This past week I have been visiting a friend in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I've been having a really great time going hiking in the Rockies near Banff, dabbling in a little rock climbing and of course tasting some local cuisine. As an Australian in north America the abundance of chain restaurants, ribs, wings and burgers is all a little confronting and the fact that my 88 cent/pound banana is from Ecuador is difficult to reconcile. It would be really easy to get up on my high horse and carry on about what's wrong with the food in this country. But the thing is, some of the most inspiring food blogs I have read are written by people in the US and Canada. Clearly this country has a lot to teach me. It has dawned on me that the prevalence of the American diet (ribs, wings, burgers etc) is the exact thing that has inspired people here to pull away and make positive changes to how they eat. I think that in Australia we are a bit behind in this regard. I am sure "things Canada taught me" will become a running theme in my blog, but for today I am just going to include a few highlights.
Exhibit A of this positive approach to food is the way Canadians can't get enough of nuts in salad, I found a bunch of these "salad boosters" in the supermarket that contain unusual combinations of nuts and grains that seem like an awesome idea. The majority of bars, cafes and restaurants seems to have at least one salad on the menu with walnuts or toasted pumpkin seeds, it's excellent! Also, these people love kale... I had some purple Kale cooked in a foil pocket on the BBQ at a friends place - I am totally converted!
Alberta is beef country, in fact the local indigenous people used to survive on a diet of bison and berries. I've been told that in Calgary the snow begins to fall some time in August and doesn't stop until May, this doesn't leave much room for locally sourcing your food - unless you are happy to eat dried berries and beef jerky for 8 months of the year... I've eaten asparagus from Ecuador and organic strawberries from USA (both of which have tasted considerably better than the same produce in Australia), I fell pangs of guilt and find it difficult to comprehend how the majority of north Americans eat food that has been transported such great distances and is still somehow affordable. On the flip side I have felt much less guilt about eating as much beef as I want, because it's local and environmentally sustainable for this kind of landscape (unfortunately for me 3 days of beef is my limit and I'm currently taking a break from beef).
Before I hit my beef limit I had this Mexican Beef burger at the Rose & Crown in Banff and it was pretty delicious. It was modest in size and was topped with jalapenos, cheese, tomato, pickle, lettuce, mustard and guacamole, even better you get to choose your side - I chose sauteed seasonal vegetables. In Australia if you don't want chips, you have to ask to swap it with salad or vegetables. I'm not a fan of hot chips because I don't enjoy them enough to justify the calorie intact, a rich chocolate cake on the other hand - totally worth it... But I digress.
Two things that Canada is not known for is great coffee and great bread - but I didn't have to search very hard to find them. Wild flower bakery in Banff was a great find, their beer and rye bread was almost up to German standards (there was a reason why i gained 16kg living in Germany for a year) and the double espresso was perfect. Speaking of espresso, I just wrote this blog while sipping on one from The Roasterie in Kensington, Calgary, which doesn't have a website, but several reviews proclaiming it the best coffee in Calgary with a warning "watch out for the crazies, the kids and the hippies" love it! you can always find your people, you just have to be open and keep looking until you find them!
One final note, during my travels I am reading a copy of Michael Pollans book "In defense of food", which is an America focused book about what people should be eating and why. It's relevance to myfood journey in Canada cannot be understated. It's excellent. I love Michael Pollans writing and his book, "The Omnivores Dilemma" about the ethics and origins of our food has changed my perspective on what I eat.
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