The Ultimate Foodie Guide To Eating In Québec

The second most populated province in Canada — and its only Francophone province — Québec has a rich history dating back to 1608 when early settlers from France began establishing a new colony along the St. Lawrence River. These early settlers were hearty, conservative people who lived modest lives. They brought recipes and food traditions (like cheesemaking) to the New World. These traditions, adapted to incorporate locally available Indigenous foods, have become the bedrock of Québécois cuisine.

Yet, its culinary evolution would not end there, transitioning through times of upheaval, including the British colonial period beginning in 1759 and becoming a part of Canada in 1867. Ingenuity paired with fierce loyalty to French heritage has allowed Québécois cuisine to take on more nuance, fusing immigrant traditions brought to Québec from across the globe with foods cultivated locally. Food in Québec is simultaneously modern and classic, edgy and traditional.

To visit Montréal or Québec City feels like walking into a European city, a trip back in time. And yet, so much of the food scene in the province is innovative. It is the best of all worlds — rendering Québec a food enthusiast's paradise. Let's look at some unique foods and beverages you cannot miss while visiting Québec.

Crêpes are as central to the cuisine of Québec as they are to that of France. While some evidence points to 13th-century Brittany as the historical origin of the crêpe, these delicate, lithe pancakes have become synonymous with cultures across French-speaking nations. Like the crêpes found in France, crêpes in Québec are also typically made with buckwheat flour, although they tend to be slightly sturdier with delicately crunchy edges.

The classic French-Canadian crêpe is served either sweet, overflowing with fruit and whipped cream, or savory, stuffed with every possible permutation of fillings, from eggs and meat to locally sourced vegetables and cheeses. One of the more well-known crêperies, Casse-Crêpe Breton, is in Old Québec City, near the historic Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. It has served classic Québécois crêpes to tourists and locals for almost four decades. Newer, more niche boutique crêperies are popping up daily with updated options catering to those with dietary restrictions ranging from vegan to gluten-free.

Tire sur la neige, or maple syrup on snow, is a maple taffy that is concocted by heating pure maple syrup to precisely the right temperature so that when it gets poured onto clean snow, rather than melting the snow, it adheres to it, enabling you to swirl this unctuous maple syrup around a stick or spoon with the snow into a kind of popsicle. It is a delicacy best enjoyed from sugar shacks, or cabanes à sucre, throughout Québec. Early settlers learned how to make these treats from the Indigenous populations inhabiting the region when they arrived in the 1600s.

Québec has a long and tumultuous legacy as a premier maple syrup-producing region of North America and was even the site of a maple syrup heist in the early 2010s. Today Québec produces almost 75% of the world's maple syrup supply, with tours available in early spring of farms tapping their maple trees and harvesting the syrup. Like wine, maple syrup tends to reflect the terroir in which it originates. Everything from the climate and soil to the topography of an area can cause distinct variations in the flavor of the harvested syrup. And it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to create 1 gallon of maple syrup, making this quite a luxury in the region.

Local maple syrup can be made into innumerable edible and inedible products that make for great souvenirs to bring home. We particularly enjoyed the maple salt, maple butter, and maple candles we found in Old Québec City.

Montréal-style smoked meat, or "viande fumée," is a religious experience in Québec. The Office Québécois de la Langue Française officially designated "smoked meat" to refer to this delicacy, effectively canonizing it into the French-Canadian language and culture. Smoked meat in Montréal refers to the meat itself and the sandwich, which is always served the same way, on rye bread, with yellow mustard and a pickle. Its preparation involves liberally seasoning a beef brisket in a peppery dry rub, marinating it for 10 to 20 days, and then dry-smoking the meat for six to nine hours. This slow, laborious process sets the Montréal delicatessen experience apart from the New York one.

While the origins of Montréal-style smoked meat are ambiguous, what appears to be sure is that the method of cooking meat this way likely came from Turkey by way of the Ottoman Empire, was further refined by Romanian Jews, and eventually brought to Québec, where it began being sold by a butcher named Aaron Sanft in 1894. From that point on, smoked meat became ubiquitous in Montréal.

To this day, a long line forms daily of patrons eagerly awaiting the opportunity to dine in Montréal's oldest deli, Schwartz's Deli. It began serving smoked meat sandwiches in 1928 and is still going strong with the help of an unlikely patron saint, Céline Dion, who became part-owner of the institution in 2012, ensuring that it goes on and on. 

Fèves au lard, or baked beans, are a frequent breakfast dish among Quebeckers. It is also a delicacy that is a staple at the many cabanes à sucre, or sugar shacks, that dot the region. What sets these beans apart from other baked beans is maple syrup. These slow-cooked beans with salt pork incorporate the signature sweet treat generously, paying homage to the importance of maple syrup to the culture and economy of Québec.

