Food & Public Life

FNU 100 F23

Week 3
Menu

1. Food & Public Life, Newman’s

perspective on:
• City Markets
• Farmers Markets
• Street Food
• Food Hubs
• Neighborhoods
Break
2. Images of Canadian Cuisine &
Classifications
3. Recap of Regional Cuisines, the
Assignment & Team Agreements
https://dtah.com/work/ryerson-university-public-realm-plan
POLLEV QUIZ

• Join by Web
• PollEv.com​/andreamoraes262
• Join by Text
• Send andreamoraes262 to 37607
 PUBLIC MARKETS
• Quintessential sitopias
• One of the oldest human institutions
• Role of crafting organization
• Found in almost every culture
• Moment of renaissance
• More than a place to buy food: public space
• Living nature of cuisine: experimental; shop &
eat, mingle

Granville Island Market Vancouver by Andrea Moraes

Canadian Public Markets
• Origin:
• Inherited from British & French (15th Century market towns)
• Market days & halls to host vendors (multiuse spaces)
• No obligation to buy anything & mixing of classes
• 1910 - Move to clear markets out of cities (dirty and obsolete)
• WW1 & WW2 - Light resurgence
• 1950’s & 1960’s – Cities were considered obsolete
• Example: Montreal public markets: 2/6 survived
• 1970 – Revival – Vanguard of urban renewal (Seattle)
• E.g. Grandville Island Market build in Vancouver 1979
• Growing interest in regional, seasonal, local, wild cuisine
 St Jacobs Market

https://www.explorewaterlooregion.com/listing/st-jacobs-farmers-market/
Montreal: Jean-Talon Market
• Local produce
• Wild Foods (blueberries,
cherries)
• Ready to serve foods
• Multicultural neighborhood
• Bulk immigrant cuisines (okra,
eggplants, fresh chickpeas)
• Local & multicultural

https://discover.rbcroyalbank.com/an-insiders-guide-to-montreals-jean-talon-market/
Montreal: Marche Atwater
• Historical importance: 12,000
person hall above
• 2 floors of permanent shops
+ outdoor vendor area
• Needs of neighborhood &
seasons
• Reflects gentrification
• Importance on the ongoing
invention of Quebecois
cuisine
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marche_Atwater_20.jpg
 Quebec City
• Modern public markets
• Mainly sells raw foods
(unprocessed)
• Dedication to fresh foods
despite tourism
• Oysters labeled by region,
maple sugar in blocks, fava
beans, maple products, wild
blueberries

/
https://www.quebec-cite.com/en/businesses/regional-delights/farms/public-markets/le-grand-marche-de-quebec
 Ottawa’s Byward Market
• Small restaurants
• Good bakery
• Local gathering

https://www.ottawatourism.ca/member/byward-market/
Toronto: St. Lawrence Market
• High end market
• Specialty Meats
• Exotic Canadian specialities:
lox, caviar, peameal bacon
• Heart of rapidly expanding
residential district
• Cater to walkable and livable
urban environment

https://www.seetorontonow.com/attractions/in-the-spotlight-st-lawrence-market-complex/
Prairie Markets: Calgary’s New Public Market
• Sample of Alberta big sky cuisine
• Excellent & plentiful meals
• Reflect increased wealth and
interests on local cuisines

https://www.avenuecalgary.com/Restaurants-Food/Farmers-Markets-In-and-Around-Calgary/
Prairie Markets: Winnipeg Forks Market
• Urban renewal
• Museum of Human Rights
• Prepared foods such as perogies,
Saskatoon berry pie, wild rice, &
local grains
• Historical importance
• Red River & Assiniboine River.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forks,_Winnipeg
 Shiso from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiso#/media/File:Wasabi_on_green_shiso_leaves_by_june29.jpg
All other photos from Andrea Moraes

Vancouver:
Grandville Island
Public Market
• Since 1979 – disused
industrial island
• Popular with locals & tourists
(highlights national cuisine)
• Market changed the city
• Fresh bagels, cappuccino,
fresh flowers
• Seafood!
• Fine foods: Canadian caviar,
shiso* for sushi(young ginger
for stir frying)
* appears in local restaurants
FARMERS MARKETS
• Producers selling directly to buyers on an established market day
• Disappeared from North America after WW2 (except in rural areas)
• 1970s – rise of California Cuisine –chefs looking for local produce
(critique of the Global food system sacrificing taste & quality)
• Providing encounters with rural life
• Growth of markets + interest in local & seasonal foods
• Often with foods ready to eat, music, crafts…
• Food spaces friendly to small scale business
• Food adventurers – try new things
Farmers Markets
• Provide only a small
percentage of food in the
urban food system
• “Authentic”?
• Not representative of the
multicultural nature of the
country
• Prices are higher

