The 20 most famous dishes of Canada
Canadian cooking brings together Indigenous, French, British and immigrant traditions, famous for maple syrup, poutine, Pacific salmon and Atlantic lobster.
1Poutine
Crisp fries topped with squeaky fresh cheese curds and hot brown gravy that softens them — from Quebec.
2Butter Tarts
Small tarts with a gooey filling of butter, brown sugar, syrup and egg, with raisins or pecans — a truly…
3Nanaimo Bars
A no-bake three-layer bar: a crumb, coconut and chocolate base, custard buttercream, and a chocolate top.
4Tourtière
A Québécois meat pie spiced with cinnamon and cloves, served on Christmas Eve and New Year.
5Tire d'Érable
Boiled maple syrup poured onto clean snow where it firms up, then rolled onto a stick — a springtime "sugar…
6Bannock
A simple quick bread made by Canada's Indigenous peoples over a fire or in a pan, eaten with jam or soup.
7Peameal Bacon Sandwich
Slices of cured loin rolled in cornmeal, griddled and served in a soft bun with mustard — Toronto's icon. For…
8Montreal Smoked Meat
Cured, spiced, smoked and then steamed beef brisket, piled thick on rye with mustard — from Montreal.
9Montreal Bagels
Small, dense, slightly sweet bread rings boiled in honey water and baked in a wood-fired oven with sesame.
10BeaverTails
Flat dough stretched like a beaver's tail, fried and dusted with cinnamon sugar — a winter treat from Ottawa.
11Soupe aux Pois
Thick yellow pea soup with vegetables and smoked hock (smoked beef for halal), from Quebec settler cooking.
12Pouding Chômeur
A simple cake batter baked over hot maple syrup that turns into a caramel sauce underneath — born in the…
13Saskatoon Berry Pie
A pie of wild saskatoon berries from the Canadian prairies, like blueberries with an almond note.
14Cedar Plank Salmon
Pacific salmon grilled on a soaked cedar plank for a smoky flavour — from Indigenous traditions of British…
15Nova Scotia Boiled Lobster
Live Atlantic lobster boiled in salted water and served with melted butter and lemon — the pride of the East…
16Pâté Chinois
Layers of minced beef, creamed corn and mashed potato — a Québécois family dish similar to shepherd's pie.
17Fish and Brewis
Salt cod with soaked hardtack biscuits, served with crisp scrunchions — from Newfoundland.
18Jiggs Dinner
Newfoundland's Sunday dinner: boiled salt beef with cabbage, carrots, turnip, potatoes and pease pudding.
19Blueberry Grunt
Stewed blueberries with sweet dumplings steamed on top — an old Atlantic coast dessert.
20Halifax Donair
Spiced beef roasted on a vertical spit and wrapped in pita with a sweet condensed-milk garlic sauce — from…