Ontario

As elegant as the most stylish Toronto restaurant and as down-to-earth as a Mennonite farmers' market, Ontario offers a splendid range of tastes and flavours.

The cooking of Ontario is the most diverse in Canada: earthiest in country style and sassiest in city style. From the days of the earliest settlers, who learned the ways of wild rice and Indian corn from the native people, to the early 1800's, when the Loyalists brought their British puddings and Pennsylvania Dutch their Mennonite schitz pies, to the last few decades when everything from fettuccine pasta to sushi have been inherited, Ontario has always been an international feast for sharing.

Nowadays, if any ingredient is in season anywhere in the world, it can probably be found in a Toronto food shop. A wealth of flavours season every corner of this "city of neighbourhoods" - Portuguese, Jamaican, Greek, Middle European, Oriental and Italian are everywhere. There are a half million Italian-Canadians in Toronto alone.

Recent years have also brought a revived appreciation of homegrown Ontario food products. All over the province, farmers' markets showcase fine regional produce in season. Among the best known are the lively markets of Kitchener-Waterloo with their wonderful German-Mennonite specialities - sausages, sauerkraut, cheese and pies - alongside mountains of fruits and vegetables. In the Niagara Peninsula, roadside stands overflow during the summer and fall with luscious fruits of orchards and vineyards; in sunny southwestern Ontario, corn and tomatoes steal the show. Elsewhere, the lush market gardens of Holland Marsh, the dairy lands of the Ottawa Valley and the old apple orchards of Quite to the wild rice marshes and freshwater fishing camps of the northwest, Ontario offers a cornucopia of fresh flavours.