Special Glasses Issue 2

Mary Pratt – Threads of Scarlet, Pieces of Pomegranate

Ethiopia – A World Away

Slowfood

Latkes, ristorantes and fish eyes$5.99

Mincemeat – A Recipe for Disaster

Beginning a Dinner Party Club

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn aaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggg lllllllllliiiiiiiiiiffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

........ IIIIIIIIIIII fffffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllll ssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooffffffffffffffffffffooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

nnnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... IIIIIIIIIIII wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll hhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooolllllllllddddddddddddd oooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttttoooooooooooooooooooottttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssss ffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnn

gggggggggggggggggggggggg aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddd iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oooooooooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr tttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhh

eeeeeeeeee rrrrrrooooooouuuugggghhhhhhhh sssssssspppppppoooooootttttttsssss

special glasses v12 2/5/08 10:53 AM Page 1

Special Glasses is an evaluation of the human condi-tion. A publication that doesn’t sell or promote a prod-

uct or service is suspect from the outset.What is this and why is it produced? What is therevenue stream? Is this something to do with a religious organization? Who publishesthis and why? All valid questions; however, I won’t insult you by answering any of them.

SPECIAL GLASSES is a magazine intended to encourage you to consider, recall, and shareideas and experiences that exist between, beneath, to the right and to the left of thethings you normally see. SPECIAL GLASSES is an existential quantifier - It exists and there-fore it is possible to produce a magazine that follows no rules beyond Truth, Decency,Love, and Rich Imagery with Complete Absence of Commercialism. This magazine exists,it simply does, and it is read and shared by an awful lot of you, considering the first issuewas distributed hand to hand, heart to heart.

The fact is, when you do the right things, the right things result and SPECIAL GLASSES hasopened windows and doors for me as an artist, and for the contributors who are boundtogether by a love of the obscure, by the conversations around the ideas, by what hap-pens when the magazine is opened and the mind engages.

I tell you SPECIAL GLASSES in an artistic pursuit – a metaphor for art in and of itself.

SPECIAL GLASSES was the basis for a new method of communicating that I call HighFidelity Story Telling®. The fact that something of real fiscal value emerged from some-thing so visceral speaks well of following one’s heart and saying YES to ideas that comefrom the corners of one’s mind, from out on the edge.

Where do you get the edge? I have offered to bring chaos into busy marketing commu-nications offices and to presidents of large organizations where people are otherwise tootask oriented to take a chance on a non linear idea. I am delighted to be thus employedby several clients – is this not the dream occupation?

Special Glasses is available in select independent book stores. Our print run is not largeso you might want to reserve your copy by logging on to www.noraspicks.com and click-ing on the SPECIAL GLASSES icon on the left.

Please DO NOT JUST READ SPECIAL GLASSES – let it wash over you and let it encourageyou to actually or metaphorically WEAR SPECIAL GLASSES YOURSELF...

I truly do want to know what you think; what you saw yesterday when the fine mist fromthe lake crept along Queen Street causing a surreal effect; I want to know what you love,what moves you, what you’re reading or watching or thinking or doing or combinationsof the above.

You are an integral part of the grand enterprise that is art.

NoraArt is like a love affair. Once you have it in your life you are unwilling to do without.

We gratefully acknowledgeour Best Friend SponsorAnnan & Sons.

Important p.s.Special Glasses is lookingfor a partner sponsor. If you are large-hearted andbelieve in art for the sakeof art, contact me [email protected]

SPECIALGLASSESOPEN YOURMINDAND SHAREWHAT’STHERE.

1ISBN 978-0-9739403-2-9

Printed in Canada by Annan & Sons

Distribution inquiries: [email protected] Sponsorship inquiries: [email protected] To subscribe, visit: www.noraspicks.com To provide feedback: [email protected]

SPECIAL GLASSES, Open Your Mind And Share What’s There is published annually by DUO Strategy and Design Inc. [www.duo.ca]

This publication is available for sale in independent book shops; it is also shared hand to hand, heart to heart.

cover photo: Bronwen Sharp


Special Glasses is an evaluation of the human condi-tion. A publication that doesn’t sell or promote a prod-

uct or service is suspect from the outset.What is this and why is it produced? What is therevenue stream? Is this something to do with a religious organization? Who publishesthis and why? All valid questions; however, I won’t insult you by answering any of them.

SPECIAL GLASSES is a magazine intended to encourage you to consider, recall, and shareideas and experiences that exist between, beneath, to the right and to the left of thethings you normally see. SPECIAL GLASSES is an existential quantifier - It exists and there-fore it is possible to produce a magazine that follows no rules beyond Truth, Decency,Love, and Rich Imagery with Complete Absence of Commercialism. This magazine exists,it simply does, and it is read and shared by an awful lot of you, considering the first issuewas distributed hand to hand, heart to heart.

The fact is, when you do the right things, the right things result and SPECIAL GLASSES hasopened windows and doors for me as an artist, and for the contributors who are boundtogether by a love of the obscure, by the conversations around the ideas, by what hap-pens when the magazine is opened and the mind engages.

I tell you SPECIAL GLASSES in an artistic pursuit – a metaphor for art in and of itself.

SPECIAL GLASSES was the basis for a new method of communicating that I call HighFidelity Story Telling®. The fact that something of real fiscal value emerged from some-thing so visceral speaks well of following one’s heart and saying YES to ideas that comefrom the corners of one’s mind, from out on the edge.

Where do you get the edge? I have offered to bring chaos into busy marketing commu-nications offices and to presidents of large organizations where people are otherwise tootask oriented to take a chance on a non linear idea. I am delighted to be thus employedby several clients – is this not the dream occupation?

Special Glasses is available in select independent book stores. Our print run is not largeso you might want to reserve your copy by logging on to www.noraspicks.com and click-ing on the SPECIAL GLASSES icon on the left.

Please DO NOT JUST READ SPECIAL GLASSES – let it wash over you and let it encourageyou to actually or metaphorically WEAR SPECIAL GLASSES YOURSELF...

I truly do want to know what you think; what you saw yesterday when the fine mist fromthe lake crept along Queen Street causing a surreal effect; I want to know what you love,what moves you, what you’re reading or watching or thinking or doing or combinationsof the above.

You are an integral part of the grand enterprise that is art.

NoraArt is like a love affair. Once you have it in your life you are unwilling to do without.

We gratefully acknowledgeour Best Friend SponsorAnnan & Sons.

Important p.s.Special Glasses is lookingfor a partner sponsor. If you are large-hearted andbelieve in art for the sakeof art, contact me [email protected]

SPECIALGLASSESOPEN YOURMINDAND SHAREWHAT’STHERE.

1ISBN 978-0-9739403-2-9

Printed in Canada by Annan & Sons

Distribution inquiries: [email protected] Sponsorship inquiries: [email protected] To subscribe, visit: www.noraspicks.com To provide feedback: [email protected]

SPECIAL GLASSES, Open Your Mind And Share What’s There is published annually by DUO Strategy and Design Inc. [www.duo.ca]

This publication is available for sale in independent book shops; it is also shared hand to hand, heart to heart.

cover photo: Bronwen Sharp


COMBINE A QUARTER POUND EACH OF DRIED, CANDIED, CHOPPED CITRON, ORANGEPEEL AND LEMON PEEL. Combining ingredients and submitting them to culinary technique is aventure that emboldens the cook, for she savours the process of acci-dents and cunning from which results the concoction that, when pre-sented to the dinner guest, confounds the distinction between materialand immaterial, between physical sensation and figurative effect. Thereexists of course no recipe the realization of which does not permitadditions or substitutions of ingredients to heighten or perturb either

the nutritive or evocative power of the dish. Accordingly, you may wishherein to substitute candied kumquat for the citron. Kumquats oncegrew profusely along the sand dunes of Spain’s Mediterranean coast.Although Spaniards joyously devour this delicacy, for centuries thefruit-laden boughs wild among palmettos were profuse, for even themost dedicated aficionado preferred to rhapsodize about the kumquatgrove rather than pluck a fruit that belonged to no one and to every-one. They were commonplace yet relished by the native Spaniard,especially when the visiting, incredulous Londoner often had neverheard of “the fruit that grows inside out.” This is said about thekumquat because one eats the peel, which is exceedingly sweet, butshuns the pulp, which is so sour it could curdle saliva.

TWO AND A HALF QUARTS OF APPLES, PEELED AND SLICED.“The tarter the apple the sharper the blade.”so the saying goes. Manya child watching his grandmother at the table cutting away spirals ofbright red apple skin, splashing white rows of apple flesh with lemonor diluted vinegar, upon hearing her murmur this maxim would shud-der at its message – that insolence would bring swift punishment.And if it were a young girl listening, she would vow never to display asharp tongue, lest suitors suspect she has a cold heart. Such are thefolks most susceptible to the cook as she works: impressionableinfants who have not yet surrendered their aptitude for imbuing allobjects and actions with allegory, and students, who confidentlyaffect the mannerisms and inflections, as well as the superstitions, of the culinarian they revere.

SPRINKLE SALT AND PEPPER OVER HALF A POUND OF CHOPPED BEEF SUET, MIXINGWELL WITH HALF A POUND OF BROKEN NUT MEATS.The naturally sweet nuts such as pecan and cashew should be avoid-ed, and walnut or another bitter type preferred. The bitterness of the walnut should evince a barely discernible gall. “Who dies of gallwould not live better without it” is a notion now out of favour indessert-making, but in most other endeavours taken to the extreme,

as even the most casual perusal of the daily newspaper will affirm.Thus, often, the recipe of today will substitute blander tastes. Thereare two reasons for this, the first being that cookbooks are no longerused solely as a reference for the active culinary artisan: today asoften as not they are pictorial compendia of photographed foods. Thereaders of such books indulge themselves a few moments of solitudein which to imagine the tastes of exotic ingredients illustrated there-in. But they no longer devote hours, even days, to the performance of the actual recipes. Secondly, increasingly, inexperienced cooks no

longer acquaint themselves with the walnut, and are unlikely to knowthat walnuts release their flavour continuously over the several weeksthat mincemeat is “setting”; if the cook errs in quality or quantity ofwalnut added, the whole endeavour will end with the guests unableto stomach the bilious commixture.

ONE QUART OF SOUR CHERRIES,Preferably the St. John’s variety, although it is rare and seldom grownin quantity for transport or commercial canning. It is best to have pitted the cherries well in advance and keep them on ice. This willenhance their colour which is a delicate peach all around, except for a splotch of scarlet that deepens when chilled. It is said that this cher-ry got its name when the Christ Child Himself, along with His cousinJohn, was learning from His Mother how to cut out the cherry’s stone.

Blue for blueberries

and for God’s royal cloak,

Green are the leaves

on His Majesty’s oak

Oranges are blessed

at cathedrals in Spain

Gladly we toil

in our Lord’s holy name,

so sang the semi-divine cousins, goes the legend when children aretaught this ditty in the Midland orchards where St. John’s are culti-vated. St. John, we are told, sang with so much zest he grew careless.His blade slipped against his own hand, splashed the cherry withblood, and thereby prefigured his own beheading.

STIR ONE POUND OF RAISINS WITH THREE QUARTERS OF A POUND OF CURRANTSAND ONE AND A HALF POUNDS OF SUGAR.Some recipes for raisins are exceedingly ancient, and culinary legendswith which they are linked usually allude to food deliberately poisoned.

In the oldest concoctions the inclusion of raisins was advised in orderthat the bitterness of the lethal fraction be masked by the raisin’s dark-ly sweet taste. A 2,000-year-old Roman recipe for cauliflower, however,claims that the addition of the raisin is precautionary, and that in thepresence of raisin, the flavour of any toxin would be magnified sogreatly that “first by aroma and then by the casting of tears from eyes,the dinner guest will be safely hastened from his plate.”

