What do you eat in Canada? Typical food in Canada!
The vast country produces game meat from the forests and salmon from the rivers – and Canada actually likes to eat both. Meat and fish are popular in general, for example as a steak or in stews.
Because many people from Europe and Asia immigrated to Canada, they have also left their mark on Canadian cuisine. The First Nations, the Indians, discovered maple syrup, for example. And then there are the Inuit with their very own dishes in the far north. You can find out more about them under The Inuit (see there). To get more information on Canada and North America, check youremailverifier.
Maple syrup
A particularly typical ingredient that is probably not missing in any Canadian household is maple syrup. The sap of the maple tree is caught and boiled down to a syrup. The sweet juice is particularly popular with pancakes, which are loved for breakfast in the morning. But you can also give it over ice cream or waffles.
You can also bake a cake with maple syrup or make candies with it. If you pour a hot mixture of maple syrup and butter on snow and roll the whole thing on a stick, you get a maple taffy, a delicious lollipop. Canadian children especially like that!
Poutine and Tourtière
In the province of Québec, French is predominantly spoken and the culture is also influenced by French. This is where poutine originated, a very popular fast food that is now available all over Canada. Poutine consists of french fries with cheese. This cheddar cheese is either grated or broken into pieces and it has to squeak between your teeth!
Tourtière is also from Québec. This is a meat cake that is baked with batter. It’s mostly eaten at Christmas and New Years in Québec, but is otherwise available all year round.
Sweets: Butter Tart and Nanaimo Bar
Canadians also like to eat something sweet. Pancakes, waffles, and cakes are very popular. Special Canadian specialties in addition to maple syrup cake (Maple Syrup Pie) the butter tart and the Nanaimo Bar. For the butter tart, a batter made of butter, sugar and eggs is baked in a crispy batter. On top of that you can add walnuts or pecans. You can find a recipe for this in the participation tip !
Or would you prefer a Nanaimo bar? This bar consists of three layers: a kind of waffle made of cake crumbs and butter at the bottom, a cream in the middle and a glaze, for example chocolate. There are many variations.
Who are the Inuit?
Inuit is the name given to the people who live in northern Canada and Greenland. In northeast Canada and Greenland, the Inuit speak the Inuktitut language; in central Arctic Canada they speak Inuinnaqtun. Inuit means people.
The word Eskimo is also used as an umbrella term, meaning the ethnic groups that live in northern Russia and Alaska. But some of these ethnic groups don’t like the word because it sounds condescending to them.
Around 60,000 of these Arctic peoples live in Canada. Half of them live in Nunavut – a territory that was only established in 1999. The remainder live in the Northwest Territories and the Northeast on the Labrador Peninsula.
How did the Inuit live in the past?
The Inuit lived their traditional way until the 1950s. They were nomads and went after animals to hunt. Spears and harpoons were used to hunt – caribou on land, whales, seals and walruses in water. Canoes were used to hunt on the water. Dog sleds were used to get around in winter.
In the summer, people lived in tents that were quick to dismantle and reassemble. In winter you lived mostly in a Qarmac. This is the name of the Inuit turf house. For this, whale bones form a framework that is half embedded in the ground. Furs are stretched over it, then turf, i.e. a piece of grass-covered ground, and finally snow. The Inuit also lived in igloos, i.e. snow houses. Clothes were sewn from furs. The words parka and anorak come from the Inuit language.
How do the Inuit live today?
Today the Inuit don’t live like that anymore. They live in permanent houses, mostly log cabins. Because of the frost, the settlement houses are built on stilts. It is heated with oil stoves, water is brought in by tanker truck. Electricity is available and families have washing machines, televisions, and other electrical appliances.
For many Inuit, this major lifestyle change was difficult. Many are dependent on money from the state, some have become addicted to alcohol. Many Inuit earn their living either from fishing and hunting (but with modern methods) or from handicrafts.
It is often easier for today’s Inuit children. You have to go to school like any other Canadian child, of course. For the first three years of school, however, they are taught in Inuktitut, their mother tongue. However, not every settlement in the Arctic has a secondary school, so older students have to leave their homes to go to school.