https://www.blogto.com/events/junction-farmers-market-toronto/
 STREET FOODS

• Absent from NA most of 20th century

(except hot dog)
• Remarkable comeback
• Many cities around the world defined by
their street foods. North America: fast
food restaurants
• Growth in Canada as part of the NA
movement originating in Portland & Los
Angeles
https://torontolife.com/food/torontos-best-street-food/
Street food in Canada
• Largest cities: Friendly environment X hostile regulations
• Vancouver & Calgary:
• All menu changes must be approved
• Vendors should try to sell healthy local foods
• Food truck pods (Portland style)
• Initial successful experiments in festivals, trucks clustering together
• Montreal: ban lifted in 2013 – pilot food trucks with dishes that must
add to the high quality of culinary destinations
• Poutine, pulled pork, foisgrass poutine, lobster rolls, goulab jamum
• Run by established restaurants; highly regulated environment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulab_jamun
 Toronto Street Food
• Has role-in-the-wall restaurants serving
cheap cuisines from every part of the
world
• 2009 – Pilot project : Toronto a la Cart
• Limited number of licenses ( for $15,000 Cads
per year)
• City assigned locations
• Approved menus
• City built carts ($30,000 each)
• Cancelled in 2 years
• 2012 – Toronto Street Food project:
result from Campaign from vendors and
foodies
• Still heavily regulated
https://oicanada.com.br/2517/toronto-a-la-carte/
Comparing public markets, farmers markets &
street foods

• Growing in popularity
• Key tourist attraction
• Future of street food in Canada less clear
• Public demand X rigid regulations and concerns
with food safety
• Both markets & street foods contribute to
gentrification: implications for affordability
Food Hubs
• Food aggregators from small farms,
commercial kitchen facilities, market
space
• Provide infrastructure and advice
• Communities of food

https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/10/Food-Share-food-truck-Toronto-889x575.jpg
Conclusion
• Single digit market share of
Canada food
• Help to shape national cuisine
• Growing rapidly
• Role as sitopias:
• Spaces of innovation,
newcomers
• Introduce costumers to new
foods
• Keystones in the structure of
cuisines
Toronto Neighbourhoods

https://thedepanneur.ca/event/table-talk-rosalin-krieger-on-the-history-of-kensington-market/ https://localfoodtours.com/toronto/chinatown-toronto/
Other places?
Time for a break!

https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/7291/7291482.png
2- Images of Canadian Cuisine
In groups – look
for patterns (2
slides) or ways to
categorize/
classify Canadian
cuisine. What
types do you find?
 3 - Regional
Cuisines

Newman has chapters on:

• Quebec & Ontario (Chapter 7)

• Alberta and BC (Chapter 8)
• East Coast, Prairies, North
(Chapter 9)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Political_map_of_Canada.png/650px-Political_map_of_Canada.png
Region
• Spaces of conversation where culture and
nature interact
• They respond to events outside their boundaries
• Regional food systems: human centered
ecological systems
• Paradoxes of resiliency and adaptation
• Socially constructed and politically mediated
• New regionalism: social life, relations, identity of
a place
• Geographical knowledge: globally extensive
flows of food, people and knowledge are
mediated locally

https://i0.wp.com/www.daveursillo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/yin-yang-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300
Research for Regional Cuisines Project
• Group presentations should
include highlights from the
research on the specific cuisine
of the chosen
province/territory or locality
within it.
• Use good sources!!! Cite your
sources
• Minimum one peer –reviewed
article
Research: Places

The description of relevant

geographic areas associated with
this cuisine, including available
natural resources in the past and
present influencing cuisine, as well This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

as strengths and challenges of local

food systems and networks, which
may include geography, food
production, processing,
transportation.
Research: Food
• Describe fundamental or classic dishes
or ingredients of this cuisine.
• May consider different elements of
cuisine, such as meals, dishes, spices,
staple foods, preparation methods,
eating practices, delicacies, taboo
foods, symbolism, etc.
• Provide information on the availability
of this cuisine/ingredients (e.g., grocery
stores, restaurants, neighbourhood)
Photo by Sean Moursalien
Team Agreement & Group meeting
Next week:
• By the end of Tuesday, Sept 26:
• DB 4: Read Mintz (2019) & post your reflection.
• Comment the post of two colleagues.

• For Thursday, Sept 28

• Mintz (2019). The History of Food in Canada is the History of Colonialism
• Bodirsky & Johnson (2008). “Decolonizing diet: Healing by reclaiming traditional indigenous
foodways”.

Photo by Andrea Moraes

Thank you!