4th Annual Coconut Festival - Aug 26

COCONUT FESTIVAL

Toronto hosts Canada’s 4th Annual Coconut Festival and Marketplace on Saturday, August 26, 2017, at David Pecaut Square. Coconut Festival Canada produces the event to connect all communities to learn about the coconuts’ various health benefits & diverse addictive delicious culinary and lifestyle uses with the addition of a Book Drive for an orphanage partner in the Philippines.

It’s a Free General Admission event featuring 60+ vendors dealing with coconut in your food choices, wellness program, cleaning, cosmetics, fashion and more from Asia & Pan America. You can taste and shop for various coconut products including those from local artisans: vegan coconut cakes, spreads, oils, energy snacks, chips, dips drinks, organic baby food and more. And full meals from the Caribbean, Thailand & , Hawaii. 


Date: Sat, August 26 (10am to 8pm)

Venue: David Pecaut Square, downtown Toronto (55 John St., the beautiful square between King and Wellington)

Exhibitors: 70 specialty vendors, 20 community chefs and speakers

Parking: Lots of nearby street parking available, as well as underground parking in such lots as Roy Thomson Hall

Festival admission: FREE!

Special Activities: Talks and lectures,

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 Hawaiian dance, yoga, presentations and activities, fresh coconuts, delicious food, & health & wellness products 

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All about Coconuts Festival

I got an email about a Coconut Festival happening at David Pecaut Square in Toronto and was asked to get the word out so I did and was asked to come and check it out.  I wasn't sure if I would have time because it was a 1 day festival that fell on a sunday when there were about 6 food festivals in the city.  I had a Tapas festival to go to around lunch time and then decided to head over to the Coconut festival after that since it wasn't too far away.   I thought I would check it out and then either go home or if I had energy and room for more food maybe check out another festival.  

Well I went to the Coconut festival and ended up there for hours.   I went there around 2:30pm with one friend who left about 4:30pm while we were chatting with a guy I know and he convinced me to stick around.  While I was talking to him I saw another friend of mine and it turned out to be 2 of my friends so I hung around with them for a while.  An hour later another one of my friends showed up so I stayed with them.

Then while we were all sitting around talking a couple of other friends contacted me and said they were coming over to meet up with me there.   So it turned out that we had a mini impromptu party in David Pecaut Square.  Seems like that was the place to be instead of the other crowded street festivals.  I have to say that there was just enough people in the square to be comfortable and fun.  Because it was on the grass and it wasn't raining it was comfortable on the feet compared to the street festivals.  There was plenty of places to sit around the square because it wasn't over crowded.

It wasn't just coconut things even though it was a Coconut Festival.  There was a psychic, there were jewellery vendors and cosmetic products and there were a few food trucks and other types of food vendors.

 

I sampled a few of the food items at the festival like the Coco-Roons from Wonderfully Raw Gourmet delights which comes in various flavours. I tried the lemon ones.  They are mini coconut macaroons I believe they are vegan.   I also had two kinds of ice cream.  Mapleton's cappuccino ice cream which I have had many times before but the new one I tried was a Chocolate and Coconut ice cream from a company called Grinning Face.  They kept the ice cream cool using dry ice so it was a great consistency and rich flavour.  

I tried samples of a few things such as Titoron's Machata drink, a coconut sap from CocoVie, some great dried fruits like orange from Natural Sins, chocolate from Living chocolate, spreads from Cracked coconut and Chaga Mushroom tea from Samadhi Tea house.

 I was filled up by a full meal from Vital life Vegan a new restaurant in Kensington Market that uses fresh coconut in all of their dishes.  I had their BBQ soy or what I call fake meat BBQ that tastes like real meat and is pretty amazing,  there was also the callaloo the collard greens dish and a potato and chickpea curry and traditional rice and peas.  it was super filling so I didn't have room to try any of the other food vendors although I would have loved to have some of Pai's food if I did and there were a few other food vendors I would have liked to try but hopefully they will be at other festivals so I will get to them eventually.

It turned out to be a nice festival.  I think David Pecaut Square is a great place for smaller festivals.  It's accessible by TTC and there is underground parking if you drive and there are other things to do in the area so you can do other things too.

Admission was free and there were some free samples and the cost of food ranged from $1 to about $10.

