Image: www.themindfulword.org
Enjoy your meal
Modeled on the Slow Food ethic, a movement started to counteract fast food and life in the fast lane, Maria holds guerrilla dining events where participants can immerse themselves in the menu.
The promise of delicious and innovative vegetarian fare in a non-restaurant setting was reason enough to check it out but the real draw was a chance to slow down.
Unexpected pleasures
“I don’t know what we’re having yet,” said Maria as she greets me in her kitchen at her Kensington Market. She turns to a brown sheet of paper hanging on her kitchen wall with some lines and circles scrawled on it. This, she tells me, is how she sketches out her ingredients -- to see what goes together best.
Her random food preparation tactics raise some doubts especially since she is preparing for a twelve person dinner party. But once I see her at work, I’m set at ease. Stationed in front of her main work counter, she methodically pounds away at the apple corer, whirls over to another counter to mix some sauce, then to the stove, the whole time calmly conversing about the food and the evening.
Sustainable menus
Guerrilla Gourmet is committed to sustainable agriculture and serves almost entirely organic and locally produced food. The core mission of Slow Food is to preserve the culture of cuisine. Intentionally lengthy meals are structured around educating about taste and raising awareness about where the food is grown. The idea being as people get connected to what's on their plate they start to question what goes into their food and hopefully become more discerning.
Under any other circumstances, having dinner with twelve strangers may be a awkward occasion but tonight the conversation flows as we relax into the evening. We take our seats around the long table and start with wild bergamot tea and roasties. After all the plates are in place, Maria proudly introduces us to the vegetables: sunchokes, yellow potatoes, parsnips, carrots and shallots, all grown in Ontario and seasoned with five different types of basil from the backyard.
Relaxing with food
We start eating slowly. The dinner guest next to me comments, “It’s good to do this [slow eating] once or twice a week. My size didn’t come from eating slowly.” He and his wife have driven an hour into the city for the event.
The main dish arrives and we gaze in rapture at the colourful spread of Portland apples filled with brazil nuts, dates and rum-soaked candied lemon peels on a bed of quinoa. We eat in silence, with the occasional low-pitched murmurs of delight.
Other delights follow: the contrasting textures of oyster mushrooms with crispy baked tempeh set off by the orange-ginger-mustard-miso-oil, baby green salads dressing with maple syrup, a hemp seed pudding made with agar seaweed and kudzu. All are a pleasant surprise to the palate.
Raising our awareness
Random scheduling, unplanned menu selection, organic locally grown food, learning the history of food, bringing strangers together are the tools in Maria’s guerrilla arsenal.
Slow eating connects you to what's on your plate and your community. Can there be a more delicious way?
Kevin Bottero is the founder of the Toronto-based cultural collective The Mindful Word, creating a culture of engaged living. Visit him online at www.themindfulword.org.
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