It may not be surprising that the modern-day recipe likely evolved in the 19th century from interactions between the people of Québec with those of New England, specifically Bostonians. However, the legacy of cooking beans with maple syrup and animal fat can get traced farther back to the Indigenous people who inhabited the area before settlers from France arrived. These beans were slow-cooked in earthenware pots set over hot stones for a delicious and healthy meal.

While fèves au lard are less common in the increasingly cosmopolitan society of Montréal, many restaurants still specialize in this French-Canadian comfort food. Try it as a side dish with a hearty breakfast of smoked meat, eggs, and toast. This breakfast will fuel your day of walking the hilly streets of Montréal.

Creton is a French-Canadian variation on a classic French rillette — a pork paté combined with onions, garlic, bread crumbs, and spices like allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. This forcemeat is often served on toast for breakfast, as an appetizer smear on croutons, or as a spread on a hearty sandwich. Early creton likely evolved from similar recipes eaten by Indigenous inhabitants of the region. It became popularized by monks in monasteries dotting the St. Lawrence River. This recipe often used meat sourced from pork ribs that were salted and roasted.

For the uninitiated who have never partaken of a classic rillette or any other type of paté, the texture and flavor of creton may be slightly foreign. Indeed, it is a bit of an acquired taste among Quebeckers. To help tame the minerally and slightly grainy spread, pair it with a hint of sweetness from maple butter or apple butter. A perfect beverage to cut the richness of creton is something bubbly, like a local microbrew or a glass of sparkling wine.

Soupe au pois cassé is a split pea soup often called "habitant soup." It is a rich delicacy that hearkens back to the original settlers of New France, or "habitants," in the early 1600s. According to historians, the ingredients most commonly found in this soup were staples aboard the ships of Samuel de Champlain. These ships would get stocked with foods with long shelf lives, including vinegar, honey, cheese, rice, legumes, and dried, salted meats and fish. Of these humble ingredients, full meals got fashioned to keep the early settlers fueled during the long voyage.

Once these settlers made homes along the St. Lawrence River, they quickly adopted locally available ingredients. They also began farming pigs, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Early variations of this soup were likely a pared-down version made with salted ham, peas, and vegetables. The soup quickly evolved to include game meats and other, more exotic permutations with rich broths giving the soup a stick-to-your-ribs heartiness invaluable to those trying to survive the harsh Canadian winters with limited resources.

Today the soup is often served in cabanes à sucre on Fridays. The soup always gets eaten with a chunk of crunchy bread — something no meal would be complete without. It has become so popular that instant and canned versions of this soup are available across Canada.

Tarte au sucre, or sugar pie, is another relic of the early settlers of New France. These natives of France brought a variation of this pie with them, quickly adapting it to incorporate local ingredients, chief among them maple syrup. These were rugged, humble folk who cooked quickly and easily prepared foods, taking advantage of what they could forage or grow, including pork, which provided the lard used for the delicate pie crust. While most modern variations use brown sugar, some cabanes à sucre still serve the authentic maple version.

If tarte au sucre looks somewhat familiar, that is because permutations of this recipe made their way from Québec into the U.S. It is similar to both an Amish shoofly pie and a classic Louisiana pecan pie. Its flavor, despite its name, is not as sweet as one might think. Some have equated it to having the burnt caramel flavor reminiscent of a crème brûlée. Regardless of the variation of tarte au sucre, it's a dish best enjoyed after a long day out in the cold, harsh winters characteristic of Québec.

It would be impossible to talk about the culinary traditions of Québec without mentioning the legacy of its breweries, distilleries, and cider mills. Early settlers brought with them the craft of brewing beer as well as distilling hard liquor. The first commercial brewery, and the first to export beer to the West Indies, was established in Québec City in 1688 by Jean Talon, also known as the Great Intendant. In 1786, John Molson founded his eponymous brewery in Montréal; it's known as the oldest brewery in North America today. The first rum distillery, the St. Roc Distillery, was founded in Québec City in 1769.

Cider making was likely the product of early British settlers, who often drank cider to prevent scurvy. However, the first apple tree was planted by French apothecary Louis Hébert in 1617 in Québec City. Cider today is big business in Québec, thanks to the distinctly cold climate, which helps give the fruit an extremely high sugar content. Many microdistilleries, micro-breweries, and cider mills offer tours and tastings throughout the region. These libations are effective in warming up after a cold day and are refreshing paired with heartier foods like tourtière, poutine, fèves au lard, and creton.