Calling all Canadians....?

Try going to Canada Only, they have a great list of the available Canadian Food available. They're at http://www.canadaonly.ca/

Also, you might find these at a US grocery store:

Cadbury Mini-Eggs (invented in Canada)

Anything Ketchup Chips :)

Poutine mix

There are hundreds of foods Canadians enjoy you can get in Canada that are also sold in the USA. From Kelloggs Corn Flakes to Quaker Oats.

But specifically Canadian things like poutine, Nanaimo bars or Mars Bars are not sold in the USA.

You are probably best off to stick with maple syrup.

Oh my gosh, bannock (indian bread) is sooooo good, but i doubt you can buy it in an american superstore

Unfortunately most of the foods that are uniquely Canadian are so in the way they are cooked and are hot main courses (Acadian/Gaspeisses chicken stew, for example), or hot main courses of meats not available at supermarkets in the USA (roast or steak of caribou and other game) or illegal in the USA (seal dishes including seal jerky).

You can make Poutine with American ingredients but, again, it is a hot dish.

Fine Canadian cheeses (artisan cheeses, not just Canadian cheddar) are now also illegal in the USA because of NAFTA (Canada subsidizes its dairy industry heavily, a NAFTA no-no for the USA), although

they sometimes get smuggled in to the USA in small quantities but you have to go to a super-upscale cheese store in New York or San Francisco or Cambridge, MA. or similar sophisticated foodie locale

and do a speakeasy like thing to find any.

The greatest uniquely Canadian food, viande fumee Montrealais (Montreal smoked meat), identified as the most wonderful pastrami in the world (read the recent book "Save the Deli!"), is not exported to the USA - it is to France - because none of the producers want to suffer the costs of having FDA as well as Canadian government inspection and expected opposition of American pastrami producers .

I presume you do not wish your son to bring Canadian

whiskey or beer or wines (some of the wines grown in British Columbia are among the best in the world, by the way but almost none are exported).

In fact, 90% of the lobsters sold in the USA come from Canada, not Maine; 90% of the snow crab,

and 80% of the mussels (mussels are usually so identified as Canadian on the packages, but lobsters and snow crab are rarely in individually packages showing country of origin and when they are they are frozen, and when not individually packaged the law allows them to be identified as "Product of Canada or USA" even if they are just Canadian, although for some reason the live lobsters being sold at a lobster sale at a chain this week near me - at $ 4.99/lb! - are only identified as 'Product of Canada.'.

One item found at a lot of American supermarkets is the tins of "kippered snacks". They are sold under two brands, "Connors" and "Brunswick." But they are nothing special, just small tins of herring in a smoke liquid. My understanding is that a lot more are sold in the USA as snacking seafood (like Norwegian sardines) than is sold in Canada, where smoked seafood is enjoyed to be sure but

mostly larger sized fish like mackerel, sturgeon and char and, of course, salmon (not lox but hot-smoked large pieces, often peppered). You might find one or two of these in the fish cooler section of your store but nothing would indicate that they are not eaten in the USA - and produced here - as much as in Canada.

There is a very popular confection from extreme western Canada called Nanaimo Bars but they are made not with distinctly Canadian-identified ingredients. But if you live

in southern Florida near the towns with lots of Canadian retirees you just might find them - or get them on special

order - from a Publix Market. And then there is the cookie - damned but I forget it's American name - that is a small round graham topped with marshmallow with everything wrapped in chocolate. It is originally a Canadian invention and is still very popular there but not so much anymore in the USA (it was one of my childhood favorites!) and sold now only in northern states and only in winter months (there was an article in the NY Times a couple of years ago about how much they are awaited each fall for that market).

If you can find Anna's cookies you will note from the packages that it is really a Canadian product, but it

tries (successfully over the years) to market itself as Scandinavian-style. Likewise, the LU brand cookies

are Canadian but they do not try to present themselves as such.**

You might have thought "Ah! Canadian bacon!" But there is no such thing as 'Canadian bacon' in Canada!! What there is

is "Pea Bacon" which is the same smoked tenderloin or shoulder cut, but unsliced, rolled in peameal and then baked in the oven for a dinner dish.

The best I can suggest, other than the LU cookies, is maple syrup - like lobsters 90% of what is sold in the USA is Canadian, not Vermont. Check the package of most in your market(s), you'll see. If you live near a Trader Joe's store you will see that it sells ONLY 100% Canadian syrups, including a special annual vintage syrup from Quebec. But Canadians use maple differently - although they do pour it on breakfast pancakes they also pour it on their ham, bacon and sausages (although they do not cure ham with it - that is considered a Vermont thing to do!! Even in Montreal cured maple deli ham for sandwiches is called "jambon-Vermont" and sold as such!!!) and they pour it over their breakfast potatoes as well (!!!) and it is used for roasts both for basting during baking and for sauces (the next time you visit Montreal be sure to go to a fine restaurant that is offering roasted caribou or buffalo - ALWAYS called bison in Canada - or venison with a maple, fine herb and port wine sauce. Delicious!!).

Sorry I cannot give you more foods to look for that are uniquely Canadian.

**Successful Canadian companies like LU are very, VERY cautious against identifying themselves as such in their American marketing, other than those producing alcohol, because of their fears of American patriotic backlash. The "Wall Street Journal" recently had an article about this and how Canadian banks operating in the USA, even though they are very successful here and there was no bank crisis or failure whatsoever in Canada, are still afraid to promote their Canadian ownerships in their marketing to great-recession- suffering Americans. Just in the same way it is felt that Americans (so many, anyway) would be in an an uproar if Canadian politicians trumpeted how their country is now (considerably!) more wealthy (measured by wealth per family) with a healthier economy and lower jobless rate and no underwater mortgages (because of many factors). If Obama (or a well funded advertising campaign) had told Americans the actual truth about the Canadian health care system during the recent debate - it outperforms American health care by almost every measure and in a big way is the reason most Canadian families are now wealthier than most American families because they do not suffer either catestrophic costs or high insurance premiums, and 85% of Canadians love it including most health professionals (admitting it needs tweaking) - the debate here would have had a much different character, and the result not such a complete disaster (in my judgment).

By the way I am American, but my ex-spouse (the term 'spouse' being Canadian English, not American English) was/is Quebecoise.