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| I tagged along on a Times Food section roadshow to Toronto and Montreal this week that allowed me to meet several newsletter readers and enjoy two fine dinners, including one at Joe Beef which although it's one of the smallest restaurants in Canada, it's perhaps best known one in Canada. Sam Sifton, the food editor, offers his impressions of the trip: |
The Times's live event in Toronto featured a sampling of Syrian food afterwards.
Ian Austen/The New York Times |
| This week was a Canadian whirlwind for me and some of my colleagues, as we celebrated the publication of a special Food section devoted to the pleasures of Canadian cuisine with live journalism events in Toronto and Montreal. On Monday night I led a discussion at the University of Toronto, with David Sax and the subjects of his story about a rise in Syrian food businesses in Toronto; the following morning I made my way to Montreal to interview the restaurateur David McMillan at the Corona Theater in Little Burgundy. The conversations were nuanced and deeply interesting, and the questions we took from the audiences indicated to me a real and abiding interest in the particulars and particular charms of Canadian cuisines, the plural intended: a nation of immigrants and indigenous peoples that sees its reflections on its plates. |
| McMillan in particular was fascinating on this point, an Anglophone native of Montreal with a fierce, almost separatist take on the importance of French culture in the province, who still pointed out that French Canadian cooking has roots in Britain as well. "Ours is a cuisine of the occupied," he said. There were murmurs of approval in the audience before him. |
| For myself, I was struck most by the passion of all those we spoke to, onstage and off, for the culture of Canada's foodways. We went to Canada knowing we had a few stories to tell. I return to New York knowing there are dozens and dozens more. All of us on the Food desk, and all those of us who work in our bureaus in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, hope to tell them soon and over the course of many years to come. |
Rahaf and Esmaeel Alakbani, the co-founders of Newcomer Kitchen, at a Times event focusing on the rise of Syrian cooking in Toronto.
Ian Austen/The New York Times |
| Nearly 300 people showed up in Montreal and about 500 in Toronto. I certainly share Sam's observations about the crowds' passion. Five times a week, Sam sends out newsletters with suggestions of what to cook in the coming days as well as his take on music, film, books and whatever strikes his fancy. If you don't subscribe, you should sign up here. |
| We'll be holding more events in Canada (and, yes, including places outside of Ontario and Quebec). Sign up here for advance notice of them by email. |
Crown Pastries and the Newcomer Kitchen prepared the Syrian dishes for the Toronto event.
Ian Austen/The New York Times |
| As Sam mentioned, the food section this week was all about Canada. It includes the fantastic story of Algonquin chef Cezin Nottaway who was visited by Dan Bilefsky, my Montreal-based colleague, at the Kitigan Zibi reserve. Don't miss Jasmin Lavoie's video, which explores Ms. Nottaway's thoughts about hunting and her prey. |
| Pete Wells, our restaurant critic, found that Kissa Tanto in Vancouver "conjures an imaginary parallel world." And wine writer Eric Asimov tells the story of François Morissette who grew up near Montreal, worked in Burgundy and now makes wine in the Niagara Peninsula. |
| Sam and his group of editors have also pulled various Canadian recipes from The Times's archives, including one from me. |
| Read: The Canada Issue |
Restaurateur David McMillan with Sam Sifton, The Times's food editor, at the Corona Theater in Montreal.
Ian Austen/The New York Times |
| Freezing |
The icy shoreline of Toronto Island during the recent deep freeze.
Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times |
| Although I enjoy winter, there have been times over the last few weeks when it has been excessively cold. In Toronto, which usually suffers damp and slushy winters, the deep freeze brought skating to the harbor. Catherine Porter went out on the ice and came back with a charming update about the tiny community on the Toronto Islands, illustrated with remarkable photos by Aaron Vincent Elkaim. |
Charlotte Mittelstaedt, 14, and her sister Maya, 18, skate on Toronto's frozen harbor as an ice boat awaits its next excursion.
Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times |
| Your comments on the article show that decades after the residents successfully fought to remain on what is otherwise parkland, they still provoke mixed reactions from nonresidents. Some readers view the islanders as charming contributors to Toronto's fabric. But many others, including "Bruce from Toronto," see them as "a handful of entitled people who are allowed to essentially squat on prime waterfront acreage in the nation's largest city." |
| Read: Shivering? That's for City Folk. For Islanders, Ice Time Is Play Time. |
| The Big Picture |
A Cinerama theater.
Cinerama, via Museum of Modern Art, New York |
| Imax, the Canadian creation that came out of Expo 67, remains the biggest thing, screen-wise, in cinema. But before Imax there was Cinerama. I still vividly remember going to Detroit at age 10 with my father to see "Grand Prix" in Cinerama. Previewing a technique that would be widely seen at Expo the film often used multiple images on a divided screen. A new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York looks at the history of Cinerama, which required three projectors running simultaneously. Only three theaters in the world can still show Cinerama in its full glory. |
| Read: Long Before Imax, the Curious Tale of Cinerama |
| Humbled |
| Well, the final numbers are in for the challenge to see if readers of this newsletter or the Australia Letter would sign up the highest number of new subscribers. And I'm sorry to report that Damien Cave, the Australia bureau chief, whipped his readers into a frenzy that saw them sign up 1,921 new readers while we only gained 1,334 during the challenge period. I will note, however, that we do have three times more subscribers than the Australia Letter. |
| So I'm doing penance this weekend by wearing a Team Australia hockey jersey while watching episodes of "Skippy The Bush Kangaroo." (The Aussie hockey team hasn't made it to the Olympics since 1960 but who's counting.) |
| As for our other contest, there were too many emails during the Commonwealth Challenge period about the newsletter to declare a single one as the best. So I randomly selected three and will be in touch with the winners. |
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