[getsmart-l] streets are teeming with culinary diversity: knishes, spicy chicken on a pita and Colombian arepas

[John O'Gorman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070417.HOTDOG17/TPStory/?query=hot+dog

HOT DOGS

Liberating Torontonians from the tyranny of street meat
JEFF GRAY 

It is time for the tyranny of the hot dog on Toronto's streets to end, the city's board of health said yesterday, voting to ask the province to change its health rules and allow a more diverse menu of street food.

Currently, Torontonians have as much choice in street food vendors as voters did in Soviet elections. The reason? Provincial rules single out hot dogs and sausages as the only suitable dishes because they are precooked, eliminating some of the health risks inherent in cooking and storing meat.

In New York, for example, the streets are teeming with culinary diversity: knishes, spicy chicken on a pita and Colombian arepas, as well as enormous, warm saltypretzels.

Multicultural Toronto should have a similar buffet on its streets, said board of health chairman John Filion: "We should be defined by that, not by the hot dog."

Mr. Filion, city councillor for Willowdale , has been pushing for years for changes to the street meat rules. He said his efforts stalled last month after the Ministry of Health staffer he was dealing with left, so he decided to take a different tack.

Yesterday, in addition to formally asking Queen's Park to change the regulations, the board of health also agreed to set up a summer demonstration event, which would be allowed under the special-event exemption in the current rules. Local chefs and restaurant owners will also be asked to come up with ideas.

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman has said he is open to considering changes. A spokesman said yesterday that rigorous health standards must be maintained.

Mr. Filion cautioned that the current rule that meat must be cooked ahead of time would likely remain in effect: "I am not suggesting that we cook raw chicken at the corner of Yonge and Dundas."

(Even with the current health rules, street food isn't perfect. Last August a city health-inspection blitz of 39 hot dog carts found nine violators, and issued tickets for smoking and hygiene offences.)

Guy Rubino, the executive chef at Rain, an Asian-inspired restaurant on Mercer Street in the Entertainment District, addressed the board of health and said that other cities around the world put Toronto's street meat to shame, offering noodle dishes, fresh fruit, and, in Singapore, a delicacy known as frog's legs porridge.

"It's not that the ingredients aren't here," Mr. Rubino said. ". . . it's embarrassing. This city is trying so hard to be world class, but on this topic it is so ghetto."

Out on the street, the cause of liberating Torontonians from the hot dog wasn't universally endorsed.

"Hot dogs are the best," said 50-year-old Mehran Bermah, a 15-year veteran of the business who was selling wieners near the Eaton Centre yesterday. "They're faster, they cook better. I've been doing this job a long time."

Other foods, such as shish kebabs or pizza, are harder to eat on the go, he said. His customers would need a place to sit, he added, gesturing at the cold, unwelcoming sidewalk beside him. "To eat a shish kebab, you go to a restaurant."

Mayor David Miller said he supports the proposed street-meat changes, although he acknowledged that his days of lunching at the hot-dog stands in front of city hall were over. A healthy-eating regime helped him slim down by at least 30 pounds after he won the mayor's chair in 2003.

"I think it would be great," the mayor said of the street-meat changes. "I think we should reflect our cultural diversity. It's one of our great strengths."

Also yesterday, the board asked the medical officer of health to look into how the city might regulate trans fats on its own. New York has moved to ban trans fats, which are found in hydrogenated vegetable oil, in its restaurants.

The board also requested that city agencies voluntarily reduce the amount of trans fat in foods sold or served in city facilities.
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