Editor’s IntroductionIntroduction de l’équipe éditoriale[Notice]

Sometimes, the execution of a recipe does not go as planned. A cheesecake cracks; a loaf of bread does not rise; a dish that looks otherwise perfect is poorly seasoned. Cooking, baking, and tasting are essentially forms of experimentation and with each experiment, hopefully we learn, such that the next iteration of the cheesecake, loaf of bread, or special dish will hit the mark. And so it goes with writing and curating content. This issue of CuiZine was regrettably delayed a number of times. In an effort to ensure open access content and compliance with Creative Commons policies, our team revised author agreements and other relevant documentation and procedures which delayed other activities. We also had to contend with a few other challenges. We experimented with new ways of doing – new platforms, new editorial tools, new ways of engaging readers. However, as with any new recipe or kitchen gadget, there’s always a learning curve. We thank our readership for their patience and continued interest. We hope this belated issue will be satisfying. This issue comprises a wide range of food-related topics, many of which intersect with themes in mainstream news coverage. For instance, Elyse Amend scrutinizes the web-based tool My Food Guide, which is meant to serve as a complementary tool to Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide, Health Canada’s original standard for healthy eating habits. She argues this online tool, for all its merit, fails to address cultural and linguistic diversity in the way it could have or ought to. She provides stakeholders and policy-makers with a number of recommendations, some of which align with previous scholarship examining the original Food Guide. Her piece contributes to an overarching call for knowledge transfer and dissemination to be more culturally and linguistically diverse: while English may very well be the lingua franca, the fact remains that for many individuals, it takes time and effort to parse content in a second language. Barry Lazar’s piece also considers the digital: more and more, supermarkets and retailers are opting to use digital platforms to offer promotions and discounts to consumers. This may lead to the disappearance of the ‘traditional’ Publisac, a Quebec-based service that distributes paper flyers door-to-door. Lazar laments the slow death of traditional flyers, calling upon the kinesthetic experience of ‘hunting for a deal’ among the Publisac’s offerings. The piece also addresses the concept of surveillance and how point cards and online promos inevitably inform retailers of our preferences, shopping habits, search queries, etc. Although these two pieces do not seem immediately connected, they are. Food habits are now increasingly shaped in and by digital contexts. Recently, thanks to Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a whole new generation of readers and viewers has become interested in Atwood’s work. In the televised series, food certainly plays a role: for instance, in one scene, the handmaids walk through the stark aisles of what appears to be a futuristic/minimalist grocery store. The scene is revealing of many food practices and rituals associated with the plotline. Meals and food-related scenes might at times be overlooked for having any narrative or social significance. Moyer and Cooke, however, argue otherwise. Specifically, they tackle the importance of breakfast in Canadian literature, of which Atwood’s work is only one example. The article will leave readers looking at their morning scramble or omelette in a whole new light. Two other creative pieces are included in the issue: Jean-Pierre Lemasson’s ode to the oyster Le chant furtif de l’huître and Lisa Lopez Smith’s poem Carnicero. Lemasson posits that when ingredients – …