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2005-06-04: taste canada
What does Canada taste like to you?
When I was a little girl, I asked my mother what "Canadian" meant. I don't know how esoteric I was being, I think I was doing a project for school on being Canadian... and I guess I just wanted her input (as was the norm). She kind of looked at me for a minute and said "it's what we are... it's where we're from... it's what we do... it's everything". Then she went back to baking bread and I continued to be lost on the subject. So many times since then the question has flitted across my mind, still with very little answer to it at all.
The question in my mind recently changed: now it whispers, 'what is it to be a Canadian foodie?' It's certainly not all beer and back bacon. It's not all Niagara wines and Quebec cheeses, either. And it is, without doubt, not just like being an American (or European, or Australian) foodie. The things I remember most about my childhood -- growing up split between both the city and the country in southern Ontario -- was the food.
There was barbeque and cook-outs, baked bread and home made cookies. There were Sunday mornings filled with scones and tea and crumpets as well as weekday evenings satiated by roast chicken and corn. Cold winter nights were warmed with French onion soup, tortiere and shepherd's pie, where cold mornings were perked up with oatmeal and hot chocolate. Many Christmas eves revolved around Chinese take out and Christmas dinner was turkey with all the fixings. Holidays, birthdays and other special occasions were marked with lasagnas, curries, perogies and other large-pot (large family) delicacies. The food is definitely what I remember -- and it was always different, always changing, always poignant.
When I started this site, it almost felt as though I did so from within a Canadian vacuum. I knew that there were food blogs out there by people from Europe, Australia and the United States, but were there no other Canadians? Not one other person interested enough in food to keep a web-log about it -- or at least a web-log that touched on food sometimes? I really didn't think much of it at the time, and then when I started hearing about food blogger gatherings and the friendships borne of those gatherings, I was a bit miffed -- were there no other Canadians like me? Was there no one else in this huge country as interested in food, cooking and eating as I was? That couldn't be possible. Then I happened upon one. Then another and another. Then another and another and another and another. And then one day I received an email from one such Canadian food blogger who thought it would be a good idea for all of us Canadian food bloggers to hold a Canada Day "event".
Essentially, the idea here is to bring attention to Canadian cuisine (and Canadian bloggers!) by having everyone create their very own "Canadian food" and then blog about it on or before July 1st. In this way, we hope to feature an important and often-overlooked aspect of Canadian life -- what we eat and how we enjoy it. As you can perhaps already sense, the possibilities here are limitless! You can make traditional Canadian foods with typical Canadian ingredients; Atlantic salmon, Niagara wines, arctic char, fiddleheads, Alberta beef, or anything with maple syrup (and this is only the beginning!). Alternatively, you can just create a meal that says "Canada" to you, one that brings back fond memories of childhood in this country or exhibits the distinctively Canadian style of multiculturalism that we enjoy... and that, really, can be anything.
We all know what Canada looks like (beautiful), smells like (a little bit of everything), feels like (home) and sounds like (loons)... but what does our country taste like? Deep down, we all have an idea or a memory or a thought of what we love about Canadian food and Canadian food producers. Let's share these with everyone else -- and show them just how Canadians do, make, eat and enjoy food!
If you are interested in joining on in this Canada Day blogging event, please write about and post your favourite Canadian food story and recipe(s) on or before June 26th (include pics if possible!). And if you are just an avid Canadian without a blog of your own, I'll be happy to host your entry here. Just send me an email with a link to your entry and I will post a round up, linking to each entry on July 1st so that everyone can see how amazing the foods -- and the foodies -- of this country really are.
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