Where The Caesar Isn’t A Salad And The Cheese Squeaks

Canadian food seems pretty familiar to Americans—until someone hands you squeaky cheese or puts stuffing on your fries. Before you cross the border hungry, here are 18 Canadian favorites worth knowing and what they actually are.

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#18. The Caesar That Definitely Isn't a Salad

Order a Caesar in Canada and you may receive a cocktail made with vodka, Clamato, Worcestershire sauce, seasonings, and a celery-salt rim. Think Bloody Mary—but with a distinctly Canadian twist. It was created in Calgary in 1969. Just don't ask where the lettuce is.

Ruth Hartnup, Flickr

#17. Poutine

Proper poutine combines french fries, hot brown gravy, and fresh cheese curds. It originated in Québec in the late 1950s and became one of Canada's most recognizable dishes. Americans can think of New Jersey disco fries as a distant cousin—just don't tell Québec they're identical.

Maridav, Adobe Stock

#16. Squeaky Cheese Curds

Those little white chunks on poutine are fresh cheese curds, and yes, good ones can actually squeak against your teeth. That's a feature, not a warning sign. They're especially popular in Québec and eastern Ontario, where fresh curds can even be sold as a snack.

Kagor at Ukrainian Wikipedia ; processed by Off-shell, Wikimedia Commons

#15. A Double-Double

This isn't Canada's answer to the In-N-Out burger. A double-double is coffee with two creams and two sugars, an order made famous by Tim Hortons. Americans may feel strangely accomplished the first time they confidently order one without needing a translator.

Coastal Elite, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

#14. Canadian Iced Tea

Order iced tea at many Canadian restaurants and you may get a sweetened, lemon-flavoured beverage rather than freshly brewed unsweetened tea. That first sip has surprised more than a few Americans. If you want unsweetened brewed tea, it's worth asking before Canada decides for you.

Shameel mukkath, Pexels

#13. Halifax Donair

Halifax's famous donair combines seasoned beef, pita, tomatoes, onions, and an unexpectedly sweet garlicky sauce. Americans might initially think "gyro," but that comparison falls apart pretty quickly. The dish is such a local institution that Halifax named the donair its official food in 2015.

Nicole Bratt from Seattle, WA, USA, Wikimedia Commons

#12. Montreal-Style Bagels

Montreal bagels are thinner, sweeter, and denser than their New York cousins. They're traditionally boiled in honey-sweetened water before heading into a wood-fired oven. New Yorkers visiting Montréal should probably enter with an open mind and temporarily suspend all bagel-related loyalties.

bynamnamnam, Pexels

#11. Newfoundland Fries, Dressing and Gravy

Newfoundland takes french fries, adds savoury dressing—similar to stuffing—and covers the whole thing with gravy. Apparently somebody looked at ordinary loaded fries and decided they weren't trying hard enough. For Americans, imagine Thanksgiving dinner accidentally landing on your fries—and somehow working.

Nano Erdozain, Pexels

#10. BeaverTails

Relax: nobody cooked Canada's national animal. BeaverTails are flattened pieces of fried pastry topped with things like cinnamon sugar, chocolate, or maple flavours. They're particularly associated with Ottawa and other Canadian tourist destinations. Think funnel cake's flatter Canadian cousin.

BeaverTails, Wikimedia Commons

#9. Peameal Bacon

Peameal bacon is cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal. Despite what Americans call "Canadian bacon," this is quite different from those little round ham-like slices on American breakfast plates. It's especially associated with Ontario, including Toronto's famous peameal bacon sandwiches.

Leventio, Wikimedia Commons

#8. Nanaimo Bars

This no-bake dessert has a chocolate-coconut crumb base, creamy custard-flavoured middle, and chocolate topping. It's rich enough that one square can make you reconsider whether you really needed dinner. It originated in British Columbia and takes its name from the city of Nanaimo.

Stephanie Spencer, Wikimedia Commons

#7. Butter Tarts

A butter tart is a small pastry filled with a gooey mixture of butter, sugar, syrup, and egg. Raisins and nuts are optional—and Canadians have opinions about that word "optional." They're particularly associated with Ontario, where entire festivals and trails celebrate the little desserts.

Didriks from Cambridge, MA, USA, Wikimedia Commons

#6. Tourtière

Tourtière is a traditional French-Canadian savoury meat pie, usually made with pork or a mixture of meats and seasonings inside flaky pastry. It's particularly associated with Québec and holiday meals. Americans can think of pot pie's meatier cousin—the one that decided vegetables were taking up valuable space.

Mack Male, Wikimedia Commons

#5. Pizza Pops

Pizza Pops are soft dough pockets stuffed with pizza fillings. They were created in Winnipeg in the 1960s and eventually became a Canadian freezer staple. Americans will immediately say, "So, a Hot Pocket?" Canadians will immediately begin explaining why you've misunderstood the situation.

Lenin and McCarthy, Wikimedia Commons

#4. Ketchup and All-Dressed Chips

Ketchup chips deliver exactly the aggressively tomato-flavoured experience the name promises. All-dressed combines several familiar chip flavours into one salty, tangy, smoky pile of Canadian chaos. Americans can occasionally find both stateside, but they're far more firmly established on Canadian snack shelves.

Bwyell80, Wikimedia Commons

#3. The Chocolate Bar Aisle Is Different

Coffee Crisp, Crispy Crunch, Caramilk, Wunderbar, Mr. Big, and other bars make Canadian candy aisles look slightly alternate-universe to Americans. Coffee Crisp, with its coffee-flavoured wafer layers, is particularly iconic. Apparently even crossing the border requires updating your chocolate vocabulary.

Wolfmann, Wikimedia Commons

#2. Montreal Smoked Meat

Montreal smoked meat is seasoned, cured, smoked, and steamed beef brisket, traditionally sliced and piled high on rye bread with mustard. Yes, it looks a little like pastrami. No, Montreal doesn't need to hear that. The city's old-school delicatessens turned it into a Québec institution.

chensiyuan, Wikimedia Commons

#1. Dulse

Dulse is edible red seaweed traditionally harvested along Canada's Atlantic coast and commonly dried before eating. It's salty and can be chewy or crispy depending on preparation. Think seaweed snack—except Atlantic Canadians were doing it long before packaged seaweed became trendy.

OLIVIER MORIN, Getty Images

Canada Has a Lot More Than Maple Syrup

Canada's food gets considerably stranger—and more interesting—the farther you travel. Montréal has smoked meat, Halifax has donairs, Newfoundland puts stuffing on fries, and British Columbia gave the world Nanaimo bars. The easiest rule for Americans? Ask what the locals eat, then order it.

Quinn Dombrowski from Berkeley, USA, Wikimedia Commons

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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.