Canadian Food Review

Whilst up in Canada, I decided to sample some of the local food to get an impression of authentic Canadian cuisine. Unfortunately I have no idea what that entails and I wasn't incredibly ambitious about it, so I ended up with a strange mix of foods. Here is my report:

• Lay's ketchup chips: This is the kind of thing that you have to try despite any initial aversion to the description. Ketchup? Good. Chips? Good. Ketchup chips? As it turns out, not so good. They are good in that they taste a lot like ketchup but who would want that combination? Maybe you're supposed to eat them with a burger in place of ketchup on the actual burger, I don't know.
• Big Harv: The Big Harv is a new, large burger from the biggest fast food chain in Ontario (as far as I can tell), Harvey's. I had been to Harvey's once before and was impressed by the fact that they prepare the burger in front of you, Subway-style. The Big Harv was good but the burger felt and tasted like a preformed patty to me. This is a known risk when trying to create a big burger but if Harvey's wants to graduate to Burger King ranks, they must overcome it.
• Poutine: After reading Maciej's enthusiastic review of this Canadian dish, I was eager to give it a try. Whenever you involve cheese curds, gravy and deep frying, it must be difficult to go wrong. To my disappointment, I was informed that poutine is "a Quebec thing" and not easy to come by in Ontario. I did see some at the aforementioned Harvey's but I had a feeling that a fast food chain would not do it justice, so I decided to wait until we make it up to Montreal to taste it. At only five and a half hours away, it's only a matter of time.
• Chicken shawarma: Shawarma is not traditional Canadian food but it was recommended by my Russo-Canadian instructor so I decided to give it a try. Shawarma is a sandwich/pita in the glorious tradition that includes gyros, souvlaki and the Turkish shish kebab. It consists of spiced chicken cooked on some kind of rotisserie, chopped and served in a pita with tomatoes, onions and some spicy sauces. It was exactly as good as it sounds.
• Mexican food: Is it generally true that the farther you get from a country the worse the approximation of their food is? I had some Mexican food in Austria that could definitely be used as proof for this theory. Is our Italian food that bad in comparison to real Italian food? I wonder. The Mexican food I had in Canada was decent but nothing compared to the...
• Portuguese food: We ate at a fantastic Portuguese place that further cemented my opinion that food from Portugal and its former colonies is some of the most underrated in the world. We had grilled rotisserie chicken with some homemade hot sauce that I tried unsuccessfully to finagle the recipe for. I will gladly eat at any place in which Portuguese is the primary spoken language.

Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time thinking about food.