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By: Bina Patel
Living in Hamilton comes with many perks. Last month, having a delicious piece of cake delivered right to your door became one of them. Calvin Smith, a computer engineering student from the University of Sheffield in England, began delivering slices of cake to doorsteps all over the McMaster Area. “I only launched a week ago so if you can imagine me cycling around in my bike in minus 20 degrees, delivering cake to peoples door. That’s kind of how it all started,” he said.
The idea was born out of a conversation between Smith and his friends about circulating baked goods to students around McMaster University. Among the many options were brownies and cookies, but they ultimately agreed on a slice of cake.
“There’s not that many things around the Mac area that do this kind of thing so it would be great to offer it,” he explained.
The process is incredibly simple. A customer texts the phone number found on their website, between the hours of 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Saturdays and describe which slice of cake they want along with an address for delivery. Within a half hour, a slice of apple pie with cream, chocolate truffle or red velvet cake provided by a local bakery, will be delivered outside of your home.
The time range in which to place an order is small at the moment, but Smith hopes to expand to Thursdays and Fridays and to improve the efficiency of the service. “There are loads more things we want to put on the menu, with the amount of requests we’ve had for gluten-free cakes and vegan cakes and maybe even things like brownies.”
The personal touch of hand-delivered dessert has certainly had an effect, as the response from the public has been positive. Last week, Smith found himself biking around for four hours in the bitter cold delivering cakes, and business is expected to pick up as word continues to spread. Over 300 people have already shown interest on Facebook.
“There are loads more things we want to put on the menu, with the amount of requests we’ve had for gluten-free cakes and vegan cakes and maybe even things like brownies."
It remains to be seen whether expanding the service will be a piece of cake after all.
Photo Credit: Kareem Baassiri/ Photo Contributor
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To call it an addiction may be a bit much, but week after week my regular visits to a little stand in the Farmers’ Market “Real Food Court” suggests a certain level of infatuation with chef Salar Madadi’s bowls of hot rice.
Salar’s 20 different toppings ranging from purple kale, green mango and raw fish have got locals hooked since their early November open.
Pokeh is one of the first dedicated poké bars in Canada, serving the staple Hawaiian appetizer best described as “sushi in a bowl.” Salar, who also runs the Meatwagon food truck along with his wife Jeannie Crawford, brought one of their favourite culinary discoveries from their honeymoon in Venice Beach. The Pokeh team is extremely excited to bring to Hamilton a dish that Salar believes to be one of the next big food trends.
The appetizer gives customers the freedom to play with a variety of proteins and flavors ranging from the classic bowl of base ingredients, to complex and layered notes of spice, citrus, or a variety of Eastern culinary staples. Ordering the chef’s choice is not only an excellent introduction to this array of options, it also lets Salar and brother Shayne’s culinary proficiency shine.
Salar’s love for cooking is synonymous with his own love for building, learning and creativity. Prior to starting with Meatwagon, Salar worked in IT full-time for 13 years. “With IT and coding I never really felt like I got the same satisfaction of creating something or really building something. I build programs but there’s something about physically working with my hands that I like.”
Salar learned about Poke during his travels, but in true foodie form, he studied, self-taught, and was able to bring to the Hamilton Farmers’ Market what has now become a staple for many regulars.
“There’s so much to learn about food and so many different cultures, ingredients, it’s really like endless,” explains Salar.
“No one will ever know everything about food. I love learning, I love to read a lot of what I know is self-taught, like I read all the time: random cook books, stuff on the internet, and I always watch random YouTube videos.”
Salar’s culinary journey started with a gifted slow cooker purchased at a garage sale, and eventually transitioned to national level barbeque competitions, where he and his team was crowned the 2014 National Bacon Champions and competed in an international competition in Las Vegas. Barbequing and meat carts may be in separate culinary worlds from the Eastern inspired raw food dishes, but Pokeh’s excellence exemplifies the skill and flexibility that Salar and his team possess.
