This weekend, upon flipping through my fiance's GQ magazine, I was astonished to find a three page article describing one man's experiment to try to obtain the exotic food that was "local" to his travels throughout Europe and Asia, in New York. To do this, he describes how he called Fed Ex and hired them to mail food from Malaysia and Italy to New York. He explains that he became accustomed to the food when he was abroad and cannot stand the typical "local and seasonal" foods and prices that were provided for him in restaurants. As a result, he began an experiment where he would contact restaurants abroad and order them to his home in NY. His criteria was that he would "only order foods that were distinctly of their place". Although certain retailers were willing to oblige his requests, the US government would not allow these products past customs. Those dishes that did pass this test were rotten by the time the author of this article was able to claim his meals. While somewhat comical, this article describes one man's frustrations with the local food craze and his ridiculous attempts to rebel against it. I wonder how the "image" of local food either prevents or encourages people to participate in this "craze"? Would a changed approach to marketing the image of local food impact the willingness of certain people to be more inclined to buy it? Can local food be used to make exotic or non-North American foods? Would a pad Thai dish made with Canadian products satisfy the needs of local food?
I would argue that it would, but perhaps the local food movement has been trying too hard to preserve the authenticity of indigenous foods without exploring the possibility of using local products to make foods from abroad. Who knows, maybe the next big thing will be a Korean Kimchi restaurant or Greek Souvelaki chain that will make names for themselves by advertising only Canadian products!
No comments:
Post a Comment