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What’s up: Experimental music, food and brews, Bike Week birthday bash

A cluster of experimental musicFriday to Sunday

Various times and locations

Visit clusterfestival.com for more info

The 2023 edition of Winnipeg’s Cluster Festival — an annual celebration of experimental music and multimedia art — wraps up this weekend with three days of live performances.

Cool, creamy Indian condiment perfect for summer

In the dairy aisle of the supermarket, sweet flavours of yogurt stretch as far as the eye can see — peach, vanilla, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry and more.

Not as widely known or available is the savoury raita, an Indian yogurt — called dahi —combined with vegetables or fruits and herbs and spices.

Whether served alongside rice, roti or parathas, incorporated in lassi drinks, infused into marinades for Indian meat dishes, paired with appetizers, or simply enjoyed as plain yogurt, dahi is synonymous with Indian cuisine.

A yogurt dish is served with almost every Indian meal, because when eating highly spiced foods, it helps to cool the palate. It is a perfect contrast to the heat of many Indian foods.

Canada under pressure to produce more food: report

Canada’s agricultural land is under increasing pressure to produce more food as demand grows domestically and internationally, while the industry grapples with limited resources and environmental constraints, a new report found.

“We need to grow more food on less land and in a volatile climate,” said Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.

The report by the institute released Thursday looks at the pressures on Canada’s agricultural land to produce more food while also mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, said McCann.

Despite Canada being a big country, it doesn’t have as much agricultural land as people might think, said McCann, with the report noting that agricultural land makes up only around seven per cent of the country.

June is rhubarb picking time in the garden, so pucker up

Years ago, when my now-grown daughter Justine was a toddler, we visited a U-pick farm where she plucked plump, ripe strawberries from a field of sprawling plants. Some made it into the basket on that sunny June day; others went directly into her mouth.

That’s when she learned that June is for strawberries. It’s for roses, too, which makes sense when you consider that both plants are members of the Rosacea family.

And, as I learned at the farm that day, June is also for rhubarb, which I had never seen before.

Following the lead of other strawberry pickers waiting to pay for their loot, I added a bunch of rhubarb to my cart, wondering aloud what I would do with it. My fellow shoppers educated me about pies and jams, so I went home with a mission to prepare and learn how to grow the alien, red, celery-like stalks.

Casabe, Cuba’s little-known traditional bread, seeks world recognition

QUIVICÁN, Cuba (AP) — When Julio César Núñez was a child, he helped his grandmother make casabe from scratch, using artisanal tools — and an ancient cooking method — to turn grated yuca root into a thin, white, crispy flatbread.

Today, Núñez, 80, and a younger generation of family members in this town south of Havana, continue the tradition of harvesting and preparing casabe the ancestral way, but it's no longer just for their own consumption. They sell it to small businesses and restaurants in the capital.

Casabe, a flatbread made of yuca root, which is also called cassava, is one of Cuba’s oldest Indigenous meals. It is making a comeback on the island nation, with promoters and restaurants hyping its benefits as a gluten-free alternative to bread and officials seeking its addition to the prized intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency.

"Casabe is an Amerindian tradition that came from northern South America and made its way to the Antilles," Sonia Virgen Pérez, president of Cuba’s National Heritage Council, told The Associated Press. “It arrived through the eastern part of Cuba and became an important food that has been passed down from generation to generation.”

Italian whole-hog cooking inspires herbaceous pork chops

At weekly markets across central Italy, ancient town squares fill with the aromas of spit-roasted pork slathered in rosemary, fennel pollen and garlic. The enchanting smell is porchetta, a delicious homage to whole-hog cooking that’s as revered as barbecue in the American South.

The laborious roast, clearly, is off the table for midweek dinner. Instead, we kept the signature flavors in mind for this recipe from our book “Tuesday Nights Mediterranean,” which features weeknight-friendly meals from the region. Rather than overnight cooking, these pork chops are ready in just over half an hour.

To further streamline the cooking, we narrowed the ingredients to those best suited for searing on the stovetop. A blend of rosemary, fennel seed, red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper, blitzed in a spice grinder to a fine powder, seasons the meat with herbaceous flavor.

We finish the chops with a simple lemon-accented, butter-enriched pan sauce. To balance the richness of the pork, we top it with a bright, quick salad of parsley, scallions and sliced fennel bulb, simply dressed with more lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil and the remainder of the spice blend.

Canada saw drop in fresh fruit, veg availability

Statistics Canada says fewer fresh fruits and vegetables were available to Canadians in 2022, due to factors such as ongoing supply chain issues, labour shortages and price increases.

