Most of our dietary intake is made up of common North American cuisine – vegetables, pasta, Hot Pockets – the list goes on and on. But some of the things on our menu are distinctly Canadian. Great Canadian Foods is a new weekly feature on SmartCanucks exploring the tastier side of Canadian living.

While it’s still a fairly new column, I’d like to think that “Great Canadian Foods” has a bit of structure.  We talk a little bit about what the food is, where it came from, and great ways to find/prepare it.

Ketchup chips has none of that.

Everyone knows what they are, nobody seems to know where they came from, and you can find them in every corner store in the country. What makes ketchup chips so special is one unsolvable question: why are we the only ones who love them?

Evidence of the ketchup chip in Canada (or at least the evidence we could find) dates back as far as 1967.  While that may not be as historical as some Canadian foods, it’s still a treat that dates back generations.  And it’s well-loved, too.  Old Dutch says it’s one of their top two most popular flavors (the other is Salt & Vinegar.)  Even Seth Rogan sang it’s praises on Jimmy Kimmel a few years back. But in America? You can’t GIVE these things away.

A number of leading US chip manufacturers have tried to offer this delicious ketchup treat, and every time they fall flat on their face.  A few smaller US snack companies produce them, but the average American consumer is going to have to special order/go on a manhunt if they ever want to taste it’s deliciousness without travelling across the border.

Do you have any thoughts on this mystery?  Why do Americans have no interest in our most-beloved potato chip flavour?  And when was the last time you bit into a tasty ketchup chip?

Old Navy is sponsoring the newest Smart Canucks giveaway by offering $250 in gift cards! They have some really great kids gear, including some adorable new arrivals for the fall season.

Rules

Go to their online store and choose up to $100 worth of baby/childrens merchandise.

Then leave a comment on here listing your choice(s) of items.
Along with your list, post the location of an Old Navy store in your area.
You must post both requirements in order to be eligible to win.

The winners will be randomly chosen, with the 1st place prize being a $100 GC, 2nd & 3rd place prizes receive a $50 GC and 4th and 5th place winners receive a $25 GC.

Click here to find a location near you.

•1 entry per household i.e. you may only leave 1 comment on the blog. If you want to discuss anything or share your thoughts please include it in that 1 comment.
•Age of majority only
•Last day to enter is September 23rd, 2010. The contest will close at 8pm EST with the winner announced shortly after.
•Must use a valid email so you can be contacted if you are the winner randomly drawn.
•Canada only

OMG! A Bath and Bodyworks store will be opening at the mall close to me and I’m so excited! I can practically spend all day at that store. But anyway, here is a coupon for a free travel size Signature Collection item with any purchase. Excludes home fragrance, limit one per customer, valid until Oct. 6, 2010. What’s your favourite BBW scent? Mine are: Warm Vanilla Sugar (heavenly!), Coconut Lime Verbena (refreshing!), Cucumber Melon (who doesn’t?), Coconut (exotic!), Passionfruit (yummy!), and Japanese Cherry Blossom (so pretty!). Umm…I think that’s it. What about you?

Click here to print your coupon.

Thanks to couponlady for sharing this coupon with us!

The Walmart Anniversary continues!  Week 2 of the sale flyer is now posted for QC residents.  The flyers for the rest of Canada were very similar if not identical of the first week so this should be a good preview for the rest of us.   If your Walmart flyer starts on Fridays, your dates to remember are September  21 to 30.

Click here to check out the flyer.

Huge thanks to couponlady for giving us the scoop!

Here is an awesome deal from amazon.ca. Save up to 60% off on selected titles of your favourite TV shows. DVD and Blu-Ray choices are available and prices range from $16.99 – $39.99. Some of the ones I like include Buffy the Vampire Slayer (used to watch this in high school), Smallville, Ghost Whisperer, and Supernatural.

*Offer valid through September 26, 2010. Applies only to purchases of products sold by Amazon.ca, and does not apply to products sold by third-party merchants and other sellers through the Amazon.ca site.

Click here to check out this sale.

Thanks to Igzsc for posting this great deal!

I love knowing what coupons Costco has to offer before I go.  Thanks to couponlady for making that possible!

The thing I like most about this coupon is that there’s no minimum purchase required, unlike the Barkers Bones coupons where you have to purchase at least $50. I’m planning on checking out the kids/baby section and possibly the clearance section too. Maybe the kids’ Halloween costumes are on sale now.

Coupon valid until 9/23/10 and not valid at oldnavy.ca.

