Flavourful Saskatoon, December 7, 2020


“But when the bare and wintry woods we see, what then so cheerful as the holly-tree?” Robert Southey, The Holly-Tree 

Local News 
An 18-minute videotaped slideshow offers a glimpse of Saskatoon’s restaurants over the years – from the first airport café to a student restaurant on College Drive, the Dog ‘n Suds drive-in on 8th Street, chefs at work in the Bessborough kitchen, and the 1924 Chocolate Shop where everything was cooked by electricity – what a novelty! 

On a similar theme, Peggy Sarjeant shares stories of Saskatoon’s early Chinese community and businesses. 

Restaurants in a Time of Covid 
14 service workers talk about work during a pandemic. Some employers were great; others weren’t. I hadn’t considered how annoying it must be to listen to "Covid small talk” for 40 hours a week. There is also well-reasoned criticism of the philosophy that the customer is always right: “Dining out is a luxury and should be treated as such. . . . The demand from our society for cheap and fast food, even in the context of finer dining, hurts everyone on the chain from the farmers to the servers to the cooks to the dishwashers.” 

In the Kitchen 
The Smithsonian has released a game highlighting the food, currency, music, and nutritional guidelines from eight different countries. Find out about yam and cassava from Benin, lingonberries in Finland, and chickpeas in Lebanon. 

And then there are croissants from France – and from Burger King!  The author argues that the industrial croissant deserves our respect.

All about Fungi 
We use them to make bread, cure infections, break down waste. Plants rely on them and so do humans. And yet they go almost unnoticed - fungi.  (article I wrote for EcoFriendly Sask)

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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