The diasporic meatscapes of the Tamil community in Toronto: how immigrants reconfigure food environments and infrastructures to secure a taste of home

ABSTRACTAlthough scholars have studied how people navigate their foodscapes, little research has addressed together the way immigrants experience and shape their food environments. This article explores how the members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora eat and purchase meat in Toronto, and how they reconfigure the food infrastructures in the city. Unpacking the intertwined politics and practices of food consumption and distribution, it contributes to a dynamic and relational approach to migrant food environments. Drawing on observations and open-ended interviews with members of the Tamil community and with Tamil food entrepreneurs, I argue that, in Toronto, Tamils give specific materialities and meanings to their food environments and food practices, turning what I call “culinary affordances” into suitable meat and meatscapes for the community. Diasporic foodscapes connect different locations – real or fantasized, close or distant, endured or lamented – notably through immigrants’ quest for home specific foods.KEYWORDS: Meatfood environmentsfoodscapesfood infrastructuresTorontoTamilsmigration AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank the members of the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto who supported me in this research when I was a postdoctoral fellow there. I am also very grateful for all the members of the Tamil community who helped me in this research and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Ethics approvalThis research has been approved by the University of Toronto as part of the project “Tasting the Global City.”Notes1. Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm; retrieved on 26th June, 2023.2. Sri Lankan Tamil cuisine has been influenced by the Dutch and the Portuguese.3. To put it shortly, young people, men and Christians tend to eat much more meat than senior citizens, people suffering from arterial hypertension, women, and Hindus belonging to the putatively “higher” castes.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Canada Research Chair in Food and Culture.