Nanaimo bars come from Nanaimo, right? ... Maybe



Seriously, how could I resist this?

I walked into the office kitchen today to find a box of tiny bit-sized Nanaimo bars sitting on the table unguarded and ready for a tasting. As a delicately bit into one of these bars (read: barbarically stuffed it into my mouth) I was reminded of my trip to Nanaimo BC.



I was 15 at the time and on a trip to West Coast Canada with my mom and sister.  Dad opted to stay home for this one for some reason.  I think it was something like, "I've already been to the West Coast", and for him going somewhere once 20 years ago meant you didn't have to go again.  My mom decided that we should hop on the bus and head to the birthplace of that delicious treat - the Nanaimo bar.  However when we excitedly arrived at our first dessert spot, we were regretfully informed that even though mom had dragged us on the bus to the start of the nanaimo bar, they didn't actually originate in Nanaimo.  Are you kidding me?

Now, 15 years later with a fresh Nanaimo bar in my tummy and the internet at my fingertips, I am going to find out where the Nanaimo bar comes from.  I hope.

Ok, so there appear to be hypothesises that the bars originated in New Brunswick, New York and more the more probable, Alberta's "smog bars" from the 1930s. So why are they called deceivingly called Nanaimo bars? Well, because the first time the recipe for "Chocolate Slices" was published was in the The Woman’s Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook in 1952. 

This would have prompted more people in Nanaimo to make the bars, people would taste them when they visited Namaimo, or people from Nanaimo would send them to friends and relatives elsewhere.  Presto change-o, the Chocolate Slices from The Woman’s Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook gets abbreviated to Nanaimo Bars. That's it.  That's the whole story.

I wish we had known all of that before we got on the bus. Well, at least the scenery was nice and the bars tasted great!