Trip to Canada, Continued - Let's Talk About Food Culture

In looking through my pictures, I realized that I can either quit my day job and fully work out my thoughts about my week in Canada, for free, on this blog, or I can cram a bunch of stuff into one, bloated post.  Obviously, I have chosen the latter.

I am mildly food obsessed.  As such, I am always studying food wherever we go, whether it is in another country, or another state, the differences are always interesting (at least to me).  So, we will address candy, hot chocolate flavored, spiciness in Canada and some other snacks.  

First, some candy.  As you can see, they have different Kit Kats in Canada.  To be fair, from what I've read, Kit Kat is quite the global darling.  In the States, there is the one win Kit Kat version and the catchy tune from the 80s.  

 

The Kit Kat Chunky.  How is it different?  It is a plus size Kit Kat. This bar is like one "break" off of a regular sized Kit Kat, but super sized (why no documentary on the health effects of super sized Kit Kat bars?  The Big Candy lobby, it's more powerful than you think).

 

The Dark chocolate Kit Kat.  A Kit Kat for a more sophisticated time and place.  I can only presume that Canadians eat this with a knife and fork (the Kit Kat fork is the one between the salad fork and the poutine fork).  It was tasty, if you are into dark chocolate.  At this point, these treats stop registering as Kit Kats and just become another chocolate bar.  Now the wisdom of Mitch Hedberg is evident.  Just like he told turkey it didn't need to pretend to be every other meat, Kit Kat loses its identity when it tries to be every other candy bar.

 

The Oh Henry was my favorite.  It had chocolate and peanut butter with some rice crisps in the shell.  It came in two bars and was easy to share.  The Caramilk was also good.  The fact is, that while these bars were all a little bit different from what we have in the States, and its a kind of fun change of pace (assuming you are eating lots of candy bars on a daily basis), the fact is that these mega mass produced candies are all kind of similar.  You can dress these few ingredients up in just a few different variations because there are only so many techniques available that will last long enough on the store shelf and be made in large enough quantities to be profitable.  I hate to sound like a snob, but if you want a great chocolate experience, you kind of have to get fancy.

 

Nestle hot chocolate.  This was fun.  While I'm sure these flavored have analogues in the States, these were good. Like the After Eight mint, the After Eight is a subtle and sophisticated mint.  The Rolo was a standard caramel hot chocolate.  The Coffee Crisp, however, was nice and different.  If I drank coffee, maybe I could say it taste like a latte, but I don't, so I don't know if it does or not.  But for a guy who doesn't drink coffee, this chocolate had a fun coffee taste that didn't overpower the chocolate.  

 

Here was something unexpected.  It seems that Canadians don't like spicy things.  This medium salsa was a mild version of mild salsa.  I shudder to think how benign the mild is (is it just a jar of air?).  This wasn't the only example.  We went to a Mexican restaurant for breakfast one day and it was much milder than expected and milder than the menu represented it would be.

 

Here is a product that I really loved. It sounds traitorous, but I like Cheezies better than Cheetos.  It is entirely possible that I am simply enchanted by the old school bag design and the prestige of having French words on the bag.  However, I think that this really had a cheesier flavor and a heartier crunch than the domestic version. By the way, I was the only one who liked these (but my family doesn't like Cheetos either).

After eating these, I wanted to talk to some Canadians about their advertising.  I wonder if Cheezies are a legacy brand that isn't popular, or are Canadians more patient in their branding and don't require updated packaging.  Maybe there are no millennials in Canada.  

We all loved these.  After our taste buds were primed by Costco poutine, we bought a bag of poutine Ruffles.  They matched the archetypical poutine flavors and had a great crunch.  This was a product that I felt guilty about eating, because I wanted to have it all to my self.  

When I was a kid, I despised the fact that my mom always wanted to bring food and not eat out when we traveled.  I only wanted to eat at restaurants.  Now that I am in charge (I meaning my wife), I am glad that we generally have a kitchen where we stay, so we can go to the local stores and really try the local food - and not an idealized, touristy version.  

Of course, when it comes down to it, saying I ate exotic food in Canada, then showing you that I ate Ruffles potato chips and local Cheetos certainly makes it a bit less romantic than it sounds.