StatCan says the amount of available fresh fruit declined by more than five per cent in 2022 from the previous year, to 72.9 kilograms per person.

Even though there was a 12.7 per cent increase in domestic fruit production, it was not enough to keep up with an increase in exports and a decrease in imports, the agency says in a report released today.

The availability of fresh vegetables — excluding potatoes — was 64.7 kilograms per person in 2022, a decrease of nearly six per cent from 2021.

Researchers growing plants under solar panels

EDMONTON - Lawns, backyards and roofs could be used to produce both solar power and fresh vegetables, University of Alberta researchers say.

Guillermo Hernandez, a soil scientist, and Camila Quiroz, a research intern from Peru, are looking into growing crops under solar panels to improve the use of space in cities and farms.

"We know how to generate electricity from sunlight. We also know how to grow crops," says Hernandez. "But the question is, can we do the two things in the same space?"

Crop harvesting under solar panels is called agrivoltaics, a relatively new concept to improve land-use efficiency by producing energy and food in the same spot.

Flatlander’s expanding beyond beer

The full list of drinks being poured at the Flatlander’s Beer Festival at Canada Life Centre on June 2 and 3 has been posted, with the fest continuing to expand beyond lagers and ales.

In addition to the hundreds of beers available for attendees, this year’s festival has added more in the way of ciders, hard seltzers and iced teas, ready-to-drink canned cocktails and more. Many of the beers being poured deliver summer-themed flavours — think sours, goses, fruit-infused ales and the like.

Of note: only about half of our local breweries and contract brewers are taking part this year.

To peruse the full list of products being offered, visit wfp.to/0NF, where you can also purchase tickets, which start at $44.95 plus fees and benefit the True North Youth Foundation.

Manitoba New Democrat raises food regulation

WINNIPEG - A member of Manitoba's Opposition New Democrats has raised the prospect of a government "clampdown" on grocery prices if the party wins the election slated for Oct. 3, but has not offered details on how that might be possible.

Mark Wasyliw, the party's critic for economic development, investment and trade, made the comments on the doorstep of a Winnipeg resident, a recording of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

"We need to get grocery prices down. They’re way too expensive," Wasyliw says in the recording, taken earlier this month by a homeowner who wanted to remain anonymous.

"And part of the problem is, there’s only a handful of these big companies and they engage in predatory commercial practices that raise the cost of groceries. So we want to clamp down on that on regulation.”

Advocates, unions call for school meals in Ontario

TORONTO - Advocacy groups, teachers' unions and food banks are calling on the Ontario government to provide a free breakfast and lunch program in schools across the province to address food insecurity among students.

In a letter sent to Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Children Minister Michael Parsa on Wednesday, the collection of organizations said many children in Ontario are forced to rely on food banks for their nutritional needs.

The groups, including the Toronto Youth Cabinet, Food Banks Canada and the province's four major teachers' unions, said current student nutrition programs in Ontario are seeing increased demand but are not meeting the needs of students.

The organizations said Ontario should provide a universal free school breakfast and lunch program to all students and guarantee that schools have sufficient infrastructure, resources and funding to deliver the meals.

B.C. adds funds to support food bank warehouse

NANAIMO, B.C. - The head of a Vancouver Island food bank says the problem it's been grappling with in recent years isn't scarcity — it's abundance.

Peter Sinclair, executive director of the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank in Nanaimo, B.C., said the group needs more space to deal with the volume of donations it receives, as it works to meet a "dramatic increase" in demand for its services.

it is, however, the preferred problem for an organization that distributes food to those in need all over the island, much of it recovered from retailers who would otherwise dispose of it.

The British Columbia government announced Thursday that it's kicking in $7 million toward building a new 25,000-square-foot warehouse for Loaves and Fishes to enable the non-profit to scale up and expand its offerings.

Rocky start to summer patio season for restaurants

HALIFAX - Restaurants in Canada are being slammed with a daunting mix of soaring costs, staffing issues and capacity problems, making a slow start to the critical summer patio season a near crisis for some eateries across the country, industry experts say.

They say restaurants are struggling with the ballooning price of food, rent, utilities, labour and insurance, with many of the higher costs being absorbed for fear of losing customers if menu prices rise too quickly.

Now a rocky start to summer across much of Canada — from cool weather in parts of Eastern Canada to wildfires out west — has eaten into a vital season for restaurants.

"You've got to be busy in the summer," said Bill Pratt, a veteran chef and CEO of Dartmouth, N.S.-based Chef Inspired Group of Restaurants. "When the sun shines, you better be making hay."

