fresco

It was possible into the early 1980s in Toronto to go to Kensington Market, point to the live chicken, duck or turkey of your choice and wait as it was turned into the makings of dinner. Then the animal rights people got into it. Why, can you tell me, is it more humane to slaughter animals outside city limits?

That particular combination might not fly.

I respectfully disagree. The real urban nightmares can be traced back to a lack of zoning and bylaw control. These are the things that, for instance, prevent someone from putting a 40-storey building right next to your house in an otherwise solidly single family residential neighborhood.

I'm not trying to defend this particular practice, but isn't it the case that a lot of reputable restaurants do a lot of similar stuff--mostly cooking something and then shoving it under a salamander to finish it when ordered? Indeed, a lot of good home cooks freeze their dough. The real issue is the quality of the dough, isn't it?

It's truly amazing the range of stuff covered in Joy of Cooking. Whenever there's a question not easily answered elsewhere, Joy usually has the solution. It may be, paradoxically, the best loved and most underrated cook book around.

Don't you find that some books, while ostensibly cookbooks, are actually meant to be read and enjoyed, and not to be used as a guide? I put pretty well anything written by Elizabeth David in this category.

I have a freezer full of hand-schlepped halibut, char and caribou from Frobisher Bay. You can buy what's described as fresh char and halibut locally, but it's not nearly as good as the stuff in my freezer.

Funny you should mention Ikea. It is huge and very mainstream in Canada (you line up to get into any of their stores, pretty well). Their stuff is stylish, not complete junk, and inexpensive. The food in their restaurants is a real draw. But I'm told that the corporate expectation is that it will never be mainstream in the US--and their advertising and marketing is pitched in the same way as, say, the famous Volkswagen Beetle ads--to a sort of significant fringe market.

The big supermarket chains would do well to learn some lessons froom Whole Foods. Wouldn't it be a treat to be offered, say, a slice of Korean pear and a sliver of cheese rather than the unidentifiable and inedible frozen finger foods with which they annoy people now?

Or maybe their marketing sucks. It's probably not enough to simply bring in a bunch of stuff that produce managers judge to be superior to the usual junk. Proctor and Gamble pays hundreds of millions to tell people why Tide or Cheer meets people's needs better than any other detergent. I can't recall anyone ever spending a nickel (or even designing a shelf talker) to tell me why Northern Spy apples beat the shit out of Golden Delicious. And yet, they do.

In all probability, yes, they did a ton of market research. What has impressed me is that not too many years ago Loblaws was in danger of extinction--shitty stores, declining market share, no direction. A new generation of ownership came in, brought in smart, talented people who were passionate about food, and the chain (and all of its many subsidiaries) are now disproportionately profitable. Maybe a lot of places underestimate their customers. Or maybe their market research sucks.

I agree with a lot of what your are saying. But leadership at the supermarket level can also have amazing results. It's often been said that people don't know what they want until they see it, and there's much truth to that. In Canada the Loblaw chain has pretty well singlehandedly created enormous markets for balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and dozens of other "premium" or at least exotic products. They sourced them, promoted the hell out of them, and because they commanded so much shelf space, they sold a ton of these products. Oh, and in the process, they almost singlehandedly created an enormous premium private label market that all of their competitors were forced to match. I'm not sure if this would be possible in the US, because it is such an enormous market, and no one player has such clout.

That may be true of the French--don't know--but the supermarkets in the UK are ahead of most of their North American competitors in terms of the products they offer.

Absolutely correct. Although comparisons are tough, because Europeans generally enjoy much more generous vacations, pensions, benefits and are prepared for some tradeoffs. But think Americans and Canadians pay about 10 per cent of their wages for food, which is, by world standards, extremely low.

I wonder if a big reason for the success of Wal Mart and others who sell not so good stuff (including food) very cheaply is that the purchasing power of the average person has been badly eroded and consumers are responding by flocking to those places where their dollar stretches the most? It's rational, albeit short sighted behaviour, because collectively, their decisions help to drive down wages, not just at the places they shop, but across the board as competitors cut costs to stay in business. And ultimately, it does make jobs disappear much more quickly than they otherwise would have, I suspect. Tough issue, because the individual benefits are evident, while the responsibility for the harm is diffuse.

Is it possible that as far as Wal Mart is concerned, we are at the extreme end of a pendulum swing? This retailer is now No. 1 in Canada, the US and Mexico (and indeed, is credited with helping to dampen down the inflation rate in Mexico.) McDonalds, Burger King and other fast food giants have, it seems, already reached their limits and are in decline. I suspect that what has already happened with beer will also happen (and is happening) with food--Budweiser in the US, Molson and Labatt in Canada, and doubtless others abroad reached their limits, enough people got sick of a generic product and craft brewers started up. Has there been another time in the past 100 years when there has been such variety of good beer so widely available? It's also worth noting that probably never in history has there been such a variety of food generally available. Some of it is crap, but some is excellent. When I go into a supermarket in a fairly small community and find fresh basil and other herbs, as well as a pretty good array of meat, fish and produce, I consider it somewhat akin to miraculous.

Just happened to catch a Second City TV rerun with John Candy doing Julia in a skit involving a very screwed up tv chef episode. It was both spooky--because Candy nailed her, voice and manner--and--hilarious.

I'm planning to make some with caribou and pork. What other stuff do you serve with your chili?

There used to be a restaurant in the trendy Kitsilano district of Vancouver called Fish on Yew, which I thought, in a punny way, summed up the attitude of the staff and proprietors to their customers. Not there anymore.

I've certainly noticed the muddy taste in some freshwater fish, and it's not pleasant. But it doesn't seem to be universal. Anyone know what causes it? Water temperature? Diet?

Perhaps it shouldn't make a difference, but it does. Hardcovers are much more of a pleasure to read, except for purely escapist reading, where paperback somehow fits the disposable nature of the subject matter.

The name of the restaurant is some sniggering euphemism (Mother Tucker's comes to mind) and the drinks list is littered with more of the same (sloe screw, etc.)

The menu is described as "continental" and includes dishes from at least three unrelated cusines (usually French, Italian and Greek).

You suddenly remember seeing it in late night TV ads featuring a lot of people with bad fake accents and boasting many, many famous menu items, all for prices ending in .99.

The NY Times weighs in against the cruise ship idea (no surprise) but seems to be suggesting that it is no more than a proposal at this stage: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opinion/...&partner=GOOGLE