Canadian Delicacies

Many of my Canadian moments today involved food, so I thought I'd share some of the Canadian delicacies I've come across. After eating almost every meal out for 5 days, I feel like I'm going to puke...or that could be because I just ate a neapolitan pizza all by myself in my hotel room. Oops. I guess room service is dangerous that way. So here are a couple of the odd foods I've come across.

• Ketchup chips: Yeah, ketchup chips. Eww. I remained open-minded and tried one, even though they were all purply with ketchup powder. They were vile. I think the makers of these chips should be tried for potato abuse. Nonetheless, I'm bringing a bag home for my hubby to try.
• Poutin: Pronounced like the Prime Minister of Russia. They're fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. I haven't tried this...but it sounds horrible. What did those innocent, lovely cheese curds do to deserve that kind of degradation? That's cheese curd abuse. This could still be the pizza talking, though, as any food sounds dreadful to me right now.
• Le Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich: I had this for lunch yesterday, and was told it's the poster sandwich of Montreal and Quebec. It's a kind of smoked corned beef, served on rye with mustard. It tasted a lot like a reuben. It was very tasty, although the beef was very greasy - it looked like each piece had been bathing in oil. I'll probably stick with the reuben.
• Souffles: Guess what souffles are...Here's a hint, they're not a fluffy French chocolate dessert. They're orange and leave fluorescent powder on your fingertips and are promoted by a hip cheetah. They're just puff Cheetos in French (obligatory French labeling on all packaging). I never knew that puff Cheetos were so chic.

It seems like a lot of the food is as heavy as American food, and as heavy as a lot of the heavier American food - like Southern or Midwestern. Tasty, but a little much to eat every meal out. But there is a time for heavy: Tomorrow I'm getting a taste of Canadian donuts. I'm super excited. I hope they're good. I've had a lot of bad donuts in a lot of countries (I try to sample the donuts in every country I can), but I have faith in Canada.