March 17, 2010 ESSENCE
Re-Imagining Dinner
BETH BOWER
One of the greatest improvements to
my quality of life between first and
second year has been access to a stove
and a fridge. Liberated from the nar-
row confines of my old food card’s
point system, I am now free to shop
and cook for myself.
Now don’t get me wrong, for the first
few months of first year I was grateful to
have someone else dealing with all that.
It was enough to know that if I could
manage to get up for Biology 100A,
somebody else was providing the toast.
But as the months sped by, I started to
realize that there are only so many VG’s
stir fries one can eat. The difference be-
tween the taste of caf cuisine and my
mother’s delicious home cooking would
always shock my numbed taste buds
when I went home. So you can imagine
my delight when I unlocked the door to
my new cluster unit in September and
saw the kitchen.
However, shopping for myself proved
to be a bit of a learning curve. You see,
I was raised by parents who are big on
organic, free-range, and local. All that
tastiness went to my head as well as my
tummy, and I’m now an Environmental
Studies student who is wholeheartedly
on board with the family food values.
But as my roommate helpfully points
out as my shopping basket fills: “Uh,
Beth, you’re poor now.” She’s right
– I’ve had to learn to balance a budget
with my environmental conscience.
That said, I’ve found that if you know
where to look, having a reasonably sus-
tainable diet doesn’t have to be an elitist
privilege. The following are four of my
favourite food finds.
Beets
Beets are dirt cheap. Last time I
checked I was paying 1.54/lb at Am-
brosio’s for locally sourced ones. These
freakish purple nuggets are seriously un-
dervalued. Probably because they look
like freakish purple nuggets.
Beets are nutritional power houses;
chock full of betacyanin, a powerful
cancer fighting antioxidant. Just be
forewarned: all those antioxidants are
what give beets their bright colour
which can leave
some serious stains – just ask my
Broadview Anthology of Romantic
Literature whose pages were tattooed
magenta after my beet salad leaked all
over my backpack.
Jazz Jargon Answer Key
11
The best way to eat beets is to roast
them. Pop them in the oven for an hour
at 400F while you’re studying. Then let
‘em cool. Peel, and enjoy in sandwiches,
salads, or just on their own.
Vancouver Island Hazelnuts
I was poking around For Good Measure
(bulk food store next to Pepper’s in Cadboro
Bay) when I spied these local nuts. I bought
a bag as a treat, and they’ve become a staple
of my diet ever since. Eat them raw, toasted,
on porridge, in cookies, on yogurt. .
Babes Balsamic Vinegar
Brought to you by the same wonderful
people who make the honey, Babes Balsamic
Vinegar is derived entirely from fermented
honey, not grapes. It’s a little pricey, at $18.99
for a 250 mL bottle, but it’s a great option if
you’re concerned about the carbon footprint
created by shipping in all the good stuff from
Italy.
Now if you’re specifically craving balsamic
vinegar this might not quite cut it. The Babe’s
version has a different, more floral taste than
the grape original. But honey vinegar is also
a tasty product to enjoy in its own right – not
just as a substitute. You can find it at both For
Good Measure and Peppers.
PHOTO BY MILA CZEMERYS
Free Range Local Eggs
Both Ambrosio’s and Peppers always
carry a few dozen local, free-range
eggs. They cost about one to two dol-
lars more than what you’d pay for an
anonymous industrially produced
batch. But to me, a toonie is not too
much to pay for the assurance that the
hens have enjoyed a few ocean breezes
ruffling their feathers.
Admittedly, this article’s had a strong
Cadboro Bay bias – because well, that’s
what’s in walking distance of where I
live. But in keeping with this issue’s
theme of re-imagining the future, I’d
like to make it a goal for myself to
branch out and start exploring other
shops.
Not to mention all those Farmer’s
Markets which will start to fill out
again as summer inches closer. In fact,
the prospect of all that fresh local pro-
duce makes spring seem like the ideal
time to start re-imagining our dinner
plates.
