Flavourful Saskatoon, October 12, 2020
The Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation is hosting a virtual lunch and learn on World Food Day, Oct. 16. Speakers are Jerónimo Prujin of the Small Producers Symbol Co-op, an intercontinental network of ecological small-producer organizations, and Tom Hanlon-Wide of Camino.
Christmas fruitcakes can take months to prepare if you make them from scratch and give them time to age (and soak up a little alcohol). I’m excited to be home for Christmas this year and able to purchase one of Foodcraft by Sarah’s fruitcakes. Sarah makes small personal fruitcakes. The traditional fruitcake contains mixed dried fruits, peel, glacé cherries, walnuts, premium butter, vanilla, walnuts, almonds, crystallized ginger, and brandy. The natural fruitcake includes dried saskatoons, cranberries, golden & Thompson raisins, dates, sour cherries, crystallized ginger, walnuts, pecans, candied orange slices, and rum. Cakes are $10 each and Sarah, who lives in Swift Current, will ship them.
I celebrated Thanksgiving with one of Nellie’s West African Pies and definitely recommend them. The top 3 ingredients in the veggie pies are black-eyed beans, African plantains, and lima beans with an assortment of other vegetables and spices. They are mild and slightly sweet. She also sells chicken/beef pies and a dessert pie with plantains and apple cinnamon. You can purchase pies directly from Nelly’s West African Pies or at SaskMade Marketplace.
I really appreciate the care and attention that the Safeway at Lawson Heights is putting into keeping its staff and customers healthy. I received a squirt of sanitizer and my cart was cleaned as I entered the store and felt very safe in the wide aisles with all the staff and most of the customers wearing masks. Despite my preference for shopping at small, local businesses, this is where I’ll be doing as much of my grocery shopping as possible unless and until Dad’s Organic Market changes its practices. Dad’s is a small store with crowded aisles and I won’t feel safe there until their staff start wearing masks (customers are). I wrote them a letter expressing my concern and received no reply.
In the Kitchen
If you’re a pasta purist, don’t read this article! However, if you like experimenting in the kitchen, this article about spaghetti usage around the world may inspire you. Add Spam to your spaghetti for a Filipino luxury item; try out a spaghetti sandwich as sold in Japanese train station snack shops; or make a batch of butter chicken pasta, which is big in Delhi.
One of the flavours I learned to enjoy while in the UK was tagine. Here’s a useful article with tips on what vegetables, fruit, and spices to include. Or, if you’re feeling lazy (like me), Ingredients Artisan Market sells Belazu Tagine Paste (I haven't tried it yet).
Farmers’ Markets
I wholeheartedly endorse this statement from Slow Food International: “Few cities have yet to embrace markets as strategic institutions. Moreover, from mega-cities to small towns, few municipal decision makers can even identify the markets that flourish within their own city limits. For most markets, they operate almost outside of the norms of mainstream business development, public health or civic planning. And yet, they offer many clues to (and help shape) a region’s health and capacity for social cohesion.
"Despite countless attempts by local governments to condemn these ancient mechanisms of commerce to the rubbish bin, they continue to reinvent themselves to meet place- and time-specific needs. This begs the question: Are they resilient precisely because they are simple or because they are universal? Or both?”
Thank you for reading Flavourful Saskatoon. If you enjoyed it, please share it with someone – or many someones!
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.
Comments