Thoughts From a "Lost Canadian" About Unique - and Even Shocking - Canadian Food Facts!

Each country tends to have their own unique food facts - and sometimes even what could be considered a "shocking" food fact, such as fried Twinkies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, putting ice in our water glasses, deep-fried butter, and the very shocking idea of using a red food dye made from bugs in the USA. (I'm good with pb & j sandwiches and ice water, but will pass on the rest of them.) So I thought I'd look online for some of Canada's interesting - or even shocking food facts and share them with you today.

• Cheddar is the most popular cheese in Canada. On average Canadians consume 23.4 pounds per person each year.
• Blueberry grunt is a traditional Canadian East Coast dessert, particularly famous in Nova Scotia and the Maritimes. It consists of sweet, stewed wild blueberries topped with soft, biscuit-like dumplings. The entire dish is simmered and steamed on the stovetop, acquiring its unusual name from the grunting sound the fruit makes while cooking.
• There are more doughnut shops in Canada per capita than any other country.
• Each Canadian eats an average of 190 eggs per year. This doesn't seem like a lot of eggs to me, but then my husband eats about 700 eggs each year, so . . .
• Canadians drink more fruit juice per capita than any other country.
• Montreal chemist Marcelus Gilmore Edson patented the first process for making a peanut paste—what we now know as peanut butter—way back in 1884. 
• Unlike the powdery, chalk-like candy sold under the name in the US, Canadian Smarties are colorful, candy-coated chocolates (very similar to M&Ms).
• And now for the truly shocking Canadian food - or drink - fact. The infamous "Sourtoe Cocktail", qualifies as a shocking, though legendary Canadian beverage consisting of a shot of whisky containing a genuine, mummified human toe. The peculiar tradition dates back to the 1920s during Prohibition, when a rum-running bootlegger lost his frostbitten toe to an axe. His brother preserved the severed digit in a jar of alcohol. Decades later, in 1973, a local riverboat captain found the preserved toe and established the "Sourtoe Cocktail Club" at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon. You can drink the shot of whisky (often a local brand like Yukon Jack) fast or slow, but your lips must physically touch the gnarly, dehydrated toe as you drink. If you intentionally swallow or chew the toe, you face a strict $2,500 fine. Because original toes have been swallowed or stolen, the bar relies entirely on medical donations to keep the tradition alive.

Unique Canadian food facts are certainly interesting, but drinking whisky with a real mummified toe in it . . . I absolutely consider this to be "shocking" and would absolutely pass, even if I drank, which I don't.