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Any seasoned traveller will tell you, a road trip across Canada must be done at least once, but only once and absolutely, positively, definitely not during the winter. But when an opportunity arises, I believe, as the Albertans would say, 'You gotta just send it.'
My friend was moving from Red Deer, AB back to Montreal, QC in early December. I'm a reporter and curious about everything so it was no surprise when a bright idea emerged without any control: a 36-hour drive in a rental van filled to the roof with her things!
Many lamented to me of the “bland” centre of our country, the Prairies, but I wanted to get a taste for it myself and the best way to do that was through the food.
While we ate breakfast at hotels and prepared pulled chicken sandwiches for lunch in our cooler, wherever we stopped for the night we made sure to eat a traditional dish, deeply rooted in that city’s identity.
And let me tell you, taking a long road trip and turning into a culinary adventure really takes the cake when it comes to travel - or in our case, really takes the Flapper Pie!
Over the next week, I'll introduce you to six dishes you must try if you're thinking about doing a road trip across Canada.
DAY 1 – FLAPPER PIE (Regina, SK)
Yes, the eight-hour drive was pretty flat and boring, I’ll give you that. But we entertained ourselves with a few wrong turns onto sketchy dirt roads and an online hunt for the best flapper pie in Regina.
While more of a prairie classic in general, many sources said this particular pie was a very big part of Saskatchewan’s history. And in my brain, when you say prairies, I think Saskatchewan.
The pie has a sweet, sticky yet crumbly graham cracker crust, a creamy vanilla custard filling, a fluffy meringue topping with tall golden-brown tips, and a finishing sprinkle graham cracker dust. It is simple and plain, but sometimes in cuisine, simplicity is crucial to delicacy.
The concept of the pie actually began in the Edwardian English era in the early 1900’s, without a graham cracker crust.
The story of how this became a Prairie staple is more of a mystery, but with some research, I may have connected a few speculatory dots.
It’s really all in the first layer: the crust. The crackers were invented in 1829 by New Jersey Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham for a much grander purpose. Believing foods like white flour, sugar, and meat, were the cause of sexual sinfulness, he wanted to create a health food that would be so boring, sugarless, and natural, that it would completely kill the mood and any temptations, particularly the one to please yourself, if you catch my drift.
However, once Graham was left to roll in his grave, not only did the cracker become commercialized with sugar, but American pie-maker Monroe Strause created the graham-cracker crust in the 1920s, used for a vanilla custard pie with a meringue topping. Americans still call it today a “Graham Cracker Pie” or “Graham Wafer Pie” and it’s only Canadians who use the term “Flapper Pie”.
A flapper is a term from the 1920s to describe the Great Gatsby-style of women at the time who were “immoral” and modern. Not only did they wear rubber galoshes that would flap over their shoes, hence the name, but they cut their hair in boyish bobs, ate slimming diets, wore makeup, drank alcohol in public, wore shorter skirts, and were more sexually promiscuous. Oh, the humanity!
During this time, many British immigrants were moving to Saskatchewan, potentially bringing this classic pie recipe with them, and communications technologies like telephones and radios where becoming popularized. With easily accessible ingredients like butter, grains, and sugar, without the need for fruits, the pie was affordable during challenging economic times like the Great Depression and following world wars, using few ingredients and to their fullest extent, like equal parts of egg yolks and egg whites.
I’d like to think the ‘flapper’ name comes from the pie’s flappy and wobbly texture. Or, some believe, as the pie was easy and fast to make, it was a modern woman’s dessert, away from the conventional long hours of sweating over the stove. Others say that the name was a modern way of snubbing Reverend Graham, using his cracker in a sweet dessert, and showing modernity to an old English tradition.
Over the years, this novelty of this dessert has faded leading to some calling it “Forgotten Prairie Pie”; many locals today had no idea what I was talking about when I asked them where I could find one!
After calling various bakeries in Regina, a woman from Baba’s Dough Box, in a heavy central European accent, told me to come the next morning, Saturday, at 6 a.m., when the pies would be ready.
She probably thought I was bluffing, but there I was, busting through the doors of this tiny little bakery even before the sun came up, startling Tina Vukovic, who is the general manager, and her adorable mother Mila, better known as 'Baba', the owner.
From Serbia, formerly Yugoslavia, Baba immigrated to Canada in 1976 and with a love and life experience in baking, opened her business just over four years ago.
“Now she’s finally living her dream instead of retiring,” said Tina laughing.
She shared that the pie was particularly popular in the Prairies during the second World War. With many ingredients rationed like butter, sugar, preserves, and canned fruits, the pie became a delight for its touch of sweetness and an accessibility for its eggs, the main ingredient.
With three generations now working in the kitchen, Baba advised me the pie was best eaten straight from the oven. She didn’t have to twist my arm; my fork was already in my pocket waiting to make its move.
I gave Baba a hug as she generously handed me an extra homemade cinnamon bun for the road before returning to the van. As I am not a fan of overly sweet desserts, the moderate flavors let the texture shine: crumbly on the tongue, a delicate crisp on the top, and a refreshing creamy centre that felt comforting and filling.
It was almost the perfect encapsulation of Saskatchewan: simple but underestimated.
DAY 2 – HONEY DILL SAUCE (Winnipeg, MB)
Another flat six-hour drive to Winnipeg was welcomed with a thoughtful gift bag of traditional foods by one of our friends, born and raised in the French-influenced city.
Apart from craft beers, ketchup chips, and cake from Jeanne’s Bakery, a now mixed-rated dessert amongst locals, what stood out to me was the jarred honey-dill sauce.
I like to believe this dipping sauce and its must-have pairing of chicken fingers, was created by a happy little accident.
There’s a scene in the hit TV-sitcom FRIENDS where Monica attempts to recreate the chocolate chip cookie recipe passed down by Phoebe’s grandmother after losing it in an apartment fire. That’s pretty much how this sauce was created.
As local media have heavily reported on, Shirley Eng, owner of downtown’s Mitzi’s Chicken Finger Restaurant, went out to dinner one night with her husband Peter in the 80’s. There, they were served a dipping sauce that Peter could not forget about; he needed to recreate it.
He began to concoct with Eng as his taste tester, and while it may not have been exactly like the one at that restaurant, it must have been even better. Once Eng began to serve this 'mistake-sauce' at her restaurant, it began a dip revolution.
Unfortunately, Mitzi’s 45-year staple was announced to close sometime this year, but the sauce will live on, whether made in homes, recreated in local diners, or sold in strictly Manitoban stores, with the most popular brand made by the Greetalia company.
As I didn’t make it in time for Mitzi’s opening hours, I had the Greetalia sauce with a pair of questionable cardboard-looking chicken fingers from a fast-food chain that I very much regretted purchasing.
Thankfully, my palate was saved by the sauce. With its thick mayo-based consistency, a big kick of sweetness from the honey came first, with dill making a strong entrance in the next layer. The tanginess from the lemon juice was the perfect referee, balancing the two flavors.
The chicken fingers are the true puzzle piece to this dish; while I longed for Mitzi’s, I instantly understood how a crispy, salty, and dare I say maybe even a little spicy batter is what harmonizes the dish for a holistic umami bite, igniting every taste bud.
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Stay tuned for Part 2 of the trip: Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
