Food Day Canada

Did I ask a friend who just finished studying abroad at Copanhagen whether she paid a visit to Noma or not? Yes. Am I really a foodie? No. The fact that each of our relationship with food is deeply personal, rife with memories and feelings should make us care all the more about food. Yet somehow, if you give an ounce of care what you put into your mouth, you are marginalized as a "foodie", a word that carries negative connotation as someone out of touch with the average person's eating habits and budget. Nevertheless I am still confused on how hard can it be to follow Mark Bittman's and Michael Pollan's simple advice on eating? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. It really is that simple, if you look at traditionally healthy diets such as the Mediterranean diet to the Okinawan diet who are all essentially the same in perspective and their use of whole ingredients and vegetables. It doesn't have to be necessarily organic or local. But it has been proven against conventional wisdom that the produce at local farmer's market can be a whole lot cheaper than anything you will find at giant retailers.

Trying to heed my own advice, after a wonderful lunch with family at a golf course in Richmond (my uncle being an avid golfer), we headed to a nearby farmer's market. The place looked idyllic with it's wide variety of local produces and beautiful little farm. My little cousin sure enjoyed playing with the chicken and the goats. Are all cows this adorable? I wish I could forgo all meat (especially after watching Food Inc.) but why must beef carpaccios be so delicious and so hard to resist, I don't know but my stomach grumbles in response.

The day ended quite nicely with a dinner at Yew, the restaurant at Four Season downtown, which sounds rather expensive but in reality is not because of the sable fish three-course special for $35. To wrap up the food theme for today, here are some food blogs that I read quite often:

• What Katie Ate  
• Not Without Salt  
• Luxirare 
• Smitten Kitchen  
• 101 Cookbooks 
• Roost  
• Toasty Biscuit  
• Dessert for Breakfast  
• My New Roots 

And of course, some fabulous videos of famous chefs and restaurants from Nowness here. Here's a toast for a fabulous week, an awesome last month of summer before school, and happy B.C. day for those who live in beautiful British Columbia (as noted on our license plates).