Canada Province Food Guides

Alberta is justly famous for its fine beef, but did you know there are more and more ranchers raising the giant beasts that are native to the prairie, bison?

Everyone knows about salmon and an ever-growing vinicultural industry. But there is more to the cuisine of the province that inspired the concept of the "100-mile diet," including delicious spot prawns and a growing cultivated oyster and shellfish industry, as well as a slew of cranberry bogs.

Lake fish, wild berries, and wild rice. Plus, of course, plenty more, despite a challengingly short growing season.

Fresh seafood, especially Beausoleil oysters, and wild foraged foods, like the fiddlehead ferns pictured here, are just a few of the culinary highlights in this Maritime province.

Great schools of cod may have once defined the local diet in Newfoundland, but the province has a whole range of foodstuffs that make regional eating unique, including its famous blue potatoes, seafood, game, wild berries, and, of course, seal flipper pie.

Hands down the best lobster I've ever had has been in Nova Scotia. The local oatcakes are pretty darn good too. And then there's the Cape Breton oysters and the wild chanterelle mushrooms....

Plenty of wild berries and orchard fruits are famously on hand, of course, but craft breweries and award-winning ice wine also play a role in bringing fabulous local flavor to Ontario.

It may be the smallest province, but it still has plenty of local foods on offer. PEI's potatoes are famously creamy and delicious, and so too are the rope-grown mussels, Malpeque oysters, and other briny delights its surrounding seas produce.

Quebec is the province with the longest traditional reputation for fine eating. French heritage, access to sea and forest, and plenty of small dairies turning out amazing artisan and farmstead cheeses all play their role. As do foie gras producers, ample apple orchards and berry groves, and a history of hearty cooking. (The scads of sugar bushes making this province the world's largest producer of maple syrup aren't too shabby either.)

This prairie province may not be particularly well-known for its foodstuffs, but it is justly known for the Saskatoon berry.