It’s the Canada Day long weekend, the perfect time for another edition of my Canadian food/drink quiz. Give it a try, eh, and see how you do. You’ll find the answers to the quiz on page C3.
1. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Pacific halibut caught off the B.C. coast are largest flatfish in the world. How large can they grow?
a) As much as 100 kilograms and reaching 2 metres in length
b) As much as 500 kilograms and reaching 4.3 metres in length
c) As much as 300 kilograms and reaching 2.7 metres in length
d) As much as 80 kilograms and reaching 1.5 metres in length
2.The Beer Me B.C. website, beermebc.com, currently lists this number of craft breweries on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands?
a) 28
b) 14
c) 19
d) 12
3.This book won gold in the Regional/Cultural cookbook category of the 2016 Tastes Canada Awards:
a) Canadian Living: The Ultimate Cookbook
b) A Spicy Touch: Family Favourites from Noorbanu Nimji’s Kitchen
c) A Taste of Haida Gwaii: Food Gathering and Feasting at the Edge of the World, by Susan Musgrave
d) Chicken in the Mango Tree: Food and Life in a Thai-Khmer Village, by Jeffrey Alford
4. Who invented the Caesar cocktail?
a) Samuel Mott created the drink cocktail in 1970 when experimenting with clam-flavoured tomato drinks for his beverage company.
b) Walter Chell created this drink in 1969 when he was bar manager at the Calgary Inn.
c) Gill Carbonneau created this drink in 1989 at his Surfside Fried Clam Shack in Shediac, N.B.
d) Clam farmer Bob White created the drink in 1975 at his home near Qualicum Beach.
5. This type of potato chip, enjoyed for decades in our country, is sometimes called a quintessential Canadian snack, but it’s not really popular anywhere else:
a) Old Dutch Barbecue-flavoured Potato Chips
b) Salt and Malt Vinegar-flavoured Potato Chips
c) Roast Chicken-flavoured Potato Chips
d) Ketchup-flavoured Potato Chips
6. This food has become such a popular staple at Edmonton festivals some folks in the Alberta capital want to make it that city’s official dish:
a) Buffalo Burgers
b) Cabbage Rolls
c) Green onion cakes
d) Wild mushroom perogies
7. According to Statistics Canada, the total area seeded to this crop, with 90 per cent of the acreage in Saskatchewan, reached a record high of 5.8 million acres in 2016, up almost 48 per cent from the record set in 2015:
a) Lentils
b) Canola
c) Quinoa
d) Barley
8. This Winnipeg bakery has been making that city’s famed Winnipeg-style rye bread with the same recipe since 1923:
a) Gunn’s Bakery
b) Portage Bakery
c) City Bread
d) Kub Bakery
9. Thunder Bay boasts one of the largest settlements of Finnish people outside Finland. Why it won’t take you long to find a restaurant in that city serving a thin Finnish-style of these:
a) Pancakes
b) Meatballs
c) Smoked fish cakes
d) Salted beef sandwiches
10. Four friends from Ontario started a YouTube channel called Trans-Canada Fryway where they can be seen travelling the country in search of the best, roadside places serving this:
a) Donuts
b) French fries
c) Corn Dogs
d) Burgers
11. Since 2011, over 50 vendors in the Kawarthas/Northumberland area of Ontario, including bakeries, cafés and elegant restaurants, have signed on to be potential stops for this sweet tourist draw:
a) Apple pie festival
b) Butter tart tour
c) The donut dash
d) Five-day fish fry
12. The first cheese factory in our country, The Pioneer, opened here in 1864:
a) Norwich, Ontario
b) Guelph, Ontario
c) Sherbooke, Quebec
d) Windsor, Nova Scotia
13. According to purecanadamaple.com, Canada produces 71 per cent of the world’s maple syrup, and of that, this much of it comes from Quebec:
a) 65 per cent
b) 70 per cent
c) 91 per cent
d) 80 per cent
14. Since 1966, this well-known Quebec City restaurant, offering a selection of French Canadian-style fare, has operated out of Maison Jacquet, an upper-town house built circa 1675:
a) Chez Daniel
b) L’Auberge du Mont
c) Aux Anciens Canadiens
d) Légende
15. In the recently published book Pantry and Palate: Remembering and Rediscovering Acadian Food, author Simon Thibault says cretons are distinctly French Canadian and this:
a) A delicious, spreadable type of paté often eaten on toast for breakfast.
b) A crisp of cracker, great for spreading creamy cheese on.
c) Crisp bits of pork rind great for snacking on.
d) Toasted cubes of brioche served with maple syrup for dipping.
16. According to a Canadian Geographic article by Sabrina Doyle, apples were first cultivated in Canada by early French settlers, with the first planted trees appearing in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley around:
a) 1840
b) 1633
c) 1750
d) 1800
17. If someone served you ployes in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, what would you be eating?
a) Molasses cookies
b) A beaver tail-shaped pastry
c) Wild duck stew
d) A regional-style of pancakes made with buckwheat flour
18. In August last year, Montreal’s Daniel Notkin won the Canadian Oyster Shucking Championship, which is part of P.E.I.’s annual Tyne Valley Oyster Festival. With judges deductions factored in, what was his final time for shucking 18 oysters?
a) 57 seconds
b) One minute, 48 seconds
c) Three minutes, two seconds
d) Two minutes, 12 seconds
19. In Newfoundland and Labrador, what apples would one use to make bakeapple jam?
a) Crabapples
b) Northern Spy apples
c) Gravenstein apples
d) No apples are used. Bakeapple jam is made with bakeapples, a type of wild berry called cloudberries in other parts of the world.
20. Lore suggests that Screech, a poplar and legendary rum in Newfoundland, was given its unusual name after this:
a) The Eastern Screech Owl, whose call is similar to the sound a human makes after drinking too much of this rum.
b) The harsh, piercing cry ones makes at a party in Newfoundland when they realize they’ve run out rum.
c) A Jamaican term for strong rum.
d) After a visiting American Second World War serviceman downed the rum in one quick toss. His howls of distress caused a bystander to see if he was injured or ill, asking “what the cripes was that ungodly screech?” The serviceman said the rum caused the “screech.” Word spread of that event and rum became known as Screech.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
