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Recipes from a Canadian Road Trip

Exploring Canadian cuisine.

No one dish captures the quintessence of Canadian cuisine—bloggers Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller knew this for a fact in 2013 when they embarked upon a transnational road trip to discover stories of Canadian food culture. “Canadian food culture is so much more diverse, complicated, and expansive than the cliché that ‘there’s only maple syrup, poutine, and Nanaimo bars here’ thing,” says VanVeller. “We were just three or four days into our road trip when we began eating foods we’d never even heard of (hello, salmonberries!). There is so much to discover; sometimes you just have to be willing to go a bit out of your way to find it.”

Out of their way the two friends went—covering 37,000 kilometres, camping through every province and territory, and collecting over 100 recipes for their new cookbook, Feast, an extensive compilation of regional dishes contributed by those they met along the way, from the nation’s farmers, to chefs, First Nations elders, and grandmothers.

“Our journey taught us that our understanding of the food in this country, and that food’s history, was actually quite limited,” admits Anderson. “Even after five months of travelling, we’d only just scratched the surface. To learn about Canadian cuisine is to learn about Canada itself, and in a country that covers almost 10 million square kilometres, there’s plenty more for us to explore.”

For those without the five months and wherewithal to replicate VanVeller and Anderson’s journey firsthand, Feast provides insights into Canada’s diverse food scene, all bound neatly beneath a fetching vintage travel poster meets Group of Seven-inspired cover. Begin your exploration with these three excerpted recipes for butter tarts, lobster rolls, and Newfoundlander Jiggs dinner, below.

Three recipes from the cookbook:

Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip by Lindsay Anderson and Dana VenVeller is out March 7, 2017 from Appetite by Random House.

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