Where We Ate by Gabby Payton profiles 150 restaurants.

New Canadiana Cookbooks: Where We Ate

First We Eat: A look at Canadian dining over the decades, through the lens of our country’s iconic eateries

As I read Where We Ate by Gabby Peyton, I fell down a rabbit hole of memory. The book, a history of Canadian dining from pre-Confederation to COVID, profiles 150 restaurants by decades. Turns out I have eaten in 26 of them. “Almost all our restaurant food is immigrant food,” Peyton writes. “We’d be remiss […] Read more

Local cured meats are a popular taste treat at Saskatchewan book launches.

New Canadiana Cookbooks: The Miracle of Salt

First We Eat: Using an age-old technique to preserve, ferment and transform your food

One way to gauge the importance of something in culture is to look at the word’s use in everyday language. When it comes to salt, we have many linguistic idioms and turns of phrase. Salt of the earth. Salty old dog. Salty language. Rubbing salt in a wound. Taking things with a grain of salt. […] Read more


Dry roasting whole spices in a cast iron pan.

New Canadiana Cookbooks: Prairie

Seasonal, farm-fresh recipes celebrate Prairie traditions

A flurry of recent books dishes up Prairie eats, among them tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine by Shane Chartrand and Jennifer Cockrall-King; Only in Saskatchewan: Recipes and Stories from the Province’s Best-Loved Eateries by Naomi Hansen; Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes from Where the Prairies Meet the Mountains by Karen Anderson; and Vegetables: […] Read more

Place filled potstickers on a cornstarch-dusted tray and freeze.

A new Canadiana cookbook

First We Eat: ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings’

Two things happen after I read What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings, an essay collection with recipes published by Coach House Books. First, I take my elderly Momsy to our favourite dim sum palace, where we eat many types of Chinese dumplings. Then I take myself into my kitchen and make some […] Read more


New Canadiana Cookbooks: Eat Alberta First

New Canadiana Cookbooks: Eat Alberta First

First We Eat: Author Karen Anderson provides insights into Alberta people, places and ingredients as well as recipes

To kick off a new series on modern Canadian cookbooks, I am happy to introduce the latest book from Alberta writer Karen Anderson, Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes from Where the Prairies Meet the Mountains. Full disclosure: Karen is a longtime friend, locavore dining companion, Slow Food stalwart and all-time great woman. […] Read more

Chocolate cake — inverted, with whipped cream and spoon.

Celebrating recovery with food

First We Eat: Long journey back from foot injury

It has been 18 months since a motorcyclist knocked me down and drove over my left foot. This morning I ran seven kilometres. That achievement is due as much to the perseverance of my physiotherapist as to my own bulldog nature. At the time of the accident, I was in the Comox Valley on Vancouver […] Read more


Looking for meat alternatives? How about a fresh Atlantic salmon fillet?

Making meatless meals

First We Eat: There are all kinds of choices if you’re giving up meat

Ash Wednesday fell on the last Wednesday of February. It marked the start of Lent, and in the Lenten tradition of sacrifice, simple living and self-denial, I am inclined to let go of eating meat. “I think I’ll go to Boston for this year’s Passover Seder,” my husband, Dave, says over supper. Like everything else, […] Read more

Whole star anise, cinnamon sticks and cloves are common ingredients in spice blends.

Spice it up

First We Eat: Curries come in a rich assortment of flavours and rely on many spices

I’ve been lucky in love. Along the way, I worked hard to learn from good relationships that ended as well as from more difficult ones. Last month, my husband, Dave, and I celebrated 15 years together. They have been happy and loving years, filled with joy and the wonder of living life together as an […] Read more


Here are just a few of the fats you can use for cooking. Pictured are (left to right) coconut oil, butter, olive oil in a carafe, pork fat, a jar of toasted sesame oil and schmaltz.


Don’t fear fat in your food

First We Eat: Fats are a prime nutrient source and serve more than one role in the kitchen

“What do you think of when you hear the word schmaltz?” I ask my husband Dave. He hesitates for half a heartbeat. “Soppy, sentimental writing or music,” he says. Dave’s a retired journalist, a card-carrying lover of edgy jazz and R&B, fan of hardbitten detective and police procedural TV shows and writer of lean short […] Read more

Exacting cooks know it’s important to choose the right tool for the task.

The mettle of metal cooking pots

First We Eat: It matters what your kitchen pot is made of

Metal matters, as surely with knives and kitchen pots as any other farm tool. As we speak, a pot of split pea soup burbles on my gas range in a pot of enamelled cast iron. I feel safe about leaving it on its own. Much safer, say, than leaving our new kitten, Hercule, on her […] Read more