Food Fun

Not for any real reason, I wanted to post this. Tomorrow, at 1:02:03 o'clock, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06. Neat, huh? Anyway, today I wanted to share will my readers two pieces of Canadian food knowledge. Firstly, the humble Nanaimo Bar. Named after the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia, these bars are a tasty traditional Canadian dessert. The bar consists of a crumb-based layer, sometimes with coconut, topped by a light custard which is covered in soft chocolate. Delish. Apparently, it's more of a Christmas cookie, but the Toronto Film Studios commissary had them a few weeks ago and at my officemate's insistence, we had them. The bar has been around since at least the 1950's under the name Nanaimo, but there are lots of different recipes and names for this particular snack and surely existed before then. The City of Nanaimo takes its Nanaimo bars very seriously; the city's mascot is known as Nanaimo Barney and has the shape of a giant Nanaimo bar. That's my kind of city - a giant cookie mascot. Also, there are box mixes (sacrilege, I'm sure) to make Nanaimo bars, so maybe I'll give it a shot this upcoming Christmas season. The other topic is the controversial "Canadian Bacon." As you may guess, Canadians do not refer to this popular breakfast/sandwich meat by this term. It can either be referred to as "Peameal Bacon" or "Back Bacon." Peameal bacon is slightly different than back bacon. It is known as peameal bacon, because in times past a mixture of ground yellow peas was used for coating to improve curing and shelf-life. The "Canadian" bacon sold in the United States is plain lean back bacon. Peameal bacon is found in virtually every restaurant as a side dish, a burger topping or as a sandwich meat. I haven't tried it myself, but I imagine some day peameal bacon and I will cross paths. Stay tuned. A CANADIAN FACT! Strictly speaking, Canadian Bacon, Back Bacon and Peameal Bacon are not bacon. They are really all pork loin.