So what's a little different in the kitchen? Let's see; yesterday I baked what I feel were the best-tasting raisin tarts (butter tarts) ever. And I've a long record of baking such desserts, from almost sixty years of providing edible goodies for my family.

Instead of using Becel margarine as I usually do, I used a quarter-cup of butter in the filling. Forgot the vanilla, but put enough nutmeg in that it didn't matter. Two eggs, a quarter-cup corn syrup and three-quarters-cup lightly packed dark brown sugar. And jumbo Thompson raisins. Utterly delectable. I use lemon juice when making the crust, along with a very small amount of cold water, and Crisco, never lard. Scrumptious. Did I say that already?

The day before I baked whole sardines for dinner's main course. These are not the sardines we get packed in oil in small tins. These sardines were the size of small-to-medium perch. And they too were fantastic tasting, with a most delicate flavour. They came frozen, caught and packed in Greece. I had used soy sauce on them, just as I had when we were living in Japan and used to shop daily, and the fishmonger's offerings were fresh. They almost resembled mackerel in taste, bringing back old memories. Yesterday I bought frozen whole mackerel and will prepare them later in the week the very same way.

And spices, spices from India, imported to Canada. Excellent spices, the very finest quality at a fraction of the price we pay for spices that are packaged in Canada under well-recognized Canadian brand names. The new supermarket we're shopping at has the most intriguing, wide-ranging new food offerings and condiments, geared at the large and growing immigrant market.

We native-born Canadians (of earlier immigrant stock) can certainly gain and learn from this ongoing exposure to the constituents of other, exotic cuisines.