Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

aside from what's specifically French Canadian in Quebec, not much really. It's basically the same as American...a foundation of continental, mixed with international (mainly Asian), paired with local ingredients.

the whole kosher thing is a morass.

Glatt Kosher: the highly certified, closed on sabbath and all holy days, watermark of orthodox eating. If you're frum, this is where you eat. Noah's Ark on Clinton is one.

Plain old Kosher: uses certified kosher products, though not necessarily glatt (Hebrew Ntl), open on sabbath, but no milk and meat, treyf. Kosher people will eat there, but not Orthodox. 2nd Ave Deli is prime example.

Kosher style: an outdated term. Once meant "hey, our meat may not be kosher, but we don't put cheese on our sandwiches, and no bacon will enter this store". Then kosher style places started serving treyf, and now it basically is a euphemism for Jewish Style.

Deli: any of the above, providing they serve steamed pastrami, corned beef, and other jewish specialties. They can be glatt kosher (Essex on Coney), or completely treyf (Carnegie), but you only know it when you visit. If the smell of salt and steamed meat doesn't knock you over, it ain't a deli.

Goldenberg's is actually a distant branch of the great Stage Door Deli of Detroit area, so it's roughly the same deal.
Kenny and Ziggy's just opened today in Portland. House cured and smoked pastrami, hand cut, on freshly baked bread. Head down that gorgeous coastal highway and check it out Stushi.

Hey Ed,
David Sax here of http://www.savethedeli.com Having eaten hundreds of deli meals in the past year (still alive!), here's the emmis on what I've found to be tops.

In NY:
-Great surprises from Pastrami Queen on Lex and 78th, which has excellent dry cured pastrami with the recipe from ex Pastrami King of Queens.
-agree on Liebman's, Katz's, Carnegie. Only Artie's experience was with you. Good local deli, but not tops in city or nation in my opinion.
-Essex on Coney, in Brooklyn, is the best glatt kosher offering, and the best atmosphere, cholent and chicken soup has to be Gottlieb's in Williamsburg, a hassidic place where everyone speaks Yiddish.
-For a chain, Ben's Kosher is a winner, with a wonderful house cured corned beef and tongue, not to mention golden kreplach with carmelized onions
-Katz's still rules the roost in Manhattan overall, despite the fries, or other cooked foods. It's a pastrami place, and if they just served that I couldn't fault them.

As for the rest of the nation/world, I'll include some of the tops

Detroit: no other city seves finer rye bread. It'll make the stuff in NY seem like pop tarts.
Stage Door Deli is the biggest and most popular overall
Zingerman's is a haven of fresh everything, made from the finest ingredients money can buy. I hope it's the model for future delis.

Chicago: Manny's is the Katz's of the windy city, and their corned beef is pink silk. Obama eats there...
Kaufman's, in Skokie, makes a killer reuben strudel, which is to die for.

Boulder: The best noodle kugel and house smoked fish I've had was at a new place called Jimmy and Drew's 28th St. Deli in Boulder, Colorado. they make everything in house, including meats and fish, which is rarely seen these days. Their kugel is so dense, sweet, and custardy, it slows the heart with joy.

LA: I know you're a New Yorker, and conceding anything to LA is tantamount to treason, but let me say as an objective observer, that LA is close to surpassing New York in deli quality per capita.
Langer's has the finest pastrami anywhere. Period. Better than Katz's. Hands down.
Nate n' Al serves up the finest matzo ball soup, and corned beef made from certified angus beef...so rich it melts on the tongue like iced cream
Factor's, Junior's, Art's are all top grade delis that can stand toe to toe with anything on 7th Ave, at a fraction of the price, plus you can get a movie deal just eating there.
Brent's, in the Valley, is the mother of them all...a place of such fine tuned perfection even their kishke tastes of crispy gold.
Say what you will about LA...until you eat their deli it's just words.

