Being Canadian

I'm proud to be Canadian. I like to believe that I don't normally go around being obnoxious about it, but I am proud of it. I usually make it back up to Canada to visit a couple times each year, but it's still nice to have an experience down in the US once in a while to help feel connected with the Great White North. Here are a few of the things that have happened since I've been back in Provo after Christmas.

1. I went to a BYU hockey game. I had only ever been to one other hockey game down here (back when the BYU team was still the Provo Ice Cats), and I had forgotten how fun it was. I'm pretty sure you could have described me as giddy when the teams took the ice.

2. I used the word "dandy." This probably sounds silly, but some

body asked me how my day was the other day and I told them it had been dandy. At this instant I felt a certain connection with home. I think part of it is connected to hearing that word used a lot on Hockey Night in Canada. Another part of it is due to an episode of the Simpsons where the Simpson family ends up in Toronto. At one point Bart and Milhouse end up crashing through a curling match and the announcer says "What's this? Two young Yankee Doodles have turned this matched into a dandy."

3. I listened to O Canada. I was walking home one day, listening to some of my music on my mp3 player, when O Canada, performed by Big Sugar, came on. I was very happy to hear this.

4. I made Nanaimo Bars. For our grad seminar this week we had a cultural and culinary exchange. We were asked to bring food related to our home country or another country/culture with which we are familiar. I decided to represent Canada by bringing Nanaimo Bars. They are always a huge hit anytime I make them. This has nothing to do with my cooking, Nanaimo Bars are just plain delicious. Anyway, it was fun to make them and share them for the seminar, but I think my Canadian pride was affected the most when I got home. There were some bars left over, so I decided to take them to share with my dinner group for dessert. When I uncovered them, one of the girls there said they looked like "fudge cream brownies," or something along those lines. I replied and told her that they are called Nanaimo Bars because they originated in Nanaimo, B.C. This was followed by a short discussion about them possibly being the same thing, just called something different. We're friends, and this was all very friendly conversation, but inside I felt myself getting very defensive, with my thoughts being something along the line of "they are Nanaimo Bars, not fudge cream brownies. Nanaimo Bars are Nanaimo Bars, and they are Canadian. These are not fudge cream brownies. Even if you call them fudge cream brownies, that's not what they are. They are Nanaimo Bars" It's not as if this was going to be a source of contention or anything, but I was very happy when she ate one and informed me that they were not the same thing as fudge cream brownies.

Delicious Nanaimo Bars

Picture taken from www.eclecticcook.com