Happy Canada Day!

My beloved country is 139 years old today :)

And what a day we have in my part of the world -- beautiful sunshiney skies, warm and a little breezy. Tonight we're heading out to a fireworks display--lots of fun.

According to The 2006 Priceless Index conducted by MasterCard Canada,

• Our "most priceless Canadian drinks" were beer (56 per cent) surveyed and rye whiskey (eight per cent);
• Our "most priceless Canadian foods" were maple syrup (19 per cent); beef/steak (11 per cent) and poutine (10 per cent). Regional favourite food breakdowns reflected foods that were "close to home": Quebec- maple syrup (35 per cent); Alberta - beef (24 per cent); B.C. - salmon (17 per cent) and Atlantic Canada - lobster (18 per cent).

In StatsCan's 2004 Food Consumption survey, Canadians, on average, annually ate:

• 74.8 kg of fresh veggies
• 66.8 kg of cereal
• 51.7 kg of wheat flour
• 37.6 kg of fresh fruits
• 27.1 kg of red meat (all types)
• 15.1 kg of canned or frozen veggies
• 13.6 kg of beef
• 13.5 kg of chicken
• 11.6 kg of pork
• 8.8 kg of cheese (I'm happy to say that most of it is real cheese and not those plastic-wrapped tranches of edible oil product)
• 7.8 kg of rice
• 156 eggs
• 97.6 l of pop
• 93.7 l of coffee
• 79.9 l of tippley goodness (all types)
• 66.4 l of tea
• 63.2 l of milk
• 24.9 l of fruit juice
• 23.6 l of oils and fats
• 13.3 l of wine
• 6.2 l of ice cream
• 7.4 l of spirits
• 4.6 l of yoghurt
• 1.9 l of table cream

Pictured above is a plate of maple syrupy goodness from the 2006 Elmira Maple Syrup Festival: maple sugar, maple candy and a butter tart...

Oh, and before I forget, The Old Foodie wrote Canada Day celebratory post about the wonders of all things mapley :)

cheers!

j

tags: Canada