Houston: Kenny and Ziggy's is one of the best all round New York delis. It just happens to be in cow country. Ziggy Gruber is a deli man the likes of Abe Lebewohl or Leo Steiner. When he returns to New York one day, the city will take some serious notice. Kugels light as air, cabbage rolls that taste like fluffy veal.

Florida: a wasteland. The Rascal House will soon be torn down, and with it, the joy of Jewish Florida. That said, 3G's in DelRay Beach offers a glimmer of hope, with sandwiches on double baked rye and schmaltz filled matzo balls.

I've heard great things about Attman's in Baltimore and 4th St. Deli in Philly, plus Harold's in NJ, but can't comment from experience.

I will say that Montreal is the town to beat. Schwartz's is the king, but attention must be paid to Lester's, Snowdon Deli, Abie's, and Smoked Meat Pete. The grilled salami sandwiches at Wilensky's are the ambrosia of my youth.

I recommend all true deli fiends to check out my site http://www.savethedeli.com which is specifically dedicated to this most important cause. Ess Gezunt!

Torontonians are not the most well-liked people in Canada. I grew up in central Ontario and moved to the GTA a few years ago. They are very snobby and rude, I guess they are the American equivalent of New Yorkers. Must be because its city life.

As for cuisine, most people have touched on it. Wild game, seafood, poutine, maple syrup, beavertails (but I grew up with them being called Moosetongues), peameal bacon etc.

The prepared foods in Canada are unique, such as dill pickle chips, coffee crisp, crispy crunch, kraft dinner, and Tim Hortons. Other than that, I think our cuisine is very similar to American.

Geez, there's a lot of comments here! Okay, my step-mother and step-sister are Canadian, and one of the things I remember most is breakfast, which was a bird-in-a-nest and some real pea meal bacon. Bird in a nest is basically an egg fried into the center (or, in Canada, "the centre") of a piece of toast. That bit you removed is also toasted in the pan, for dipping. This can be done on any side of the border where a slice of bread and an egg can be found, but what about the bacon? Believe it or not, it can be had (for a price!) here in the good ol' U-S-of-A, at a place called ...

Real Canadian Bacon

You can get it sliced or in roasts. If you're well heeled enough, you can get it by the gross, if you want. I find it's not too far off of the "real" stuff, but with a lot of extra water added that cooks out. What I've not done (and should) is a whole roast, THEN sliced.

Anyway, chips-n-gravy, chips-n-curds, amazing steaks served with butter on top, and great game. That, along with some good produce in the summer puts off the "I can't be bothered with you" attitude you sometimes get in Toronto.

I live in Nwe York state just 5 minutes from Niagara Falls, when it was easy to cross the bridge into Canada without waiting a hour like it is now I would go there for groceries, my mom grew up in Toronto and we love to cook. There are some things we buy there that I can't get in the US. It was always good to go when the US dollar was worth more. Now all the Canadians are flocking across to the US because most places take the Canadian$ at par. Whenever I go anywhere shopping there are more Canadian cars in the parking lot than New York ones. It has even gotten to where the Canadian shoppers don't want to declare thier purchases at the boarder so they wear old clothing to the US and toss them anywehre they feel like (in our malls & parking lots) and wear the new clothing & shoes home. On a Sunday afternoon when the mall closes we are left with a huge mess! ANd they are SO RUDE!!!!!

I'm another Canadian Serious Eater, but I don't have much to add in the way of defining Canadian cuisine. We seem to have a hard time defining Canadian culture, so cuisine tends to follow I guess. I know when people have visited us from elsewhere (US, Asia, Europe) they have enjoyed the butter tarts, nanaimo bars, tortiere, and various types of candy that aren't available in the US (i.e., Smarties-kind of like plain M & Ms, but better!)-those seem to be the things they hadn't heard of before coming. My Belgian cousins are also fascinated by Tim Horton's and all things maple. That said, I've eaten many yummy things here, from the traditional British roast beef dinner, to a broad variety of ethnic cuisines. There are many culinary adventures to be had in the various regions as others have pointed out.

@Maureen........did you get my email? I'd love to see that recipe also. I'm surprised I never heard of it.