Green Living Show Apr 6-8, 2018

The Green Living Show is on this weekend and it's a great show to get away from the cold and dreary weather and bring your friends and family into the bright Metro Convention Centre where the carpets are green and you will find everything from the Best Green Cars to what's new in the Cannabis world.

The Green Car Awards were announced on the Friday morning of the show and the Best Overall car was the Chevy Bolt who were also winners in the previous year.  You can see all the cars that were nominated and even go for a test ride of a couple of cars at the show and there is a simulator too that you can try.

Chevy Bolt

I have been going to the Green Living Show for years and this year it's changed a bit.  There isn't a kids zone this year but there are still products for kids and the whole family and new this year is the addition of an Eco Travel zone and a whole area for Cannabis products from medicinal to Canabis measurement tools and more.

One of the favourite parts of the show for me is of course the food.  The food pavillion is back with the International flavours with local foods and there are local wines, spirits and local coffee roasters Propeller Coffee are also there serving up coffees.

                            

Jose Arato - Pimenton

Nick Lui - Dailo

Some of the foods I sampled were Santo Pecado's  Chicken Tinga Tacos and Pimenton's Pulled pork on a bun and for a sweet snack I had some cinnamon sugar donuts from Wafel Haus.  Dailo's Nick Lui has his Sui Mai  dim sum.  The Samosas are back and there are lots of other foods and drink to sample in the pavillion and around the show floor.   Don't miss sampling some of Seedlip's non alcoholic cocktails.  They are serving up 2 flavours and they are both fantastic.

The great thing about this show besides being for the whole family is that you can shop, eat and learn about how to change the world through environmental changes you can make every day.
Tim Gray the Executive Director of Environmental Defence who are leading change in the Eco World was on hand to announce the Green Car Awards and there are many other speakers and experts that you can listen to and ask questions of.  At the show you can also join the Greenpeace movement to be the change you want to see in the world.

Tim Gray - Environmental Defense

There is loads of great shopping at the show.  I had my eyes on these beautiful Succulents and really wish I could have one of the Growing Towers in my Apartment to grow plants year round.

 There are beautiful water bottles and other types of containers and better and pretty candles and salts and more.

There is a wood section and I really loved this huge wooden sculpture I suppose since it wasn't flat enough to be a table but it would make a statement for sure if you had one.

While I was listening to a booth presenter I was standing beside these colorful stone bracelets and couldn't help but pick one up for Balance with a diffuser on it that you can add essential oils onto.  It was $15 and the one I got was a black and marbled grey.  Perfect for everything I wear since I wear so much black all the time anyway.

 There were lots of interactive booths to check out at the show.

Write your Green Wishes on a leaf and place it on a green wall.  Spin the wheel at the Eat Local booth.  Spin the wheel at Foodland Ontario and answer a question and win a prize.

         

Check out this Green Container House.

 There are a lot of new things like Keto coffee that I tried.  It's a packet that you just mix into hot water and it's like your coffee and milk and the butter to get the Ketogenic effect.  It tasted really good so I could see it being convenient for a lot of busy people.

 There was a no Yolk product I suppose a substitute for eggs and a the beet burger as a hamburger replacement.  Lot's of alternative and food substitutes and even an Organic Pharmacy is at the show to talk about their specific products.

As you can see there are things for everyone's needs or even things you didn't know you needed.

Check out the show at the Metro Convention Centre on until April 8th.
Tickets are

Adult	$14.00 (Online) or $18.00 (At the door)
Student/Seniors (65+)	$12.00 (Online) or $16.00 (At the door)
Children 12 and under	FREE (must be accompanied by an adult)
WWF CN Tower climbers	FREE - register here!

https://www.greenlivingshow.ca/

Toronto's Sustainable Dim Sum Festival

Sustainable Food has become a top of mind thing lately because at the rate we are consuming our food sources we will run out of food to serve the World by 2020.  We must find other ways to sustain our food industry.

I was happy to attend the 1st Sustainable Dim Sum Festival at Toronto's City Hall on March 8th.  It took place in the Rotunda of City Hall it was kind of fun walking around the large column in the centre of City Hall with a passport in hand trying all of the various foods with a sustainable aspect to them.  Whether it was a dumpling that mixed cricket powder with pork to meat and eggs provided by Organic local farms, to ingredients not used extensively.  

It wasn't all Dim Sum though, there were fantastic soups, an Asian meatball soup and a great chowder,  and from my Pork Ninja friends a meatball wrapped in bacon.  My other favourite restaurant Hawthorne Food & Drink had tea smoked devilled eggs and there was Tuna poke from Daniel et Daniel catering, they had a huge line up for their poke.

My favourite Dim Sum bites of the night included new restaurant Lake Inez's fantastic dumpling, I loved the flavour of it.  I also loved the legendary PIG MAC from Dailo.

Food Vendors:
Cafe Belong, DaiLo, Daniel et Daniel, Kana Snack Bar, Lake Inez, Hawthorne Food + Drink, Bruce Wine Bar, Saturday Dinette, Pork Ninjas, C-fu Foods, Centennial College
Meat, poultry and eggs are provided by Rowe Farms and Yorkshire Valley Farms

Beverage vendors:

401 Cidery

Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co.

Brickworks Ciderhouse

Mill St. Brewery

Muskoka Brewery

Walter Caesar

George Brown College (Mocktails)

There was also a Silent Auction and live painting.  The silent auction benefiting the Environmental Defence which all of the proceeds of the event were going to.

There was a lot of fantastic artworks on display at the event.

It was a fantastic event for the 1st Sustainable Dim Sum Festival and it was organized by experienced organizers Drink Inc. Events.   As you may know from reading many of my event posts I notice the attention to details at events and at this event I really liked that there was a free self serve coat check.  No waiting and no tickets.  They also gave you a wine glass, passport and wooden chopsticks when you arrived.  The chopsticks were for you to keep and the glasses were returned to the rental company so there wasn't a lot wasted.  There were volunteers ready to keep things tidy at the stand up tables.  The only thing I would have like to see would have been an area to sit down.  We were all dying to sit on the stairs by the column but there was limited space so I can understand why and it was only a couple of hours but it was tough juggling the wine glass, passport, plates of food and of course trying to take photos with my phone.  I think I need more hands.  

Overall it was a fantastic event and it was great to see so many local restaurants participating in creating sustainable food.  This must be the trend of the future if we want to have enough food for everyone.

For more info about sustainability:

http://environmentaldefence.ca/