The Great Immigrant Road Trip

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Fusion is not new in the restaurant world. Even though Chef Edward Lee fears it has become a culinary gimmick, he knows the concept had profound meaning when it originated in a restaurant in Florida under the gaze of one of his heroes, Norman Van Aken. Real fusion is attuned to the everyday cooking of families who set roots in a new country and harmonize immigrant traditions with local cuisine. These are the types of recipes, restaurants, chefs, and families that Lee searched for from the nationalities sprawled across American cities when writing his book Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine. He found himself in cities where “there is nothing about this place that screams ‘culinary paradise’ ” and stumbled upon diners and cafes that “will never make it to the top of a Zagat list” (57); yet these were the places he found made-from-the-heart, cultural cuisine that surprised him into falling in love with unique dishes. Whenever Lee has clam pizza in Connecticut he contemplates “the slow and gradual interconnection of two cultures, in this case, Italian and New England.” He further writes, “When you look at the evolution of American cuisine, you always find this tension between tradition and innovation, a tension that produces the foods we crave most. It is in the intersection of the home we leave and the home we adopt that we find a dish that defines who we really are.” Read more

Rustle Up Some Grubs

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When it comes to using insects as food, a cry of “Bring on the delicacies” comes from certain cultures, whereas others need to be near-to-death starving before considering bugs for dinner. Two recent books, Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet by Daniella Martin and Eat the Beetles! An Exploration into our Conflicted Relationship with Insects by David Waltner-Toews, have taken steps beyond these polarizing camps by arguing that entomophagy (the eating of insects) has a lot going for it: a plentiful wild supply, far less resources required to farm them, no butchering involved, and high nutritional value.   Read more

Give Peas a Chance

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It is not surprising that romantic unions occur over a common love of certain food, as dictated by the adage that the way to one’s heart can be through the stomach. It is far less often you will see a couple bonding over a meal liked by one individual but not by the other, but these incompatibilities are still capable of providing insight to how relationships work. It was definitely not my culinary skills that urged my wife to enter into holy matrimony with me, but it was my cooking during our courtship that taught us both some relationship lessons. Read more

All Hail Caesar!

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Falling on the third Thursday in May, National Caesar Day kicks off the May 2-4 long weekend. For Canadians, this is the unofficial beginning of summer and the Caesar has become our most beloved and patriotic cocktail. Canadian restaurant manager Walter Chell is credited for inventing the Caesar at an Italian restaurant in Calgary in 1969. By mimicking the flavours of an Italian dish, spaghetti vongole, he mixed his own clam broth and tomato juice to create this uniquely Canadian elixir. Shortly after, as it quickly became a favourite national drink, Mott’s came out with the bottled version of their Clamato cocktail for easier mixing of Caesars at home and in bars. And the rest is history. Read more

Historic Mixology

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If David Wondrich had not already won a James Beard Award for Wine & Spirits writing, his book could be nominated for a fake prize in the Longest Title category with its full title being Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to “Professor” Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar, Featuring the Original Formulae for 100 Classic American Drinks and a Selection of New Drinks Contributed in his Honor by the Leading Mixologists of our Time. For our reading and drinking pleasure, Wondrich plays the role of cocktail history authority by paying tribute to the old school style of mixology by bringing to light the contributions of notable barman, Jerry Thomas (1830­–1885). Between the American Revolution and Prohibition (1783–1920), mixing drinks became “the first legitimate American culinary art” and Thomas was in the thick of it. Near the middle of this timeframe, around 1856, the term “mixologist” started being used to describe bartenders who were experimenting with new concoction. Shortly after that in 1862, Thomas started to document these recipes and is credited for writing the world’s first bartending guide, How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant’s Companion. Read more

Savouring and Celebrating the CK Table

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Picture an outdoor dinner party, surrounded by the fields of a local farm, featuring food that was grown or raised within relatively close proximity, or – as the farmers might say – within spitting distance. The local residents eating the meal can pinpoint on a map of their municipality where the food came from. During the meal, the diners mingle with the farmers who supplied the food and cooked it on site with their own hands. It just doesn’t get more local or more delicious. Read more

A Harvest of Canadian Food Writing

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With the autumn harvest of regional foods behind us and the fresh sprouting of spring gardens still months away, it’s time to embark on a harvest of a different sort – the culling of good Canadian food writing to sustain a restless mind through the winter months. Or, if you find yourself in the throes of Christmas preparations, this list could help alleviate the gift-buying anxiety for any of those patriotic foodies in your life. Read more

Sensual Eating

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We all know certain foods taste wonderful, but we rarely take the time to consider why they taste this way – the saltiness of your favourite potato chip, the spicy tingle of a curry, or the pleasant bitterness of coffee. Not to mention the flip side of the flavour equation and those foods we can’t stand to cross our tongues. Good or bad – that’s where science comes in. In her book, Taste What You’re Missing: The Passionate Eater’s Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good, a professional food developer, Barb Stuckey, demystifies the science behind our food and makes gastronomic chemistry accessible to non-scientific-minded people who are just looking to eat good food. Read more

The A, Bee, C’s of Honey

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When it comes to learning, there is no better way to make things stick than to have fun while doing it. Clovermead Apiary, just north of Aylmer in Elgin County, has taken their role as an educator about bees and honey very seriously while having loads of fun along the way. With honey running through their blood, the third and fourth generations of the Hiemstra family have kept the family business thriving. Chris Hiemstra, along with his wife Christy and their three children, take pride in inviting other families to share in the joy of beekeeping by engaging in fun and educational activities on the farm, including informative Bee-Line Tours of the apiary and fun-filled activities in the Adventure Farm. Their working farm has been turned into a destination for family outings with a zip line, a pedal go-kart track, wagon rides, and friendly farm animals. And while you’re here having fun, tidbits about beekeeping stick to your brain, just like honey to toast, as the Hiemstra’s offer an education about these fascinating insects. Read more

Putting It All On the Table

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Adam Gopnik is an American who has made a career of writing essays about France, mostly for The New Yorker and in his best-selling memoir, Paris to the Moon. His latest book, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, tackles one of France’s most endearing subjects – its cuisine. Gopnik introduces his topic by saying, “More people talk about food now – why they eat what they eat and what you ought to eat, too – than have ever done before.” And he’s not referring to dieters going on about calorie counts and trans fat content. These are the gourmets, the foodies, the chefs, the locavores, and the cookbook authors that have cropped up since food has taken on such a central role in cultural media. Much thanks can be given to Food Network for making food centre stage alongside the super-star deified chefs that sing its praises, giving rise to the foodie culture that cares about taste and quality above all else, but Gopnik wants to learn if we really know the true meaning of our food. Read more