Click here to print your coupon.

Smartsource is a coupon flyer that can be found in your local newspapers. The contents of the Sept. 25th issue are:

Whiskas Treats Buy 1 & Get 1 Free, expire Mar. 31, 2011
$1.00 off 6-roll pack of Cascades Envio paper towels, expire Dec. 31, 2010
$1.00 off 12 Double Roll of 24 Single Roll Cascades Enviro Bathroom Tissue, expire Dec. 31, 2010
$0.75 Dempsters Oven Fresh Baguettes or Dinner Rolls, expire Dec. 31, 2010
$1.50 off any 2 Ristorante or Casa di Mama thin crust pizza, expire Mar. 31, 1011
$1.00 off 2 Dr. Oetker products, expire Mar. 31, 1011
$1.00 off Sun-Maid bread (page shows Raisin), expire Dec. 31, 2010
$1.00 off Uncle Ben’s Natural Select Rice, expire Mar. 31, 2011
Buy 1 Glade Scented Oil Candle Refill Get 1 Free, expire Oct. 30, 2010
$2.50 off New Glade Fabric & Air odour eliminator, expire Oct. 30, 2010
Buy 1 Get 1 Free Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gels, expire Mar. 31, 2011
$0.50 off Toilet Duck, expire Mar. 31, 2011

I’m liking the pizza and raisin bread coupons 🙂

Thanks to Who’s Driving Me? for a super early peek at the flyer!

Here are more great coupons from Websaver.ca:

• Save $1 on any Tide laundry detergent
• Save $2 on any Tide Stain Release product
• $0.50 on any Tide To Go product

For our friends out West that can stack coupons, these would be great to go with the P&G Brandsaver flyer and online coupons.

Click here to order your coupons.

*Offer valid on the purchase total of eligible products after discounts and redemptions and before taxes. Excludes prescription purchases, products with codeine, tobacco products (where applicable), stamps, passport photos, lottery tickets, event tickets, transit tickets and passes, electronic gift cards, Life Experiences® packages, prepaid phone cards and Shoppers Home Health Care locations. Not to be used in conjunction with any other Shoppers Drug Mart promotions or offers. Offer valid Monday, September 20 to Friday, September 24, 2010 only. Coupon will be accepted until October 15, 2010. One coupon per transaction per customer. While quantities last.

Well if you missed the 20x points event on Saturday, all is not lost. You can still get a $10 SDM coupon when you spend $50 or more. While this is not as good an offer as 20x points, who’s gonna refuse a free $10 coupon? Not me!

Thanks to FallenPixels for posting in the forum!

We all love the hip and occasionally silly clothing designs at Threadless.com, but don’t you just hate to pay for shipping?  All this month any order with a hoodie in it will recieve free shipping.  One hoodie and ten t-shirts?  Free shipping.  2 hoodies and an infant onesie?  Free shipping.  Anything + hoodie?  Free shipping.

The hoodies aren’t cheap, but they are nice.  And with other shirts available for as little as $5, this can be a great time to get everything shipped to Canada without incurring the annoying extra costs.  Click here to get shopping.

Don’t like what they have on offer?  Prove you can do better and design your own!

Week 2 of the NFL is well underway, and as I settle in for a long afternoon of football and writing, I can’t help but ponder the future of football in Canada.

The CFL has seen a big resurgence in recent years.  In fact, not a season has gone by in the last decade where we haven’t heard about average attendance numbers going up.  But as much as we’ve re-learned to love Canadian pigskin in recent years, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever find a CFL fan that isn’t an NFL fan too.  Despite this, Canada has never had an NFL team.

We’re in the NHL, NBA, MLB and even the MLS (go Toronto FC!)  — the only major American league we don’t have representation in is the NFL.  But do we need to?  The Bills seem to think so.

Since 2008, the Bills have been playing both a pre-season game and a regular season game in Toronto.  It makes sense, since the team has a pretty strong fanbase in Southern Ontario — but it also feels a little like testing the waters.  Due to economic problems in the Buffalo area, the Bills have to keep their ticket prices far lower than their competition.  A move to Toronto would address this — after all, look at how much we’re willing to pay for Leafs tickets. 😛

Whether it’s the Bills, Toronto, or any other mix — would you want to see the NFL in Canada?  Or are you happy to have the CFL in your backyard, watching American Football from a comfortable distance?