Pokeh is open in the lower west side of the Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. For more information visit their website at pokeh.ca and follow their Instagram and Twitter.
With our faces buried in our scarves, a close friend and I trekked towards what most people think of as the end of the James Street foodie strip. A colourful rustic sign invited us to walk further down James to reach our destination.
Walking past a few beaten storefronts and an old Pizza Select sign, we found ourselves in a small restaurant whose interior design could be described as a meeting of painted wooden interior and crochet. Hand painted plates and mugs lined refurbished wood shelves, alongside jars of pickled veggies and Korean cookbooks. A painted board reading “Home-Made with Love” and “Golden Brown” looks over the space.
Golden Brown is a Korean take-out restaurant that serves a variety of classic Korean dishes and contemporary favourites. Julia and Jake Park, the restaurant’s owners and mother and son duo, are the visionaries behind the latest addition to the James Street food scene, offering homemade kimchi, bulgogi, jeyuk, namul rice balls, gimbob and their signature Korean fried chicken. Despite the novelty of these dishes in Canada’s food culture, there is something distinctly cozy and comforting about each and every one of Julia’s dishes, which was no accident on her part.
“Just like how our catchphrase is ‘Home-Made with Love,’ I want to provide or make an area that can feel like home and try to make food that feels like moms made it, mom’s food. I wanted to have this area to be comfortable for everyone to share the home cooked food,” explained Julia, as translated by her son.
Julia is passionate about her Korean heritage and culture, and has consistently tried to preserve that culture through her career as an interior designer. During her undergraduate studies in Korea, she worked with a group of artists to restore old pieces of art for various exhibitions. Since she moved to Canada, she has had the opportunity to hold educational sessions and exhibitions across the country.
For this family, Golden Brown is as much a restaurant as it as an opportunity to showcase Korean food culture in a welcoming environment. The James St. area was a perfect fit for Julia who loves to explore local art culture. In the near future, Jake and Julia hope to host open educational sessions during art crawls highlighting different aspects of Korean food culture.
The maternal and nostalgic atmosphere of Golden Brown is one of the central parts of its spirit and charm. Julia and Jake have received a warm reception from the local community and fellow restaurateurs, and the design and art-oriented community has also taken notice of their unique presentation. Its truly rare to find a new restaurant that can appeal to a younger, trendier audience by bringing tried and true dishes that creates a longing for home-cooked meals.
“Everyone, when they grow up they go out exploring for their dreams, but when they’re alone, they will always miss mom’s food,” reminisced Julia. “I’m trying to provide that here. Even though I’m old, I still miss my mom’s food. All the foods we have here are like what my mom’s been making for a long time, what my grandmas have made for a long time.”
Golden Brown is located on 28 Barton Street East. For menu offerings and more information about take-out and delivery, follow their Instagram.
Photo Credit: Jon White/Photo Editor
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If you aren’t Jewish you may have missed an exciting development in the world of McMaster Jewish cuisine last semester: sandwiches.
Now, for around three dollars, you too can own a certified Kosher sandwich from La Piazza. McMaster’s Jewish community posted “sandwich selfies” in celebration – mind you, as a group of people that have holidays in the name of dairy products, trees, and the arrival of Friday, it is safe to say we are generally willing to celebrate most things. Yet, as I told people of the incredible bracha (blessing) that was kosher cream cheese and salmon on white, I was met with considerable confusion from my non-Jewish friends. The most disturbing question I received was “why would you condone the Kosher butchering of animals when the methods are so cruel?”
Here is the most important thing you need to know: food is personal. Last year, the Danish government banned Kosher and Halal slaughter. European law states that animals must be stunned before slaughter, but grants exemptions based on religious grounds. Jewish and Muslim laws have strict regulations surrounding Kosher and Halal slaughter that does not allow for the stunning of animals.
