TORONTO–(Marketwire – October 28, 2010) – Travel is all about discovering new places and experiencing different cultures, and a big part of getting the most out of the cultural experience is to taste the local cuisine. As Canada is known for its multiculturalism, it’s no surprise that this diversity is also experienced through the local specialties served across the nation. To help guide you through this culinary journey, Cheapflights.ca, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, has stepped up to the plate and prepared a menu of the Top 10 Foodie Cities in Canada. 

Here are five Canadian cities to make the list along with highlights of their memorable cuisine:

• St. John’s, Newfoundland — The cuisine of Newfoundland has been influenced by those who settled there — the Irish and Scottish — as well as the First Nations groups. The words to remember when thinking about food here is “home-cooked” and “comfort”, unsurprising given the weather. The bounty of the waters around St. John’s informs the cuisine with fishcakes, fish and brewis, seal flipper pie, cod cheeks and cod tongues on the menu. Toutons (fried bread dough), Figgy Duff, bakeapples, partridgeberries and blueberries appear on the sweet side of a Newfoundland menu. Shorthand for St. John’s contribution to Canada’s culinary heritage might just be fish and chips. Search and compare cheap flights to St. John’s.

• Halifax, Nova Scotia — Ahhhh, the seafood. Scallops, oysters, lobster, salmon, mussels, the chowders … The crystalline waters around Nova Scotia give up some of the tastiest seafood in Canada. The sweet-toothed are well catered for too with great, fat blueberries and apples that are turned into the kind of desserts our grandmothers made. Now, of course, we wash it down with Champagne-style cider from the Annapolis Valley. Search and compare cheap flights to Halifax.

• Prince Edward Island — It’s all about the lobster in Prince Edward Island. In a roll, with a side of potato salad and coleslaw. And the cultured mussels. And those plump, glistening oysters. And the potatoes. The island’s primary industries are fishing and farming, the cuisine has a “field to table” ethic. Sweet treats include ice cream and chocolate. The chocolate-covered potato chips are a particular delicacy. Search and compare cheap flights to Prince Edward Island.

• Fredericton, New Brunswick — Seafood and potatoes. Could New Brunswick cuisine be reduced to those two items? Well, yes, when the seafood is as fresh, plump and delicious as it is and the potatoes are so noteworthy that none other than McCains set up its HQ here. Fredericton has two universities and there are plenty of restaurants that cater to the students’ cosmopolitan palates. There are Caribbean, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Lebanese, Mexican, Pakistani and Vietnamese restaurants. Springtime is fiddlehead season. These baby ferns that taste like a cross between asparagus and a green bean are harvested from the islands of the St. John River. New Brunswick folk eat them with butter, salt and pepper while others enjoy them with vinegar or coat them in a cheese sauce. Search and compare cheap flights to Fredericton.

• Calgary, Alberta — Ginger beef is the ultimate fusion of Canadian and Chinese food, and Calgary is the best place to try it. While Edmonton has the reputation as a pierogi city, Calgary is considered more creative and upscale, the culinary capital of the Prairies. Alberta has seen an influx of immigrants in recent years and these new Canadians have revitalized Calgary’s dining scene. In addition to the excellent beef joints (you’ll have to try a prairie oyster, or two), there are good French, Chinese, Italian and Japanese restaurants as well as Indian, Greek, Thai, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Korean, Ethiopian, German, Moroccan and Spanish. To drink, you’ll have a Bloody Caesar, obviously. Search and compare cheap flights to Calgary.

And of course our list of Top 10 Foodie Cities in Canada wouldn’t be complete without the cosmopolitan cities of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec City. You can read more about their local gastronomic scenes at www.cheapflights.ca/travel-tips/top-ten-foodie-cities-in-canada/

Travelling abroad? Cheapflights.ca also has created a list of Top 10 Foodie Cities around the World. Whether it’s eating paella in Barcelona, tasting your way through the street markets in Italy, or checking out the trendy restaurants in New York City, Cheapflights.ca suggests the best spots for a gourmet getaway in some of the world’s finest foodie destinations at www.cheapflights.ca/travel-tips/top-ten-foodie-cities-around-the-world/

About Cheapflights Media
Cheapflights Media is an international media network providing users with different ways to find low cost travel. Since 1996, Cheapflights Media has been helping consumers research, compare and save on domestic and international travel. Our flagship brand, Cheapflights, is one of the largest flight deals publishers, delivering over 4 million deals daily. With brand-name deals on airline tickets from more than 300 partners and 600 airlines and a team of travel experts hand picking the best offerings, Cheapflights offers visitors a mix of deals they can’t find anywhere else. zugu, the newest brand in the Cheapflights Media portfolio, is a powerful and simple travel search engine that makes it easy to compare and select the lowest available fares online. By organizing flight options by date, airline and time, zugu helps consumers find the best fares based on their travel terms. There are currently Cheapflights-branded sites for the U.K., U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia & New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain. zugu is available in the U.K., U.S. and Germany. For more information, visit www.cheapflights.ca.

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