Ever since I began thinking more about the food I eat—and this includes reading books, watching films, following blogs, and lots of cooking and eating—I’ve been rather hung up on the idea of tradition.  I find myself lamenting the fact that North America does not seem to have its own traditional cuisine (unless I count fast food).

The more I explore different food cultures and traditions the more I realize that in this modern world most food cultures and traditions are being influenced and changed by one another.  This is helping me see that the food culture of North America has the potential to be the most unique and exciting since this is a land filled from all cultures of the world.

Here in Ontario, TVO has been exploring the role of food in our lives through a new project called The Food Chain.   In TVO’s words, “it is a multiplatform series of documentaries and current affairs as well as discussions and articles looking at what we eat, where it comes from and how it lands on our plates.”

The series has already begun online with a series of articles at tvo.org/thefoodchain, and kicks off on television tonight with a 10-part travelogue, Girl Eat World, hosted by Food Blogger and Master Chef South Africa winner, Kamini Pather.  I’ve watched about half of the episodes so far and the show has definitely made me nostalgic for traveling and eating my way through different cultures.

In my former life I lived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and my favorite activity was exploring the city and finding new places to eat.   After work I’d go home, change clothes, hop on my mountain bike and ride down to the old historic center of town.

The ride took me through a dirty urban sprawl but once I’d cross the river to the old town things would change.  Street were narrow and turned in unexpected directions as they followed their way around the hill that loomed above.  Every week I would find a new part of town I had missed until that point and with it new restaurants, cafés, and shops.

My favorite restaurant specialized in licuados, or smoothies.  Often I’d just order a licuado and spend the afternoon grading tests, planning, or reading and writing letters.  If I was hungry I’d get some street food, like a baleada, a simple mix of a handmade flour tortilla filled with refried beans and Honduran queso.  Other times I’d try a torta which is basically a mixture of wonderful Central American foods stuffed in a hamburger bun.  But my real love was pupusas.

Pupusas are balls of masa flour stuffed with cheese, or a mixture of cheese, meats, and veggies, then hand flattened and fried with a bit of oil.  They are then topped with curtido, a spicy sauerkraut of sorts.

What I’ve been realizing lately is that it’s not the dishes themselves that define a food tradition but the way those foods are made.  Connection to the land—the source of all food—and the processes through which the food is cooked create the tradition, not the recipes.

As my children grow up I’d like them to be a part of our family’s food culture as we build upon the traditions we inherited while making them our own.  We have the freedom to borrow from all cuisines as we cook but also the chance to root ourselves in our local community.  Trips to the farmers market, to our CSA, or simply exploring local farms outside of town give us a chance to see what foods are available to us as we consider what we’ll be eating for the week to come.

Letting “local” define what we eat can seem limiting, but without limits we could never hope to build our own tradition.  Moving through the seasons with the foods that are available and working with local farmers gives our eating purpose and roots it in our community.

For my family our food chain is one that connects us to the land and local farmers.  It connects us to our neighbors, friends, and family with whom we share our meals.  It is not just about eating, it has become a way of living.

What about you, what experiences have shaped how you look at food and what you eat?  Is travel important to you with regard to food, and if so why?  Do you value new experiences and going outside of your comfort zone?  What about traditions, is it important to maintain them?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, and let me know if you check out any episodes of Girl Eat World.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by TVO.  However, (and this should be obvious) all opinions are my own.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around California.  We returned a couple weeks ago from ten days visiting the state that is more populous than the country we live in. 

It has been hard to decide what to write about the experience.  Mostly if I try to sum it up I think what I felt much of the time while in California was awe.

Awe at the enormous and magnificent redwood trees of the northern coast.

Awe at the incredible beauty of San Francisco and its bay.

Awe at the endless coastline and gorgeous beaches.

Awe at the incomprehensibly vast central valley of farms and orchards.

And finally awe at the raw splendor of Yosemite.

