Support our poutine

Posted by admin on Feb 3, 2009 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

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Modern history began when Bratwurst took on the Fish ’n’ Chips, and Sushi launched itself at the Burger and Fries in Food War II. The Kimchi war came next, followed by the Spring Roll conflict. In the Cold Food War, the Burger grew ever higher and the Stroganoff ever wider, until both went their separate ways. It wasn’t long until the Kabobs and the Burgers were going at it.

In this award-winning “Food Fight” video, producer Stefan Nadelman depicts the American-centric wars, from World War II onward. Through animated edibles, he cleverly illustrates the sequence of events and symbolizes the different countries involved.

Canada is unfortunately not included in this scrumptious smorgasbord, but if it were, what food icon would it be? It’s easy to pair kimchi with Korea or bratwurst with Berlin, but it’s doubtful anyone outside Canada’s borders will recognize us by what we consume. It will take some searching to uncover if Canada has a coherent culinary identity.

Visions of poutine and back-bacon, maple syrup and beaver tails come to mind. Further research reveals that wild rice, bannock, blueberries and ginger ale are considered Canadian inventions.

Still, this is not quite a full-course meal. One can go out for Chinese, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, Mexican – the list goes on. When’s the last time anyone went out for Canadian?

Perhaps the abundance of other cultural cuisine options provides a clue in this identity quest. If you are what you eat, Canadians are a little bit of everything.

The rhetoric of diversity and multiculturalism has been blended into us since we were but mere timbits. Though we respect everyone’s heritage and ethnic identities, perhaps we have failed to concoct our own identity in the process. What are we? Nothing. Everything. Whatever you want us to be.

With this chameleonic nature, one can happily consume biscuits for breakfast, yakisoba for lunch and souvlaki for dinner. Whether authentically ethnic or an exotic-Canadian fusion, foreign cuisine ideas are sprinkled throughout menus across the country.

This diversity applies not only to foreign foods but to Canada’s own flavours as well. Provinces and territories have their own signature food. At the Governor-General’s residence, menu items include everything from B.C. Pacific salmon to Saskatchewan wild rice; from Yukon Arctic char to Prince Edward Island scallops. Thus, Canadian cuisine seeks to incorporate both the cuisines of other countries and the growing indigenous cuisine of its own.

This is a complex portrait of a diverse culinary identity, but this quest has still not revealed anything to present as an icon for battle.

In many countries, you’ll know their food icon because it will be served at every restaurant, regardless of the restaurant’s theme or cultural background. In the Philippines, for example, rice is everywhere; McDonald’s even sells a rice burger.

In Canada, we don’t quite have anything like this that crosses all provinces. But in Ottawa, the country’s fair capital, there is one thing that comes to mind: poutine. Poutine is served at nearly every restaurant, from the local breakfast café to the Indian place down the street. There are even poutine trucks – like ice cream trucks but with loads of cheese curds and savoury gravy goodness instead.

So whether you prefer pizza or perogies, sushi or stroganoff, when the battle standards are raised, make sure to support our poutine.

Click here for the food fight video