Smorgasburg Toronto Food Festival

 My blog has had a bit of a hiatus due to Covid 19 restrictions and the fact that there really wasn't anything going on and I was just tired.  Tired of working from home and being limited to what I could do compared to what I used to do.  I was also growing tired of going to festivals before the pandemic because the TTC made it challenging to get around.  So I took a longer than planned break.   In May I finally went to a big Food Event with the Restaurant Canada Show at the Enercare centre.  That was a big deal to see friends, meet new people and eat food at an event again.  

On Saturday I returned to my heart of events.  The Outdoor food festival.  I have been following Smorgasburg in New York on social media for a while and drooling over all the amazing looking food.  So when I found out that Toronto was going to get a Smorgasburg too I got really excited.  What makes Smorgasburg amazing is the unique food you can get in one place.  I then found out that Toronto Food writer Suresh Doss was going to be curating it and I thought it wasn't going to be like all the other Toronto food festivals that usually have the same vendors.  I actually got really excited to go on saturday morning to the 2nd day of 8 consecutive Saturdays until September 10th.  I was so determined to go that I was even going to go by myself and then my friend sent me info about it and I told her I was already planning on going and she said she was able to join me.  Normally I don't ask because she has a young child but the stars aligned for a glorious saturday.  The weather was perfect, a slightly breezy 27 degrees and the Festival is located at 7 Queens Quay East just by the lake in a parking lot just beside where you would get on a ferry boat and the Harbour Castle hotel.  The reason I didn't go to week one was because most weekends the Line 1 of the Subway is closed because of the Eglinton crosstown but I noticed it never closes on long weekends so this was the perfect weekend to go.  It was Caribana weekend so there were lots of people all around all ready to play Mas and the locals had headed to the cottages.  

full video on Instagram Reels @lindamatarasso

I haven't been excited about much in a long time but this made me feel like the old me.  Excited to see what new foods I could try and hang out by the lake with my friend too.

I was not disappointed.  The skies were blue with puffy clouds that said enjoy the day.  The festival is located in a parking lot and it's only about a 5 minute walk from the Queens Quay streetcar stop.  Really easy to find.  First you see a line of food trucks, not part of the festival and I don't know if they are usually there but ok you got options.  It was so great to see such diverse foods from all over Toronto and not the usually downtown restaurants that normally do a lot of festivals.  I love them but I wanted to try a lot of things I haven't tried all in one place.  

I am not sure how adventurous I was but I enjoyed everything I ate.   My friend Joanne and I tried to share as many things as we could so we could try more.  I can't eat as much as I used to.

First we landed on a booth that was showing a permanent planned space for this type of event.  You had to toss a ball in a bucket and you got a freezie.  Great way to start.

The first thing we tried was from Alma and Gil.  I never heard of them before but apparantly they are on Dupont Street.  Joanne had the Elote corn and I got the Chicken Tamale.  I chose it because it's not something I can find in my area or make.  I made Elote a few weeks ago.   It was delicious.  Great food start.

Then we had the Skewered beef and fish spring rolls with peanut sauce from Babi & Co an Indonesian vendor.  I have been wanting Indonesian for a while.  The Beef was amazing.  They need to bottle the marinade.  While the fish in the spring rolls was very plain the peanut dipping sauce was excellent.

Moving on.  I wanted an iced coffee and there were a few different ones around but I stopped at Kiss My pans booth.  I have been following them on Instagram.  They are from Singapore and the iced coffee is called Koppi or something like that.  The vendor explained it's a similar method as Vietnamese coffee and they use condensed milk and evaporated milk.   It was so good I went back for another one.  They sold out of their food a couple of hours into the festival.

When we first got there I said lets just walk around and see what there is and then decide.  I first walked by a Sushi taco and at first I wasn't sure I wanted one but after walking around I really wanted one so we split the Salmon and Tuna Nori Sushi Taco.  I had the Tuna and Joanne had the torched Salmon.  The tuna one was excellent and the crunch on the Tempura batter dipped Nori was amazing.   I had sushi tacos near me but this was how they were supposed to be.  It was from Albi Sushi.  they are at the 401 and Kennedy Rd in Scarborough.

So as you can see the vendors really did come from all over the city and not the usual downtown hot spots.  That's what made it different.  These little independent vendors showcased their own food that was so diverse and excellent.

The bonus of the day was running into 3 foodie friends.  Yashy (pictured), Annie and Amanda.  All Toronto bloggers too.  I got a chance to chat with Suresh before we left who was with his family.  He told me that they do a refresh with different vendors in week 5 so I am praying that the TTC lets me go another time to see a whole new group of vendors.