In between all of these experiences was time spent with wonderful friends and family.  Our boys were great travelers in spite of many hours in the car and at least eight different places slept.

We ate lots of incredible meals and an equal number of PBJs.  Probably our favorite thing was all of the fresh, local—picked in the backyard—oranges and other citruses.

A highlight for me was picking my own lemons and limes for a fresh glass of lemonade.  Later that day we arrived at my uncle’s house and he treated us to his own fresh-squeezed orange juice from oranges from his backyard.  We were in locavore heaven since this is a treat we can’t enjoy at home.

And yet I was left with a feeling of uneasiness about California and its future.  Even though I can’t really say that I know much about the state, it’s hard not to feel like it’s all founded on a precarious dependence on water.  Seeing the sky of the central valley filled with dust and endless signs along the road blaming politicians for their water crisis  I was only more strengthened in my resolve to avoid buying long-distance fruits and vegetables.

California seems like paradise, and maybe it really is.  I just hope that it can last, because we loved it and hope to visit again.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_statistical_areas
• http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo02a-eng.htm

This meal plan is a bit out of our ordinary pattern and it’s mainly because we’re not at home.  We’ve been at my parent’s house—aka my childhood home—for the last two weeks, and will be here the rest of this week before we hit the road for Oregon and California.  More on that later, but for now I’ll just say a few things about what it’s like planning meals when we’re not at home.

Amazingly it has been beautiful here!  Those are the Olympic Mountains, looking out over the South Puget Sound

What pattern?

And going back to my comment about our ordinary pattern, our whole pattern has been off for the past 6 or 7 months really.  From June to December I was spending my afternoons at Maurita’s Kitchen, part of The Working Centre in downtown Kitchener.  I also started a small home-based business which made things busier as well.  Okay, actually I was posting a lot less here starting last March due to a certain arrival….

I thought I could balance having a third child, working, and a blog but ultimately it was all a bit too much.  We continued meal planning, and have eaten very well in the last year.  There just wasn’t enough time or energy going around to document all of it.  So, days, weeks, months have passed and here the blog is, a little bit neglected.  But I think it’s okay in the end, because we’re happy with how things are.

Way more sun than we ever expected.  The big trees we were well aware of.

So I’ve essentially allowed the blog to fade into the background of my life while other aspects of my life—which ironically are much more local than a “local” food blog—took the centre.  It’s been great.  But soon, okay in like a bit less than three months, my wife will go back to work.  And I will again become full-time stay-at-home dad.  And maybe within that role I will once again feel the desire to blog on a more consistent basis.  Or not, we’ll see!

 Exploring McLane Creek, part of the Capital State Forest

In the meantime, we are enjoying a long holiday in Olympia.  Like until the end of this month kind of long.  And it has been wonderful to be here.  Having not been here in two years(!) I feel like I’m seeing the whole place with new eyes.  A big surprise for me has been noticing not just the moss that seems to grow everywhere, but the ferns!  There are actually ferns growing in trees here.  How did I never notice this in all my years living here?   Amazing.

 Yes, ferns growing on a tree.  

Back to food. 

It was a bit tricky planning a meal for the week when we didn’t know exactly what would be available at the Olympia Farmers Market, so we made a few assumptions and then went to see if we could find the ingredients we needed (mainly kale or hearty greens, beets, and apples.  My parents already had winter squash from their garden as well as some other things in their fridge and pantry).

Yeah so it was actually quite cold when we hit up the market.

Sadly there was no kale at the market.  We did find beets and ended up getting some beautiful carrots and a delicata squash.  We’ll have to decide if we hit the grocery store for some more veggies or modify the plan to fit what we found, but more or less this is what we’re shooting for this week.  We’ll probably start by going to Spud’s Produce Market, which is an awesome little store, exactly the kind of place we’d love to see in KW some day….

And Happy New Year, of course!  (And no, the sparklers aren’t local, I think that might be illegal, I’ll have to look into it…)

A Week of January Meals: