Episode 5: Canadian food

Script: What is Canadian food? That is a hard question. Canada is a multicultural country and we eat the foods of the countries our parents or grandparents came from. There are many different cultures in Canada, and as a result, many different types of food. When we think of food, we think of Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek and Iranian food. If you ask Canadians what the original Canadian food is, they might say “poutine”. Poutine is an original Canadian food. It is a dish of French fries and cheese curds topped with gravy. Gravy is the juice coming from meat that runs naturally during cooking and thickened with flour or corn starch. When you roast a loaf of beef, you get the meat juice, you add corn starch to it. So gravy is usually very oily. Non-Canadians might think we eat poutine regularly, but that’s not the case. Most restaurants don’t serve poutine, and most people don’t make that at home often. I have only eaten it once at an amusement park. I don’t like this dish. French fries should go with ketchup, and gravy goes with roast beef or mashed potatoes. The gravy makes the fries soggy. Canadians eat a lot of potatoes, baked potatoes topped with gravy or sour cream. A traditional homecooked Canadian meal consists of meat, such as roast chicken, roast beef, meat loaf, potatoes and vegetables. Vegetables such as steamed carrots, broccoli, peas or salad. We also eat hamburgers, pizzas and chicken nuggets. When I say ‘we’, I mean Canadians in general, especially those that were born here. Immigrants usually prefer food from their countries, no matter how many years they have been here. Chinese people eat Chinese food and Iranians eat Iranian food. But everyone loves Japanese food. There are many sushi restaurants in Toronto. Most people love Chinese food too. But Canadians like Canadian Chinese food, which consists of sweet and sour pork that are over-done with red food colouring, and lemon chicken pieces that are too yellow. Chop suey is also popular in North America. ‘Chop’ what? Chop suey. S-U-E-Y. It is a dish in American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, consisting of meat and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. It tastes awful to me. This dish is often very oily. But a lot of Americans and Canadians like it. People from different cultures have different preferences. We are comfortable with what are used to. I am used to plain, less oily, less salty food with minimal sauce.

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