ADD ONE HALF FRESHLY GRATED NUTMEG.The medicinal, noxious and symbolic properties of spices are vastlyrecorded. The lore of the nutmeg itself abounds with precautions,parables and miracles, sometimes without certain distinction betweenthe three. When freshly ground, the nutmeg releases its most volatileessence, spiricine, a xanthine-like chemical named for the “breath” ofthe nutmeg, which centuries ago would have been equivalent to itsspirit or soul. Cooks shared the secret that an ecstasy might beinduced when one smells the first cut of this kernel. Yet by someaccounts, there is a warning that “only toothless women” are theproper cooks for nutmeg. This refers to how the spiricine will inducethe cook to smile, yet she must keep her lips firmly closed (thus noneof her teeth are visible), for to inhale the soul of the nutmeg and min-gle it with one’s own breath is to risk sudden death.

MIX ONE HALF TEASPOON OF FRESHLY GRATED CINNAMON, OF MACE, OF CLOVESAND OF CORIANDER SEED INTO ONE POUND OF CHOPPED OX HEART.

POUR ONE PINT OF CIDER UPON ALL THE ABOVE INGREDIENTS MIXED IN A CAULDRON.This is to be cooked gently for two hours. It is best to slip an asbestospad between the pot and the flame, to prevent scorching, whichwould mar the taste and texture. The asbestos device is all thatremains of the cook’s traditional vigilance over this delicacy. As withso many other of the processes of cookery, vigilance is accomplishedas a manifestation of the chef’s character, and cooks can recognize inthe final presentation of a dish the influence of various habits of vigi-lance. For some cooks, the admixture would have been slightly stickyand quite glossy, with uniform texture throughout, the result of infre-quent stirring and an emphasis upon daydreaming. In contrast, thereare cooks who are actively vigilant with all of their senses, listening tothe sputtering of the sauce, smelling the progress of the increasinglymingled flavours, watchful that the mixture is fairly heated through-out, constantly pressing the morsels to monitor their texture. Tosome, the gradual changing of colour from distinctly fresh and multi-

plicitous to a universally burnished caramel, is a favourite, oft-repeat-ed narrative. To others the bubbling pot is like a mailbox to which at intervals they eagerly return, to peer within, while otherwise busyrestoring the kitchen to a tidy state. That tradition of watchfulness,even so, had been of only eighty-six years duration, establishedbecause of the conflagration at St. Luke’s in Brimston on December10th. Its great kitchen had been ignited by untended mincemeat simmering in preparation for the Christmas Day feast.

* * *

An added note about contemporary dinner guests

We are living in times worthy of much reflection. Nowadays we willoften have guests who haven’t ever been taught to cook. They glanceblushing at a recipe or at an array of bowls and spoons. The sight ofripened pods, of leaves and stalks, of cotelets, filets, of eggs and twigs, seeds and oil is entrancing yet intimidating. When the meal isarranged before them at the table, they glance at it surreptitiously, butrarely does their gaze meander fondly from dish to dish. More infre-quent still is the guest who sighs and lingers, and, returning a cordialsmile to the cook, inhales languorously before the ingestion begins.

For distinguishing salt from sugar these guests possess great confi-dence in their palate and long to extend it to all other flavours. Yetimpatience is their undoing. They will request of the cook that everyingredient be divulged and accounted for, not for reminiscence, but as if to take attendance; to make sense of it, they inquire whoauthored the cookbook, or what shops everything came from. Usingthe tip of their fork, they prod tidbits out of the sauce. Some cooksmention that chance or intellection or mischief are mixed up in it too, but rarely is the subsequent comment of the guest delightful. Acook may become silent, out of coyness, or humility or defiance, uponwhich the guest earnestly pleads, “How else can I learn?” As often asnot, there will also be someone at the table who is quite pleased toattract attention, and so the unsure guest will turn to them to poseall the same questions. This is the situation at present, as I said.

MMiinncceemmeeaatt –– AA RReecciippee ffoorr DDiissaasstteerrJJeeaannnnee RRaannddoollpphh iiss aa WWiinnnniippeegg iinntteelllleeccttuuaall wwhhoossee bbooookk EETTHHIICCSS OOFF

LLUUXXUURRYY wwaass llaauunncchheedd iinn TToorroonnttoo iinn OOccttoobbeerr 22000077..


2 3


COMBINE A QUARTER POUND EACH OF DRIED, CANDIED, CHOPPED CITRON, ORANGEPEEL AND LEMON PEEL. Combining ingredients and submitting them to culinary technique is aventure that emboldens the cook, for she savours the process of acci-dents and cunning from which results the concoction that, when pre-sented to the dinner guest, confounds the distinction between materialand immaterial, between physical sensation and figurative effect. Thereexists of course no recipe the realization of which does not permitadditions or substitutions of ingredients to heighten or perturb either

the nutritive or evocative power of the dish. Accordingly, you may wishherein to substitute candied kumquat for the citron. Kumquats oncegrew profusely along the sand dunes of Spain’s Mediterranean coast.Although Spaniards joyously devour this delicacy, for centuries thefruit-laden boughs wild among palmettos were profuse, for even themost dedicated aficionado preferred to rhapsodize about the kumquatgrove rather than pluck a fruit that belonged to no one and to every-one. They were commonplace yet relished by the native Spaniard,especially when the visiting, incredulous Londoner often had neverheard of “the fruit that grows inside out.” This is said about thekumquat because one eats the peel, which is exceedingly sweet, butshuns the pulp, which is so sour it could curdle saliva.

TWO AND A HALF QUARTS OF APPLES, PEELED AND SLICED.“The tarter the apple the sharper the blade.”so the saying goes. Manya child watching his grandmother at the table cutting away spirals ofbright red apple skin, splashing white rows of apple flesh with lemonor diluted vinegar, upon hearing her murmur this maxim would shud-der at its message – that insolence would bring swift punishment.And if it were a young girl listening, she would vow never to display asharp tongue, lest suitors suspect she has a cold heart. Such are thefolks most susceptible to the cook as she works: impressionableinfants who have not yet surrendered their aptitude for imbuing allobjects and actions with allegory, and students, who confidentlyaffect the mannerisms and inflections, as well as the superstitions, of the culinarian they revere.

SPRINKLE SALT AND PEPPER OVER HALF A POUND OF CHOPPED BEEF SUET, MIXINGWELL WITH HALF A POUND OF BROKEN NUT MEATS.The naturally sweet nuts such as pecan and cashew should be avoid-ed, and walnut or another bitter type preferred. The bitterness of the walnut should evince a barely discernible gall. “Who dies of gallwould not live better without it” is a notion now out of favour indessert-making, but in most other endeavours taken to the extreme,

as even the most casual perusal of the daily newspaper will affirm.Thus, often, the recipe of today will substitute blander tastes. Thereare two reasons for this, the first being that cookbooks are no longerused solely as a reference for the active culinary artisan: today asoften as not they are pictorial compendia of photographed foods. Thereaders of such books indulge themselves a few moments of solitudein which to imagine the tastes of exotic ingredients illustrated there-in. But they no longer devote hours, even days, to the performance of the actual recipes. Secondly, increasingly, inexperienced cooks no

longer acquaint themselves with the walnut, and are unlikely to knowthat walnuts release their flavour continuously over the several weeksthat mincemeat is “setting”; if the cook errs in quality or quantity ofwalnut added, the whole endeavour will end with the guests unableto stomach the bilious commixture.

ONE QUART OF SOUR CHERRIES,Preferably the St. John’s variety, although it is rare and seldom grownin quantity for transport or commercial canning. It is best to have pitted the cherries well in advance and keep them on ice. This willenhance their colour which is a delicate peach all around, except for a splotch of scarlet that deepens when chilled. It is said that this cher-ry got its name when the Christ Child Himself, along with His cousinJohn, was learning from His Mother how to cut out the cherry’s stone.

Blue for blueberries

and for God’s royal cloak,

Green are the leaves

on His Majesty’s oak

Oranges are blessed

at cathedrals in Spain

Gladly we toil

in our Lord’s holy name,

so sang the semi-divine cousins, goes the legend when children aretaught this ditty in the Midland orchards where St. John’s are culti-vated. St. John, we are told, sang with so much zest he grew careless.His blade slipped against his own hand, splashed the cherry withblood, and thereby prefigured his own beheading.

STIR ONE POUND OF RAISINS WITH THREE QUARTERS OF A POUND OF CURRANTSAND ONE AND A HALF POUNDS OF SUGAR.Some recipes for raisins are exceedingly ancient, and culinary legendswith which they are linked usually allude to food deliberately poisoned.

In the oldest concoctions the inclusion of raisins was advised in orderthat the bitterness of the lethal fraction be masked by the raisin’s dark-ly sweet taste. A 2,000-year-old Roman recipe for cauliflower, however,claims that the addition of the raisin is precautionary, and that in thepresence of raisin, the flavour of any toxin would be magnified sogreatly that “first by aroma and then by the casting of tears from eyes,the dinner guest will be safely hastened from his plate.”

ADD ONE HALF FRESHLY GRATED NUTMEG.The medicinal, noxious and symbolic properties of spices are vastlyrecorded. The lore of the nutmeg itself abounds with precautions,parables and miracles, sometimes without certain distinction betweenthe three. When freshly ground, the nutmeg releases its most volatileessence, spiricine, a xanthine-like chemical named for the “breath” ofthe nutmeg, which centuries ago would have been equivalent to itsspirit or soul. Cooks shared the secret that an ecstasy might beinduced when one smells the first cut of this kernel. Yet by someaccounts, there is a warning that “only toothless women” are theproper cooks for nutmeg. This refers to how the spiricine will inducethe cook to smile, yet she must keep her lips firmly closed (thus noneof her teeth are visible), for to inhale the soul of the nutmeg and min-gle it with one’s own breath is to risk sudden death.

MIX ONE HALF TEASPOON OF FRESHLY GRATED CINNAMON, OF MACE, OF CLOVESAND OF CORIANDER SEED INTO ONE POUND OF CHOPPED OX HEART.

POUR ONE PINT OF CIDER UPON ALL THE ABOVE INGREDIENTS MIXED IN A CAULDRON.This is to be cooked gently for two hours. It is best to slip an asbestospad between the pot and the flame, to prevent scorching, whichwould mar the taste and texture. The asbestos device is all thatremains of the cook’s traditional vigilance over this delicacy. As withso many other of the processes of cookery, vigilance is accomplishedas a manifestation of the chef’s character, and cooks can recognize inthe final presentation of a dish the influence of various habits of vigi-lance. For some cooks, the admixture would have been slightly stickyand quite glossy, with uniform texture throughout, the result of infre-quent stirring and an emphasis upon daydreaming. In contrast, thereare cooks who are actively vigilant with all of their senses, listening tothe sputtering of the sauce, smelling the progress of the increasinglymingled flavours, watchful that the mixture is fairly heated through-out, constantly pressing the morsels to monitor their texture. Tosome, the gradual changing of colour from distinctly fresh and multi-

plicitous to a universally burnished caramel, is a favourite, oft-repeat-ed narrative. To others the bubbling pot is like a mailbox to which at intervals they eagerly return, to peer within, while otherwise busyrestoring the kitchen to a tidy state. That tradition of watchfulness,even so, had been of only eighty-six years duration, establishedbecause of the conflagration at St. Luke’s in Brimston on December10th. Its great kitchen had been ignited by untended mincemeat simmering in preparation for the Christmas Day feast.

* * *

An added note about contemporary dinner guests

We are living in times worthy of much reflection. Nowadays we willoften have guests who haven’t ever been taught to cook. They glanceblushing at a recipe or at an array of bowls and spoons. The sight ofripened pods, of leaves and stalks, of cotelets, filets, of eggs and twigs, seeds and oil is entrancing yet intimidating. When the meal isarranged before them at the table, they glance at it surreptitiously, butrarely does their gaze meander fondly from dish to dish. More infre-quent still is the guest who sighs and lingers, and, returning a cordialsmile to the cook, inhales languorously before the ingestion begins.

For distinguishing salt from sugar these guests possess great confi-dence in their palate and long to extend it to all other flavours. Yetimpatience is their undoing. They will request of the cook that everyingredient be divulged and accounted for, not for reminiscence, but as if to take attendance; to make sense of it, they inquire whoauthored the cookbook, or what shops everything came from. Usingthe tip of their fork, they prod tidbits out of the sauce. Some cooksmention that chance or intellection or mischief are mixed up in it too, but rarely is the subsequent comment of the guest delightful. Acook may become silent, out of coyness, or humility or defiance, uponwhich the guest earnestly pleads, “How else can I learn?” As often asnot, there will also be someone at the table who is quite pleased toattract attention, and so the unsure guest will turn to them to poseall the same questions. This is the situation at present, as I said.