I told Suresh (Doss) (CBC food writer) that the festivals was the only thing I missed during the pandemic closures and I realized it really was the only thing.  I thought it would be film festivals but streaming has made that easier but there is nothing like meeting the people who make your food and thanking them and smelling all the delicious food and trying all kinds of things you have never tried or can't make yourself.

Yes I love a great food festival and this one was small but mighty and the lineups weren't as crazy as some festivals I have been to.  Maybe it's foodie hidden secret so far..  me and my foodie friends may have let the secret out of the bag but hard not to share a great new thing.

Give some new vendors some love and attention.  It's great for the city and for their businesses.  I am hoping they are able to build a permanent spot for this like they have in some US cities and like the Smorgasburg in New York that this came from.

Don't forget to go early because food sells out fast.

Restaurant Industry in Canada during Covid 19

It's hard to believe that it's been just over a month since I went to my last big Food Industry Show.  At the beginning of March I visited the Restaurant Canada Show at the Enercare Centre in Toronto.  This show is one of my favourite shows of the year. I look forward to it so much because it's a chance to check out what's new in the Restaurant Industry and I also get to hang out with many fellow foodies and people I have met in the industry over the past almost 10 years of blogging.

I meant to write this post a whole lot sooner but everything blew up just after the show with the shutdowns of businesses and people including myself moving to working at home for continued services.

Sadly the whole Restaurant Industry changed in a matter of a couple of weeks after the show.

A little bit about the show before I move to the reason I am posting this now.

At the show this year there weren't any glaring trends that I could see but there was a lot of focus on more gluten free, and keto focused products.  There was a lot of meat and fish with a whole area focused on Seafood.  My friend Matt Dean Pettit had a booth for his Matty's Seafood brand so as I was whipping around the show I had a quick hi and then dashed off to a last minute Sea-cuterie platter workshop at the other end of the show.  I did a post about it previously on the blog.

I went to the show 2 days in a row because there are so many workshops and talks and things to sample.  It's really hard to sample all the food you want to try in one day.  I had to skip things I have tried before and looked for favourites like of course the Oysters because it's something I don't eat often and all of the new products are what I generally look out for.

I didn't see anything that stood out as innovative this time but there was more of quality and sustainability.

This year the country that was spotlighted was Peru.  We got to sample a delicious Peruvian breakfast that included some incredible Ceviche.  Yes ceviche breakfast was the first thing I tried on the first day of the show and it was great

These artichokes were one of the more interesting things I tried.  I wish I could remember the booth it was at though.  I was really rushing to see and try as much as I could.

I tried fantastic Procciutto, empanadas, tostadas and so much more but for some reason I didn't get photos of everything.  I didn't actually eat as much as I have in the past so there were less photos.

My friend Vicky was busy sampling at the Unbun booth, where I tried the samples that the Pro  what the chef had whipped up at the booth while Vicky was busy telling people about the Keto friendly buns.

Let's chat about the people at the show.

Besides Vicky and Matt there were a bunch of other people that were there that I want to shout out.


Fellow food blogger Joyce from Joyce of Cooking was joined by Joanna Sable for a talk about Influencers in the food industry (bloggers and others).  It was a very informed talk.  Joanna Sable's mom has been a food producer for many years and Joyce worked in restaurants and is now a restaurant marketing consultant.  I learned a few things I didn't know about even.

Emily Richards was doing cooking demos for as she called it "fluid" dairy products or what you would call milk type of products for Savour Ontario.  I just missed her demo but stopped to see what she was cooking and it sounded very interesting.

I also sat in on a Harassment in the Workplace talk presented by Workers Safety and Prevention Services who provide Joint Health and Safety Committee training among other food industry educational training.

Christine Manning of Manning Canning was there with her healthy Soda's.  I tried the one with Ginger since I figured it was the best one for digesting all the samples I was wolfing down that day.

The booth that I kept going back to a few times over 2 days was the Pluck Tea booth because I fell in love with their Verbena Blues iced tea.  Check out the color when mixed with lemon juice.  It was so refreshing.  I need to get some for the hot summer days if we ever get any.

I also loved the Coconut Cold brew at Station Cold Brew.
Kraft had a Peanut butter sauce. I guess meant for Thai cooking.


But mostly I loved running around with my foodie friends trying to see and try everything.  It's hard to believe this is the last time I got to hang out with my blogger pals.  I hope that Covid 19 doesn't last too much longer and the Restaurant Industry can get back to providing the much needed delicious food and for us it's a way of socializing while doing what we love.   We all want to thank all the people that work in the Food Industry.  We appreciate and Love you and miss you all and hope that you can all get back on your feet very soon.

So back to the reason I am posting this Blog Post today specifically.

