Food Unites All of US - Food Bloggers Potluck in Toronto

TORONTO FOOD BLOGGERS GET TOGETHER FOR 1st POTLUCK

I am a member of the Food Bloggers of Canada Community and although I don't participate in the Forums on a regular basis I saw a post by the people that run Food Bloggers of Canada, Ethan and Melissa, on the Facebook forum about a discussion they had about getting people together over food to combat some of the terrible things going on in the world.   Local Community Kitchen The Depanneur had some success with having some Syrian refugees use their kitchen to make their own food and it brought a lot of interest in their food.

So when they suggested that each City in the Canadian Food Blogger world organize small Potlucks to meet each other and share foods from their Ethnic Origin to get to know each other I thought it was a great idea.  I have always believed that sharing food builds relationships or in some cases not so much when it's families who hate each other forced together,  but that's not what we are talking about here.  My fellow Food Revolution Ambassador and Food Blogger of Canada member (Hema - Nomadic Nutritionist) has a membership at workshare space C.S.I. in Toronto so she was able to book a room that we could hold our Toronto potluck in that space.

After going back and forth on the date we settled on March 12th on a chilly sunday afternoon.  We were supposed to meet at Noon but a few got a bit lost so we waited as long as we could before diving into the food we had.  In total we had a total of 6 people but the diversity of backgrounds and foods was amazing.  We had Bloggers from Poland, India, Jamaica and with Japanese mixed roots and me who is all over the place.  

I decided to make a simple dish that my mom made because I wasn't sure about people's intolerances and allergies, so I just made a simple carrot salad with a simple vinaigrette.  My mom was from Europe and made this a lot especially in the summer when it was too hot to cook.  I just happened to have carrots and not a lot of time to make something so this was what I was able to do.

My fellow bloggers got a lot more creative.   We had fantastic cabbage rolls,  Cassava Pon,  Ackee and Saltfish and Festivals,  Pavlovas, a quinoa and something else mixed in latke and some great cardamom and chocolate cupcakes.  It was a fantastic lunch and it was great to get feedback on what everyone was doing and what was working or what they were trying to do with their blogs.

We hope to continue to do this on a Monthly basis or at least every couple of months if everyone is too busy and I know that there were many more Toronto bloggers that weren't able to make it but wanted to.  We hope that we can form connections and knowledge and try new foods at future Potlucks.  It's great to share a meal with people you have never met but still have something that connects you like food blogging.
Thanks to Hema for organizing and booking the venue and to everyone that took a chance and showed up,  with hangovers and time changes and all.

Now that we have done the first one let's see who turns up for the next one.  I am looking forward to trying some new foods and meeting the rest of the Toronto Food Blogger Community.

Thanks to Ethan and Melissa of Food Bloggers of Canada  for making the #FOODUNITESALLOFUS  suggestion for a Potluck event.  It got the ball rolling and we appreciate it.

This event really falls in line with the things I try and do with my Food Revolution participation.  It's all about sharing food and educating people about different food and eating real food.

See you all next time.  I will bring my Dish and a spare and my appetite and of course my camera too.