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What to Eat in Canada - Traditional Canadian Food
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Mar 24, 2025
Canada is an incredible place to visit and enjoy your vacation time, but one of the best parts of visiting Canada is enjoying all the tasty food that Canada has to offer. Here we go through some of the most popular foods that people love to eat in Canada. So if you want to eat like a true Canadian watch this video to learn about traditional foods of Canada, popular foods of Canada, and what to eat when you visit Canada! #Canada #eatsofcanada #canadianfood Copyright Mark Wolters 2023 Learn how to plan your travels like we do with our Travel Planning 101 Course: https://www.brighttrip.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Simply Jocelyn on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Simply-Jocelyn-A-Globally-Inspired-Life-100312851709273/ Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
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0:00
Hey there, fellow hungry travelers. Mark here with Walter's World, and today we're here in Toronto, and today we're going to talk about what you should eat and enjoy when you come here to Canada
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And I'll be honest with you, there's so many great tasty treats in this place that I might get a bit excited and a bit hungry and a bit drooly talking about all the great things that are here, okay
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So let's get started. And I think the first thing we have to talk about is really, you know, it's what everyone thinks about when I think of Canadian food
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and you think of maple syrup. I mean, there's a maple leaf on the flag
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I mean, the Toronto Maple Leafs is the hockey team here in Toronto. I mean, maple syrup is a thing
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and it's not just the fantastic maple syrup that you put on your pancakes
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when you come here for a great breakfast. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's used as a sweetener
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You might have it in mints. You might have it in maple syrup suckers
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I mean, there's so much maple syrup flavor in things. It's kind of crazy, but you're going to have it in so many different ways
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But honestly, for me, if you're at your hotel or you go out for breakfast, just get a big stack of pancakes and just douse in that maple syrup here and you can't go wrong
1:03
That's one thing you have to have when you're here. Also, it makes a nice souvenir to take back
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But make sure you get a container that will survive the train back or the flight back to where you live
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Otherwise, it might be a messy suitcase, okay? The second thing you have to have when you come to Canada is poutine
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And poutine is a Quebec classic that now is all over the country
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And what it is, it's french fries sprinkled with cheese curds and they pour gravy on top of it
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It's a mess, but it's a wonderful, happy, delicious mess that you're going to have here with your friends as a meal, with a beer or two, whatever, you're going to have it
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And the thing is, you might get other things with it. You might get smoked meat on it or bacon on it
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I've seen people like fried chicken stuff on top of it. But poutine, just a base one of the fries, cheese curds and gravy is a must have when you're here
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Now, I mentioned putting smoked meat on top of your poutine. But just in general, getting smoked meat when you're here is wonderful
1:56
Especially, I was in Montreal, and you had a lot of smoked meat sandwiches, which is just basically, if you like brisket, like slow-cooked, just melt away, you know, smoked brisket
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Oh, my God, I'm getting so hungry just thinking about it. Just having a smoked meat sandwich, just bread, smoked meat, mustard
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is going to be a fantastic thing to get when you're here. But yes, that smoked meat might show up on top of poutine, or as a main or something like that
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You're going to love it. So try to get that when you're here. And the thing is, when you go around Canada, it's not like there's one cuisine everywhere
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Yes, poutine is all over it because it's amazing and wonderful. But in different parts of Canada, you're going to get different kind of things
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And one thing that you actually might get back home, you might hear about, are PEI mussels
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The mussels from Prince Edward Island are fantastic. And if you can get those steamed mussels, get them as a starter or as a bane, it's well worth it
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And the thing is, Canada is huge and you have coasts on both sides and lakes all over
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So actually seafood and fish and everything is very popular here. So if you're looking for fish, salmon, you can never go wrong with salmon when you're here
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It's fantastic. Halibut is wonderful. If you want something different, go for some trout when you're here
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So the fish that's here is always going to be a good healthy option when you do come
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Because then I'm going to talk about a lot of like heavy food here in Canada. They actually have a lot of really healthy options, a lot of vegetarian options, a lot of vegan options
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I mean I know fish isn vegetarian and vegan but there a lot of opportunity here to eat in many different ways but let stick with the seafood for right now Some other things you might want to have another regional thing if you up in Nova Scotia getting the lobster rolls up there
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or if you head over to the West Coast, getting the oysters when you're by Vancouver. I mean, there's just seafood after seafood after seafood after seafood that you're going to love, and one
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of the easiest ways to enjoy it is if you see any kind of seafood chowder when you are at a restaurant
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for a starter, that's going to be a nice way to start things off. And one thing you have to realize
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is no matter where you go in Canada, Canada is a country of immigration. And so you have people
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from all over the world that came here to Canada and they brought their cuisines. And so you can
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have fantastic food from all over the world when you're visiting, especially if you're going to big
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cities like here in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver, you get this cuisines. I mean, here
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in Toronto, you got fantastic Korean food, fantastic Chinese food. I mean, just amazing stuff. And when
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you go around the country don't be scared to experiment with cuisines you haven't tried before
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never had afghani food you can have that here not sure what portuguese cuisine is oh my goodness i