Off-Setting Omnipotence
on the Roads: A Vision for
Equitable Commuting
EMILY ANDERSON
Driving home down McKenzie Ave,
two lanes of traffic set the stage for a so-
cial bifurcation of communal patience
and assertive individualism. Around rush
hour, traffic heading west on McKenzie
Ave starts to congest close to Highway
17 because traffic in the right lane is do-
ing one of two things: turning right onto
Burnside Ave or crossing Burnside to
merge onto Highway 1.
With resignation do I join the string
of red taillights marching like ants in
the right lane of McKenzie Ave, as early
as possible. However, there are always
drivers who feel they have the right to
plough ahead in the left lane as if intend-
ing to cross Highway 1 to access Admirals
Drive. Th ese drivers maliciously bypass
all the patient drivers waiting their turns,
speed through the light at Burnside Ave,
and then expect to be let into the High-
way 1 merge lane. Th is selfi sh act is a
classic display of egocentrism polluting
our social networks.
The matrix of roads that compose our
urban centers dictate how we get around,
where we can and cannot go, where we
end up, and who accompanies us. Soci-
etal institutions, as well as the advertising
industry, have worked hard to convince
people that social independence, trans-
portation independence, and economic
success are intrinsically linked.
Th is is evident in the 2010 Buick La-
crosse commercial, which depicts a suc-
cessful white man driving, and uses the
slogan, “the new class of world class.” The
image of the individual, aggressive driver,
who literally stops traffic and turns heads
in the commercial, represents the power
of socio-political fi gures in infl uencing
consumption patterns and lifestyle choic-
es in areas such as transportation. Are the
passive drivers and passengers then the
fifth estate – the commons – marginalized
for following the rules?
Further marginalized are the users of
public transportation systems. Many
people rely on the efficiency of public
transportation to commute to and from
work every day, either to accommodate a
financial budget, or to reduce their envi-
ronmental footprint. Aggressive drivers
disrupt this effi ciency, making for slow
and unpleasant commutes.
I live in a community outside the mu-
nicipality of Sooke where our access to
public transportation is limited. I am a
fifteen-minute drive from a park-and-ride
and to get to the university requires three
bus transfers. Presently, I spend an aver-
age of two hours a day in the car, com-
muting to and from school.
I see the overwhelming traffic flood-
PHOTO BY JULIA BENNETT
ing into the city of Victoria daily, and I
know I am not the only driver who sees
the inefficiency of our current commuting
patterns and habits in single-occupancy
vehicles. Therefore, I have a vision for a
commuter traffi c solution which would
not only be environmentally friendly but
would also give people an opportunity to
have a stress reduced commute.
The City of Victoria could benefit from
a light rail commuter train. We already
have the suburban population to support
a major commuter network, and as more
people continue to move to the island
we will require innovative solutions for
transportation expansion that do not in-
volve annexing peoples’ yards and delicate
ecosystems.
Ideally, the stops would accommodate
major malls, hospitals, schools and exist-
ing BC Transit bus routes. Th e imple-
mentation of a commuter train would
take sufficient traffic off the roads, in-
crease the efficiency of existing BC Transit
bus routes, and even allow for BC Transit
to cut back on funding for proposed new
bus routes.
BC Transit currently plans to increase
fares as of Spring 2010, but they could
be obliged to decrease their fares if faced
with the competition of a commuter
train. Furthermore, an increase in options
for public transportation would reduce
parking issues and community carbon
footprints at the same time!
As to the question of where the track
would be laid, I would suggest alongside
or even on the Galloping Goose Regional
Trail. Although developing public park
space would be controversial, historically
the trail actually was a commuter train
line! A site like “Th e Goose,” with the
route and infrastructure already in place,
would be far more cost-efficient than at-
tempting to install an underground rapid
transit train or a sky train.
The other option, incorporating the
train into the road system like in San
Francisco, does not solve the problem of
traffic congestion on our already crowded
streets. However, by drawing the average
driver off the roads and onto a light rail
commuter train, we would increase space
on the roads for alternate green commut-
ers.
Transportation is important as we all
have places to be in our daily lives. The
notion of individual wellness is also im-
portant, and I am not suggesting that we
abandon it completely, but egocentrism
has no place in the healthy functioning
of our transportation system. Let us re-
assess how we treat fellow commuters on
the road and embrace the vision of an
efficient, environmentally friendly system
that gets everyone home.