Canadian foods to try: the dishes worth ordering coast to coast

Canadian food is usually described as a mix of everyone else's, and that is true: some of the best eating in the country is Cantonese, Punjabi, Japanese, Italian or Vietnamese. But there is also a short list of dishes that are properly Canadian, and most of them are worth crossing a city for.

What is the most famous Canadian dish?

Poutine. Fries, fresh cheese curds and hot gravy, poured over so the curds soften without fully melting. It first appeared in rural Quebec snack bars in the late 1950s, and several towns there still argue about who made it first.

The test of a good one is the curds. Fresh curds squeak against your teeth; old ones are rubbery and sad. The gravy should be hot enough to soften them, and the fries sturdy enough not to collapse. You will find poutine everywhere from roadside stands to restaurants that pile on braised meat or foie gras, but the plain version is the one to try first.

What desserts is Canada known for?

Two stand out, and both are better homemade or from a small bakery than from a packet.

• Butter tarts. Small pastry shells with a filling of butter, sugar and egg that sets soft and gooey. Raisins or no raisins is a genuine argument. They are especially loved in Ontario.
• Nanaimo bars. A no-bake layered square named after Nanaimo in British Columbia: a crumb base, a custard-flavoured buttercream middle, and a chocolate top. Recipes under that name were being printed in the early 1950s.

What should you eat in Montreal?

Montreal has two famous foods that are easy to confuse with their New York cousins and very different in practice.

Montreal bagels are smaller, denser and a little sweeter than the New York kind. The dough is boiled in honey-sweetened water and baked in a wood-fired oven. The two best-known bakeries, both in Mile End, have been at it for decades and still bake around the clock.

Montreal smoked meat is cured, spiced brisket, smoked and steamed, then sliced and piled on rye with yellow mustard. You will be asked how fatty you want it: lean, medium or fatty. Medium is the safe answer and fatty is the delicious one.

What foods were invented in Canada?

A few household names have Canadian origins, or at least Canadian claims:

Food or drink	Where it started	Worth knowing
The Caesar	Calgary, 1969	Like a Bloody Mary made with clam and tomato juice, usually with a celery salt rim.
Ginger beef	Calgary, 1970s	Crispy strips of beef in a sticky, sweet and gingery sauce.
The California roll	Vancouver (claimed)	A Vancouver sushi chef says he created the inside-out roll in the 1970s; historians also point to Los Angeles.
Peameal bacon sandwich	Toronto	Cornmeal-crusted back bacon on a bun, a market classic.

What should you try on the West Coast?

On the Pacific coast the seafood is the point. Wild salmon in season, Dungeness crab, oysters, and above all BC spot prawns, which are only fresh for a few weeks each spring. If you are in Vancouver in May or June, order them anywhere that has them.

What is a peameal bacon sandwich?

Toronto's contribution is a breakfast sandwich. Peameal bacon is lean, brined pork loin rolled in cornmeal, sliced thick and griddled, then piled into a soft bun with mustard. It is the classic order at St. Lawrence Market, where people line up for it on Saturday mornings. It is less greasy than you might expect, and very filling.

What is a Canadian sugar shack meal?

In late winter and early spring, Quebec's sugar shacks (cabanes à sucre) serve huge family-style meals built around maple syrup: pea soup, ham, beans, eggs, pancakes, and everything poured with syrup. The finale is maple taffy on snow, hot syrup poured onto clean snow and rolled up on a stick as it sets.

How do you order Canadian classics well?

• Ask for poutine with fresh curds, and eat it immediately. It does not travel.
• Choose medium or fatty smoked meat, not lean, unless you really prefer it.
• Eat a Montreal bagel the day it is baked. They are at their best warm.
• Order spot prawns only in season. Out of season they will be frozen.

Mosey is built around rating the dish, not just the room, because "the poutine here is the real thing" is far more useful to the next person than a star average.

More guides to read next:

• Eating out with food allergies in Canada: what to ask before you order
• GST, PST and HST on restaurant bills: why the total is higher than the menu
• How much to tip in Canada: restaurants, cafés, bars and takeout

More in the Canadian food guides and the ranked lists of places.