The Winter Olympics are in Vancouver this year. Whether you plan to attend, or just to get into the spirit in front of your TV, you might like to consider Canadian-style snacks for the occasion.
We in the U.S. don't always appreciate how different Canada is from our own country, but chocolate shows the delectable difference.
There's a general trend in Canadian candy bars toward light, crisp effects. Aerated chocolate is big in Canada, and you don't find it around much in the U.S. Aerated chocolate has air forced into it, resulting in a structure of chocolate bubbles. Canadian chocolates often use feuilletine, a crisp wafer sort of thing, or crisp rice. U.S. substitutes might include Kit-Kat or Crunch bars.
One of the most popular Canadian candy bars, though, is the Big Turk, a bar of pink Turkish Delight covered in chocolate. Turkish Delight may be familiar to you from the Narnia books or movies, but it's hard to come by in the U.S. You can make your own, if you're serious about this. Then just dip it in chocolate and you can feel all Canadian.
Canada claims to be the originator of the heart-shaped box of chocolates. Though those heart-shaped chocolate boxes are now a standard Valentine's Day gift, Canadian chocolatiers introduced them in the 1930s for Christmas. Simply buying one of these might be cheating.
If you're truly dedicated, brush up your skills with the metric system and bake up some Caramel Hazelnut Chocolate Bars.
