Great bit of mapping of information in the New York Times Times morning setting out regional Thanksgiving dinner preferences based on search engine results:
It is hard to draw very many conclusions based on search trends. The fact that cooks in the Southeast rarely look up crust recipes could mean that they are not interested in pies or that they bake so many that no one needs to be told how to do it. And what of all the searches for “cheese ball” in the Midwest? Do people in Indiana just forget how to make it each year, or are cheese balls winning new converts? We may never know why cooks in North Carolina show more interest in sweet potatoes, their most-queried side dish, than people in any other state. Or why a broccoli casserole belt extends through Appalachia and ends in Florida.
I have been interested in how regional and even local US food is for years. New York white hots, Maine Indian pudding, Indiana chicken noodle. All comfort and all about the neighbourhood. We'd never do this in Canada. The other day at work I was mentioning how I was over in upstate and picked up Vermont and Wisconsin cheddars, how different they were. One scoffed response was "well, I'm sticking to Canadian." Doesn't matter who produces it, what it tastes like, where it comes from - that person eats "Canadian" apparently.
It's pretty funny how out national false superiority tells us tales. In a land of homogenized, standardized and nationalized food units, in a nation that researches how to make mild cheese more mild, we strangely assume that we are more diverse and interesting. The generic theory of national character that never fails to disappoint. It's too bad as there are no doubt many local patterns in history, culture... food. But we're not interested. There'd never be mapping of Canadian food patterns presented as a positive and interesting. It'd have to tell us again that there is beef in Alberta - never mind PEI's fantastic "Easter beef" thing when you get to eat the cattle raised for prizes at the previous fall's Royal Winter Fair or other blue ribbon winners. We are told that fish comes from the sea without consideration of the fried Lake Huron perch shacks or that smoked splake they make there, too. We'd never want to know where the hunter's mystery pies are to be found.
Comments
Hans - November 26, 2009 9:16 AM
Sincerely, I find your explorations of American regional food studies fascinating because, as you indicate, it says as much about the various regional cultures where these different preferences occur as it does about Canada where these differences are, apparently, non-existent.
Alan - November 26, 2009 10:44 AM
Yet, I bet if we lined up cheddar cheeses from across Canada you may find local Saskatchewan versions different from the local Wilton Extra Old we eat here. I think this is more about not being proud of local in Canada than the food itself. And I think it differs from the 100 mile diet as well. No 100 mile diet is going to include fries with the works or seaweed pie, those Prince Co PEI delicacies.
Una - November 26, 2009 10:53 AM
I love your posts on American food too. Perogies and cabbage rolls are different (better) in Saskatchewan than in, say, Manitoba or Ontario.
Alan - November 26, 2009 11:26 AM
The former CBC show "The Great Canadian Food Show" had great hope.. except that it had to be Canadian food. We can't live in a country, for God's sake, that might actually have "Ontario" peaches or "eastern Quebec" cheese without getting all in a sweat about politics. The fact that most craft beer in Canada is barred from intra-provincial sales is incredibly telling. "Canadian" beer is harmonized lifeless pee. Can't have any small local producer showing Canada up.
P of K - November 26, 2009 3:33 PM
It's an interesting phenomenon of difference between Canadian and US people manifest in food tradition that would benefit (or at least be an interesting read in Macleans) from some expert analysis.
I suspect that the strength of local preferences within the US is somewhat related to a more regional outlook. In Canada we may be more globally focussed and therefore prone to undervaluing our own local ways. In the US the preservation of those local ways may have a lot more to do with a lesser degree of global awareness or even a degree more xenophobia (they did have a civil war after all).
Alan - November 26, 2009 8:11 PM
What makes you say Canada is globally focused? I think we are nationally homogenized in food and retail and culture but have little sense of how people actually live elsewhere. Small city and town level US (at least in the east) seems to have a far more diverse local outlook than I ever thought.
So, I can imagine going to Cinncinnati OH or Ithaca NY or Burlington VT or even Scranton PA and finding something different. But I can't imagine finding that much different in Brampton, Brockville, Fredericton or Red Deer. Maybe that is wrong but we don't exactly celebrate our local.
P of K - November 26, 2009 10:47 PM
Perhaps globally aware is a better term. Is there a difference in how Canadians and Americans identify themselves that leads to a more diverse and expressed variety of local food culture? I think you would find a similar situation in the UK or western europe - lots of diversity within relatively short distances. Perhaps its a function of population densities?
Alan - November 26, 2009 10:57 PM
What makes you think Canadians are globally aware?
I think it is a function of community. So much government is left local in certain US states that they still have coherent communities running themselves. Eastern Ontario and towards the Atlantic may have degrees of that to one point or another. Maybe the working theory is a community that knows itself will feed itself and then known itself through how it feeds itself.
I don't know how much of that is left in the UK with the general social disruptions caused by homogenization there. No fox hunting, no policing of swaths of public housing. The Jamie Oliver shows on school meals were pretty shocking. Staying in downtown Toronto this week was pretty shocking, too.
Una - November 27, 2009 12:07 PM
I think the difference is population. Retail outlets argue that our market is small so our prices are higher. It could also be that our market is too small to support retail diversity except in restaurants and botique retailers. Some restaurants do showcase local food in Canada, Sask perogies, BC fish and fruit taco, prince edward county cheese...
Phil - November 27, 2009 12:17 PM
I appreciate your posts on regional food in the US, as it constantly reminds me here in Syracuse of the cool local stuff we have. The US also has a trend toward bland national consolidation--a reflection of our economic addiction to chain stores. I usually vacation in Ontario, so I'm also searching out the local up in the Kingston/Rideau area.
Alan - November 27, 2009 1:26 PM
I am working on a theory, Phil, that there is a bi-national regional culture / food thing in Easlakia. Apparently there are cheese curds only so far south in northern NY, for example. But then again we would not have boiled dinners or white hots.