If the first shoes you wore were skates, you have an unwavering love for anything Tim Hortons and finish a third of your sentences with the word ‘eh’ — chances are you’re a Canadian.Those who fit the bill are invited to The Canadian Association’s Thanksgiving feast tomorrow at Mad Hatters Restaurant, starting at 6pm.Canadian chef Chris LaPlaca and chef Ben Jewett have created an authentic meal complete with maple syrup, smoked bacon and seafood from the Maritimes.The Bermuda Folk Club will provide music, from 7.30pm onwards.The buffet-style meal will start with an autumn leaf salad with apple wood smoked bacon, croutons and a “sweet, yet tangy” dressing made with maple syrup, oil and vinegar.Mr Jewett said the sweet syrup cuts through the acidic taste of the vinegar and “makes for a very nice dressing”. “They are definitely a good marriage, it’s not a one-night stand,” he added, with a laugh.Bacon and maple syrup are quite commonly used in Canadian cooking, according to Mr LaPlaca. “Chefs these days are using them more often outside of breakfast parameters,” he said.Also on offer tomorrow night is a Canadian Maritime style seafood chowder, with mussels from Prince Edward Island and lobster, clams and shrimp “all of which are fished off the Northern Maritimes”.Mr Jewett said: “We make something similar to a Bermuda fish chowder, but by using all these other ingredients from the Maritime area it makes a nice, chunky seafood stew.”The entrée consists of a traditional turkey dish with cranberry and walnut stuffing, and slow-baked ham coated with a cane sugar glaze.The meats will be served with horseradish mashed potatoes, squash, zucchini, parsnip and other root vegetables.Mr Jewett said the mashed potato and horseradish paring worked extremely well together. “You mash the potatoes and whip in horseradish with cream and butter and nutmeg. It just gives a unique kick to the potatoes with the flavours from the nutmeg and the horseradish and it crops up on you.“It’s not initially there, but it’s something that makes your mouth think ‘wow there’s something else in it’.”He said the restaurant prided itself on surprising guests with different flavours. “You see the dish and think it’s going to taste like something and it does, but in the end you get the surprise of another flavour coming through and that is what we look to create in a lot of our dishes here — that something extra.”Dessert is an apple and cinnamon bread pudding and, as a nod to American Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie.Mr Jewett said: “It’s one of the staple dishes everyone wants to see on the table.”Christopher Dye, vice president of the Canadian Association, said the organisation has been celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving for the past 20 years.Anywhere between a few dozen and 100 people are known to turn up for the festivities.He said: “The fact is that everyone thinks of American Thanksgiving as one of the big holidays, but Canadian Thanksgiving has been going on since the First World War and had a long tradition in Canada, celebrated by watching a Canadian football game and spending time with family.“We celebrate it here [in Bermuda] with friends who miss home and just want to come out and enjoy the tradition.”He said there were a lot of similarities between the two versions of the holiday, but there were a few treats unique to Canada, most notably Maritime fish stew and Nanaimo Bars.The bars have a bottom layer of chocolate, coconut and graham crackers, and are toped with a sweet yellow custard and a layer of chocolate and sugar.“It’s an incredibly sweet little bite, so you serve them in tiny squares and you get a big sugar high right after eating it,” Mr Dye explained.He encouraged people to come out tomorrow night.“It’s a short holiday so often times Canadians don’t get to see their families for the holiday. When I was a student in college we would get together and have a pot luck. This is the same idea here, but it’s catered. You get to meet new people and at the same time take part in an old tradition.”Dinner tickets, $60, are available online, www.bdatix.com. Tickets for the Bermuda Folk Club performance only, are $10 at the door.