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BRITISH COLUMBIA
BOUNTY FROM THE OCEAN,
FORESTS & LAND
Specialties on the menu in British Columbia
include wild salmon, golden honey mussels,
spot prawns, geoduck, BC bison, Fraser
Valley duck and Salt Spring Island lamb.
There is a wide range of guided culinary
tours—sometimes led by chefs—in southern
B.C., particularly near the Okanagan Valley,
Cowichan Valley and Fraser Valley. City
tasting tours in Victoria, Vancouver and
Whistler visit restaurants and culinary
neighbourhoods (www.hellobc.com).
Cornucopia Whistler is an annual 11-day
indulgence of local food and drink that pairs
homegrown chefs with top B.C. producers,
breweries, distilleries and wineries
(www.whistlercornucopia.com).
Como Taperia, a Spanish tapas eatery in
Vancouver; Pluvio, a locavore restaurant in
Ucluelet; and Nowhere *A Restaurant, a
sustainable seafood and plant forward dining
spot in Victoria, were in the top ten Canada's
Best New Restaurants 2019 by Air Canada's
enRoute magazine (enroute.aircanada.com/
canadas-best-new-restaurants).
In Victoria, Off the Eaten Track offers
foodie tours such as the the Eat Like a
Canadian and Modern Chinatown Food
and History tours (www.offtheeatentrack
tours.ca). On the Wild Foraging tours in
spring and summer, offered by Swallow Tail
Culinary Tours, participants discover native
B.C. ingredients in the forest: fiddleheads,
licorice fern, big leaf maple flowers, nettles,
oyster mushrooms and wild chamomile, to
name a few (www.swallowtail.ca).
THE PRAIRIES
GRASSLAND GRAINS AND
RANCHLAND MEATS
Manitoba's Parkland region has a self-guided
Cinnamon Bun Trail with eight trail stops
along the way (www.parklandtourism.com/
cinnamon-bun-trail). In season,
Winnipeg's Exchange District BIZ offers
tours to some of their more than 50
delectable one-of-a-kind restaurants
(www.exchangedistrict.org/food-tours).
West End BIZ covers the eateries in the west
end of the city (www.westendbiz.ca/west-
end-restaurant-tours).
Saskatchewan has more than 40 percent
of Canada's cultivated farmland and
Saskatoon's culinary scene takes full
advantage of it. Hearth Restaurant, on
Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list in 2019
and 2020, features refined prairie classics
(www.hearth.restaurant). The Night Oven
Bakery which uses local, organic and
heirloom grains such as red fife, mills the
flour in-house and bakes in a wood-fired
brick oven, puts out the best breads and
pastries imaginable (www.thenightoven.ca).
In Alberta, as Canada's ranch heartland,
elk, bison, wild boar, caribou and beef—
which many refer to as Canadian Rocky
Mountain Cuisine—are plentiful. Canadian
Rocky Mountain Resorts has its own 540
acre game ranch to provide for its restaurant
in the City of Calgary and dining at the lodges
in Banff, Lake Louise and Emerald Lake
(www.crmr.com/culinary). Chuck's
Steakhouse in Banff offers a full-on taste of
Alberta raised beef with a platter containing
wagyu, Benchmark striploin and 45-day dry-
aged steaks (www.chuckssteakhouse.ca).
ONTARIO
COUNTLESS TASTE TRAILS AND
FOOD FESTIVALS
Home to the Ontario Pork Council, Stratford,
famous for the Stratford Festival, boasts a
Bacon & Ale Trail along with a Chocolate
Trail and seasonal trails such as Foraging for
Wild Edibles with Puck's Plenty Foraging
(www.visitstratford.ca).
In Prince Edward County, pop into a
cidery, brewery, or ice cream shop for a cold
treat or sample fine pinots and chardonnays
at wineries in this picturesque area on the
north shore of Lake Ontario. Check out the
cool cocktail and food scene at the Drake
Devonshire (www.thedrake.ca/drakede
vonshire), enjoy fresh laid eggs for breakfast
at one of the bucolic B&Bs such as Wilfrid
Boutique Farmhouse (www.thewilfrid.com)
or sign up for a cooking class to learn the
tools of the trade at The Waring House
(www.waringhouse.com).
Butter tarts were a staple of pioneer
cooking in both Upper and Lower Canada
(now Ontario and Québec). The Kawarthas
Northumberland Butter Tart Tour has grown
to over 50 locations throughout the area
(www.buttertarttour.ca). The townships of
Minto, Southgate, Wellington North and
West Grey's self-guided Butter Tarts and
Buggies Trail combines these sweetly
delicious pastries with insights into the
Mennonite culture (www.wellington.ca/
en/business/tr-buttertart.aspx).
Ottawa is home to the only Canadian
campus of the renowned Le Cordon Bleu
French cooking school (www.cordonbleu.edu/
ottawa). C'est Bon's gourmet walking tours
are an ideal introduction to the National
Capital Region's vibrant food scene (www.cest
boncooking.ca/gourmet-food-tours).
Ontario has some 450 annual culinary-
themed festivals and events many of which are
listed in their on-line calendar (www.ontario
culinary.com/events).
QUÉBEC
A GOLDMINE OF FRENCH-
CANADIAN SPECIALTIES
New France's first inhabitants ate hearty
meals to cope with the rigours of everyday
CALGARY STAMPEDE, AB • DESTINATION CANADA
