The conversation began poorly. I knew little about Evelyn except that she was a single mother from Ecuador surviving on food bank donations in a Toronto suburb. By telephone, I tried to explain to her that New Roots Radio would like to interview her but she sounded suspicious, guarded. Then, when I asked her about the food she missed from back home, I could feel a smile break out over the phone. “Ohhh, so many! Mango, papaya, passionfruit, blackberry, guanabana, pitahaya.” She reeled off a list of fruits, vegetables and herbs with nostalgia in her voice. She described recipes, herbal remedies, even the trees where you could pick the fruit. “You know, it’s so nice that you ask me about this,” she sighed. “People never seem to care.” New Roots Radio cares, and a few months ago we made a point of asking immigrants about their food from back home. Reporter Meagan Deuling went into the kitchens of four immigrants in Halifax to chat over boiling pots of fufu and curry. She ate rice with her fingers and wondered, to a Mexican host, why Mexicans took so much time over preparing breakfast. “Is that why the country has so many [...]