Leeneia, much local ink is spilled over the problem of defining Canadian culture in general, and Canadian cuisine in particular. Nobody can do it. Some say we haven’t any, but my theory is that we have too many. Every immigrant culture brought its food ways, and the First Nations have theirs.

Old-fashioned Newfie cuisine is all about food that will grow in a sub-boreal maritime climate and keep in a cold cellar. Before vitamin tablets and canned orange juice, people who refused to eat sauerkraut were at real risk of scurvy. If I had grown up in an outport, I would find the very idea of Mexican food positively intoxicating.

When I was posted to Halifax back in the 1970s, I discovered the donair sandwich, a deliciously messy variant of the gyro, a staple of Greek street food. At that time, donair was unknown in Ottawa, my hometown. I don’t know who brought donair to Halifax, but my money’s on some immigrant from Piraeus who got off the boat at Pier 23 and opened a diner.