We have done some preservation, though, and we’re excited about it. Seeing as California strawberries taste more like cardboard than strawberries – and considering they’re trucked across the continent from a place that can’t sustain its agriculture – we only buy Ontario strawberries. Which are divine. Only problem is that some growers are planting the California variety, which makes for a fresher tasting but still bland strawberry. Anyhow, we have a good bag full still in the freezer, likely waiting to get made into another of rIAm’s signature desserts.

We also have a bunch of rhubarb, and it seems likely its fate will be to find its way into the same dessert as the strawberries. If we were smarter we’d probably have frozen smaller quantities of the berries – in known measures – but that’ll have to wait until next year. We also visited The Cutting Veg, an organic farm in Brampton, and the source of many of our summer vegetables. Daniel is a joy to talk to and he hosts volunteer workers on Sunday mornings. He also grows 10,000+ garlic plants, which means a mountain of garlic scapes. We picked all we could fit in our bag and I chopped ‘em up and put it all in the freezer so we have local, organic, delicious garlic all winter. We’ll get cured bulbs from him in the next few weeks.

Perhaps most exciting for us was the pickling we did last weekend. We love pickles. So naturally we bought a bunch of pickles, dill and pickling salt – almost on a whim – and got busy. We also did carrots, which apparently rIAm LOVES. Those are now “curing,” and we’ll see how long those jars last us (’cause if they’re half as good as I’m hoping, I’ll be happy to devour them!).

Plus, of course, we’re big fans of Michael Pollan and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, plus books like Fast Food Nation. So it should come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I think everybody should go see Food, Inc and then read the book. I’ve only been able to see the trailer, but I can already tell I’ll like what it has to say. But regardless, people need to think more about where their food is coming from and what we should be eating and this movie will go a long way to educating the dialog.

In addition to good produce we also only buy non-factory farmed meat. It’s not always organic, but it’s some form of naturally raised. I eat way less beef than ever, too. Eventually I’ll cut all factory farmed meat from my diet, but that’s a larger challenge.

In the meantime, rIAm and I are going to keep on cooking and eating and preserving, inspired not so much by a country (except maybe Mexico!) or a cuisine, but by the season, what’s fresh and what we can get locally, preferably organically and as much as possible, from local farmers at our markets.

Although I haven’t become fatigued by our current lifestyle, we are not so absorbed in our travels that we haven’t thought about what will happen when our year abroad ends. We are thinking about things like where we might work, and where we will live in Toronto.

Today, however, these things seem quite trivial compared to where I will dine when I am back in Toronto.

You see after more than two years spent living on our own in Chicago, and unearthing so many of Chicago’s culinary and cultural delights, I have a certain, well, inclination towards what I have come to know so well.

Of course, having been born and raised in Toronto, there is plenty I know about what the city has to offer, but I feel a little embarrassed to admit I don’t know Toronto in its present-day form quite as well as I have come to know Chicago. As a result, I am a little nervous about what I will find there when I finally start doing some exploring. I already know the Italian food is excellent — I just need to knock on my grandparents’ or parents’ doors, or just about any other relative’s door for that sort of authentic and delectable nourishment. And there are certainly many Italian restaurants and cafés that will help when I want to venture away from home-cooked meals (it’s been hard for me, but I have come to see the benefits of paying someone else to make me an Italian meal).

I am especially nervous about the Mexcian food scene in Toronto. It is so wonderfully delicious and bountiful in Chicago, and so many authentic ingredients can be so easily had at local Mexican grocery stores. The articles are no longer available, but the Toronto Star ran several pieces outlining Toronto’s abysmal Mexican food options, and even going so far as to point out just what fine food can be had in Chicago, including that offered by our favourite chef, Rick Bayless. I should point out that at least two of the pieces talked about the opening of several new Mexican-themed restaurants, which seemed to hold promise, as well as where to find Mexican food in Toronto. A small consolation, though, when the Mexican population of Toronto is but a few thousand, while Chicago boasts hundreds of thousands of these fine folk — enough to keep up the demand for the real deal, whether fresh foods like poblanos or tomatillos, or the ubiqutous fresh corn tortilla (you can even visit the locations where these are made and shipped from in Chicago) or a restaurant meal, like chiles rellenos, horchata, or one of jft’s favourites, tacos al pastor.

I admit my outlook is rather poor, and even childish. Toronto is home, after all, and I have known it to be a great city — truly understood what a magical place it is — for many, many years. Seven months in Egypt in 2000/2001 helped me realize just what an amazing and successful experiment multicultural Toronto had become, and if anything, things have only gotten better and more colourful in subsequent years.

I will admit that my grumbling stomach is not making it easier to focus on what awaits for me in Toronto restaurants, in particular, since over the last few days I’ve been craving many of my favourite tastes of Toronto the Good that I usually get at home, like perogies and pasta e broccoli. But I will also concede to having a small hankering for things I can’t get at home like Toronto’s street meat albeit it in its veggie form.

As I caught up with the backlog in my inbox today, I came across some of the Toronto Life newsletter dispatches I started subscribing to a while ago, something I had done to begin to get back in the loop with Toronto happenings.

And much to my surprise and delight (but my stomach’s chagrin!) several short pieces rated some of the best to be found in Toronto (according to Toronto Life food critics, of course) of some of my favourite eats:

• Perogies
• Crepes
• Fancy Sunday brunch

Realizing I know many of the places listed in the best of lists I’ve linked to, I am feeling mentally satiated (my stomach growling seems to just be getting stronger and louder) already.

Oh Toronto, I was so foolish to doubt you! I am trying hard now to look past by current hunger pangs to recall I will be able to pick up several local publications — magazines and newspapers — as well as dozens of web sites. And in this printed matter and online places I will be able to examine what food critics and everyday citizens have to say about the Toronto food scene, whether rating a new, ambitious restaurant, or devining about a hole in the wall joint still going strong after several decades. And how could I forget all the delicious meals I’ve had in Toronto at places like Salad King, Ethiopian House, Commisso Brothers and dim sum in Mississauga, just to name a few?

And those best of lists I linked to above? Toronto Life has gone ahead and created a whole section they call “Quest,” all in search of some of the city’s best eats.

Toronto, I think I will be just fine when I explore you with fresh you new eyes and tastebuds. I have the south of India to finish savouring, and then I will unleash my gourmand tendencies in France for a while, then on to Chicago to get my fill of Mexican and Hot Doug’s, along with some ravioli making with jft’s dad, but I look forward to reaching your streetcar chiming streets again in the new year. I will be there soon, I’m just getting there one bite at a time.

UPDATE: I’ve added a new links section to the right called “we [heart] this city, too” featuring links about Toronto, much like our Chicago section just above it. I also added a link in our food section to Chatto’s Digest, the blog of Toronto Life food critic James Chatto. If you have any food, cultural or other interesting links about Toronto please send them way so I can build up our Toronto list.