Silly Little Country

A Diminished Identity

About 15 years ago, my Austrian in-laws visited us and we spent ten days driving around B.C. and the Rockies. Along the way we exposed my mother-in-law to Nanaimo Bars. The effect was dramatic, and the result has been an expectation that whenever one of us goes to visit them in Austria, we bring Nanaimo Bars. (There is a similar experience with blueberry pie but it is not so relevant to the point of this post.)
This used to be easy but has become slightly trickier in recent years. Normally we would simply go to a large chain grocery store the day before the trip and buy them. In recent years we might have had to go to both of the local instances of that chain before achieving our goal. This year the chain failed us completely. Gottseidank, another chain came through, after some hard prodding of their bakery staff by my wife.
Nanaimo Bars are part of what connect me to Canada, quite like the Log Driver's Waltz. If Canadians are unwilling to support this institution, I fear my identity will diminish and I won't know what to do!
Wait - Wikipedia tells me what to do to maintain my Canadian identity!

... the term is common in the American half of the Pacific Northwest, next-door to BC, and has been used in places such as New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Sydney because of the popularization of the treat by the world-spanning Starbuck's coffee chain.

I'll go to Starbuck's!

posted by Alan Adamson @ 11:34 AM