Deer + Almond, Máquè named to Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants

Montreal restaurants dominate Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants List with 27 eateries on the annual ranking, led by Mon Lapin in the No. 1 spot. However, there are also a couple of bright Winnipeg lights on the 2023 list of exceptional eateries.

A recipe for Escarole and White Bean Soup, from Lidia Bastianich and her new PBS special

Lidia Bastianich offers this classic Escarole and White Bean Soup recipe from her new special on PBS. She says it was one of the first dishes on the menu when she and her husband opened their first restaurant, and it is still a family favorite at home. The vegetables are typically served in a loose broth under stuffed calamari, but they are great on their own or with simply grilled calamari or octopus, and delicious with sauteed or grilled shrimp. It is a recipe featured in “PBS’ Lidia Celebrates America: Flavors that Define Us.”

ESCAROLE AND WHITE BEAN SOUP

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS

Montreal restaurants dominate 100 Best list

TORONTO - Montreal restaurants dominate Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants List with 27 eateries on the annual ranking, led by Mon Lapin in the No. 1 spot.

The 2023 list of exceptional eateries includes several Michelin-starred restaurants including Toronto’s contemporary French favourite Alo in second place, Vancouver’s locally-sourced Published on Main in third and Toronto’s Edulis in fourth.

Published on Main previously held the top spot on the 2022 list of best restaurants.

Toronto is home to 18 of the hotspots, including the double Michelin-starred Sushi Masaki Saito in 19th place. Vancouver has 15 restaurants on the list — including four in the top 10 — Ottawa has eight, Calgary has seven and Halifax boasts four.

New Ontario beverage fee rollout delayed

TORONTO - Grocery industry advocates say new rules to make companies pay to recycle packaging they put into the market in Ontario could simply shift costs from communities to consumers in the coming months.

They say beverage companies have issued notices to retailers about a new container recycling fee on products ranging from milk and yogurt to juice and pop.

The fee, about three cents a bottle on average, was expected to take effect June 1.

But an independent grocers' group says the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association has now delayed passing the fee on to producers— which they say would raise retail prices — until at least July 31.

Don’t have udon? Try spaghetti in this `Asian noodle’ dish

With bold, exciting flavors and speedy cooking, savory Asian noodles are ideal for weeknight meals. But what happens if all you have in the pantry is spaghetti? No problem.

Though the dish won’t be traditional, Italian noodles can make a good stand-in for Asian noodles if that’s what you have on hand. All you need are a few heavy-hitting pantry staples to strike the right balance of sweet, savory, salty and umami.

For this recipe from our book “Cook What You Have,” which draws on pantry staples to assemble easy, weeknight meals, you can use udon noodles if you have them, but spaghetti or fettuccine will work just fine, too.

Since we were throwing tradition out the window anyway, we decided to blend the meatiness of Sichuan dan dan mian, or spicy noodles with ground pork, with the simplicity of peanut noodles. Whisking together soy sauce, peanut butter and oyster sauce (or hoisin) creates a rich, savory sauce loaded with umami, and the creaminess of the peanut butter helps it cling to the noodles.

Weighing diet strategies

Are carbs to blame? That’s what a few readers think who responded to my column The Naked Truth from two weeks ago. I talked about my entire game plan to drop body fat before summer (hint: it doesn’t involve cutting carbs to zero!) and the importance of figuring out calories.

What these readers are referencing is the carb insulin model (CIM) of obesity, originally proposed by Dr. David Ludwig and popularized by the likes of Gary Taubes and Jason Fung.

The CIM basically states that people don’t get obese from eating too many calories, they get obese from chronically elevated insulin (from carbohydrate intake) which traps fat in fat cells, making it inaccessible to the rest of the body to be used as energy.

Calories 101

McCain hands over Maple Leafs Foods reins

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The head of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. said he's confident in the future of the companyas he hands the reins of the protein producer to current president and chief operating officer Curtis Frank.

CEO Michael McCain will stay on as executive chair of the board of directors for the Mississauga-based firm, and said his family will remain as the company's largest shareholder through McCain Capital.

"When I started at Maple Leaf almost three decades ago, the world was a very different place and the challenges, while many, were perhaps not as profound as they are today,"said McCain on a call with analysts Thursday. The company announced a year ago that McCain would be stepping down after taking the top job in 1998.

"Our vision to be the most sustainable protein company on Earth is inspiring and enduring. I could not be more thankful or prouder of the team that we have the resilience that they've shown over decades," he said.