Great Canadian Treats Trivia Quiz

Answer: poutine

Poutine is best made with fries of a medium thin thickness - McDonald's fries would be too thin, but fries that verge on wedges are too thick. A dark brown gravy works better than chicken gravy, and you need a really good quality cheese curd too. Most Quebec-ers will tell you that you need St. Albert's cheese, or nothing. While many fast food chains in Canada offer poutine on their menus, it tastes way better at a diner or a chipwagon. There also exist variations on this classic poutine, ranging from simple things like adding bacon (even more healthy!) or changing the recipe completely (e.g. Italian poutine with a tomato-meat sauce instead of gravy).

Poutine is said to have originated in Quebec in the 1950s, though the exact date and location are disputed. Legend says that the word comes from the French for "big mess", but etymologists think it probably comes from the English word 'pudding'.

Answer: strawberries

Butter tarts are pretty similar to mini pecan pies, but are most often made without the addition of corn syrup. It is perfectly acceptable to make them just out of butter sugar and eggs and nothing else, but many people do like them with either pecans or raisins. A chocolate butter tart, or one with another kind of nut (like walnuts) are not uncommon either, but I have never seen a butter tart with fruit on it.

The butter tart is often cited as one of the few truly Canadian foods, without evolving from an American, British or French food. According to the CBC, butter tarts were probably invented in Ontario sometime around 1915. There are, however, very similar dishes to the butter tart that predate this. In addition to the American pecan pie, there is also the French-Canadian sugar pie and Scottish Ecclefechan butter tarts.

Answer: macaroni and cheese

Americans can access this exact same product, only it's not called Kraft Dinner in the US, it's just Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ("the one in the blue box!", according to the old commercials). While this is available in the US, and boxed macaroni and cheese is certainly not unusual in other countries, I would argue that Kraft Dinner is much more of a cultural 'thing' in Canada than anywhere else.

It's like the old joke in the US about college students surviving on Ramen noodles - KD is Canada's Ramen.

This can be seen in the popular Barenaked Ladies' song "If I Had A Million Dollars". The song contains the line "If I had a million dollars, we wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner.. but we would eat Kraft Dinner... Of course we would, we'd just eat more!"

Answer: Red Stripe

The Lakeport Brewing Company located in Hamilton, Ontario is Canada's biggest discount brewery. Their motto is "Great beer, fair prices" and often offer deals like "two four for a two-four" ($24 for a case of 24 beers).

Alexander Keith's is one of the oldest commercials breweries in North America, having been founded in Halifax in 1820 by Scottish immigrant Alexander Keith. Today, the Alexander Keith's brand is owned by Labatt. This beer is known as "the pride of Nova Scotia".

Moosehead Breweries is the oldest Canadian brewery that is still independent. It was founded in 1867 in St. John, New Brunswick. It is also Canada's largest truly Canadian brewery, since the Big Three (Labatt, Molson and Sleeman) have merged with other companies over the years and are partly American-owned.

Red Stripe is a Jamaican beer.

Answer: french vanilla

French vanilla is the well-loved cappuccino flavour at Tim Hortons. The company also makes an English toffee cappuccino, but it is much less popular and many franchise locations do not even carry the flavour.

In addition to the coffee and cappuccinos, Tim Hortons also has on their menu Iced Capps in various flavours, hot chocolate, café mocha (half coffee, half hot chocolate with a whipped cream topping), hot smoothies and a selection of teas.

Answer: beaver tail

BeaverTail is actually the brand name of this treat in Canada. The company was started in Ottawa in 1980 by Grant and Pam Hooker when they began selling their homemade treat at a small stand in the Byward Market. Though there are now locations across Canada and internationally, the BeaverTail is often still considered an Ottawa tradition. It is the signature snack of the annual Winterlude festival held in the National Capital Region, and almost no one I know can resist stopping at the BeaverTail stand located on the Rideau Canal when they go skating!

In addition to the plain cinnamon-sugar Tail, the company also makes the following flavours: Killaloe Sunrise (cinnamon, sugar and lemon), Chocolate Hazelnut, Apple Cinnamon, Maple Butter, Banana Chocolate, Maple Walnut, Triple Trip (chocolate, peanut butter and Reese's Pieces), and the Avalanche (cream cheese and Skor bits).

Answer: maple syrup

The Canadian Car Bomb is a variation on the more popular Irish Car Bomb cocktail. The Irish Car Bomb involves filling a shot glass part way with Bailey's Irish Cream, and then filling the rest of the shot glass with a good Irish whiskey. The shot glass is then dropped into a pint of Guinness and consumed all together.

For the Canadian Car Bomb, Molson Canadian beer is usually used, with a Canadian whiskey, and the maple syrup replaces the Baileys.

Answer: ground beef

Frankly I'm not really sure what makes this combination of toppings 'Canadian' but I have yet to come across a pizzeria in Canada who doesn't include it on their menu! Even American chain pizzerias, such as Pizza Hut, include a Canadian pizza at their locations in Canada.

Answer: Caesar

A Caesar is very similar to a Bloody Mary. In fact, the only difference that I can discern is that a Bloody Mary is made with plain tomato juice, and the fact that you can use other spicy ingredients, whereas the Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce are considered essential for a Caesar. The drink was invented in 1969 in Calgary, AB by a bartender at the Calgary Inn. The original drink used plain tomato juice and mashed up clams, until clamato juice was widely available.

The Motts company printed the recipe for the drink on cans of clamato juice sold in the US, but it didn't really catch on. In 2002, Motts started making pre-bottled Caesars; now you can buy the drink ready-to-go at your local liquor store.

Answer: Nanaimo, BC

Mmm, nanaimo bars are a favourite of mine! The origins of this treat are unconfirmed; some say a housewife invented them and submitted the recipe to a magazine in the 1950s, others say they were around in the 1930s, and some even say the bars were available in the 19th century! It is easy to make variations of this recipe; simply add a flavour to the custard/icing filling (mint and peanut butter are not uncommon), or use a different type of chocolate on top.