SINCE returning from my Adventures in Bulgaria, one question has been asked of me more than any other: What did I miss most about Canada?

With apologies to family and friends, the answer always invariably came back to something I love almost as much - food. The strange thing is, there's nothing particularly special or unique about Canadian food; there are no dishes that come to mind when one refers to Canadian food, unlike, say, Italian or Chinese. In fact, when The Echo tried to come up with a dish to celebrate Canada Day last year, we settled on Nanaimo Bars. I had never heard of this dessert before or after that day.

What I missed, it seems, was more North American than Canadian. Actually, probably just more American. I missed my fast food chains: my Wendy's, my Burger Kings, my Pita Pits, my A&Ws. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the fact Bulgaria proudly sported McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets but the variety just wasn't enough. I've heard, however, that a Subway sub shop recently descended from the heavens and settled in Sofia. I would have killed for a Subway back then.

There's something uniquely comforting about food that can go a long way towards making a person feel at home, no matter where they may be. Oddly enough, McDonald's got me through some tough times in Bulgaria. Make no mistake, I sampled - and enjoyed - a lot of the country's home grown treats, but sometimes familiarity just wins out.

Surprisingly, I recently discovered a KFC fan site over at www.kfcworld. co.uk . Jimmy Little's "KFC appreciation site" offers tips and hints on how to eat your Kentucky Fried Chicken, ingredients to his own secret chicken recipe and even includes a biography of Colonel Sanders himself. Also included are restaurant reviews of varying KFC establishments - or, more accurately, of the service of staff and speed of delivery. Not surprising, given the food tastes the same no matter where you go.

I was also a little surprised by the number of sites out there devoted to unpleasant or frightening food. I'm forced to hypothesise that just as good, familiar food provides comfort throughout one's life, unappetising, poorly prepared dishes can haunt one throughout their days. The bad meals from the past are, unfortunately, as memorable as the good ones.

And, as Wendy McClure discovered at www.candyboots.com, food is seldom as bad as when it prepared as part of a diet program. Her site features a collection of Weight Watcher cards from 1974. Discovered in her parents' basement a few years ago, they are a harrowing glimpse into the madness from which Weight Watchers evolved. My personal favourite is the Fluffy Mackerel Pudding. As Wendy says: "Once upon a time, the world was young, and the words 'mackerel' and 'pudding' existed far, far away from one another. One day, that all changed. And then, whoever was responsible thought the word fluffy would help."

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You'll also find Chicken Liver Bake, Caucasian Shashlik, Frankfurter Spectacular and Mexican Shrimp-Orange Salad.

Now that this column has strayed horribly from talk of foods I love, to foods I've just discovered and am quite afraid of, I might as well conclude with the Gallery of Regrettable Food at www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/. The site is a collection of poorly photographed and poorly conceived foods from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The recipes back then were little more then promos for companies that stretched the limits of creativity and digestive ability by designing dishes around their products. As the owner of the site says: "They're ads for food companies, with every recipe using the company's products, often in unexpected ways. (Hot day? Kids love a frosty Bacon Milkshake!) There's not a single edible dish in the entire collection."

This was, of course, before the rise of McDonald's and the rest of the fast food chains saved us from such things. So why do I have the strange feeling we haven't heard the last of the Bacon Milkshake?