MMiinncceemmeeaatt –– AA RReecciippee ffoorr DDiissaasstteerrJJeeaannnnee RRaannddoollpphh iiss aa WWiinnnniippeegg iinntteelllleeccttuuaall wwhhoossee bbooookk EETTHHIICCSS OOFF

LLUUXXUURRYY wwaass llaauunncchheedd iinn TToorroonnttoo iinn OOccttoobbeerr 22000077..


2 3


From my very beginnings, food culture was my culture. And as I haveevolved, the food has evolved with me.

Billy Crystal’s Jewish mama was so preoccupied with food and feeding, thatfor the first twelve years of his life, he thought his name was “Here, eat this!”Billy’s mama was my mama. Growing up, I did eat this. And that, and every-thing else. Food was love. Our house was a closed atmosphere of cooking.Cream cheesy blintzes with cinnamon and sugar. Potato latkes, a little onionmixed in (shhh- secret ingredient), fried to a brown crackle, perfect. Flanken,the boiled ribs of beef. Knishes – a Jamaican would call them patties; kneid-lach, an Italian would call them tortellini; lokshen, the noodles a Vietnamesemight call Bun.The universality of food.

My childhood and adolescence in Toronto, my bagel background, kept meshielded from other cuisines.Then I went to university – French Studies.I developed a croissant consciousness. Not that croissants, pâtisseries, croquemonsieurs, or tartes niçoises were to be found in Toronto at the time.They weren’t. But food became more than the response medium to primalappetite. I learned how French culture applied art and thought to food.To obsession it added creation. Mama in a nourishing smock became “unedame élégante”.

Then came the ristorantes, with their abundance. Many-regioned Italy’s many foods sprouted and spread all over the city.We gobbled up the goods.I remember my first meal at a real ristorante. Not for what I ate (probablybruschetta and a pasta), but for what wasn’t on the menu (garlic bread, vealscallopini and spumoni ice cream). I felt I was having an experience, not ameal.The key ingredients new to this non-Italian were passion and sprezzatu-ra. Italian cucina retains its libidinal hold today, decades on. It drives much of our eating culture, and so helps to define our culture – the majority mixof common habits, beliefs and desiderata.Toronto is a blessed gloryland ofmulticulturalism. Italian food communes with Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern,Jamaican,Vietnamese, French, Jewish and Japanese.

Japanese food is a newer addition to the scene. Mostly sushi.Wouldn’t touchthe stuff for years. Raw fish? Byaaah. Secretly I was afraid I wouldn’t knowhow to use chopsticks. One friend of mine still can’t get the hang of it. Heinsists on holding one chopstick in each hand. I came around, however, alongwith most Torontonians. It was a tuna roll that did it. Sushi is my fast foodnow. Chopsticks? No problem.

Japanese food means sushi and sushi means Japanese food, pretty much, inToronto.Three months in Japan corrected that impression. I was there, forthe most part in Tokyo, from November to January on an arts fellowship,and as a visiting scholar at a university. I ate sushi no more than three times.Two of those were on trips to Tsukiji,Tokyo’s eye-popping, dense, sprawling commercial fish market. Boats leave their catch.Wholesalers cut up the fish.Buyers buy. Surrounding the market are tiny shacks. Inside, master sushi chefsserve up the freshest catch to 10 or 12 diners squeezed in at the counter.I went one day with Russell Braun, the great opera tenor who was in Tokyo

to sing Barber of Seville. I had talked up the sushi in Tsukiji to Russell.I was afraid I’d oversold it. Uh uh.The chef handed us tiny plate aftertiny plate. He spoke no English, we spoke no Japanese. So we had noidea what we were eating.We felt only the assault of pleasure as themaki, sashimi and sushi overtook our senses, starting on the tongue,and coursing through the body.

As I say, this was the exception. Japanese food is not all sushi. Farfrom it. It’s rice, it’s wheat noodles in fish broth (udon), buckwheatnoodles (soba), spinach, seaweed, fish. And more fish. And more fish.Lots of meat too, but I don’t eat meat. Great peanuts too. Greatpeanuts.They’re two or three times the size of Canadian peanuts.They’re whole, not puny. I must have eaten peanuts every day. Iespecially loved kaki pea–the snack mix of peanuts and small saltyrice crackers.You can buy it everywhere in Japan.

The Japanese treat food with near-religious respect. No matter how cheap the restaurant, the dishes are well-prepared, and proudlypresented. Portions are never super-sized (or American-size-u inJapanese.)

Almost no one eats casually, walking down the street. Go anywherein Tokyo, a city of millions upon millions, surrounded by thousands ofpeople around you. Not one is eating while walking. If you want toeat, you sit down, or at least stop and stand until you’ve finished. It’srespect for food. One day, I got really hungry while on a long walk.I stopped into a grocery, and bought a banana. I didn’t even thinktwice while I was downing it as I continued on my way. But I quicklyrealized that, in the mass of pedestrians lining the major thoroughfare,I was the only one eating.Yikes. Furtively, I scurried down a side alley,ducked into a backdoor parking lot, and finished my now-guilty snack.

By far, my most memorable dinner in Japan was prepared by Ani, theBob Marley obsessed super-chef. Ani is a character. He was one ofthe youngest people to become a top level chef in Japan command-ing $500 to $2000 per meal, per person. He tired of the carriagetrade, though, the cash and the glamour.

Now in his 50s, Ani opened a small restaurant near the Ebisu subwaystation, not far from, but not in, one of Tokyo’s churning metropolitandistricts. Looking at it from the outside, you’d never guess the treas-ures awaiting inside.The decor is simple, wooden, warm.We areseated at the small bar at the back.We’re told it’s reserved only forspecial guests.We are: me, my wife Daniela Nardi, and Ani’s friend,Greg Robic. Greg is a Toronto playwright, composer, and performerof Japanese comedy story-telling. That’s as likely as a Japanese mancoming to North America and performing Chris Rock routines. It’sextreme cross-culture, and it takes extreme talent to pull off. Greg,as usual, is dressed in a storyteller’s kimono. Ani is his neighbour inYokohama.They take the train home together every night. Greg

introduces us as jazz musicians. Ani bows deeply, a sign of hugerespect from a man in his 50s. So we get the special bar seats.

The night is a parade of edible artifice.Throughout it, Ani appearsintermittently at our table. He is grizzly personified. A long gone T-shirt.Rough pants. A face mapped with lines, full of life and spiky stubble.Non-linear, shortish, fine grey hair, random strands of which he hasgathered up and wrapped in an elastic band. Little grey palm trees.

More than most Japanese, Ani stares downward as he speaks.Yet,there is humour, and a collaborative slyness in the way he talks,although we don’t understand what he’s saying. Greg tells us Aniloves Bob Marley, and Ani looks up, alight, and cracks a semi-tooth-less neon smile. “Bah-ahbu Maw-ley” he growls, and laughs.This passion explains Ani’s hair. Dreadlocks, Ani-style.

We order nothing. Ani serves what he likes, what inspires him thatnight. It’s mostly fish. Describing Ani’s food would be like describingan Art Tatum piano solo. It’s beyond words. One particular tastysashimi offering is lush, light and beyond delicious.We think it’ssalmon, but we’re told it’s masu, river trout. No sooner do we praise it, than Ani returns with a large plate. He sets it before us,proudly – the ultimate honour.

He is personally serving us the rarely offered best bits of the masu:the fatty belly and, of course, the head.We bow with thanks. I’mabout to say, no thanks. Head is not on my diet. I’m not fast enoughfor his knife, though. Ani swiftly removes one of the fish’s eyes, andcarves out the orbit with a microsurgeon’s finesse. He drops it onmy plate with a grand flourish, beaming with the glory he hasbestowed on me. He’s watching, expectantly. A fish-eye socket. Aaak.But I can’t find a way to tell the virtuoso that I won’t share in hismasterwork. I breathe, screw up my innards, swoop down with mychopsticks, raise the flesh, throw it in my mouth, chew, hold back my gag reflex, and wrestle my mouth into a smile that betokensdivine pleasure. Mmmmmmm.

Ani nods a nod of contented achievement.The socket actually doesn’ttaste too bad. A bit like soft egg. But all night I’m racked with mentalimages of it, sitting 60 centimeters beneath my own eyes.The rest ofAni’s meal was equally memorable but, thankfully, less challenging.

I’m no longer sure which is the most food-obsessed culture. It hardlymatters. Any place that says “Here, eat this” feels like home to me.

© 2007 Ron Davis

Ron Davis (www.rondavismusic.com) is a composer and jazz pianist. Ron willbe releasing his recording, “Subarashii Live” this fall.4

5


From my very beginnings, food culture was my culture. And as I haveevolved, the food has evolved with me.

Billy Crystal’s Jewish mama was so preoccupied with food and feeding, thatfor the first twelve years of his life, he thought his name was “Here, eat this!”Billy’s mama was my mama. Growing up, I did eat this. And that, and every-thing else. Food was love. Our house was a closed atmosphere of cooking.Cream cheesy blintzes with cinnamon and sugar. Potato latkes, a little onionmixed in (shhh- secret ingredient), fried to a brown crackle, perfect. Flanken,the boiled ribs of beef. Knishes – a Jamaican would call them patties; kneid-lach, an Italian would call them tortellini; lokshen, the noodles a Vietnamesemight call Bun.The universality of food.

My childhood and adolescence in Toronto, my bagel background, kept meshielded from other cuisines.Then I went to university – French Studies.I developed a croissant consciousness. Not that croissants, pâtisseries, croquemonsieurs, or tartes niçoises were to be found in Toronto at the time.They weren’t. But food became more than the response medium to primalappetite. I learned how French culture applied art and thought to food.To obsession it added creation. Mama in a nourishing smock became “unedame élégante”.

Then came the ristorantes, with their abundance. Many-regioned Italy’s many foods sprouted and spread all over the city.We gobbled up the goods.I remember my first meal at a real ristorante. Not for what I ate (probablybruschetta and a pasta), but for what wasn’t on the menu (garlic bread, vealscallopini and spumoni ice cream). I felt I was having an experience, not ameal.The key ingredients new to this non-Italian were passion and sprezzatu-ra. Italian cucina retains its libidinal hold today, decades on. It drives much of our eating culture, and so helps to define our culture – the majority mixof common habits, beliefs and desiderata.Toronto is a blessed gloryland ofmulticulturalism. Italian food communes with Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern,Jamaican,Vietnamese, French, Jewish and Japanese.

Japanese food is a newer addition to the scene. Mostly sushi.Wouldn’t touchthe stuff for years. Raw fish? Byaaah. Secretly I was afraid I wouldn’t knowhow to use chopsticks. One friend of mine still can’t get the hang of it. Heinsists on holding one chopstick in each hand. I came around, however, alongwith most Torontonians. It was a tuna roll that did it. Sushi is my fast foodnow. Chopsticks? No problem.

Japanese food means sushi and sushi means Japanese food, pretty much, inToronto.Three months in Japan corrected that impression. I was there, forthe most part in Tokyo, from November to January on an arts fellowship,and as a visiting scholar at a university. I ate sushi no more than three times.Two of those were on trips to Tsukiji,Tokyo’s eye-popping, dense, sprawling commercial fish market. Boats leave their catch.Wholesalers cut up the fish.Buyers buy. Surrounding the market are tiny shacks. Inside, master sushi chefsserve up the freshest catch to 10 or 12 diners squeezed in at the counter.I went one day with Russell Braun, the great opera tenor who was in Tokyo

to sing Barber of Seville. I had talked up the sushi in Tsukiji to Russell.I was afraid I’d oversold it. Uh uh.The chef handed us tiny plate aftertiny plate. He spoke no English, we spoke no Japanese. So we had noidea what we were eating.We felt only the assault of pleasure as themaki, sashimi and sushi overtook our senses, starting on the tongue,and coursing through the body.

As I say, this was the exception. Japanese food is not all sushi. Farfrom it. It’s rice, it’s wheat noodles in fish broth (udon), buckwheatnoodles (soba), spinach, seaweed, fish. And more fish. And more fish.Lots of meat too, but I don’t eat meat. Great peanuts too. Greatpeanuts.They’re two or three times the size of Canadian peanuts.They’re whole, not puny. I must have eaten peanuts every day. Iespecially loved kaki pea–the snack mix of peanuts and small saltyrice crackers.You can buy it everywhere in Japan.

The Japanese treat food with near-religious respect. No matter how cheap the restaurant, the dishes are well-prepared, and proudlypresented. Portions are never super-sized (or American-size-u inJapanese.)

Almost no one eats casually, walking down the street. Go anywherein Tokyo, a city of millions upon millions, surrounded by thousands ofpeople around you. Not one is eating while walking. If you want toeat, you sit down, or at least stop and stand until you’ve finished. It’srespect for food. One day, I got really hungry while on a long walk.I stopped into a grocery, and bought a banana. I didn’t even thinktwice while I was downing it as I continued on my way. But I quicklyrealized that, in the mass of pedestrians lining the major thoroughfare,I was the only one eating.Yikes. Furtively, I scurried down a side alley,ducked into a backdoor parking lot, and finished my now-guilty snack.

By far, my most memorable dinner in Japan was prepared by Ani, theBob Marley obsessed super-chef. Ani is a character. He was one ofthe youngest people to become a top level chef in Japan command-ing $500 to $2000 per meal, per person. He tired of the carriagetrade, though, the cash and the glamour.

Now in his 50s, Ani opened a small restaurant near the Ebisu subwaystation, not far from, but not in, one of Tokyo’s churning metropolitandistricts. Looking at it from the outside, you’d never guess the treas-ures awaiting inside.The decor is simple, wooden, warm.We areseated at the small bar at the back.We’re told it’s reserved only forspecial guests.We are: me, my wife Daniela Nardi, and Ani’s friend,Greg Robic. Greg is a Toronto playwright, composer, and performerof Japanese comedy story-telling. That’s as likely as a Japanese mancoming to North America and performing Chris Rock routines. It’sextreme cross-culture, and it takes extreme talent to pull off. Greg,as usual, is dressed in a storyteller’s kimono. Ani is his neighbour inYokohama.They take the train home together every night. Greg

introduces us as jazz musicians. Ani bows deeply, a sign of hugerespect from a man in his 50s. So we get the special bar seats.

The night is a parade of edible artifice.Throughout it, Ani appearsintermittently at our table. He is grizzly personified. A long gone T-shirt.Rough pants. A face mapped with lines, full of life and spiky stubble.Non-linear, shortish, fine grey hair, random strands of which he hasgathered up and wrapped in an elastic band. Little grey palm trees.

More than most Japanese, Ani stares downward as he speaks.Yet,there is humour, and a collaborative slyness in the way he talks,although we don’t understand what he’s saying. Greg tells us Aniloves Bob Marley, and Ani looks up, alight, and cracks a semi-tooth-less neon smile. “Bah-ahbu Maw-ley” he growls, and laughs.This passion explains Ani’s hair. Dreadlocks, Ani-style.

We order nothing. Ani serves what he likes, what inspires him thatnight. It’s mostly fish. Describing Ani’s food would be like describingan Art Tatum piano solo. It’s beyond words. One particular tastysashimi offering is lush, light and beyond delicious.We think it’ssalmon, but we’re told it’s masu, river trout. No sooner do we praise it, than Ani returns with a large plate. He sets it before us,proudly – the ultimate honour.

He is personally serving us the rarely offered best bits of the masu:the fatty belly and, of course, the head.We bow with thanks. I’mabout to say, no thanks. Head is not on my diet. I’m not fast enoughfor his knife, though. Ani swiftly removes one of the fish’s eyes, andcarves out the orbit with a microsurgeon’s finesse. He drops it onmy plate with a grand flourish, beaming with the glory he hasbestowed on me. He’s watching, expectantly. A fish-eye socket. Aaak.But I can’t find a way to tell the virtuoso that I won’t share in hismasterwork. I breathe, screw up my innards, swoop down with mychopsticks, raise the flesh, throw it in my mouth, chew, hold back my gag reflex, and wrestle my mouth into a smile that betokensdivine pleasure. Mmmmmmm.

Ani nods a nod of contented achievement.The socket actually doesn’ttaste too bad. A bit like soft egg. But all night I’m racked with mentalimages of it, sitting 60 centimeters beneath my own eyes.The rest ofAni’s meal was equally memorable but, thankfully, less challenging.

I’m no longer sure which is the most food-obsessed culture. It hardlymatters. Any place that says “Here, eat this” feels like home to me.

© 2007 Ron Davis

Ron Davis (www.rondavismusic.com) is a composer and jazz pianist. Ron willbe releasing his recording, “Subarashii Live” this fall.4

5


I love to eat. I understand that

sometimes we aren’t going to eat

pure, wonderful, healthy food. Here

is what I have to say:

one. Love what you eat! All foods

fit into a healthy diet in modera-

tion. Food is meant to be enjoyed!

Savour your favourite foods and

spend time eating them with peo-

ple you care about. Eating should

be a positive and fun experience.

two. Eat more fruit and vegetables.

They are nutrient powerhouses so

eat them all day long. Enjoy fruit

and vegetables that are in-season

and grown locally more often. In-

season produce contains more

nutrients and we also help our

environment by buying produce

that doesn't have to travel such a

long distance to get to our table.

three. Take a vitamin D supple-

ment. This is important for

Canadians as we are unable to

make Vitamin D from the sun

between the months of September

to March given the angle of the

sun. Vitamin D has been l inked to

bone health, decreasing certain

types of cancers, reduced risk of

diabetes and the l ist goes on!

four. Take time to think about why

you're eating. So often we eat for

reasons other than hunger. Pause

for a moment the next time you

eat something to ask yourself why

you're eating. This is the first step

towards eating for the right rea-

sons and a healthier l ifestyle.

five. Share your food with others.

So many are suffering due to lack

of nutrit ious foods. If we would

all take the time to share some

of what we have with others it

would help ease some of that

suffering. Support your local food

banks and become aware of pro-

grams that are working towards

alleviating hunger.

SPECIAL GLASSES ASKS MICHELLE BROTHERHOOD RD, CDE CLINICALDIETITIAN, RESPIROLOGY/CYSTIC FIBROSIS CLINIC AT ST. MICHAEL’S HOSPITAL:

YOU HAVE 5 THINGS TO SAY TO NORTH AMERICANS ABOUT DIET. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

67

Marriage and Other Infidelities, by Debra Wierenga,published by Finishing Line Press (available on Amazon.com)


I love to eat. I understand that

sometimes we aren’t going to eat

pure, wonderful, healthy food. Here

is what I have to say:

one. Love what you eat! All foods

fit into a healthy diet in modera-

tion. Food is meant to be enjoyed!

Savour your favourite foods and

spend time eating them with peo-

ple you care about. Eating should

be a positive and fun experience.

two. Eat more fruit and vegetables.

They are nutrient powerhouses so

eat them all day long. Enjoy fruit

and vegetables that are in-season

and grown locally more often. In-

season produce contains more

nutrients and we also help our

environment by buying produce

that doesn't have to travel such a

long distance to get to our table.

three. Take a vitamin D supple-

ment. This is important for

Canadians as we are unable to

make Vitamin D from the sun

between the months of September

to March given the angle of the

sun. Vitamin D has been l inked to

bone health, decreasing certain

types of cancers, reduced risk of

diabetes and the l ist goes on!

four. Take time to think about why

you're eating. So often we eat for

reasons other than hunger. Pause

for a moment the next time you

eat something to ask yourself why

you're eating. This is the first step

towards eating for the right rea-

sons and a healthier l ifestyle.

five. Share your food with others.

So many are suffering due to lack

of nutrit ious foods. If we would

all take the time to share some

of what we have with others it

would help ease some of that

suffering. Support your local food

banks and become aware of pro-

grams that are working towards

alleviating hunger.

SPECIAL GLASSES ASKS MICHELLE BROTHERHOOD RD, CDE CLINICALDIETITIAN, RESPIROLOGY/CYSTIC FIBROSIS CLINIC AT ST. MICHAEL’S HOSPITAL:

YOU HAVE 5 THINGS TO SAY TO NORTH AMERICANS ABOUT DIET. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

67

Marriage and Other Infidelities, by Debra Wierenga,published by Finishing Line Press (available on Amazon.com)


what

are

you eating?

98s

tory

: C

hri

s A

tac

k

ph

oto

gra

ph

: J

oh

n E

mry

s

ph

oto

gra

ph

s:

Bro

nw

en

Sh

arp

I love to buy home made jams -I imagine the care that goes intothe preparation and somehowthat adds to the taste...

There is a booth at the St.Lawrence Market north buildingthat sells veggies - I buy sweetcarrots, broccoli and butternutsquash. One day I noticed a jam.The man who helps out in thebooth told me it was it wasWillis’s 90 year old mother whomade the jam. I bought it thatday and every other week since.It has no label on it but to me itsays Made With Love by Willis's90 Year Old Mother.

What would your label say?

M.B. responds: I have beenthinking and struggling withthis one, but I think I have it.

This house is built on a rock.

N.C. asks: Is it wise to build ahouse on a rock? What aboutthe foundation?

M.B. patiently responds: Yousee the rock IS the foundation- back to the biblical story aswell as the moral/ literaryadmonishment to be true tothyself and the mythology ofstable castle walls from theMesopotamian Myth/ story ofSt George and the Dragon,core strength of yoga etc.

N.C. asks you dear reader:what would your label say?

Respond to: [email protected]


what

are

you eating?

98

sto

ry:

Ch

ris

Ata

ck

p

ho

tog

rap

h:

Jo

hn

Em

rys

ph

oto

gra

ph

s:

Bro

nw

en

Sh

arp

I love to buy home made jams -I imagine the care that goes intothe preparation and somehowthat adds to the taste...

There is a booth at the St.Lawrence Market north buildingthat sells veggies - I buy sweetcarrots, broccoli and butternutsquash. One day I noticed a jam.The man who helps out in thebooth told me it was it wasWillis’s 90 year old mother whomade the jam. I bought it thatday and every other week since.It has no label on it but to me itsays Made With Love by Willis's90 Year Old Mother.

What would your label say?

M.B. responds: I have beenthinking and struggling withthis one, but I think I have it.

This house is built on a rock.

N.C. asks: Is it wise to build ahouse on a rock? What aboutthe foundation?

M.B. patiently responds: Yousee the rock IS the foundation- back to the biblical story aswell as the moral/ literaryadmonishment to be true tothyself and the mythology ofstable castle walls from theMesopotamian Myth/ story ofSt George and the Dragon,core strength of yoga etc.

N.C. asks you dear reader:what would your label say?

Respond to: [email protected]


Dégustationa careful, appreciative tasting ofvarious foods.

Fashion it's what you make of it.

COMPRESSION

11special glasses v12 2/5/08 10:54 AM Page 10

Dégustationa careful, appreciative tasting ofvarious foods.

Fashion it's what you make of it.

COMPRESSION

11special glasses v12 2/5/08 10:54 AM Page 10

“I have never cooked with pomegranates, but

the juice makes a very good “ice”. The juice can

now be bought in bottles, and I’d do this, as

soaking the seeds in water and then squeezing

the liquid through cheesecloth is an unneces-

sary nuisance. Freezing the juice with a “simple

syrup” of sugar and water, and mushing it con-

stantly with a fork or handheld blender is not

difficult. But somehow, I’d rather have a chef in

a good restaurant do all that. I just like the

leathery look of pomegranate – and the star-

tling appearance of those tumble of seeds

when the fruit is split. “The Song of Solomon”,

myth and legend – pomegranates have inspired

men and women as long as we have records of

the written work, paintings and sculptures.

