Speed dating for farmers

I learned from this tweet from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, that the London Economic Development Commission is hosting this event:

LOCAL FOODS FARMER/FOOD BUYER SPEED NETWORKING EVENT
"Connecting Farmers and Food Buyers to tap into the Buy Local food market place"
March 31, 2009, Western Fair

We desperately need to make better connections between Windsor and Essex County and an event like this could do wonders towards starting up relationships between our tourism and agriculture industries. Too bad our own Windsor Economic Development Corporation have other things on their mind...

Thanks Jennifer 8 - now all I want is to order some Chinese food

Some quick (and thus, error-prone) counts from the Windsor and Area Yellow Pages.

# of McDonald's Restaurants: 10
# of Burger King Restaurants: 11
# of Wendy's : 4
# of KFCs: 7
# of Chinese restaurants: 45

I wanted to do a quick tally of the local restaurant scene after watching Jennifer 8 Lee's TED Talk: Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food. I recommend watching it as its fascinating food history.

(We have our own history with Chinese food as almost every small town in Canada that can support a restaurant has a Chinese restaurant as a result of our own immigration policies.)

Near the end of the talk, Lee makes the case that unlike the centralized uniformity of the fast food franchises, Chinese restaurants ac hived their similarity independently by self-organization. Unlike the Microsofts of the restaurant landscape, Chinese restaurants are like Linux - adapting to local tastes and customs while being both ubiquitous and largely anonymous.

Now I want dim sum something fierce.

What should be the fast food of Windsor?

I think you should read Doug Saunder's recent Globe and Mail column on the glories of global street food before it disappears behind the paywall next Saturday. In it, Saunders describes some of the strange and wonderful foods he's had in the slums of Asia that put our poor street meat to shame. Speaking of which, I'm glad to report that there is a Toronto city councilor that has been endeavouring to to expand Toronto's sidewalk menu beyond hot dogs but sadly, his efforts have not yet been fruitful.

Also in this column, Saunders laments that we North Americans have given up the pursuit for innovative and amazing fast food. And, notwithstanding the bizarre inventions that appear at the State Fairs of America, I think he's right.

It got me thinking - what could be the base of a new "invented in Windsor/Essex County" fast food? Candied Tomato With Ice Cream? Smelt on a stick? We need a contest!