It's not a holiday you'll find on any calendar (yet). For most people, it may slip right under their radar. But hopefully they'll celebrate Food Day without even realizing it.
This Saturday, July 31st, Canada celebrates Food Day, a day dedicated to the farmers, fishers, food producers and chefs across the country.
Originally created by food writer and activist Anita Stewart in 2003, the event was called "The World's Longest BBQ" as Stewart drummed up support for the then-suffering beef industry hit by sanctions because of BSE-tainted meat. Opinions of the beef industry aside (Hey! Don't feed cows other cows, yo!), while the BBQ caught on in some circles, it wasn't exactly welcoming or appealing to everyone, leaving vegetarians, Hindus and BBQ-less apartment and condo dwellers out of luck.
Revamped this year as Food Day, complete with a website detailing events, and with a place where people can share their experiences, Stewart aims to include everyone from coast to coast to coast. The BBQ theme is still prevalent, but the idea is to prepare a meal out of Canadian ingredients. Or at the very least, eat a meal made out of Canadian ingredients.
To promote that goal, over 130 restaurants from across the nation are taking part, offering special menus comprised of the best of Canadian ingredients.
Here in Toronto, diners interested in enjoying an all-Canadian menu on Saturday can check out any of the following:
Epic at the Fairmont Royal York (100 Front Street West) offers a prix fixe menu featuring bison, lobster, ice wine and their own rooftop honey (full menu online).
Scaramouche (1 Benevenuto Place)
Lucien (36 Wellington Street East)
Ruby Watchco (730 Queen Street East)
Cowbell (1564 Queen Street West)
Vertical (100 King Street West) is celebrating Food Day all week and has both lunch and dinner menus featuring red fife pasta, BC salmon, Ontario lamb and venison (full menu online).
Beast (96 Tecumseth Avenue) is serving an all-Ontario burger with Matchbox Gardens green and a 600mL bottle of Beau's LugTread beer for $20. (full details online)
Crush Wine Bar (455 King Street West)
Gilead Cafe/Bistro (4 Gilead Place)
FRANK @ The Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West)
Barberians' Steak House (7 Elm Street)
Of course, Canadians are also encouraged to cook with the nation's bounty at home, preparing a meal out of fresh local or Canadian ingredients, accompanied by Canadian beer or wine.
I know, I know, all of you in "the choir", there's many of you who do this every day without even thinking about it. Heck, there's many of you who preach it louder than me. But given that it's a long weekend across most of the country, there are many opportunities, whether at parties or BBQs or cottages, to spread the word about the great food we have here in Canada. Maybe we already try and support local food producers, but what about Aunt Phyllis? Get her to visit the Food Day website and check out the recipes, and then share her/your experiences.
It seems weird to designate a special day for something that we should all intuitively be doing anyway, but there's still a lot of folks out there buying those California strawberries or Chinese garlic. If we as Canadians aren't going to support our own food producers, then who is? Cook up something Canadian on Food Day and spread the word about how good we really have it.
Image: Vancouver Sun