Exodus 39, King James Bible

'and they made upon the hems/of the robe

pomegranates of blue,/ and purple and scarlet,

and twined linen/ and they made bells of pure

gold, and put the bells between the pomegran-

ates upon the hem of the/robe, round about

between the /pomegranates:/ a bell and a

pomegranate, a bell/ and a pomegranate,

round about the/hem of the robe/ to minister

in; as the/ Lord commanded Moses.'

The Songs of Solomon

Ch. 4 - 3 'Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,/

and thy speech is comely: thy/ temples are like

a piece of a/ pomegranate within thy locks.'

“Threads of Scarlet, Pieces of Pomegranate” by Mary Pratt.This work was included in a show at the Mira GodardGallery in 2006. The text was written for that show.

Threads of Scarlet,Pieces of Pomegranate.Mary Pratt

First, Stuart and Mike werein Grade 3 together, andgot to be really goodfriends through middleschool. Diane and Hilaryand Mike were buddies inhigh school; Stu went to a different school, butremained friends with Mike,so he got to know Dianeand Hilary too.

Then Mike dated Diane...they got married. Stuartdated Helen in universi-ty... they got married.Hilary dated Steve... theygot married.

The six young twentysome-things had fun going toparties, and clubs, and get-ting together. It just hap-pened, we never had toplan it.

Then we had kids – firstMike & Diane, then Stu &Helen, then Mike & Dianeagain, Stu & Helen again,then Hilary & Steve.

We never saw each other!Something had to be done!

I've been told that it wasmy idea, but it doesn'tmatter whose idea it was, itwas a good one: why nothave dinner together everymonth, with each couplehosting once every threemonths. It meant wewould book dates to gettogether, rather than lettingtime slide by. And at first,that's all it was -- some-times burgers on the BBQ,sometimes pizza, often aroast and Hilary's wonder-ful lemon cake! Eachmonth, after a fantasticdinner, we chat and drink,and eventually, set a datefor the following month.

As the kids got older, wefound ourselves putting ontwo feasts -- one for theadults, one for the kids.The moms got more ambi-tious... we had themes,capitalizing on Christmas,of course, but also Easter(you haven't lived untilyou've had Mac & Cheesedyed pastel colours!),Hallowe'en (costume par-ties are always fun!), MardiGras and Cinco de Mayo, aTuscan dinner after the

Keefes came back fromTuscany, etc. We even diddinner club while camping-- we were the ones withgallons of blue cosmopoli-tans in plastic martiniglasses, and patio lanternsabove our picnic table inthe woods!

It's been about 15 years –and we're still going strong!There's a bit of rivalry, with all of us in awe ofStuart's gourmet tenden-cies, Diane's fabulous waywith decor and party plan-ning, Mike's custom CDsof music we all love, andHilary and Steve's magicalbackyard gazebo, the per-fect spot from which toenjoy a summer evening.

Every month is different,and special, and alwaysgreat fun. Our childrenhave grown up together,enjoying one another'scompany in the same wayas their parents have done.It's kept our families close,and our friendship has onlygrown over the years.We've served as one anoth-er's bridesmaids, and god-parents to one another'schildren. Can't wait fornext month...

You asked about the process, so here's a bit of history:

beginning aDinner Party Club

12

Helen Smith


“I have never cooked with pomegranates, but

the juice makes a very good “ice”. The juice can

now be bought in bottles, and I’d do this, as

soaking the seeds in water and then squeezing

the liquid through cheesecloth is an unneces-

sary nuisance. Freezing the juice with a “simple

syrup” of sugar and water, and mushing it con-

stantly with a fork or handheld blender is not

difficult. But somehow, I’d rather have a chef in

a good restaurant do all that. I just like the

leathery look of pomegranate – and the star-

tling appearance of those tumble of seeds

when the fruit is split. “The Song of Solomon”,

myth and legend – pomegranates have inspired

men and women as long as we have records of

the written work, paintings and sculptures.

Exodus 39, King James Bible

'and they made upon the hems/of the robe

pomegranates of blue,/ and purple and scarlet,

and twined linen/ and they made bells of pure

gold, and put the bells between the pomegran-

ates upon the hem of the/robe, round about

between the /pomegranates:/ a bell and a

pomegranate, a bell/ and a pomegranate,

round about the/hem of the robe/ to minister

in; as the/ Lord commanded Moses.'

The Songs of Solomon

Ch. 4 - 3 'Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,/

and thy speech is comely: thy/ temples are like

a piece of a/ pomegranate within thy locks.'

“Threads of Scarlet, Pieces of Pomegranate” by Mary Pratt.This work was included in a show at the Mira GodardGallery in 2006. The text was written for that show.

Threads of Scarlet,Pieces of Pomegranate.Mary Pratt

First, Stuart and Mike werein Grade 3 together, andgot to be really goodfriends through middleschool. Diane and Hilaryand Mike were buddies inhigh school; Stu went to a different school, butremained friends with Mike,so he got to know Dianeand Hilary too.

Then Mike dated Diane...they got married. Stuartdated Helen in universi-ty... they got married.Hilary dated Steve... theygot married.

The six young twentysome-things had fun going toparties, and clubs, and get-ting together. It just hap-pened, we never had toplan it.

Then we had kids – firstMike & Diane, then Stu &Helen, then Mike & Dianeagain, Stu & Helen again,then Hilary & Steve.

We never saw each other!Something had to be done!

I've been told that it wasmy idea, but it doesn'tmatter whose idea it was, itwas a good one: why nothave dinner together everymonth, with each couplehosting once every threemonths. It meant wewould book dates to gettogether, rather than lettingtime slide by. And at first,that's all it was -- some-times burgers on the BBQ,sometimes pizza, often aroast and Hilary's wonder-ful lemon cake! Eachmonth, after a fantasticdinner, we chat and drink,and eventually, set a datefor the following month.

As the kids got older, wefound ourselves putting ontwo feasts -- one for theadults, one for the kids.The moms got more ambi-tious... we had themes,capitalizing on Christmas,of course, but also Easter(you haven't lived untilyou've had Mac & Cheesedyed pastel colours!),Hallowe'en (costume par-ties are always fun!), MardiGras and Cinco de Mayo, aTuscan dinner after the

Keefes came back fromTuscany, etc. We even diddinner club while camping-- we were the ones withgallons of blue cosmopoli-tans in plastic martiniglasses, and patio lanternsabove our picnic table inthe woods!

It's been about 15 years –and we're still going strong!There's a bit of rivalry, with all of us in awe ofStuart's gourmet tenden-cies, Diane's fabulous waywith decor and party plan-ning, Mike's custom CDsof music we all love, andHilary and Steve's magicalbackyard gazebo, the per-fect spot from which toenjoy a summer evening.

Every month is different,and special, and alwaysgreat fun. Our childrenhave grown up together,enjoying one another'scompany in the same wayas their parents have done.It's kept our families close,and our friendship has onlygrown over the years.We've served as one anoth-er's bridesmaids, and god-parents to one another'schildren. Can't wait fornext month...

You asked about the process, so here's a bit of history:

beginning aDinner Party Club

12

Helen Smith


LIAM SHARP VISITED ETHIOPIA IN AUGUST 2003. HE TOOK THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF A FAMILY IN THE SINGLE ROOM THAT CONSTITUTES THEIR HOME WITH THEIR WEALTH, ABAG OF WHEAT, VISIBLE ON THE TABLE. LIAM STRESSED THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE VERYFORTUNATE COMPARED TO MANY WHO LIVE IN ABSOLUTE POVERTY.

TO PROVIDE SOME CONTEXT WE ASKED DR. PETER GINMAN, WHO WORKED AS ATECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COORDINATOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ONTRADE AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCTAD)* TO COMMENT ON THE SITUATION IN ETHIOPIARELATIVE TO THE COUNTRY’S NEED FOR FOREIGN ASSISTANCE AND SPECIFICALLY TOTELL US HOW CANADA CAN HELP.

Ethiopia

14 15

My last visit to Ethiopia was twenty years ago on a technical assistancemission for the United Nations. During my mission, I saw first-handthe basic needs of the populace, both in the capital city of Addis Ababaand in the countryside where we stayed for a seminar for five days inthe small village south of the capital. There I witnessed the most abjectpoverty I have ever seen in my UN missions to over 70 developingcountries in all regions of the world.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. With a popula-tion greater than that of Canada, its people live below the poverty leveland scratch out a living in a largely agricultural-based economy. Itsexports of coffee and other raw materials are subject to erratic exportfluctuations and consequently volatile foreign exchange earnings.These earnings are needed for basic manufactures and other inputsare required to build an adequate infrastructure. Caught in this trap,the most basic tangible assistance is required to, among other things,build roads, irrigation systems, and provide relevant education andtraining needs. Whatever form the technical assistance takes, it shouldbe monitored by the country giving aid to ensure the objectives aremet. The provision of equipment and other relevant requirements arefor naught if they cannot be properly maintained and repaired by thelocal operators. In Ethiopia, decades of corrupt governments and a“Marxist” philosophy of a “command” economy provided little basisfor the organization of a technical body to administer and coordinatetechnical assistance projects.

As coordinator of United Nations (UNCTAD) technical assistanceprojects concerning developing country export possibilities, I saw theimportance of relevant foreign assistance.

Canadians enjoy a reputation for being empathetic to the plight ofdeveloping countries in need and make these feelings known throughthe political process. The Government, through its Ministry of ForeignAffairs, provides grants, loans and via the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA), gives project specific funding.Individual Canadians through their votes can continue putting pres-sure on the political parties to keep these efforts high on the agenda.I hope that Canada continues its fine work.

Ginman was a professor of Economics, and taught at Boston University and the State University of New York(SUNY) before he joined the UN where he traveled to over seventy developing countries. Ginman is nowretired and living on Vancouver Island.

*In the early 1960s, growing concerns about the place of developing countries in international trade ledmany of these countries to call for the convening of a full-fledged conference specifically devoted to tack-ling these problems and identifying appropriate international actions.

The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held in Geneva in 1964. Giventhe magnitude of the problems at stake and the need to address them, the conference was institutionalizedto meet every four years, with intergovernmental bodies meeting between sessions and a permanent secre-tariat providing the necessary substantive and logistical support.

A World Away


LIAM SHARP VISITED ETHIOPIA IN AUGUST 2003. HE TOOK THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF A FAMILY IN THE SINGLE ROOM THAT CONSTITUTES THEIR HOME WITH THEIR WEALTH, ABAG OF WHEAT, VISIBLE ON THE TABLE. LIAM STRESSED THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE VERYFORTUNATE COMPARED TO MANY WHO LIVE IN ABSOLUTE POVERTY.

TO PROVIDE SOME CONTEXT WE ASKED DR. PETER GINMAN, WHO WORKED AS ATECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COORDINATOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ONTRADE AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCTAD)* TO COMMENT ON THE SITUATION IN ETHIOPIARELATIVE TO THE COUNTRY’S NEED FOR FOREIGN ASSISTANCE AND SPECIFICALLY TOTELL US HOW CANADA CAN HELP.

Ethiopia

14 15

My last visit to Ethiopia was twenty years ago on a technical assistancemission for the United Nations. During my mission, I saw first-handthe basic needs of the populace, both in the capital city of Addis Ababaand in the countryside where we stayed for a seminar for five days inthe small village south of the capital. There I witnessed the most abjectpoverty I have ever seen in my UN missions to over 70 developingcountries in all regions of the world.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. With a popula-tion greater than that of Canada, its people live below the poverty leveland scratch out a living in a largely agricultural-based economy. Itsexports of coffee and other raw materials are subject to erratic exportfluctuations and consequently volatile foreign exchange earnings.These earnings are needed for basic manufactures and other inputsare required to build an adequate infrastructure. Caught in this trap,the most basic tangible assistance is required to, among other things,build roads, irrigation systems, and provide relevant education andtraining needs. Whatever form the technical assistance takes, it shouldbe monitored by the country giving aid to ensure the objectives aremet. The provision of equipment and other relevant requirements arefor naught if they cannot be properly maintained and repaired by thelocal operators. In Ethiopia, decades of corrupt governments and a“Marxist” philosophy of a “command” economy provided little basisfor the organization of a technical body to administer and coordinatetechnical assistance projects.