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had portuguese food in montreal that i really thought i was back in lisbon i mean they have
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that here so go and explore and try out international cuisines when you're here because
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people from all over that have come here to canada brought their food not just the food but the spices
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and the ways to eat it as well now if you want to move back to some more traditional canadian kind
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of things. One thing you have to realize is beef is a thing here in Canada. I mean, Cowtown is
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Calgary, okay? And you don't get called Cowtown without having a lot of cows. You'd have a lot
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of beef here. So steak houses, getting a good steak here in Canada is not a problem. Another
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beef thing that you'll see a lot is actually burgers, which is a kind of a go-to thing when
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you're going to go out with your buddies, have some burgers and fries. I mean, I know it sounds like, oh, well, that doesn't seem very fancy, but no, here they do the burgers up right in Canada
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And we're not talking like McDonald's burgers. We're talking like thick, rich, amazing burgers with tons of cheese and just happiness, happiness, happiness
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And the thing is, is you might get a bacon burger. And I think I need to talk about the whole Canadian bacon thing
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It's back bacon here. You'll get that. But you also get normal bacon at breakfast, too. So don't think it's only Canadian bacon
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That's it. That's back bacon here. Okay. Bacon and back bacon. So you'll know the difference
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All right. And one of the bacons I think you need to have when you do come here is if you're in Toronto
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specifically, if you can get a pea meal bacon sandwich. they go down to St. Lawrence Market there'll be tons of places that sell it and basically what it
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is it's just a you know it's it's a it looks like a ham sandwich but basically when they slice it up
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it tastes like if ham and a bratwurst had a baby that's what the meat tastes like and you have that
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with some mustard on there oh my god it's so good so one of those things you really want to get when
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you're here in Toronto is that pea meal bacon sandwich now if you go to Vancouver you go out
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on the west coast oh my goodness the sushi and sashimi you get in Vancouver I mean we're talking
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like next level we're talking crazy good the thing is vancouver is rather expensive but the sushi and
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sushi and sashimi that you get there is so good but so affordable for the price you probably pay
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three or four times the price back home to get sushi of that quality that you get at a local
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place you just walk up to in vancouver so if you're going to be in vancouver you're going to
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be in bc get your sushi get your sashimi and just be happy you're welcome now if we think about the
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start of the day we think of breakfast what do we have for breakfast here in canada well there's a
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lot of different things you can have. There's eggs, there's bacon, there's all those kind of things. But I think if you want to get like a truly like Canadian breakfast-y kind of thing
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one obviously pancakes with that fantastic maple syrup Yes that always good If you get blueberries in it that even better You know you have that But I think it really important that you actually have bagels when you here Montreal bagels They different than the bagels if you think
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about New York style. They're smaller. They're a little bit sweeter, which really impacts the
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flavor and the mixtures when you put a different spread on there. So that's something to think
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about for your Brex when you're here. You just get the bagels, pancakes, you'll be good to go. Now, another thing you want to have are donuts. Yes, I know it sometimes sounds like a joke that
7:08
Like, oh, Canada, they get their donuts all the time. They do, but they make really good donuts here
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And it's not just going to Tim Hortons to get donuts. It's any donut place you can go is going to be respectable
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There's not really bad donuts when you get here. I always like to get my maple dip where just the top's covered
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and the maple, like, glaze, kind of, not glaze, but, like, icing. It's so good
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And I know I mentioned Tim Hortons, and I know Tim Hortons isn't what he used to be
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We all have our weak spots, right? But if you want to go to something more of a Canadian kind of tradition
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I guess you'd put it, is you go to Tim Hortons to get your coffee and get your 10 bits, which are little donut holes, and you can get them individually
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So you don't have to buy like 100 of them at a time. You can get five or six and then get a maple dip and you'll be good to go
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And the coffee is, you know, acceptable. So there is that. And I bring up Tim Hortons because when you drive around the country, you will see it all over
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That's kind of like your go-to coffee shop, sandwich shop, donut shop. So you can get that
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And what's cool here in Canada, donuts aren't just for breakfast. You can have it any time of the day
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I was walking back from the bars last night and there was a Tim Hortons open and I could have gotten a donut about 1030 at night
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So now since donuts are kind of sweet, I think that makes a good transition to talk about some of the sweets you should have when you come here to Canada
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And one of the things is a beaver tail and beaver tails. Really, if you think about it, they're originally from Ottawa
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Like that's a big Ottawa thing. And what it is, it's like a stressed out piece of dough that they deep fry and they put different toppings on top
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I go for the classic, the cinnamon sugar on there. But some people put Nutella on there
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There's some people with chocolate on there or bananas and stuff. I mean, caramel. There's all kinds of things you can have
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It's messy, but it's delicious. And now the chain has kind of expanded
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So it's not just an Ottawa treat now. You can get here in Toronto. You can get to other places. So that's really nice
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Another thing that I recommend that you can find pretty much all over the country are butter tarts
