Flavourful Saskatoon, May 11, 2020

Local News 
I’ve realized that it’s a lot easier for me to support local businesses when they stock a variety of different products. Sparrow offers coffee, cakes, sandwiches, and soups. The Night Oven Bakery has jam, kombucha vinegar, flour, honey, coffee – and all the different bakery products.

I’m pleased to learn that you can now buy pasta along with pies and soup at Scratch Provisions as they are stocking pasta from the Prairie Pasta Lady (also available from the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative).

I’m trying out a pasta that’s new to me this week – casarecce. Casarecce is shaped like a rolled-up scroll and is popular throughout southern Italy, although it’s originally from Sicily where it’s often served with Sicilian pesto (“a sauce full of the flavours of typical Sicilian produce; ricotta, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and pine nuts”).

I ordered takeout from the Odd Couple Restaurant on my birthday. I particularly enjoyed the Tomato Pad Thai and the Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Tart; the Ginger “Beef” Mushrooms are always fun although I think I prefer sharing them as an appetizer. I think it’s great that they’re handling deliveries themselves to keep more staff employed while the restaurant is closed.

Speaking of birthdays, I was lucky enough to be given chocolates from River Layne Chocolate Couture. I can highly recommend the dark chocolate bar with strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, basil crystals with its delectable little chunks of freeze-dried fruit. I received a box of chocolates too, but they’re far too beautiful to eat immediately.

The Government of Saskatchewan has issued guidelines for markets operating during the pandemic.

Reading & Watching
Dirt: Adventures in Lyon by a Chef in Training, Father and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking by Bill Buford: “If you aren't interested in France or Europe or food, this book may not be for you, as it is incredibly detailed and focused on these topics. But if you are, it's a feast.”

Nadiya Hussain’s series on Netflix, Nadiya’s Time to Eat, sounds like it will be worth watching. She visits ordinary people, honours the labour food requires, and shows her enjoyment.

Food for Thought 
“Could you imagine, if every restaurant was turned into a community feeding center where we don't have to do thousands of meals, every restaurant could do 200, 300, and then there's no chokepoint? It happens seamlessly, and that whole ecosystem of the restaurant — the employees, the suppliers — all of it stays intact. That would've been the best way to do it, and [to] feed a lot of hungry people at the same time.” (Tom Colicchio on how we should have addressed both hunger and unemployment during the pandemic)

Has your attitude towards food shifted during this time of social isolation, shortages, and health concerns? A number of food activists share their thoughts in a Civil Eats editorial.

Raj Patel: “If we come out of this crisis with an abiding appreciation for the hands that feed us, and a newfound respect for the diversity of life, we’ll have learned well.”

Dan Barber: “A thriving food system means an infrastructure strong enough to support all these vital food actors, to take a shattered world and patch it back together in the long run. And the long run starts now.”

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post articles about food that is good, clean and fair; travel; and books. You may also enjoy EcoFriendly Sask profiling Saskatchewan nature/environmental initiatives and events. 

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