Your first thought might be that not stunning an animal is inhumane and must be outlawed, but to single out Kosher and Halal slaughter for cruelty in the world of meat production is foolish. Firstly, methods of stunning are not necessarily painless. They can include electric shocks, gassing, or a bolt to the skull. Occasionally the animal is not properly stunned (the bolt misses the brain, the voltage is not high enough), and is in pain until it dies. Jewish law very strictly prohibits causing unnecessary suffering to animals, with the exemption of the slaughter itself, which must be done as swiftly as possible and render the animal unconscious almost immediately.
This is not to say that the killing of animals for food — kosher, halal, or otherwise — is painless and without its faults. However, if you honestly care for the welfare of the animals that end up on your dinner plate, then you would care about their holistic quality of life, not just the moment before their death. You would campaign for better living conditions and feed in factory farms. You would care for different animals equally; as much for the chicken that makes Friday’s mazo ball soup, as you would the giraffe that a Danish zoo fed to a Lion — for entertainment purposes — the same year they banned kosher slaughter.
To single out Kosher and Halal slaughter for cruelty in the world of meat production is foolish
Despite that one Jewish friend you know who loves their bacon, for many Jews keeping kosher is not optional. The same goes for Halal. To label Halal slaughter as inhumane reflects the Islamophobic belief that Islam cares less about the sanctity of life. To restrict Kosher food is to isolate and drive away Jewish families from their communities. In attacking our food supply, you are saying to us “we do not want you to live here.” It is not a campaign for animal rights; it is thinly veiled anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
So what does the supply of sandwiches at McMaster have to do with it? The short answer is: keep ‘em coming. Our university has done some amazing things to accommodate Jewish and Muslim students. I know that if I face discrimination on campus that I can go to HRES (Human Rights and Equity Services) for help, or that if I need a quiet place to pray I can go to the basement of Thode. I feel safe openly identifying as Jewish both in the community and the classroom, which is no mean feat. To make students feel welcome, food should be right alongside institutional policy. To give us as many meal options on campus sends the message that the University wants us to feel comfortable living and studying here. I’m loving the sandwiches and can’t wait to see what comes next. Who knew egg salad could taste so good?
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If bacon is bad for you, then I don’t want to live, and if the WHO is right, that won’t be a choice for me. The other day the aptly named organization (as in WHO do you think you are, destroying my world by telling me that the most delicious meat is carcinogenic?) tweeted: “Experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal #cancer by 18%.”
The first thing to say is, “What part of my body exactly does colorectal cancer affect? Can I live without it?” The second thing: people forget that there’s an 82 percent chance of not getting cancer (I don’t think that’s how statistics works, but whatever), and a 100 percent chance of having foodgasms for the duration of your life if you consume pig fat.
The fun hating “experts” from the International Agency of Research on Cancer examined over 800 “scientific studies” to determine that bacon belongs in the dreaded “group 1” of noxious substances that negatively affect human health. Other fearsome substances in this group include asbestos, alcohol and cigarettes. I fear that one day, my child will need to use a fake ID to buy bacon with a picture of a dying baby’s lung on the package.
So what’s our alternative? Dulse, a strain of red algae that apparently has a strong bacon flavour. These people are probably the same people who claim chickpea cookie dough tastes like the real thing (it doesn’t). Somewhere in an American grocery store, Ron Swanson is tossing all dulse samples into the garbage. When asked about the bad news for bacon lovers, Ron called it, “total f**king bulls**t.” He emphasized that we should not panic, and instead procure as much bacon as humanly possible and hide it in as many locations you can. Wise words.
Taking a step back, I quickly realized that 50g of bacon is approximately equivalent to six medium slices of bacon. If you’re eating that much bacon everyday, we have bigger problems to deal with. Also, cutting down on bacon consumption to a reasonable amount is not difficult. Instead of using two strips to wrap your scallop, use one. Get your Double Down from KFC without bacon. It’s definitely okay to eat it once you replace the carcinogenic bacon with dulse.
Remember, these “scientists” have been wrong before. Margarine isn’t better for you than butter–and it definitely doesn’t taste the same. Egg yolks, once shunned for its cholesterol content, also turn out to not be bad for you.