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And what a butter tart is, it's in different sizes. It might be this big, might be this big
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But think about a little tiny tart, a little tiny pie. And the inside is this butter, sugary, gooey goodness
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It's fantastic to have. And when you get them, you'll see that sometimes they'll be with raisins and sometimes they'll be with like pecans or nuts on them
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I'm a nut one, but the raisin ones, too. And people debate which one's better
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If you're from Canada, please tell us down in the comments below what's better. The raisin or the nut version of the butter tarts
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Because honestly, St. Lawrence Market, I got both of them and I had the raisin was like, oh, my God, this is so good
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And then I had the pecans on top. And I'm like, oh, this is even better. So I guess I'm team nut
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So you have that. But butter tarts are definitely something you want to have here as a sweet treat
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Another one you'll see, and this is one that became famous, I think, from Vancouver, is the Nanaimo bar
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And the Nanaimo bar, it's about this thick. It looks kind of like a brownie when you see it cut up, but it's not a brownie
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What it is is the base layer is like chocolate graham cracker, and then there's like a custard in the middle
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and then there's like a hard chocolate ganache on top. So when you bite into it, some of the stuff's kind of squeezed out the side, but it is really tasty to grab one, so I recommend that
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also my personal favorite sweet treat here in canada is salmon candy you don't find it everywhere
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going to the markets in vancouver and around there that where i had the best luck finding it what it is it smoked salmon and then it been kind of like left in maple syrup of course to sweeten up and when you have it yes it really sweet
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It sounds like it wouldn't be right, but it's amazing, so make sure you get that if you have a chance to get it
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My son Liam wants me to remind you that there are other sweet treats here as well
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His favorite were actually cow chips that we got at Anne of Green Gables' house in Green Gables in Prince Edward Island
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and all that is is just potato chips covered in chocolate. So, hey, how can you go wrong with that
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The salt and the sweet, it's wonderful. Now, speaking of potato chips, there's also another kind of snack you might want to try
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that you might not have back home, and that's ketchup chips. And no, I'm not talking about taking potato chips and dipping it in ketchup
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It's ketchup flavoring on potato chips, which is actually oddly good, which I thought was really weird at first, but I had it
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I'm like, oh, I see what you have here. It's actually something you should have
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they'll sell them at the corner stores, the 7-Elevens that dip into us
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Like, you can get them all over. It's not a problem. I mean, it's so popular. I saw a Doritos version of it, but I wasn't that brave to try it
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It's best with just the ketchup chips, ketchup potato chips, okay? And if we start moving on to some other things you might want to have
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let's look at the drinking you want to have when you're here. One thing that's great about Canada is whenever you go out to eat
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they're going to give you water, okay? They'll just give you water, which is nice. The tap water is perfect here in Canada
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You can drink it any time you want. bring your water bottle and just refill it. You don't have to buy a bottle of water here
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because the tap water is fantastic on its own so you can be healthy and drink water
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But if you don't want to be healthy, may I suggest the beer in Canada
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Because Canadians love their beer and that great, pure, wonderful water makes great, pure, wonderful beer
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And all throughout the country, you have tons of craft brewers you can go to, local beers all over that you can enjoy
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Yes, there's macro brews that are great. There's micro brews that are great. There's craft beers that are great
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So you can really enjoy it. The one thing I will tell you, the beer here in Canada a lot of times is stronger than it is, especially if you're looking at U.S. beers
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So where you're thinking, oh, I can have four or five beers, no problem. Go out with my friends. You might be on the floor after four or five beers here
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So do be careful with the alcohol here. Now, another thing you might see when you're at the bars or one of the happy hours, the sun cassettes around the country, is it's called a Caesar cocktail
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Basically, it's just a Bloody Mary with some clam juice in it. Maybe I've seen people with a chicken wing on the top
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I mean, you have that if you're looking for something that's an over-the-top looking drink when you come here
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But it's basically a Bloody Mary with clam juice. It's not like crazy different. But it's something people do have
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And when you come here to Canada, one thing you need to realize is when you go out to eat, the service will be very friendly
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But you do need to remember, you actually do tip when you come here to Canada. So if you pay with a credit card, they'll give you an option
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It's usually 18%, 20%, or 22%. In general, you're going to tip between 15% and 20%
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you can choose what's a what's a tip but just know that when they give you the car thing back
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and there's those three already ready for you okay so be aware of that as well also you might
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have sales tax as well to add on to the price so be aware that the price you see on the menu might
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not be the price you pay when you leave the store okay or you leave i should say when you leave the
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restaurant all right so i know i miss a lot of great food when i was on here we only have so
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much time we can put in these videos so if you have other great foods here in canada you think
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people should have when they come to Canada, please put in the comment section below so people
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can enjoy more wonderful tasty treats here in Canada. And I'll say bye from here in Toronto
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