Today is the 1st day of #TAKEOUTDAY.  Every Wednesday from today until it's not needed anymore the Restaurant Industry in Toronto want you to support your local restaurants by ordering Take Out food so keep these restaurants going.

You can find your local restaurant through Restaurant Canada's - Canada Take Out website at  https://canadatakeout.com/

While we want you to stay home we also don't want to see great restaurants have to close down because of lack of business from the self isolating practices.   Be careful how you get your take out and if you can have it delivered even better.

Support restauranteurs like Trevor Lui seen with us crazy bloggers on the first day of the Show.  Trevor has been responsible for many restaurants like Kanpai and recently Popa at Bayview Village.

Restaurant workers work really hard and don't make a lot of money and they provide us with delicious food and are a source of good times and community for all of us.

Please support them and thank them because they are struggling to keep their doors open at this time.

Covid 19 cancels events in Toronto until July

Today the Mayor of Toronto announced that all events and Parade permits are now cancelled until July 2020. 

Will the Food, Events and Entertainment and Travel Industries survive the effects of this COVID 19 pandemic?

The last large event that I attended was the Restaurant Canada Show  it is one of my favourite annual shows and I haven't gotten to my blog post yet because there were so many things that I want to write about and need to have the time to do it.   But I mention it now because I had no idea that it was to be the last big event that I would be able to go to at the time and how it would affect all the people that attended that show.  It was only a couple of weeks later that so many Restaurants in the city had to shut down because Toronto is now in a state of emergency and people are told to stay home.  Restaurants had to let their staff go and either convert to pick up or delivery or shut their doors.

With Bloggers Mary Tang (Marys Happy Belly) Jenny Roger (Ice cream and Knishes) and restauranteur Trevor Lui

I worked at Sunnybrook Hospital when Sars hit in 2003 and it affected the Restaurant industry and many restaurants lost money and some closed but not to the extent that it has hit the industry in such a short time frame.  Restaurants workers work long hours for minimum wage or less in some cases and don't have a lot of the benefits some people enjoy. 

I have gotten to know many people in the food, events and entertainment industry over the past 10 years while writing this blog and my heart breaks for them now.

If you have been reading my blog you know that I volunteer for the Toronto Film Festival who's building on King Street has now shuttered until an undetermined time and the next festival could be up in the air at this time.

I also have an events management background and know how hard it is to organize events in this city and how long it takes to organize a festival or even a small event.  It requires many people getting together to plan and execute which is not possible at this time.

For the first time in my life I am working from home.  I am lucky that I can do that at this time but I can't do all of the tasks of my job so I don't know what it will be like when everything is back on track.

The Mayor has cancelled the Pride Parade,  the Hot Docs Film Festival, Comicon, the Juno Awards, the Green Living Show, The Canadian Screen Awards and too many more to mention have been either cancelled for this year or have been pushed to a much later date.

This will affect my blog but it won't silence it because I have been writing about events for almost 10 years but it's not the only thing I write about luckily.   I had already reduced my attendance at events and had less restaurant invites.  I have been spending more time at home cooking my own food and trying to reduce my waste.

But here is the thing that I am concerned about.  What will happen when this Social distancing and State of Emergency has lifted?  Will people go back to life as normal?  Will we lose a lot of great things for good?

While I love the fact that people are now having to embrace cooking at home and you see loads of people making bread on Instagram I also miss meeting up with friends at restaurants or going to food events and meeting the chefs and vendors making the food.

Will they persevere or give up and be forced to do something else to survive?

After Sars lifted there was a huge Concert at Downsview Park.  What will we do this time?

I wish I had unlimited funds to be able to order food from all the places that have been able to adapt and stay open during this time to keep them going.  If you have the means I would urge you to order food every other day maybe.  Build your cooking skills and appreciate the people that cook the food for you.  They may not always be there to make your favourite foods.

Bye Bye Sea Hi restaurant

What's changed in Toronto that it has caused so many long running institutions to start disappearing?


Today is the last day of the decades long running restaurant Sea-Hi Tavern on Bathurst Street just south of Wilson Ave in Toronto.

It seems odd now that this dated Chinese Food restaurant would sit in a predominantly Jewish area.  It's also hard to believe how long it's been in existence compared to the flash in the pan restaurants that have been popping up over the past 5 years.

There really wasn't anything special about this place other than the fact that it was in a dessert of nothing else like it and it was consistent.

Sea-Hi was opened by Edna Chan in 1955, just in time for the birth of my older brother.  Yes this place has been around longer than I have.

My parents probably went there when they needed a break from cooking and dealing with kids as parents do.  It was rare for my parents to go out for dinner so going to eat Chinese Food was a special occasion usually with their friends. 

It is a fact that a lot of non religious Jewish people would go to Chinese Food Restaurants over the holidays like Christmas because they were the only restaurants open and if you didn't want to cook for a big family that's just what you did.

