If you're a Canuck or have ever been to Canada, you're more than likely all too familiar with this delicious dessert bar. For those of you who are not, they are bars consisting of various flavored layers, such as crushed graham crackers, walnuts, coconut, custard and topped with chocolate. If anyone is interested, I've got a recipe that I've just tried moments ago here in my kitchen. :p Otherwise, you'll have to find one of your own or settle for the mass produced versions sold at Safeway, a popular supermarket chain located in western Canada or at the ubiquitous Starbucks around the western coast of North America.
Anyway, but did you know about one of the greatest, unsolved mysteries of all time surrounding this popular treat?
Mysterious Origins
As far as we know, the mystery all began back in the early fifties in the quaint coastal town of the same name, located on the western coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. According to local legend, a local housewife submitted a recipe to a publication for a recipe contest in which she, of course, won under the moniker "Nanaimo Bars". Soon thereafter, the recipe spread and numerous versions were spawned throughout the world.
The trouble with this legend, however, is that there is no verifiable proof to substantiate this rather lofty claim. Through years and years of extensive, pain-staking research, the earliest existence of anything specifically named "Nanaimo Bars" was published in The Lethbridge Herald in a January 1954 issue in Alberta, Canada, (submitted by a woman known as Joy Willgress) hundreds of miles away, during a time when many Canadians still traveled great distances on sleds pulled by dogs and using inuksuit as guides.
The other problem with this mystery is the fact that the earliest published version of this recipe only dates to as early as 1957, nearly three years later (for those of you mathematically impaired), in a publication titled "Favorite Recipes: Compliled by the Women's Association of the Brechnin United Church" (submitted by a woman known as Joy Willgress), which brings up yet another mystery... why is the word "Favorite" spelled the way that Americans would spell it? *The Twilight Zone theme commences in background... do-do, do-do...*
If we disregard the seemingly dead-end search under "Nanaimo Bars" a recipe has been discovered that is nearly identical in all but name, to the Nanaimo Bars we are familiar with in this day and age. The recipe in question, appeared in The Woman's Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook as simply "Chocolate Slices" in 1952 *overly dramatic pause* by a woman known to us only as Mrs. E. MacDougall. Which raises even further suspicion. Why the use of the first initial? Is this Mrs. MacDougall (if that truly is her real identity), hiding something? Is that first initial even her initial or, in fact, that of her husband, as many housewives, back in those days, referred to themselves as?
The Search Continues...
The search was getting nowhere and then in 1992 something happened that brought new life to the search. That "something", was a book titled "A Century of Canadian Home Cooking" written by Carol Fergusen, in which she claims that shortly after the appearance of the 1952 recipe referred to as "Chocolate Slices", another recipe surfaced called "Nanaimo Bars", in the Vancouver Sun newspaper with ingredients and measurements identical to the 1957 recipe submitted by Joy Willgress, but sadly the claim could not be verified as factual and the trail went cold once again.
The Mystery Continues Beyond the Canadian Borders...
In England, some claim that Nanaimo Bars originally were sent via Post to relatives working in Nanaimo's coal mines during Nanaimo's hey-day. Those claims were quickly disproved, as the story would've been set all the way back to the nineteenth century at a time well before refrigerated parcels existed as this is when many Englishman were immigrating to Canada to work in the coal mines. Considering that the recipe explicitly calls for refrigeration, or at the very least, an icebox, as part of the process of making these bars, this would have been impossible if the bars were to remain edible.
In New York, New Yorker's claim to have created Nanaimo Bars under the name "New York Slice", the problem with this claim is that the only thing that could be found on Google, the undisputed truth on the internet, were variations of New York style pizza recipes. Besides, New York lays claim to nearly everything else... so I'm not even going to let them have this, too. :p
Will the Mystery Ever Be Solved?
We may never truly know where Nanaimo Bars came from or why, perhaps there is someone out there who knows the truth and has yet to come forth? Perhaps the real truth is beyond our human capacity to comprehend? Who knows? What we do know is this, however, and that is that these dessert bars are best known as Nanaimo Bars throughout the world and that is how they will continue to be known as more so than by any other name. That and well... they are really damned tasty!
- G
:sneaky:
:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl