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A large meaty burrowing clam with a crunchy texture and a new antioxidant berry developed at the University of Saskatchewan but grown in PEI were on an Olympic podium today.

The Conservative government is taking advantage of the Winter Games to sell other parts of Canada – not just our sports and scenery – to the rest of the world.

On Thursday morning it was Canada’s good taste that was the featured event – its flavours and food, including that huge but odd-looking clam, which is spelled Geoduck, but is pronounced “Gooey-duck”.

It is mostly exported to Hong Kong and China.

“I want people coming back to Canada after the Olympics,” said federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who threw on an apron adorned with a Maple Leaf to cook with chefs at the “Savour Canada” Olympic breakfast.

“We are not ashamed at all about the amount of time and energy we’re putting into promoting Canada and Canadians,” he said, telling the crowd that Canadian food is going to “rock” over the next few days while Canadian athletes are going to “kick ass.”

International journalists attended the breakfast, which showed off all sorts of Canadian fare, including grains, cheese, beef and fish. There were no seal products there, however – a decision Mr. Ritz said wasn’t deliberate.

In a prelude to the theme raised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper later in his speech to the B.C. Legislature, the Agriculture Minister said that Canadians are “a shy retiring people” and have been “reticent” in the past to aggressively market their food. But he wants that to change and the breakfast was meant to be a “reawakening” for both the domestic and international markets.

About that berry: It’s called a Haskap berry and Mr. Ritz was singing its praises because of its high antioxidant properties, even higher, he said, than blueberries. He thinks it has lots of potential domestically.

Internationally, he says Canada’s “heart smart” grains and oils are catching on. In China, for example, they are now importing Canadian canola oil.

“The days when all we exported was wheat and barley and durum are no more,” he said. “They are becoming the rotational crops and not the mainstream crop.”

The Agriculture Minister also says beef is also coming back since the mad-cow crisis in 2003. Canadians, he says, are “fussy eaters” and only buy the good cuts of beef. But a market is growing in Hong Kong for cow tongue and stomach.

“That’s a potential to export millions of dollars worth of product that right now is not usable,” he said.

There were no displays of cow tongue or stomach at the breakfast. Instead, there were chefs from across the country cooking dishes, using regional food, including chunks of the big clam that was put into a congee, a type of rice porridge.

And there was also Michael Smith. The award-winning chef from Prince Edward Island is head chef for the Olympic athletes in Whistler. He said he is leading a team of 60 cooks who are producing 12,000 meals a day.

“In Whistler we are serving the single-best food ever prepared for the athletes of the world,” he said, not to put too fine a point on it.

In a tent the size of three football fields, he’s set up food stations, including pasta, pizza, an Asian wok and a grill. He says the bobsledders must be eating “9000 calories a day” in pasta.

“We are jumping through the highest nutritional hurdles that I have ever faced in my career,” Mr. Smith said.

About his pasta sauces? “These are very healthy, well-made, well-crafted sauces made just the way I would make it at home except that my pan now is 250 litres big.”

(Photo: Clayton Perry)