Cool Canada

In honor of Canadian Thanksgiving, we’re paying homage to some of our favorite food haunts in the Great White North.

Tacofino Commissary, Vancouver. From uber popular roving food truck to brick-and-mortar star, Vancouver’s Tacofino Commissary is serving up some of the most imaginative food this side of Calgary. Favorites like Poke Tostado and “Heart on a Stick” – grilled chicken hearts with jerk spices and watermelon pickles – keep dedicated locals coming back for some of the best Baja-inspired tacos in British Columbia. The organic, post-industrial chic interior doesn’t hurt either.

Toronto Underground Market, Toronto. Better known simply as TUM, this underground “food community market” is a hugely successful monthly food festival where happy and hungry patrons sample tasty treats from amateur chefs wanting to make it big. Budding entrepreneurs rub elbows with home cooks, as food savvy Torontonians sample “the future of food” in their city. To top it off, TUM operates out of a rad warehouse-style space at the Toronto Brickworks where exposed bricks and beams are almost as delightful as that foie gras banh mi.

Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, Quebec. Meanwhile over in Quebec, rock star chef Martin Picard’s offshoot to his popular Montreal-based restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon, is an imaginative take on the country’s traditional sugar shacks. But if you can’t make it to the Québécois countryside in time for this season, check out his book: a 400-page culinary ode to all things maple syrup. Think, eggs fried in maple syrup, frozen maple nougat enrobed in maple crème, and macarons dusted in crystallized maple nuggets. Oh Canada!