Last summer I wrote a book review for Canadian Dimension magazine of the book "The 100 Mile Diet." I also, you may recall, mentioned it in a column.
The idea is that eating locally is an ideal way to remain healthy, support regional ecological differences, and at the same time, filter most of your money back to local producers.
There are huge benefits. It forces you to eat in season, while at the same time allowing you to get to know your eco-region at a much deeper level.
We are fairly lucky here; there are very few things that are not grown within 100 miles; although oranges and olives spring to mind.
This summer, I have been experimenting with the complete opposite.
In the last week I have been touring around the Maritimes eating in ethnic restaurants that I have found. The more authentic, the better.
In Saint John I ate at the Northern Chinese restaurant, where the women did not seem to speak any English. I had a soup which was among the worst things I have ever eaten. It was a vinegar broth with three types of dried chili, as well as fried tofu chunks and some kind of chili oil floating on the surface. It was so spicy I cried the whole time I ate it. The second dish was actually among the best noodle dishes I ever had. Thick egg noodles in a brown onion sauce.
This week I went to Halifax and had, in no particular order, Transylvanian Goulash with huge chunks of paprika sausage and sauerkraut in a creamy stew at Cafe Chianti; Moussaka and stuffed peppers washed down with a Greek red wine at the Taverna Opa; Nachos and Propeller Bitter Ale at the Economy Shoe Shop, and the best sushi ever at Hamachi House; with some warm sake, of course.
It would be a good bet to say that almost nothing I have eaten in two weeks came from within 100 miles; unless it was eggs at Chez Cora.
Even the snacks I have been eating have been from as far away as you can imagine. Yesterday I bought some pistachios from Iran, Dates from Greece, and washed them all down with a burdock and dandelion beverage I found from England.
Now, you might ask, so what?
Well, here are three things that have occurred to me. First off, the world is changing, astronomically. It used to be that the most popular accompaniment in Canada was ketchup. In short order the number one accompaniment for most Canadians has become salsa. As the world changes, the foods from the less developed and southern countries are replacing the old standby items.
I would wager more people in the Maritimes eat rice, grown in the tropics, than potatoes, grown in our own mud.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, did you know they grew pistachios in Iran? I didn't. All I knew about Iran is that their leader is evil; or is supposedly evil if CNN is to be believed. But here I was eating some of the best pistachios I have ever had, and actually thinking about who grew them, and where, and what life was like for them, and how they managed to get the pistachios so rich tasting. All of a sudden Iran was a real place with a real immediate impact on me.
I realize that I should care about them anyway, and I do; but this somehow made the Iranians more a part of my actual world. I could not imagine that the farmer who looked after this crop was any different than my neighbour growing corn.
Eating the food of another country is a way to immerse yourself in that culture. If you don't believe me, take a drive up St. George and go to the convenience store across from Wesley United some day for lunch. There is a great Korean couple who own the store, and while the guy tries to teach me Korean words, the wife cooks up a fabulous lunch with red chili sauce on noodles and barbeque pork. It makes you want to know more about them.
Third, and most importantly, when you stop and think about it, all of this food tasting from around the world says something very strange about how wealthy I am.
You see, before the Americans wiped out half of the world's economy one of the big news stories making the circuit was that the world was facing an impending food shortage. Then all we have heard about for a year was that the economy was ruining the average person's life. Something strange was going on in the background though . . . nothing.
Nothing has changed for the rest of the world. There is still a shortage of food. Most people in most countries where I have been eating food from could not afford, or even find, the food I have so easily come across in the Maritimes.
So in one sense my culinary adventures have brought me closer to other cultures. In another sense, I could not be further away from the day to day reality that the majority of the world faces. Despite the fact that we all spice things differently, food is the one thing we all have in common. Not only that, but we have so much in common it is interesting.
Every culture on the face of the planet has something sandwich like, for example. Whether it is beef wrapped in a fajita, lamb in a pita, duck in a pancake, or cheese between two slices of bread.
The other thing we have in common is that food is hard to come by. It seems simple right now because we are used to cheap transportation, storage, and mass farming. But the time is coming, for all of us.
We have to realize that we are all in this together.
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