As I type this I’m watching the Packers pummel the Bills.  Keep that in mind before you cast your vote for the NFL’s most lovable losers.  (for more info on seeing the Bills in Toronto, check out the official website.)

Tomorrow night, CBC will be hosting a very special presentation of Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation… in 3D! As a result, Canada Post’s across the country are offering free pairs of 3D glasses so you can enjoy the experience from the comfort of your own home… but you knew that already, didn’t you?

While checking the Queen out in three dimensions is all kinds of patriotic cool, there are lots of fun things you can do with those free glasses after the event. Here’s a few ideas;

• Make your own 3D movies/pictures – It may sound like a crazy idea that requires a frightening amount of technology, but doing this falls under the “if they could do it in the 50’s, you can probably do it on your phone” school of thought.  All you’ll need is a digital camera and some photo editing software.  Here’s a great tutorial to make images, and here’s one to make videos.  Videos are a little tougher — you’ll need two cameras and a basic understanding of video editing — but it’s still well within the range of a DIY film geek.
• Be Biff Tannen’s friend for Hallowe’en – Back to the Future is the greatest film ever made.  It’s better than Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Soul Plane combined.  Name one movie better than Back to the Future, and I’ll hop in my DeLorean and make sure that it doesn’t get made.  Here’s a quick pic to remind you of how cool Biff’s gang looked, and how easily you could be a part of it with your free glasses this Hallowe’en.
• Play 3D games on your iPhone – A number of iPhone games in recent months have offered a special 3D mode that takes advantage of the old red and blue technology.  Both Crash Course and Ground Effect support 3D glasses, but if you want to just fiddle around for free, check out the trial version of Fly Effect Real 3D for the low low price of $0.
• Search out 3D images online – Just want to use your 3D glasses without having to bother closing your browser window?  No worries!  Do a Google image search for “anaglyph” and you’ll instantly be delivered to hundreds of different 3D pictures to check out.  The same goes for a search of “3D” on YouTube.  Or even just stick “3D images” into your favorite search engine.  The results are seemingly endless. My personal favorite? These 3D images of the sun that NASA released a few years back.
• Fall asleep with them on, wake up FREAKED OUT! – On second thought, this might not be that great of an idea.  Maybe keep a spare pair in your pocket to slip on the next stranger you find sleeping on the bus.

Even if you’re not interested in the Queen, there’s lots to do with a free pair of anaglyph 3D glasses.  If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your pair at Canada Post — and let us know what cool 3D fun you end up having with them!

*Taxes are payable on the full purchase price prior to the application of the discount reward. Offer is a reduction off your total pre-tax purchase price of products eligible for point redemption. Points are not redeemable for cash or credit. All other reward levels remain in effect during this promotion. Offer excludes prescription purchases, products with codeine, non-pointable items, tobacco products (where applicable), stamps, passport photos, lottery tickets, event tickets, transit tickets and passes, gift cards, prepaid phone cards, prepaid card products, and Shoppers Home Health Care locations. Not to be used in conjunction with any other Shoppers Optimum Points® promotions or offers. See cashier for details. Valid Shoppers Optimum Card® must be presented at time of purchase.

You heard it here first! Next weekend, Sept. 25-26, 2010 Shoppers Drug Mart is holding their Bonus Redemption event. The redemption levels are now the same all across Canada at 50000 pts = $100 and 95000 pts = $200 so our friends out West no longer lose out. It would be a good time to use those coupons expiring on Sept. 30th. Now to wait for the flyer and make my shopping list….

Thanks to CrazyQT for the early heads up!

There are currently 3 coupons available from Disney Rewards to save you money on movies.

1. Save $10 on Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue BluRay Combo Pack (Please note there is a seperate link nearer the bottom of the page for Quebec residents). Coupon is valid thru October 3, 2010 but will only be available to print until October 2.

Click here to get your coupon.

2. Save $8 on Prince of Persia BluRay Combo Pack.  (Please note there is a seperate link nearer the bottom of the page for Quebec residents). Coupon is valid thru September 28, 2010 but will only be available to print until September 27.

Click here to get your coupon.

3. Save $10 when you upgrade your old copy of Beauty and the Beast and purchase the BluRay Diamond Edition Combo Pack. (This offer is not available for resident of Quebec).  To get access to this coupon you must enter the UPC from an old VHS or DVD copy of the movie.  Coupon is valid from October 5-9, 2010  but only available to print until October 8.

Click here to get your coupon.

With all these coupons available it’s a good time to pick up a Christmas gift or two!