ireland2canada

Yes. But not thanks to Guinness. Tequila, perhaps.

dbd33

For you, I fetch baps. For myself, crust is important. That's why, in the market, the Carousel is better than Paddington's, if the Carousel isn't too busy they'll use a kaiser; at Paddington's they think baps are the only way. The Carousel embraces diversity.

ireland2canada

Isn't Paddingtons the cafe place attached to the market? With an interesting supply of liquor for a breakfast place? I mean the stall, they use baps.

dbd33

That's the one.

They default to baps but are negotiable. I don't recall seeing HP there, do you carry your own? The way one does Marmite in America.

Atlantic Xpat

Doesn't the subject of negotiable baps, lead to the the 'Ive been fined' thread on the Maple Leaf?

dbd33

I wouldn't know, I declined to sell mine.

SesameBun

I wish I had been posting here when I was in Canada... all the Canadian bacon had so much sugar in it I found it disgusting. Actually, almost everything had too much sugar in it. When I ate a ham sandwich it was like eating candy floss with a lump of meat in it.

Souvy

I somehow think you might find it hard to get a bacon sarnie in Mecca.

ireland2canada

I do not. They have brown sauce which is grand. Honestly, people have such lofty expectations. British bacon this, crusty bap that.

Devil Girl

Fantastic thread, has made me

Oink

See we're not the only 'invisible diaspora' that needs proper bacon.

From a paper, Food, Gender and Irishness

"Some interviewees [Irish women] described searching for particular foods from home or having specific things brought over. For example, one woman always brings some Irish bacon back to England as "you cannot get the bacon here."


Bacon Paper

ireland2canada

Hilarious that you found such a article, but an interesting read nontheless. It appears to echo my sentiments of earlier, British bacon is crap.

fledermaus

I tried bacon from the British shop; that one in scarboro supplies places in Prbo and Port Hope. Anyway it's vile and the black pudding is double vile. I think they even call it Wiltshire cure, which is laughable.

That new Maple leaf one in the hard container is actually pretty good and close to supermarket British bacon. I have bought bacon on the Farmer's Market in Pboro from an Italian and that is nice. Otherwise try Costco for better quality Canadian bacon.

Oink

I go the dbd route and get Danish smoked bacon from Granville Island market. Its not brilliant but then I don't eat it more than once every couple of months. Quite frankly I don't why I'm moaning about it so much.

dbd33

I think this paper propogates a notion of the Irish as being unique that it is unable to sustain through the food examples given.

Granted "food consumption practices can help to reflect and constitute Irishness" but is this true to any greater degree than for other diasporic populations? I suggest not. My detailed and extended studies of the Swiss and Southern American populations in Southern Ontario suggest that bathtub schnapps, raclet, pulled pork and crucially, grits, occupy a similar position in the cultural conciousness of those populations as does champ and colcannon in that of the displaced Irish. And these are not tight knit displaced populations, one might look at Italians in New York or Eastern Europeans in Winnipeg for communities bound around pasta and perogies.

The author's point that the foods symbolic to the Irish abroad are those of the poor is, I think, reduced to banality by consideration of the examples above; the cultural tie is always to the food of the poor. The Londoner returning as a tourist is damp eyed over jellied eels even as he eats mussels.

The sending of foods from home is in no way specifically Irish, the Swiss send Chocolate, the Americans grits and peppers. Knowledge of the preparation of foods traditional to those cultures is gleaned on trips home and is equally valued in a new land as is an Irishwoman's mashing prowess.

My knowledge of the role of speciality food in the narrative of feminism within the diasporic Swiss and Southern American womyn's communities is insufficient to allow comparison with the views advanced in the article quoted. I suggest that the gender roles described are no more pronounced among the displaced Irish than among other populations but, in order to consider the issue at length I need a large grant; pay it in Black Bush if you will.