A question (or two) regarding food

[beboots]

Hello, everyone on my friends list! I had a few quick questions for you all. 

I've been thinking, lately, of "Canadian culture" (if such a thing exists, and I think that it does), and what you really think of as defining a person's culture. One of those things is the food they eat. And I got to thinking: maybe some of my favourite foods, things that are so omnipresent in grocery stores all around Canada, aren't as common as I think that they are!

So, tell me: have you heard of all of these food products? Have you ever tried them? What did you think of them, and how were they served? (AKA what kind of toppings/side dishes?) What are your favourite local foods?

(Just to clarify, I live in Western Canada, but I have lived in Ontario, very near to Quebec, so I'm also familiar with French Canadian culture... but these foods are all found in Western Canada too.)

-Perogies (Holy crap the interwebs don't even recognize this spelling! It's on all of the bags!) AKA lovely potato dumplings sometimes stuffed with cheese and other things, boiled, often eaten fried with butter and onions, and topped with bacon bits and sour cream. Maybe I only know it because we have the largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine here in Western Canada...?

-Pumpkin pie. In fact, pumpkins in general. Not squashes. Pumpkins - the kind you make into Jack-o-Lanterns. (Also edible!) Has anybody outside of North America ever had baked pumpkin seeds? (One of the best non-candy Hallowe'en snacks there is, and they're just the leftovers from making art!)

-Maple syrup. Maple candies. Maple anything. I know that pancakes and waffles exist outside of Canada... but what do you put on it if maple syrup isn't available? Just cream or something? How easy is it to get maple syrup outside of Canada? Pancakes + maple syrup is such a ubiquitous combination here that anything else is just plain WEIRD. 

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Most Americans would be stunned to hear that pumpkin pie is eaten outside of the US, because here, it's so strongly associated with Thanksgiving. Pumpkins are a large part of the late fall US diet in baked goods, coffee and as salted, baked, spiced seeds. It's what keeps me out of grocery stores and makes me neurotically careful when walking down the street, because just being near one can trigger a violent seizure because I'm so allergic, and being in a store where they're cooking pumpkin pies in the back, no way!

Maple syrup is very expensive outside the northeast (though easy to get if you have the cash), but maple flavored syrup is ubiquitous, and maple syrup and candy, while expensive is still enjoyed as a special treat by a lot of us southwesterners, at least.

Perogies are available throughout the northeast, where slavic populations are larger, but unheard of elsewhere.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

...We have Thanksgiving too! ;) We just, uh, have it in October so that the celebration of the "harvest" occurs before everything gets frozen over. We have a much shorter growing season up here. ;)

That's what I was wondering about perogies! ... They're so delicious, I have to wonder why they haven't migrated everywhere...