Nanaimo Bar appears as a signature dish in 2 Canada cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Nanaimo bar · Toronto
The Nanaimo bar is the three-layer no-bake Canadian dessert square: a coconut-graham-cracker chocolate base, custard buttercream middle and chocolate ganache top. Toronto bakeries carry it year-round.
The Nanaimo bar originated in Nanaimo, British Columbia in the 1950s, the first published recipe appearing in the 1953 Edith Adams cookbook. Through the 1960s the bar travelled east across Canada and became a staple in Toronto bakeries and Jewish delis. Wanda's Pie in the Sky in Kensington has carried it since 1989; the runny-custard middle layer the city's reference style.
Where to eat in Toronto:
- Wanda's Pie in the Sky
Nanaimo bar · Vancouver
The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake three-layer dessert with a graham cracker, coconut and almond base, a custard middle and a chocolate top. Originally from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, the dessert is the city's calendar bake.
The Nanaimo bar is named for the Vancouver Island city, first published as a recipe in the 1953 Edith Adams Omnibus Cookbook from the Vancouver Sun. Mabel Jenkins won the first Nanaimo bar contest in 1986 with the canonical recipe. The dessert appears on every Vancouver bakery counter and in the Canadian school lunchbox.
Where to eat in Vancouver:
- Beaucoup Bakery
- Granville Island Public Market