The many colours of Canadian cuisine
BACK OF HOUSE
Fireworks explode in the sky above me and fall away into the rows of vines.
The sky, tumultuous with thunderheads and sideways rain only a few short hours ago is now clear, save for the bright pinholes of stars beginning to show. It is Canada Day, this one celebrating 150 years of nationhood.
As I gaze at the bright and varied colours, I am reminded of my Grade 4 teacher, Mrs. MacNevin, who was so proud to tell us how Canada was distinct from our much larger southern neighbour because Canada is a mosaic of cultures and not a melting pot; one could be a proud Canadian and still hang on to cultural heritage from other places.
I know now that this is not completely true, that Canada and Canadians share a shameful blemish of eroding our First Peoples’ culture to within the brink of extinction. This very serious subject of mistreatment and reconciliation is not the subject of this short essay, though I am pleased to write that in considering ‘Canadian’ food, I am immediately drawn to celebrating Canada’s indigenous peoples, who taught newcomers from Europe the lay of the land and waters and gave them — us — the means to survive and flourish in this ragged land.
In every corner of the globe, national cuisine is dictated by what can be grown, hunted or fished, and the lifestyle of the people who grow, hunt or fish it. Canada is no exception, though the vibrant and diverse mix of our population today means that Canadian food can now be as much Tandoori as poutine, as much Szechuan as salt cod.
The size of this great land also makes it difficult to pigeon-hole exactly what is Canadian cuisine. The varied growing regions and disparate landscapes of this nation, and the different animal populations inhabiting them, means a traditional meal in St. John’s will be very different from one in Nanaimo, and different again from one in Regina.
I am undertaking two special Canadian dinners this summer at my restaurant in celebration of our 150 years as a nation. My concept is to ‘chase the Canadian sun’ from East to West. The first dinner, East, tracing from the Atlantic provinces to Ontario, and the second, West, from Ontario to the Rockies and the North. In writing the menus for both dinners, the common thread I have found is the impact of our First Peoples on all aspects of our national cuisine. Techniques such as salting and smoking foods for longevity, typically Canadian, drying berries or the fishing of salmon, cod and crustaceans all come from our native populations. The hunting of ducks, moose, bison and caribou was all introduced to us by our First Peoples and now are celebrated as iconic Canadian ingredients. Even the first breads consumed in the new world by Europeans was most likely bannock twisted around branches and baked gently over the coals of an open fire.
No matter how colourful and diverse food is in this country, I have found that for it to be truly Canadian, there will doubtless be a connection to our true founders who have inhabited this land far longer than 150 years. ASK AMY
My 85-year-old alcoholic mother lives alone in a big house in a small village in New England.
I am one of her four children, all of whom live at least 240 km from her. We have all tried, unsuccessfully, to convince her to stop driving so that she doesn’t cause an accident that could kill someone.
One of my siblings actually took her car away, but then my mother went out and leased a car so she could drive to the store to buy her booze (she actually tried to hide this from us).
We have also tried, unsuccessfully, to convince her to move to an assisted-living facility. We believe she is ashamed that her alcoholism will be exposed to others at the assisted-living facility and/or she will lose her access to alcohol.
By the way, she denies she is an alcoholic, even though she has been to treatment centres and makes periodic trips to the emergency room when she falls down from drinking too much. Any suggestions on what to do about this situation would be welcome.
— YEARS OF WINE AND ROSES
You and your siblings are trying to control your mother from a distance, and she is (so far) successfully asserting her independence.
Your mother’s alcoholism has obviously had a big impact on you and your siblings, but at this point, perhaps you should accept that she likely won’t stop drinking.
Your efforts should switch from trying to control her, to accepting that this is her life, and she will continue to live it in a way that contains risks, falls, injuries, emergency room visits, etc.
You and your siblings should do what you can to diminish the risks without forcing her or taking her rights away.
If you feel she isn’t managing at home, you should see if she is willing to have someone come in during the day to help with cooking and personal care. She might also benefit from having a “life alert” medallion, so she can call for emergency help if she needs it.
You and your siblings should commence the hard work of accepting with a level of detachment the person you cannot seem to change. Spending time in her household will help you to assess her capabilities. Al-anon material or meetings will help you to cope.
We have an in-law who apparently thinks HE is “The World’s Most Interesting Man.” During his career he traveled and experienced parts of the world one could only hope to visit to fulfil their Bucket List.
However, during any family gathering — no matter the topic or the number of members having open or even separate discussions — this guy will interject himself with some bizarre incident that only he thinks is amusing, redirecting the conversation so that it’s all about him.
After years and years of enduring this, we are finding it more intolerable to participate in family gatherings, yet have few options other than avoidance, which still does not work. Any suggestions? — IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE
When an individual interrupts a group conversation and derails it, someone in the group should respond, politely and in the moment, “Wait a minute, Bud. We were in the middle of another conversation.” And then you rinse and repeat as many times as necessary.
Along with these polite and immediate course corrections, family members should engage, listen to, and interact with him — conveying the message that while his own life and experiences are very interesting, so are others’.