GLOBALIZATION AND MY SANDWICH
A Tale of Lunch and Embargos

At one time it was not unusual to consider food products from other countries exotic, more desirable, and a little more scintillating than locally manufactured delicacies.

Grey Poupon mustard was once the mainstay of the Euro ham sandwich. That’s how you could tell you were in a delicatessen.

In recent years the world of the gourmand was improved dramatically by globalization, travel (where people first recognized their new favourite nosh) and the amalgam of nouvelle cosine and fusion eating we have come to love.

This brings me to the focus of this article. It is that I have now become a polyglot (attempting to speak more than two languages), a fusion gourmand and a person who adores the hot, spicy, sweet, and amazingly flavourful food offerings from other latitudes.

Having disclosed this, I must now present the sad truth about my palate. I am now a traitor to my own food heritage. Macaroni and cheese, I think not. Boiled vegetables, zoot alors. Non. Like most of my contemporaries, I have integrated a taste for the food of ancient cultures into my daily dietary expectation.

The bad news now. Based on basic shortages in the world, economic valleys being experienced in North America, and the cost of importing against the strength of the dollar, our relationship with exotic and elegant food from around the globe may be short lived.

Soon it may be a return to a ham and cheese sandwich and the plebian. I think this is the equivalent of war time rationing myself. Having heard stories about World War II and rationing, I quiver in my shoes expecting that the dried banana will make a return to popularity. When my supplies to gourmet fare are cut off I will only see the food I like on TVCinq, Telemundo or on Iron Chef. Now we will have global access to the idea of food, not the reality. This reminds us of the carapace of democracy, when most people have no access to it.