I haven't really been there in years even though one of my friends lives down the street.  I think the last time I went was maybe 6 months before I sold my car and only to get some of their popular bacon wrapped chicken skewers.

But in the past couple of weeks I have gone there twice.  The first time to get take out with a friend that doesn't live too far from there.  Even though we ordered before 5 it was a bit of a wait and the poor counter guy was going crazy trying to keep up with orders.  One after another every Jewish person in the area came in to the tiny take out area to order or pick up food.  The wait kept getting longer as we were waiting for our pick up and some people just couldn't wait.

One guy waiting said he tried to get some people together to buy their recipes but I guess that didn't work out so well.

Someone else said that they think it's going to be either a Dollarama or a Synagogue.  I think the Synagogue may be more appropriate for that area but I guess we will have to see.

By the time we got to my friends place and started unwrapping the food some of it was already cold though.  You can't really be upset considering all the people now surging to get their last fix in like we did.  It's not exactly the same as I remembered it but I wasn't a food blogger when I used to eat there so I didn't have as much to compare it to.

The following week I went with different friends.  The one that lives nearby and another one who lives downtown and had never been there.  He wasn't too sure if he wanted to go but then after the meal he said he wanted to bring another friend there but too late because even after they extended the closing today is the last day.

The 3 of us sat in the very dated and in serious need of a makeover dining room this one last time.  The service was excellent but the restaurant wasn't totally full.  The tables were covered in Dollarama tablecloths, I know them well because we use them at work for our social events.

We didn't order that much.  We ordered the bacon wrapped chicken which has clearly been made way in advanced and lacked that fresh out of the fryer taste.  We also ordered shrimp fried rice, eggplant with black bean sauce and orange beef.  I might have chosen other things but we each picked something we wanted.

The food was ok, nothing spectacular but it was more important to show up and show support to a business that has been around for decades as a thank you for their service to the community.

Although it's not somewhere I think of going to eat I am still going to miss it being there.  It was kind of the same thing when Honest Ed's closed down.  It was part of my childhood and a place that my parents counted on.  I wish my parents had Instagram back then because I don't have any photos of them going there now.
Times change but sometimes it's nice to see things last for generations to share.

Planet in Focus - Food on Film

The 20th year of the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival is on this weekend until October 20th, 2019.

I was able to preview 3 of the 4 Food Related Documentaries showing at the festival this year.

I have a soft spot for these documentaries because of my love of all things food and my interest in the sustainability of the food for future generations.

These films are all different but similar in the fact that there is a goal surrounded by what is best for the food industry and the people that are fed by them.

Artifishal

by Josh Murphy

G+ | United States | English | 2019 | 75min | Documentary

This documentary was visually stunning and mezmerizing to watch but also very thought provoking.  It is hard to reconcile the benefits of doing what is good for the environment with feeding people in the future and the battle between the fishermen who know what the costs are to the science and political figures who make the decisions that affect the fishermen and the public.

Setting the Bar: A Craft Chocolate Origin Story

by Tim Shephard

Rated G+/Mexico/English, Spanish/2019/85 min/Documentary

I wasn't able to see this film but I am really looking forward to it because of course anything related to chocolate will be interesting of course.

When Tomatoes Met Wagner

by Marianna Economou

G+ | Greece | English, French, Greek | 2019 | 72min | Documentary

This documentary was a little slower paced on the journey of a small community of people who are trying to produce a product that they want to spread to other countries.  They believed that music affects the quality of their products and they believe their product is superior to others because of the nature of the territory it comes from.  They are very proud of their accomplishment with a few mature women and a determined man with a vision.

SOYALISM

by Enrico Parenti, Stefano Liberti

PG+ | Italy | English, Chinese, Portuguese | 2018 | 65min | Documentary

This film speaks to the fight between large scale production and small scale farming practices and what it costs the communities surrounding the areas that take over large scale farming practices have to deal with on a daily basis.  This film makes you think that there must be a better way of communicating the importance of good practices that are sustainable and beneficial to everyone now and for generations to come.  It's very sad at the destruction caused by greed of people who are only concerned with the money that can be made in the Pork industry.

THE GAME CHANGERS

by Louie Psihoyos

PG+ | United States | English | 2018 | 88min | Documentary

I highly recommend this film.  I saw it over a year ago and was blown away by it.  If you are a meat eater and hate your veggies and think that you need protein to be strong then you need to watch this film because it will change your opinion on what a plant based diet can do for someone's body.

The film is smart, funny and informative and there are many surprises that you will love in this gem of a documentary.

check out Planet in Focus this weekend.   You will be entertained and Inspired.   wWW.PlanetinFocus.org