The Gardiner Expressway says it all: we’ve spent the past 50 years with our backs to the water. No matter that Toronto lies on the shore of a lake system holding one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water, or that nearly all roads out of the city lead to lakes and bays as big as some European countries. In our minds, we are a city of landlubbers.

While we’ve been busy piling our plates with Atlantic and Pacific salmon, flying in sea bass from the Adriatic and ocean trout from Tasmania, the rest of the world has been gorging on the Great Lakes. The Bay of Quinte is considered the world’s unofficial walleye capital; our commercial pickerel fisheries supply high-end restaurants in the U.S., France and Switzerland. And Lake Huron smelt? Japanese gourmands can’t get enough of them. Whitefish, something I always thought should be relegated to Bernard Mala­mud short stories, is a massive export to the U.S.—Americans consumed 2.4 million kilograms of it last year.

Like doctors and academics, our best fish are heading south to earn a better living. Naha, an A-list Chicago restaurant, offers a more interesting selection of freshwater fish than some of our most patriotic chefs, from pan-fried Lake Ontario smelt to Lake Huron whitefish paired with lobster, wilted spinach and hen of the woods mushrooms.

It all comes down to money. When the greenback was strong, Canadian fish were a bargain for Naha chef Carrie Nahabedian, and being paid in American funds was a bonus for our distributors. One of her suppliers, Purdy Fisheries, which operates out of Point Edward on Lake Huron, exports about 70 per cent of its catch to the U.S.—on a good day that might be 2,300 kilograms. By contrast, siblings Stephanie and Tim Purdy—the fourth generation of Purdys to run the small fishery—send only 900 kilograms of whitefish to Toronto each week, much of it to restaurants like Splendido and Canoe.