As coordinator of United Nations (UNCTAD) technical assistanceprojects concerning developing country export possibilities, I saw theimportance of relevant foreign assistance.

Canadians enjoy a reputation for being empathetic to the plight ofdeveloping countries in need and make these feelings known throughthe political process. The Government, through its Ministry of ForeignAffairs, provides grants, loans and via the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA), gives project specific funding.Individual Canadians through their votes can continue putting pres-sure on the political parties to keep these efforts high on the agenda.I hope that Canada continues its fine work.

Ginman was a professor of Economics, and taught at Boston University and the State University of New York(SUNY) before he joined the UN where he traveled to over seventy developing countries. Ginman is nowretired and living on Vancouver Island.

*In the early 1960s, growing concerns about the place of developing countries in international trade ledmany of these countries to call for the convening of a full-fledged conference specifically devoted to tack-ling these problems and identifying appropriate international actions.

The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held in Geneva in 1964. Giventhe magnitude of the problems at stake and the need to address them, the conference was institutionalizedto meet every four years, with intergovernmental bodies meeting between sessions and a permanent secre-tariat providing the necessary substantive and logistical support.

A World Away


16 17

For most people moving/develop-

ing/growing/being FASTER is the

accepted norm. The computer

mentality is generalized and we

expect not only change but also the

rate of change to steadily increase.

While FASTER might work in many

areas, our bodies are not built to

accept change at an ever escalat-

ing rate.

For the past 50 to 80 years, we have

been evolving our food supply

because of our need for increased

output and our desire for near per-

fect quality. The evolution of our

food is considerably more rapid

than our bodies can evolve.

There are three areas people need

to be conscious of when they think

about food and its level of quality:

1) Transportation

2) Food security

3) Digestion

1) The mechanics of internal com-

bustion engines changed the

potential of food to travel. There are

many benefits as well as liabilities;

bacteria travels easily and we get

exposed to strains we haven’t

learned to tolerate. There’s the issue

of freshness and the loss of nutri-

ents. We breed beef for stability and

then volume but often nutrition

moves down in priority. There is seri-

ous environmental cost and land

nutrient degradation associated

with typical commercial farming.

2) Moving food long distances

brings freeloaders like mold and

pathogenic bacteria. Our bodies

and our culture have adapted to

our locality by developing resist-

ance and we have culturally devel-

oped preparation patterns to maxi-

mize the benefits of our food. We

have changed our food supply

from culture to business and the

changes have at times

left our bodies in the dust.

In the last half-century

the balance in our diet

has changed dramatical-

ly and our lifestyle treats

proper diet as an after-

thought. This is only two

or three generations

which isn't long for the

genetic adaptive process applied to

natural rhythms. Long distance

also gives opportunity for many

unknown changes. Distant food

gives little security. Are standards

met? Did things happen over time

and distance? What are the grow-

ing conditions? Apparently one

third of China's agricultural land is

polluted. Bodies need predictability.

Local growing allows more oppor-

tunity for our bodies

to adapt. The world-

wide food web has

saved lives but is it

right for now?

3) The fast food

world looks at con-

venience more than

quality of nutrition -

are chips the best

way to utilize a potato? We assume

that we understand nutrition but

get surprised by trans fats among

other downsides of production. We

have evolved slowly and by obser-

vation we tended toward getting

the most from our food. Many of us

believe that change is inevitable but

that a slower approach to food

change is necessary for evaluation

and to allow our bodies to adapt

and benefit.

The current international food

model increases system stress with-

in our bodies and

many people

now accept the

ability of slower

preparation to

gain nutrient

absorption. Natural, slower

growing of animals allows

animal physiologies to

change and to complete at

their own rate. Appropriate

rates affect flavour, texture

and ultimately, nutritive

value. Other natural

processes should also be

looked at – such as how we

best (most efficiently) glean

net calories from sunlight. At our

own peril, we can’t ignore main-

taining soil health and fail to con-

sider the nonrenewable resources

involved.

Health is affected by eating style.

Slow and lively affects digestion

and absorption. I think Slow Food is

not only about preparation – it’s

about our buried capability to be

aware of what we eat, where it

comes from and how it got there.

In 2004, Slow Food opened

a University of Gastronomic

Sciences at Pollenzo, in Piedmont,

and Colorno, in Emilia-Romagna,

Italy. The goal is to promote

awareness of good food and

nutrition. The Slow Food move-

ment was founded by Carlo

Petrini in Italy as a resistance

movement to combat fast food

and claims to preserve the cultur-

al cuisine and the associated food

plants and seeds, domestic ani-

mals, and farming within an

ecoregion.

www.slowfood.com Slow Food

International believes that every-

one has a funda-

mental right to

pleasure and

c o n s e q u e n t l y

the responsibility

to protect the

heritage of food, tradition and

culture that makes this pleasure

possible. The movement is found-

ed upon this concept of eco-gas-

tronomy – recognition of the

strong connections between

plate and planet.

www.slowfood.ca Slow Food

Canada’s web site has Slow Food

event and news listings from

across Canada.

I continue on and buy goat’s

cheese from Stephanie, sheep’s

cheese from Ruth and whole

grain bagels from Shabetay,

who operates St. Urbain Bagels.

Fresh hand made whole wheat

pasta and pesto come from Aziz

who operates St. Lawrence Pizza

and Pasta.

Most of the

vendors that I

frequent at the

St. Lawrence

Market have

been selling there for twenty plus

years. I shop slowly and I try to

cook slower.

Sincerely, a “localvore”

I start up the first aisle toward the

northwest corner, I pass honey and

beeswax candles - I still have inventory of

both. I glance at the elk slippers and

mitts (I have both) and think about whom

else I can buy them for. I search longingly

for the large bison skin which I visualize

under my desk, bare feet sunk ankle

deep into the fur.

Here is Jorge with his organic produce. By his own

admission, Jorge is a man who has done a lot of living

and he promises to tell me his story over a warm drink.

This is another reason why the market is a slow affair -

there is so much to talk about with so many different

market friends. Sometimes a spontaneous conversa-

tion begins and other customers join in about the best

way to cook this or the best wine to have with that…

A few tables up and over, Linda Rose [of LINDA'S GAR-

DEN] offers small tumblers of warm tea while she discuss-

es the virtues of her Ontario-grown wildcrafted herbs.

I take a number at the Rowe Farms booth and look for

John Rowe, owner and Slow Food catalyst. John has

been inspired to begin a rant on the subject of Slow Food

and Back to the Basics Farming. So begins John’s rant:

Nora has been thinking about the value of Slow Foods.

She knows me through my booth, Rowe Farms, in the

north building at St. Lawrence Market. I am a farmer rais-

ing cattle and I keep a focus on land stewardship. For me,

farming began as a thoughtful process rather then a

default position. In the 1960s, my family and I began

growing drug-free beef as a kind of hobby because we

wanted to address some of the food quality concerns we

had. This is when antibiotics and hormones were not

thought of as the harmful factors we know they are today.

Local and slow go together. Today we are trying to con-

sider what's best for us, AND the world in which we live.

Every Saturday morning, I drive to the St. Lawrence Market before my family isawake. Usually I pick up one or twofriends along the way. It's quite early sowe are mostly silent. Our attire is roll-out-of-bed disheveled. I think about my dou-ble espresso long and cinnamon crepe...

Going to the market is an exercise inslowing down. It is virtually impossibleto shop quickly. I start in the NorthMarket where the vendors have been upsince long before dawn packing trucksand driving to Toronto from Guelph,Dundalk, Caledon and beyond. I was atthe market last week at 6:00 am and itwas pretty much business as usualminus the crepes.

At the front doors of the North Market, afamiliar face greets me. This is Ken whohas been selling the Toronto StreetNews and watching people’s pets for aslong as I can remember. Life is hard forKen yet he is always courteous with aready smile.

S L O W F O O D


16 17

For most people moving/develop-

ing/growing/being FASTER is the

accepted norm. The computer

mentality is generalized and we

expect not only change but also the

rate of change to steadily increase.

While FASTER might work in many

areas, our bodies are not built to

accept change at an ever escalat-

ing rate.

For the past 50 to 80 years, we have

been evolving our food supply

because of our need for increased

output and our desire for near per-

fect quality. The evolution of our

food is considerably more rapid

than our bodies can evolve.

There are three areas people need

to be conscious of when they think

about food and its level of quality:

1) Transportation

2) Food security

3) Digestion

1) The mechanics of internal com-

bustion engines changed the

potential of food to travel. There are

many benefits as well as liabilities;

bacteria travels easily and we get

exposed to strains we haven’t

learned to tolerate. There’s the issue

of freshness and the loss of nutri-

ents. We breed beef for stability and

then volume but often nutrition

moves down in priority. There is seri-

ous environmental cost and land

nutrient degradation associated

with typical commercial farming.

2) Moving food long distances

brings freeloaders like mold and

pathogenic bacteria. Our bodies

and our culture have adapted to

our locality by developing resist-

ance and we have culturally devel-

oped preparation patterns to maxi-

mize the benefits of our food. We

have changed our food supply

from culture to business and the

changes have at times

left our bodies in the dust.

In the last half-century

the balance in our diet

has changed dramatical-

ly and our lifestyle treats

proper diet as an after-

thought. This is only two

or three generations

which isn't long for the

genetic adaptive process applied to

natural rhythms. Long distance

also gives opportunity for many

unknown changes. Distant food

gives little security. Are standards

met? Did things happen over time

and distance? What are the grow-

ing conditions? Apparently one

third of China's agricultural land is

polluted. Bodies need predictability.

Local growing allows more oppor-

tunity for our bodies

to adapt. The world-

wide food web has

saved lives but is it

right for now?

3) The fast food

world looks at con-

venience more than

quality of nutrition -

are chips the best

way to utilize a potato? We assume

that we understand nutrition but

get surprised by trans fats among

other downsides of production. We

have evolved slowly and by obser-

vation we tended toward getting

the most from our food. Many of us

believe that change is inevitable but

that a slower approach to food

change is necessary for evaluation

and to allow our bodies to adapt

and benefit.

The current international food

model increases system stress with-

in our bodies and

many people

now accept the

ability of slower

preparation to

gain nutrient

absorption. Natural, slower

growing of animals allows

animal physiologies to

change and to complete at

their own rate. Appropriate

rates affect flavour, texture

and ultimately, nutritive

value. Other natural

processes should also be

looked at – such as how we

best (most efficiently) glean

net calories from sunlight. At our

own peril, we can’t ignore main-

taining soil health and fail to con-

sider the nonrenewable resources

involved.

Health is affected by eating style.

Slow and lively affects digestion

and absorption. I think Slow Food is

not only about preparation – it’s

about our buried capability to be

aware of what we eat, where it

comes from and how it got there.

In 2004, Slow Food opened

a University of Gastronomic

Sciences at Pollenzo, in Piedmont,

and Colorno, in Emilia-Romagna,

Italy. The goal is to promote

awareness of good food and

nutrition. The Slow Food move-

ment was founded by Carlo

Petrini in Italy as a resistance

movement to combat fast food

and claims to preserve the cultur-

al cuisine and the associated food

plants and seeds, domestic ani-

mals, and farming within an

ecoregion.

www.slowfood.com Slow Food

International believes that every-

one has a funda-

mental right to

pleasure and

c o n s e q u e n t l y

the responsibility

to protect the

heritage of food, tradition and

culture that makes this pleasure

possible. The movement is found-

ed upon this concept of eco-gas-

tronomy – recognition of the

strong connections between

plate and planet.

www.slowfood.ca Slow Food

Canada’s web site has Slow Food

event and news listings from

across Canada.

I continue on and buy goat’s

cheese from Stephanie, sheep’s

cheese from Ruth and whole

grain bagels from Shabetay,

who operates St. Urbain Bagels.

Fresh hand made whole wheat

pasta and pesto come from Aziz

who operates St. Lawrence Pizza

and Pasta.

Most of the

vendors that I

frequent at the

St. Lawrence

Market have

been selling there for twenty plus

years. I shop slowly and I try to

cook slower.