Fore more info on the festival check out their website:  http://coconutfestival.ca/

Thanks to Mark from the festival for inviting me and giving me a tour around the festival.

Luminato's Pan American Festival

Luminato is just wrapping up today but I want to tell you about the little known part of the festival.  Last week at David Pecaut Square a few local vendors set up show for the Pan American Food Festival.  I attended late in the day on Sunday June 21st and although it was great for me to be able to get food from each vendor with no lineup I felt sad for the vendors that spent the day there and didn't have the crowd of people I am sure they hoped for.  There was so much going on in the city multiple road closures and runs and festivals around the city.  I think the Pan American Food event just got lost in the over abundance of things happening around town.  It's a shame because David Pecaut Square was set up beautifully with colored seating areas and the stage moved closer to Metro Hall and artificial grass added to what is normally a concrete area.  I truly with David Pecaut square was set up like that all summer so that people could enjoy it on their lunch hour or after work.   I think it would be great to have a permanent space like that.

Some of vendors you might know like President's choice who dished up one of my favourite things that I sampled with their charred corn salad and sliced beef.

Some of the vendors like Augie's Ice Pops don't have a retail location but set up shop at local festivals and farmer's markets.  I had their coconut pineapple pop.  A fitting cap to my Pan American samplings.

I also had some fabulous Yucca Poutine from Mata Petisco Bar.  I have had their breakfast poutine at their restaurant and it was similar to the Yucca poutine minus the egg.  It had pulled pork on top of the fried Yucca cubes and their own bbq sauce to put on top.  It was very filling for $5.  Most of the vendors items were $5 unless noted otherwise.

I also tried a tiacoyo from Santo Pecado which was a taco like product with blue corn tortilla and I had it with cactus and beef.  It was tasty but a bit messy. I never heard of this dish or tried it before.

It was a beautiful day in the square and very quiet.  When I attended there wasn't any music happening until just before I left the square so that was probably why there wasn't very many people but it's too bad people didn't go and sample some of the Pan American food on hand and get a taste of something different.

The event is curated by local food writer Mary Luz Mejia who has put this event together for the second year in a row.

I hope that if this comes back next year more people attend it and taste some of the great food.

Pinknic Flash Mob for Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

June 25, 2012  was the First Ever PINKNIC flash Mob event for Cook for the Cure and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and by Kitchen Aid Canada. It was held at David Pecaut Square.

There aren't many people these days that don't know someone that is affected by Breast Cancer or some other form of Cancer.  Everyone knows about Cancer and everyone needs to raise money to fund research and other cancer related initiatives.

This Event was a little different than most of the events I have been to because you didn't know where you were going until 2 hours before the event started and you had to bring your own food.   With a $20 donation for the registration fee you got to have a pinknic Urban Style with chic white place settings and Pink accents symbolizing the Breast Cancer Foundation.  They provided wine and lemonade and at the end of the dinner there were cupcakes and pink cake pops.   Other than your own containers there was no mess to clean up afterwards and you didn't have to eat your picnic meal on the grass which is a good thing since they told everyone to wear white.   White with grass stains or dirt isn't a pretty sight.   Unfortunately the people at our table didn't even bring any food so I think they missed out on the whole purpose of it and it made us feel a bit uncomfortable to be eating when they weren't.  We did offer them some food but they declined.

There were about 400 people in attendance.  An impressive number considering this was the first year.  It was a pretty well organized event.  I only had one thing that I would have like to see them do would have been to have one of the organizers do announcements once everyone had entered to welcome everyone and let them know what was happening.

There was a photo booth where they took some instant photos that they gave you a printout and had available on facebook.   This was our pic.

Chef Lynn Crawford who represents Kitchen Aid and has a food network show called "Pitchin In" and a local restaurant called "Ruby Watchco" was in attendance to inspire people to host their own cook for the cure events.  I have seen Lynn at a few events and she is always gracious in meeting people.

If you are interested in this event you can either attend next year or you can host your own event but if you want more information contact the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

So what did we bring to this Pinknic?  Well we had a bit of a collaboration of things.    My friend who graduated from George Brown College Culinary program brought a mixed vegetable salad and I had made Quinoa and together we made a spinach, kale, asparagus and feta frittata, which turned out great.