Mike Myers’ take on Canadian identity is interesting, as I read it in a Torst article.
Next stop, centre ice 18 May 2007
[...] although he likes to denigrate and poke fun at his Canadian background. “I play hockey – I’m, like, the most boring person on the planet,” he said.
“I come from a country that struggles with identity and self-esteem. Canada’s a country of ingredients without a cuisine; we’re a country with musicians without an indigenous instrument. Toronto’s a city that doesn’t even have a dish named after it. Even Buffalo across the way, which has a quarter of the population, has wings, so it’s very strange.”
The idea of “ingredients without a cuisine” is a bit of a squinty view though. Part of the issue is how varied the tossed salad of Canadian tradition and way of life, or maybe how much caulking there is between tiles in the mosaic.
But how few or many Canadian culinary traditions are there?
Here are some Canadian foods or traditions:
- Chinese Smorgasbord
- Bloody Caesar
- Nanaimo bars
- Montreal bagels
- Montreal smoked meat
Oh, hey, some Canadian cities do have foods named after them. Maybe the problem isn’t Canada, but that Toronto is boring, maybe.
What kind of food could be named after Toronto though? What for example would a Toronto salad be like?