After a spectacular start in 2005, the Independent Food Festival & Awards are back, and I’m honoured to have the opportunity to participate.  The IFFAs are hosted by Hillel of tastingmenu.com, and let food bloggers from around the world recognize people who create exceptional food.  Each award is creative and unique – so if you take a look at other food blogs this week, you’ll find many unusual and impressive awards being presented.

In keeping with the theme, I wanted to create an award for something I truly enjoyed.  Last year, my award was for the Maple Syrup Confection Worth its Weight in Gold, and this year I’ve decided to present an award for Cold Smoked Salmon so Delicious that You’ll Want to Build Your Own Smokehouse.  To clarify (for all those people who may not think like me) – if I like something a lot, I’ll usually try to make it myself.  So, if I were to eat an amazing piece of smoked salmon, I’d probably want to figure out how to make it… which would in turn entail building my own smokehouse or acquiring a smoker.  Hopefully that makes sense and doesn’t sound too crazy.