The United States shares the longest non-militarized border in the world with Canada, yet many U.S. citizens haven't a clue what their northern neighbors eat.
That particular realization struck Don Burns as he contemplated hosting a Vancouver 2010 Olympics viewing party.
"I remember doing a viewing party for the Beijing Olympics, and we got a bunch of Chinese takeout," Burns said.
Canada, however, turned out to be a vexing puzzle for the self-described foodie. He couldn't find one restaurant to get help, so he asked Canadian neighbors and even contacted Canadian consulates in several cities.
Inspired by Burns' resolve, we couldn't resist joining him in the quest for Olympic-party glory. As we suspected, Canada has something besides a border in common with the United States -- a national appetite as diverse as the people who populate the New World.
"The best way to approach it is to say: 'What's Chinese food? What's Indian food?' The food here is just as immense," said Michael Smith, restaurant chef and star of several Food Network Canada shows. "There isn't one distinct Canadian cuisine."
On Canada's east coast, in areas like Prince Edward Island, where Smith lives, a culinary treasure trove of seafood abounds, so a traditional seafood chowder is common and beloved.
On the West Coast, it's Chinook salmon, and in the prairies, it's all about grains and legumes, Smith said. The popularity of the regional foods and cuisine also speaks to a resurging national desire to eat, shop and cook locally grown foods.
Smith, who cooked his heart out on a recent "Iron Chef America" but lost to Bobby Flay, is directing a team of 100 chefs serving 12,000 meals a day to Olympians at Athletes' Village in Whistler, British Columbia.
The menu there will feature global flavors and Canadian favorites, but Smith said he can't divulge secrets.
Favored dishes in Canada often reflect the country's multicultural landscape.
Cathy O'Haigan's food memories swirl around dishes like tourtiere, French-Canadian meat pie and ragout de pattes de cochon, a pork stew made with pigs' feet. O'Haigan was born in northeastern Quebec and lived there for part of her childhood.
Her mother, an American who learned to prepare those and other dishes after marrying a French-Canadian, made her savory tourtiere with pork and onions.
"The main things that set it off are cinnamon and cloves," O'Haigan said.
The family also regularly ate baked beans, since they adhered to the Catholic practice of not eating meat on Fridays.
"They were always cooked in lard with molasses or maple syrup in a Creuset-style dutch oven," she said, chuckling at the recollection. "That would be the Friday-night fare, and all the men would be drinking beer."
Ana Bertolucci, a Californian who lived in Calgary, Alberta, for 18 years, said one of the most popular dishes there is Chinese ginger beef.
The dish is thought to have started appearing on menus in San Francisco in the early 1960s, but the Calgary version took off after a chef in Calgary's Chinatown prepared it in the mid-1970s.
"It's all over the place -- at every single Chinese restaurant, in the grocery stores. Even their Costco has it," she said.
Deep-fried strips of beef are coated in a dark, sweet ginger sauce that sometimes has a kick of heat from a splash of chili oil.
"It's very flavorful," Bertolucci said.
While living in Calgary, Bertolucci and her husband, Gord Pedlar, learned to make their own ginger beef, along with pierogi, baked or stuffed dumplings served in many Slavic countries.
"They're kind of a staple for working families because they're quick and a nice sort of comfort food so much of the year," she said.
Some foods, however, are distinctly Canadian -- such as butter tarts, tiny short-crust pastries filled with a mixture of butter, eggs and brown sugar.
They're one of the foods that first came to mind for Rose Murray, a Canadian food authority and author of 10 cookbooks, most recently "A Taste of Canada: A Culinary Journey" (Whitecap Books, $34.95, 224 pages).
"They're very sweet and very runny, and there's great controversy as to whether they should have raisins," she said, during a phone interview from her home in Cambridge, Ontario.
Murray also confirmed the popularity of Nanaimo bars, a treat that pops up often in searches for Canadian food. The no-bake dessert named for Nanaimo, a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, is a triple-layer threat with a base of cocoa, graham cracker and coconut; a velvety butter cream custard, and a gloriously decadent semisweet chocolate topping.
O Canada, indeed.
"You'll see them everywhere in Vancouver," Murray said. "Those and butter tarts are two things that you definitely don't see anywhere else."
Well, there is one more thing -- poutine -- though Murray would rather it not be thought of as the national food.
French fries are topped with fresh cheese curds (which famously squeak when you eat them) and slathered with gravy in this artery-constricting dish. Poutine can be found in many parts of the country, but is most prominent in Quebec, where it originated.
It's served everywhere from chip wagons (akin to taco trucks here) to some upscale establishments, where ingredients like foie gras are added to the sauce.
"It's not my cup of tea," she said. "It is kind of a fun thing, but I would not want the nation to be known only for poutine."
Eminent food authorities will disagree. Smith, who won a James Beard Award for cooking-show excellence, describes the comfort food as a stereotypical representation of the food of Quebec -- but a darned good one.
"It's french fries with gravy and cheese. What's not to like?" he said.
Poutine ranked No. 10, bested by the electric wheelchair (No. 9) and beating the Cobalt-60 "bomb" cancer treatment (No. 11) in a poll of the greatest Canadian inventions conducted by the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster.
(Reach Niesha Lofing at nlofing(at)sacbee.com. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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