Canada's food landscape is genuinely vast and regionally specific in ways that a single visit rarely captures. Montreal's smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's Deli — cured, steamed, sliced thick, served on rye with yellow mustard — is a city institution with a century of argument behind it. Quebec's poutine (fries, cheese curds, gravy) has escaped its origins to become a Canadian cliche, but the original in a greasy Quebecois diner remains the standard. British Columbia's Pacific seafood — spot prawns, sockeye salmon, Dungeness crab — sets a quality bar that the rest of the continent struggles to meet. The Indigenous food movement, led by chefs working with bannock, bison, wild rice, and foraged ingredients, is one of the most serious and underknown strands of Canadian cuisine. Take your time.