My wife and I are going out for dinner tonight. We will go with friends and we're going to a restaurant that serves Western food, meaning I will probably have something simple such as liver and onions or fish and chips. I am a gourmand, although not a gourmet.

Canada is a country of varied ethnicity. The last time I saw a figure for this there were something in excess of eighty different nationalities represented in this country and it seems that each one brought at least some of its native cuisine to our shores. I like it all. I have also been fortunate enough to travel to more than a dozen different countries over the years and I have rarely encountered a type of food I didn't like. Admittedly, I have never tried eating the insects that are popular in some places, chocolate-covered or otherwise, and the idea, although gastronomically sound, doesn't appeal to me very much. Other than that, however, I feel I have very Catholic tastes. I've eaten humus and yogurt from the Middle East, dog meat in China, steak tartar in Germany, raw fish in Japan and haggis in Scotland. I enjoyed every bite, with the possible exception of the haggis. I'm particularly fond of Asian food and my kitchen contains, among others, several cookbooks from Japan and China. I can even make sushi, teriyaki and various types of fried rice now without a recipe.

Because of its ethnic diversity, Canada also has a wide variety of restaurants from which to choose. From my home I can walk in about five minutes to restaurants that serve Greek, British, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and, of course, Western food. A few minutes in the car will also get me food from India, Africa, Korea, the Middle East and the list goes on. In fact, it is getting difficult to determine what Western food really is because the other cultures have become so homogenized here. A Western restaurant, such as the one we'll patronize tonight, is largely defined by what it isn't; it doesn't specialize in food from another country. The variety of good food you can find is limited only by your taste and your budget and, thanks to modern food handling; fresh foods from around the world are available on the grocer's shelves at almost any time of year. For a guy like me it's a bit of a mixed blessing, however. As mentioned, I like to eat and with the bounty available my personal "battle of the bulge" is an ongoing nuisance.

I'm always intrigued when I travel to other countries by the imbalance they suffer from in terms of our exported foods. The West, primarily the United States, certainly exports its culinary culture around the world but, trust me on this one, the other countries get the short end of the stick. I can go into Chinese restaurants here and get good Chinese food in a wide variety; from the south of China if I want sweet and from Sichuan if I want it spicy. I can go into a restaurant in Shanghai and get what the West has sent them; KFC and McDonald's. There's nothing wrong with either the fried chicken or the hamburgers but if anyone thinks fries and a Big Mac are representative of good Western food he is making a sad mistake. We can do much better than that.

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