Bacon, you’ve been under a lot of heat lately, but know that I will always love you. Everything about you is perfect. Your smell gets me out of bed everyday. The sizzle you makes when you hit a hot pan. The crunch you make when you’re bitten. The grease that coats my mouth and the warmth you spread in my body. Bacon, you make everything better. Never change (but I’d prefer it if you didn’t kill me).
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By: Sophie Hunt
On Oct. 7, the warm fall air was filled with the scent of fresh produce as McMaster students filled Mills Plaza for the first ever Local Food Fest.
The event was hosted by Mac Farmstand, an MSU service that sells locally-grown fruits and vegetables on campus from June to October. The Local Food Fest brought together McMaster food initiatives such as MACgreen, Mac Bread Bin, and Mac Veggie Club, as well as numerous local food producers and distributors.
“Farmstand’s goal is to encourage students to have more local eating habits,” said Jonathon Patterson, Mac Farmstand’s director. “A lot of people enter university after living with their parents and being used to having meals with family. University is when we start to develop our food habits, and local food is so important.”
This year, Mac Farmstand has served an averaged of 200 people per day, almost double the number of clients it has seen in previous years. The Local Food Fest was created as a result of the increased interest in local food that Farmstand has seen.
One of the local vendors represented at the event was The Mustard Seed, a cooperative grocery store that sells food grown and produced in the Hamilton area. The store is located at the intersection of Locke Street North and York Boulevard in downtown Hamilton.
“Anything that can be local is local at our grocery store,” said Meg Makins, a representative from The Mustard Seed. “This festival is all about local food, so it was a perfect fit . . . I think [the event] raises awareness about the importance of local food, and it helps students realize that they can access local food in a simple way.”
The Farmstand closes on Oct. 31, so the service is brainstorming ways to continue to promote local food sources for students that have come to rely on local produce. “We’re looking at continuing past Oct. 31,” said Patterson. “The stand would be closed, but we’d be having local farmers come in for an interactive panel discussion.”
“We’re partnering with the residences to offer smaller cooking classes within residence for students to learn how to cook things that they can cook when living on campus,” added Patterson. “We’re also working on partnering with the Student Health Education Centre for having a dietician who would be at Farmstand just for one day, so if people have questions they can have those questions answered.”
This is the first year that Mac Farmstand has hosted the event on campus, but the service hopes to make the Local Food Fest an annual event.
By Aelya Slm
You are a mathematician.
You are God, you are Freud, prayers offered at the age of seven, you are every parental interaction that should have been measured twice cut once.
You are a cartographer, you are valleys and ditches and hollows where the mud sticks to your shoes. You are the untended grass on the hillsides of your thighs.
You are vultures circling flooded graveyards, pulling at bones and teeth.
You are centuries of rich food, centuries of the brown and the hungry, the brown and well-fed, the frugal and the pious, the food-savers, your mother reminding you that wasting food is a sin.
You are bile, you are corrosive, volcanic eruptions, skeletal hands dipped in acidic liquid, the country’s hazard communication standard, your nails are short for every reason except “I like them that way”, the knuckles of your right hand have teeth marks.
You are animals or maybe just one of them, you are hunter and hunted, you are carcasses on the Savannah, gazelles with broken legs giving birth to fawns, the cry of beautiful birds as the day breaks, lions on their haunches, men with rifles and cameras, the flash of teeth before the lights go out and the ground is stained with blood.
You are writers that never publish, those with thoughts and no words, the temperament of the artistic but none of the talent, journals locked away in attics with old dresses, no one to ask you what you thought of love or the war where boys no older than 18 fought for the things they didn’t understand.
You are no one’s muse, no one’s Degas dancer, no one’s art history, no one’s art, no one’s history.
You are every ordinary experience, every economic privilege, you are ungrateful, but God you are so hurt and you’re so sorry you’re like this and you’re apologizing but you never need to, do you. You never need to, do you.
