, of course, that basic dish has been reimagined in all sorts of scrumptious ways. Hit Indian Happy Hour at Copper Chimney Indian Grill & Bar in the Executive Hotel Le Soleil (567 Hornby Street) and dive into poutine piled high with butter chicken. Oakwood Canadian Bistro (2741 West 4th Avenue) has a classic version on its dinner menu, while its hefty brunch poutine has the usual gravy and curds along with braised beef shank, green onions, tomatoes, and sous-vide eggs with a side salad. Among your options at Mean Poutine (718 Nelson Street) is a vegetarian version with veggie gravy, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled peppers. The Night Market poutine at New Westminster’s Spud Shack Fry Co. (352–800 Carnarvon Street) has kimchi, ginger beef, crispy won tons, spicy mayo, and green

onion.

NANAIMO BARS

The first known recipe for Nanaimo bars appeared in the 1952 Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook by the hospital’s women’s auxiliary. They were just called “chocolate squares” until, a year later, Edith Adams’ Cookbook featured a similar recipe but going by the current name. The Lazy Gourmet’s Susan Mendelson popularized the bar with her 1980 first cookbook, Mama Never Cooked Like This.

If you’ve never had the pleasure, the sweet squares consist of a soft, yellowy custard sandwiched between a chocolate-graham-wafer crust and a top layer of chocolate. On Vancouver Island, you can travel the Nanaimo Bar Trail, which has about 40 stops for different variations on the bar and other treats inspired by it, like martinis, cocktails, and milkshakes.

Back on the Mainland, keeping in mind that bakeries typically rotate their selections, try North Vancouver’s Bjornbar Bakery (102–3053 Edgemont Boulevard) for various Nanaimo bar flavours, including vanilla, mint, and passion fruit; or West Vancouver’s Savary Island Pie Company (1533 Marine Drive), which sometimes makes a peanut-butter version. Burnaby’s Valley Bakery (4058 Hastings Street), which has been in business for more than 60 years, does the classic just right: not overly sweet.

BACK BACON If you’re of a certain vintage, you remember this being celebrated in Bob and Doug Mckenzie’s “12 Days of Christmas” (four pounds of it), and for good reason. Canadian bacon is distinct from that of our neighbours to the south. Ours is typically more like ham, cut from the loin rather than the belly, and comes in round slices rather than strips; it is also often rolled in ground yellow peas or cornmeal before being sliced, which is why it is sometimes called “peameal” on the label.

It’s perfect atop English muffins in eggs Benedict, as on the brunch menu at L’abattoir (217 Carrall Street), with cheddar sabayon, or at Lift (333 Menchions Mews). For its classic eggs Benny, West (2881 Granville Street) makes back bacon in-house. Timber (1300 Robson Street) makes a mean “peameal sando”, with shaved and housecured Canadian bacon and a fried egg topped with melted cheddar and spicy mayo on a soft bun.