Take a look at the pictures below, in sequence, working your way down, left to right, beginning in the top left corner. Readers in India, they look awfully familiar for the most part, don’t they ?
Well, see if you can guess where they were taken!
(Hold off on reading the captions until you guess).
The California Avocado Commission has declared June “California Avocado Month”. With 90% of avocados grown and consumed in the USA (and I’m guessing Canada too) coming from farms in California, that’s reason enough for this month long celebration of all things avocado.
Avocados are native to Central Mexico and have a long history of cultivation in Central and South America. Now here’s something interesting. Avocado cultivation seems to have arrived relatively late in California. According to a California Avocado Industry report, the first report on record of avocados being cultivated there dates to 1856, coming from an import of mixed tropical fruit plants from Nicaragua by Dr Thomas J. White. A more definitive attempt was made in 1871 by Judge R.B. Ord of Santa Barbara who imported trees from Mexico. I say relatively late, since given the proximity of California to the original source of these fruit and with its ideally suited climate, one would expect the avocado would have found its way north far earlier. Meanwhile, a whole world away, there seem to have been recorded sightings of avocados in India as early as the middle of the 18th century.
Curb your inner Godzilla – that’s just the title of Vancouver’s annual 3 day “food expo”, as it bills itself. Back for the 10th year running, Eat! Vancouver is the place to catch celebrity chef’s like Vancouver’s Iron Chef, Rob Feenie in action.
It’s also a fun way to discover new cuisines and ingredients about town, take a crash course in wine, beer or cheese appreciation, shop for things you never knew you needed, and generally ponder the ubiquity of butter chicken and samosas on the local culinary landscape.
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