Sincerely, a “localvore”

I start up the first aisle toward the

northwest corner, I pass honey and

beeswax candles - I still have inventory of

both. I glance at the elk slippers and

mitts (I have both) and think about whom

else I can buy them for. I search longingly

for the large bison skin which I visualize

under my desk, bare feet sunk ankle

deep into the fur.

Here is Jorge with his organic produce. By his own

admission, Jorge is a man who has done a lot of living

and he promises to tell me his story over a warm drink.

This is another reason why the market is a slow affair -

there is so much to talk about with so many different

market friends. Sometimes a spontaneous conversa-

tion begins and other customers join in about the best

way to cook this or the best wine to have with that…

A few tables up and over, Linda Rose [of LINDA'S GAR-

DEN] offers small tumblers of warm tea while she discuss-

es the virtues of her Ontario-grown wildcrafted herbs.

I take a number at the Rowe Farms booth and look for

John Rowe, owner and Slow Food catalyst. John has

been inspired to begin a rant on the subject of Slow Food

and Back to the Basics Farming. So begins John’s rant:

Nora has been thinking about the value of Slow Foods.

She knows me through my booth, Rowe Farms, in the

north building at St. Lawrence Market. I am a farmer rais-

ing cattle and I keep a focus on land stewardship. For me,

farming began as a thoughtful process rather then a

default position. In the 1960s, my family and I began

growing drug-free beef as a kind of hobby because we

wanted to address some of the food quality concerns we

had. This is when antibiotics and hormones were not

thought of as the harmful factors we know they are today.

Local and slow go together. Today we are trying to con-

sider what's best for us, AND the world in which we live.

Every Saturday morning, I drive to the St. Lawrence Market before my family isawake. Usually I pick up one or twofriends along the way. It's quite early sowe are mostly silent. Our attire is roll-out-of-bed disheveled. I think about my dou-ble espresso long and cinnamon crepe...

Going to the market is an exercise inslowing down. It is virtually impossibleto shop quickly. I start in the NorthMarket where the vendors have been upsince long before dawn packing trucksand driving to Toronto from Guelph,Dundalk, Caledon and beyond. I was atthe market last week at 6:00 am and itwas pretty much business as usualminus the crepes.

At the front doors of the North Market, afamiliar face greets me. This is Ken whohas been selling the Toronto StreetNews and watching people’s pets for aslong as I can remember. Life is hard forKen yet he is always courteous with aready smile.

S L O W F O O D


On a camping trip in Algonquin Park, I was developing a nasty hankering for a hamburger. No amount of fresh fish, camp stew, or trail mix could satisfy mymounting desire.

I made my way half way round the lake to the general store to indulge my red meat fantasy; impatiently waited the 10 minutes it took for the grill to delicate-ly blacken the patty beyond all recognition of meat; and was up to my eye teeth in hamburger when the cook started laughing.

It seems I had wolfed down a Soy Burger and not a carnivorous delight! Never mind, it was fabulous, wonderful and amazing. If this was a veggie burger – Iwas a convert! I had joined the ranks of a growing cult and would eat a Soy burger every chance I got for the rest of my life.

ONE MORE JOINS THE CULT.

19

TEMPORARY MIGRANT WORKER SHOT IN A KIBBUTZ IN ISRAEL – LIAM SHARP

THE NEGEV REGION HAS DEVELOPED VERY ADVANCED TECHNIQUES TO

GROW VEGETABLES IN THE DESERT.

Photograph: Henry Feather

Phot

ogra

ph:L

iam

Sha

rp


On a camping trip in Algonquin Park, I was developing a nasty hankering for a hamburger. No amount of fresh fish, camp stew, or trail mix could satisfy mymounting desire.

I made my way half way round the lake to the general store to indulge my red meat fantasy; impatiently waited the 10 minutes it took for the grill to delicate-ly blacken the patty beyond all recognition of meat; and was up to my eye teeth in hamburger when the cook started laughing.

It seems I had wolfed down a Soy Burger and not a carnivorous delight! Never mind, it was fabulous, wonderful and amazing. If this was a veggie burger – Iwas a convert! I had joined the ranks of a growing cult and would eat a Soy burger every chance I got for the rest of my life.

ONE MORE JOINS THE CULT.

19

TEMPORARY MIGRANT WORKER SHOT IN A KIBBUTZ IN ISRAEL – LIAM SHARP

THE NEGEV REGION HAS DEVELOPED VERY ADVANCED TECHNIQUES TO

GROW VEGETABLES IN THE DESERT.

Photograph: Henry Feather

Phot

ogra

ph:L

iam

Sha

rp


This day, I thankfully accept all of the good things that are coming myway. This day is full of excitement, love, energy, health and prosperity.This day, people are calling on me to be of service to them and Irespond by giving my best. This day, I think and practice healthin my life, refusing to accept anything less than perfecthealth. This day, I accept the abundance and prosperity thatis mine and willingly share it with others. This day, I focus on


This day, I thankfully accept all of the good things that are coming myway. This day is full of excitement, love, energy, health and prosperity.This day, people are calling on me to be of service to them and Irespond by giving my best. This day, I think and practice healthin my life, refusing to accept anything less than perfecthealth. This day, I accept the abundance and prosperity thatis mine and willingly share it with others. This day, I focus on


the moment and give no thought to the past or to the future. Thisday, I spend in total enjoyment of what I do. This day, I fillwith loving thoughts and actions toward all other people andmyself. This day, I spend in grateful appreciation of all thatis mine. This day, this hour, this minute, this moment is all that Ihave and I choose to use it in celebration.Larry Winget


the moment and give no thought to the past or to the future. Thisday, I spend in total enjoyment of what I do. This day, I fillwith loving thoughts and actions toward all other people andmyself. This day, I spend in grateful appreciation of all thatis mine. This day, this hour, this minute, this moment is all that Ihave and I choose to use it in celebration.Larry Winget


...countries, such as Italy and France, ... decide theirdinner questions on the basis of such quaint and unsci-entific criteria as pleasure and tradition, eat all mannerof “unhealthy” foods, and, lo and behold, wind up actu-ally healthier and happier in their eating than we are. Weshow our surprise at this by speaking of somethingcalled the “French paradox,” for how could a peoplewho eat such demonstrably toxic substances as foiegras and triple crème cheese actually be slimmer andhealthier than we are? Yet I wonder if it doesn’t makemore sense to peak in terms of an American paradox—that is, a notably unhealthy people obsessed by the ideaof eating healthily.

TO ONE DEGREE or another, the question of what tohave for dinner assails every omnivore, and always has.When you can eat just about anything nature has tooffer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stiranxiety, especially when some of the potential foods onoffer are liable to sicken or kill you. This is the omni-vore’s dilemma, noted long ago by writers like Rousseauand Brillat-Savarin and first given that name thirty yearsago by a University of Pennsylvania research psycholo-gist named Paul Rozin. I’ve borrowed his phrase for thetitle of this book because the omnivore’s dilemma turnsout to be a particularly sharp tool for understanding ourpresent predicaments surrounding food. In a 1976paper called “The Selection of Foods by Rats, Humans,and Other Animals”, Rozin contrasted the omnivore’sexistential situation with that of the specialized eater, forwhom the dinner question could not be simpler. Thekoala bear doesn’t worry about what’s for dinner: If itlooks and smells and tastes like a eucalyptus leaf, itmust be dinner. The koala’s culinary preferences arehardwired in its genes. But for omnivores like us (andthe rat) a vast amount of brain space and time must bedevoted to figuring out which of all the many potentialdishes nature lays on are safe to eat. We rely on ourprodigious powers of recognition and memory to guideus away from poisons (Isn’t that the mushroom thatmade me sick last week?) and toward nutritious plants(The red berries are the juicier, sweeter ones).Our taste buds help too, predisposing us toward sweetness,which signals carbohydrate energy in nature, and awayfrom bitterness, which is how many of the toxic alka-loids produced by plants taste. Our inborn sense of dis-gust keeps us from ingesting things that might infectus, such as rotten meat. Many anthropologists believe

that the reason we evolved such big and intricate brainswas precisely to help us deal with the omnivore’s dilem-ma. Being a generalist is of course a great boon as wellas a challenge; It is what allows humans to successful-ly inhabit virtually every terrestrial environment on theplanet. Omnivory offers the pleasures of variety, too. Butthe surfeit of choice brings a lot of stress with it and hasled to a kind of Manichaean view of food, a division ofnature into The Good Things to Eat, and The Bad...“Eating is an agricultural act,” as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a politicalact, too. Though much has been done to obscure thissimple fact, how and what we eat determines to a greatextent the use we make of the world—and what is tobecome of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but inpractice few things in life afford quite as much satisfac-tion. By comparison, the pleasures of eating industrial-ly, which is to say eating in ignorance, are fleeting.

Many people today seem perfectly content eating at the end of an industrial food chain, without a thought inthe world: this book is probably not for them; there arethings in it that will ruin their appetite. But in the end this is a book about the pleasures of eating, the kind of pleasures that are only deepened by knowing.

25

Never Mind Counting Sheep [Calories]

Excerpted from the book Omnivore’s Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals,by Michael Pollan, Author of In Defense of Food.

Are you eating at the end of an industrial food chain?

The cost of producing 1kg sheep cheese,the main product in sheep dairying, is approximately$8 compared to $5 for goat cheese and $3 for thesame cheese made from cow milk.

At least two dozen different dairy sheep breeds are recognized, mainly inthe Mediterranean area, with different genetic milk yield merits, but all dis-tinguished by higher milk fat and protein levels than in goat and cow milk.

Sheep milk has a superior composition, in relative terms,compared to the composition of human, cow and goat milkand in such critical nutrients as protein, calcium, iron, mag-nesium, zinc, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12,vitamin D, medium chain fatty acids, mono-unsaturated fattyacids, linolenic acid, and all 10 essential amino acids.

Today's consumer is much more interested in low-fat than whole milk andwhole sheep milk has a much higher fat content than cow milk. So whychoose sheep cheese and milk?

One reason is the significant nutrients.

Another reason is artisanal production of sheep cheeses and yogurt.

A third reason could see sheep milk as an alternative to cow milk in cases of cow milk allergy – though there isn’t enough proof to be conclusive on that count.

Sheep milk cheese is absolutely delicious and I stop by Ruth Klahsen’sbooth at the St. Lawrence Market [www.monfortedairy.com] to pick up arosemary covered cheese, Belle, (that used to be called BLISS - it is!) andBauman’s Smoke which is naturally smoked over maple hardwood in aMennonite family smoke house.

Scientific Details derived from an article by George F. W. Haenlein, Departmentof Animal & Food Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark USA

24


...countries, such as Italy and France, ... decide theirdinner questions on the basis of such quaint and unsci-entific criteria as pleasure and tradition, eat all mannerof “unhealthy” foods, and, lo and behold, wind up actu-ally healthier and happier in their eating than we are. Weshow our surprise at this by speaking of somethingcalled the “French paradox,” for how could a peoplewho eat such demonstrably toxic substances as foiegras and triple crème cheese actually be slimmer andhealthier than we are? Yet I wonder if it doesn’t makemore sense to peak in terms of an American paradox—that is, a notably unhealthy people obsessed by the ideaof eating healthily.

TO ONE DEGREE or another, the question of what tohave for dinner assails every omnivore, and always has.When you can eat just about anything nature has tooffer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stiranxiety, especially when some of the potential foods onoffer are liable to sicken or kill you. This is the omni-vore’s dilemma, noted long ago by writers like Rousseauand Brillat-Savarin and first given that name thirty yearsago by a University of Pennsylvania research psycholo-gist named Paul Rozin. I’ve borrowed his phrase for thetitle of this book because the omnivore’s dilemma turnsout to be a particularly sharp tool for understanding ourpresent predicaments surrounding food. In a 1976paper called “The Selection of Foods by Rats, Humans,and Other Animals”, Rozin contrasted the omnivore’sexistential situation with that of the specialized eater, forwhom the dinner question could not be simpler. Thekoala bear doesn’t worry about what’s for dinner: If itlooks and smells and tastes like a eucalyptus leaf, itmust be dinner. The koala’s culinary preferences arehardwired in its genes. But for omnivores like us (andthe rat) a vast amount of brain space and time must bedevoted to figuring out which of all the many potentialdishes nature lays on are safe to eat. We rely on ourprodigious powers of recognition and memory to guideus away from poisons (Isn’t that the mushroom thatmade me sick last week?) and toward nutritious plants(The red berries are the juicier, sweeter ones).Our taste buds help too, predisposing us toward sweetness,which signals carbohydrate energy in nature, and awayfrom bitterness, which is how many of the toxic alka-loids produced by plants taste. Our inborn sense of dis-gust keeps us from ingesting things that might infectus, such as rotten meat. Many anthropologists believe

that the reason we evolved such big and intricate brainswas precisely to help us deal with the omnivore’s dilem-ma. Being a generalist is of course a great boon as wellas a challenge; It is what allows humans to successful-ly inhabit virtually every terrestrial environment on theplanet. Omnivory offers the pleasures of variety, too. Butthe surfeit of choice brings a lot of stress with it and hasled to a kind of Manichaean view of food, a division ofnature into The Good Things to Eat, and The Bad...“Eating is an agricultural act,” as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a politicalact, too. Though much has been done to obscure thissimple fact, how and what we eat determines to a greatextent the use we make of the world—and what is tobecome of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but inpractice few things in life afford quite as much satisfac-tion. By comparison, the pleasures of eating industrial-ly, which is to say eating in ignorance, are fleeting.

Many people today seem perfectly content eating at the end of an industrial food chain, without a thought inthe world: this book is probably not for them; there arethings in it that will ruin their appetite. But in the end this is a book about the pleasures of eating, the kind of pleasures that are only deepened by knowing.

25

Never Mind Counting Sheep [Calories]

Excerpted from the book Omnivore’s Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals,by Michael Pollan, Author of In Defense of Food.

Are you eating at the end of an industrial food chain?

The cost of producing 1kg sheep cheese,the main product in sheep dairying, is approximately$8 compared to $5 for goat cheese and $3 for thesame cheese made from cow milk.

At least two dozen different dairy sheep breeds are recognized, mainly inthe Mediterranean area, with different genetic milk yield merits, but all dis-tinguished by higher milk fat and protein levels than in goat and cow milk.

Sheep milk has a superior composition, in relative terms,compared to the composition of human, cow and goat milkand in such critical nutrients as protein, calcium, iron, mag-nesium, zinc, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12,vitamin D, medium chain fatty acids, mono-unsaturated fattyacids, linolenic acid, and all 10 essential amino acids.

Today's consumer is much more interested in low-fat than whole milk andwhole sheep milk has a much higher fat content than cow milk. So whychoose sheep cheese and milk?

One reason is the significant nutrients.

Another reason is artisanal production of sheep cheeses and yogurt.

A third reason could see sheep milk as an alternative to cow milk in cases of cow milk allergy – though there isn’t enough proof to be conclusive on that count.

Sheep milk cheese is absolutely delicious and I stop by Ruth Klahsen’sbooth at the St. Lawrence Market [www.monfortedairy.com] to pick up arosemary covered cheese, Belle, (that used to be called BLISS - it is!) andBauman’s Smoke which is naturally smoked over maple hardwood in aMennonite family smoke house.

Scientific Details derived from an article by George F. W. Haenlein, Departmentof Animal & Food Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark USA

24


27

HERE ARE WARS AND THERE ARE BATTLES. SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL, WHOLESOME, VOLUPTUOUS. WHO CAN WIN A BATTLE WITH AN IMAGINARY FOE?

Photographs: Michelle Gibson


27

HERE ARE WARS AND THERE ARE BATTLES. SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL, WHOLESOME, VOLUPTUOUS. WHO CAN WIN A BATTLE WITH AN IMAGINARY FOE?

Photographs: Michelle Gibson


Put on your special glasses and view the world asan artist – every day different from the last.

DEAD SEA, ROUGHLY NEAR THE WEST BANK

Dinner parties can be the most intimate

and memorable of all social events, com-

bining food, wine, story telling, laughter —

and even sometimes high drama. Samuel

Pepys, the famous diarist said: “Strange to

see how a good dinner and feasting recon-

ciles everybody”.

The symposium by Plato features a leg-endary dinner party. Although not much ismentioned about the food served to agroup of Athenian insiders celebrating thepoet Agathon’s literary prize, things heat upas the guests take turns delivering sponta-neous speeches on the nature of love. (Talkabout putting your guests on the spot!)

The climax is when Alcibiades shows uproaring drunk and bemoans his failure toseduce Socrates—notwithstanding hismany attempts—including the old ‘let’srassle’ trick and the old ‘I’m cold, come onover and cuddle with me, Socrates’ trick.

I’m sure everyone has attended a dinnerparty or two where a drunken husband orwife unwittingly provides the evening’sentertainment. I’ve been witness to peoplefalling in love—between the cream ofbroccoli soup and the grilled salmon. AndI’ve seen a table full of trial lawyers turnmisty over a poignant sharing from theheart by one brave participant.

It’s as though we deliver ourselves up toour hosts and each other to be heard andreceived and revered and loved andadmired when we agree to attend such anintimate event as a dinner party.

Rumi, the incomparable Sufi poetdeclared, probably in mid-rumination over his beloved, Shams of Tabriz:

“My soul spills into yours and is blendedBecause my soul has absorbed your fra-grance, I cherish it”.

What’s the secret power of a great dinnerparty? I believe it’s the loving intention inthe food.

Good food preparation is alchemy, pureand simple. Nothing less than magic, it’sthe devotional art of infusing love into edi-ble ingredients.

And as the love permeates the food and theconversation and the guests’ thoughts andfeelings, they too experience a blendingjust as profoundly as the arugula and toma-to and garlic and olive oil are blended, giv-ing and receiving each others’ essences.

There have been a number of films inrecent years attempting to depict the trans-forming effect food can have on a group.‘Like Water for Chocolate’, ‘The BigNight’ and ‘Chocolat’ are a few examplesthat come quickly to mind. ‘Babette’sFeast’ is the granddaddy of them all. Set ina Danish fishing village in the late 1800s,it’s the story of a French chef who invests10,000 French francs—her whole for-tune—in a celebration dinner attended bya dozen religious puritans who haveresolved to ignore their senses in favour ofceaseless contemplation of the divine.

Based on a story by Karen Blixen (aka IsakDinesen of Out of Africa fame), the themeof Babette's feast is that great art trans-forms, even if the transformees are in astubborn state of denial.

The tantalizing punchline of the film is thateven as Babette is serving up an astonishingand utterly unreplicatable feast, all the

participants but one are resolutely in denialthat it’s happening. The feast is offered inhonour of their spiritual leader, long dead,who taught them to focus on the worldbeyond and forget about the frauds and for-geries of this transitory world.

But even as they pretend to themselves andeach other that the food and wine are hav-ing no effect on them, they are utterly andcompletely transformed by Babette’s culi-nary masterpiece.

This transformation is timely for the char-acters in Babette’s Feast. In recent years,since the death of their master, the vil-lagers had fallen into petty feuds andquerulous behaviour. Their regular get-togethers had been quickly dissolving intobitter carping fests.

Enter Babette’s generous offer to make a‘Real French Dinner’, as she used to makeas the celebrated chef at the Café Anglaisin Paris.

And even though nobody says a word, thestate of grace which engulfs the group,accentuated by gorgeous modal pianomusic—is something the viewer can takeaway with them as if they had been there in person.

There are not many films which succeed insimultaneously depicting and evoking anall encompassing mood of spiritual tran-scendence without a dollop of preachi-ness. Babette’s Feast is one.

It’s probably the next best thing to hostingyour own fabulous dinner party.

Tom St. Louis, Marketing Guy, Song [email protected]

A n d a F e a t u r e F i l m F e a t u r i n g F o o d

Phot

ogra

ph:L

iam

Sha

rp


Put on your special glasses and view the world asan artist – every day different from the last.

DEAD SEA, ROUGHLY NEAR THE WEST BANK

Dinner parties can be the most intimate

and memorable of all social events, com-

bining food, wine, story telling, laughter —

and even sometimes high drama. Samuel

Pepys, the famous diarist said: “Strange to

see how a good dinner and feasting recon-

ciles everybody”.

The symposium by Plato features a leg-endary dinner party. Although not much ismentioned about the food served to agroup of Athenian insiders celebrating thepoet Agathon’s literary prize, things heat upas the guests take turns delivering sponta-neous speeches on the nature of love. (Talkabout putting your guests on the spot!)

The climax is when Alcibiades shows uproaring drunk and bemoans his failure toseduce Socrates—notwithstanding hismany attempts—including the old ‘let’srassle’ trick and the old ‘I’m cold, come onover and cuddle with me, Socrates’ trick.

I’m sure everyone has attended a dinnerparty or two where a drunken husband orwife unwittingly provides the evening’sentertainment. I’ve been witness to peoplefalling in love—between the cream ofbroccoli soup and the grilled salmon. AndI’ve seen a table full of trial lawyers turnmisty over a poignant sharing from theheart by one brave participant.

It’s as though we deliver ourselves up toour hosts and each other to be heard andreceived and revered and loved andadmired when we agree to attend such anintimate event as a dinner party.

Rumi, the incomparable Sufi poetdeclared, probably in mid-rumination over his beloved, Shams of Tabriz:

“My soul spills into yours and is blendedBecause my soul has absorbed your fra-grance, I cherish it”.

What’s the secret power of a great dinnerparty? I believe it’s the loving intention inthe food.

Good food preparation is alchemy, pureand simple. Nothing less than magic, it’sthe devotional art of infusing love into edi-ble ingredients.

And as the love permeates the food and theconversation and the guests’ thoughts andfeelings, they too experience a blendingjust as profoundly as the arugula and toma-to and garlic and olive oil are blended, giv-ing and receiving each others’ essences.

There have been a number of films inrecent years attempting to depict the trans-forming effect food can have on a group.‘Like Water for Chocolate’, ‘The BigNight’ and ‘Chocolat’ are a few examplesthat come quickly to mind. ‘Babette’sFeast’ is the granddaddy of them all. Set ina Danish fishing village in the late 1800s,it’s the story of a French chef who invests10,000 French francs—her whole for-tune—in a celebration dinner attended bya dozen religious puritans who haveresolved to ignore their senses in favour ofceaseless contemplation of the divine.

Based on a story by Karen Blixen (aka IsakDinesen of Out of Africa fame), the themeof Babette's feast is that great art trans-forms, even if the transformees are in astubborn state of denial.

The tantalizing punchline of the film is thateven as Babette is serving up an astonishingand utterly unreplicatable feast, all the

participants but one are resolutely in denialthat it’s happening. The feast is offered inhonour of their spiritual leader, long dead,who taught them to focus on the worldbeyond and forget about the frauds and for-geries of this transitory world.

But even as they pretend to themselves andeach other that the food and wine are hav-ing no effect on them, they are utterly andcompletely transformed by Babette’s culi-nary masterpiece.

This transformation is timely for the char-acters in Babette’s Feast. In recent years,since the death of their master, the vil-lagers had fallen into petty feuds andquerulous behaviour. Their regular get-togethers had been quickly dissolving intobitter carping fests.

Enter Babette’s generous offer to make a‘Real French Dinner’, as she used to makeas the celebrated chef at the Café Anglaisin Paris.

And even though nobody says a word, thestate of grace which engulfs the group,accentuated by gorgeous modal pianomusic—is something the viewer can takeaway with them as if they had been there in person.

There are not many films which succeed insimultaneously depicting and evoking anall encompassing mood of spiritual tran-scendence without a dollop of preachi-ness. Babette’s Feast is one.

It’s probably the next best thing to hostingyour own fabulous dinner party.

Tom St. Louis, Marketing Guy, Song [email protected]

A n d a F e a t u r e F i l m F e a t u r i n g F o o d

Phot

ogra

ph:L

iam

Sha

rp


30

MarketBlock


Date post:	27-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	duoca
View:	225 times
Download:	0 times

Special Glasses Issue 2

Documents