Front Street Foods opens at Union Station

Toronto is putting the finishing touches on the City to showcase it to the world.  With a lot of new projects being spit polished in time for the start of the Pan Am Games.  Projects including the new UP Express to the airport, the completed Harbourfront construction (finally) and even the platform at Union Station has also opened up just in time.

But one of the things that I was most interested in was the opening of the FRONT STREET FOODS Market in the space in front of Union Station.  Normally this area is a deadzone of nothing but maybe a few taxis standing by and people trying to get their trains and maybe the odd promotional giveaway.  But starting today until the end of August both visiting Pan Am guests and locals will have a great spot to get some grub and a little sunshine.

I ventured down today to check out the set up and to see what food vendors have for sale.

There are 28 vendors set up in small adjoining stalls and there is bench seating and also bistro seating on the other side with some umbrellas.

The assortment of vendors is really a pretty good reflection of Canada while not being obviously Canadian.  Although I found that some vendors seemed like a better fit for the space than others.

When I think of a space like this I think that it is a place you can get quick and easy bites or small meals depending on how much time you have to spare if you are commuting or just passing through during your day.

The booth that caught my interest the most was CAVA,  they are venturing out from their restaurant at Yonge and St. Clair.  They are known for their Pinxto sandwich bites but they also will be making Paella daily.  Unlike any of the other street vendors around the city they had cured hams hanging up in their booth that they will be shaving off slices for their menu.  They are also making some really killer rosemary frites which I sampled today.  I also picked up a really great looking chocolate chip cookie but I am saving that one for later.  Something you don't see around town is Foie mousse in a small mason jar to take home for $14.  I didn't pick one up but considered it.  It comes with a baguette aparentely but it would also pair up nicely with one of fellow vendor Fred's Bread's Baguettes.  It seemed odd to find Fred's bread's there but they did have all kinds of pastries.   I picked up a baguette and an asparagus foccaccia bread.

You can also get fresh roasted corn on the cob from Might Cob and you can even get it in a cup with different seasonings.  I just got the original one for $3 and added some spices to it.  The mixed ones are about $5.  I like this concept because it's real fresh food and the fact that you can just grab corn on the cob and walk down the street or corn in a cup that you can walk and eat or sit down and enjoy seems to be a good fit for this space and it was very popular.

Other notable vendors include HOLY CHUCK who have 2 locations, one at Yonge & St. Clair and one in Woodbridge.  Although I didn't get a burger because you need to be really hungry for one of their burgers I do think it's another good fit for the grab and go crowd that love burgers but maybe not the regular fast food chains.

There seemed to be a bit of duplication with Little Fin and Fresh Off the Boat both serving lobster and crab dishes.  The portions looked pretty hefty on the Crab poutine from Fresh Off the Boat but Little fin had a shrimp skewer and salad dish to balance things out.

To drink there was Station Cold Brew who have been at all the food festivals lately and also Hula Girl who had butter coffee at the Exhibition last year.  One of the healthier things at the Market was Greenhouse Juice Co. and i bet their juices will do well with the weary commuters.

Food by Toben seemed to be a very popular vendor with their Mac & Cheese sold out by the time I got there after lunch.  They were serving up some hefty classic meals and I hope to try them out in the future.

Also sold out by the time I got there at 2pm was the famous Uncle Tetsu's cheesecake.  I believe there was a huge lineup in the morning.  I have yet to sample their cheesecake.  I will wait for the hype to die down.

There was also the first custard Ice Cream in the city there.  I didn't try it so I don't know what it's like yet.

A couple of things that seemed out of place to me were Jimmie's cracked corn Popcorn which is good because I have tried it before at farmer's markets but seems odd in that space for some reason.

Also an odd choice is Mad Mexican serving up their nacho chips and dips.  I think it would make more sense if they packaged up little take away chips and dip for one that you could grab and have for a quick snack.  It seemed like they were really pushing it on the people there.  Not something I would go there for even though I like their products.

Overall I have to say that I like seeing these kind of markets that give local vendors a chance to serve food to tourists and the people of Toronto and would love to see these things have more of a permanent space like the great market they have in Boston.

I hope Torontonian's don't get scared away by the throngs of people in town for the Pan Am games but maybe they won't go there because they will be so busy trying to figure out how to get around the city for their events.  

Will see how this goes.  I hope it's successful and it returns again next year just for us food loving Torontonians.

Let's Eat at the EX

It's the end of the first weekend of the Canadian National Exhibition and I am finally getting to writing this post about Opening Day at the CNE.  I try to go to the Ex at least once a year to check out the food and sometimes the music artists.  I skip the stomach wrenching rides and the money burning games and head straight for the Food Building to see what's new in food weirdness.

This year only had a couple of weird things and a few sort of new ideas.

This year some of the New Food Items were:

1.  Cocoa Fried Chicken - (Coco fried chicken) this one doesn't sound right to me, although people put honey on fried chicken and waffles but for some reason this one doesn't appeal to me even though I love fried chicken and chocolate.

2.  Smore's BAO - (Far East Taco) I kind of get this one and might of tried it if I had more room in my stomach.  It's a white steamed Bao bun filled with Smore's fixings like Marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers.  I guess it just makes it portable because I am not sure the Bao is really necessary.  To me a case of if it's not broke why add a Bao bun?

3.  Butter Coffee - (Hula Girl Espresso) I did try a small sample of this one and didn't really find anything weird about it.  It was from Hula Girl.

4.  Crowbar - (Hula Girl Espresso) This is this year's (Cronut)  it's basically a new version of Pain au Chocolate, it's a chocolate bar stuck in a croissant.  I tried the Caramilk bar Crowbar.  This was also from Hula Girl.  It was good but I think the basic Dark Chocolate Pain au Chocolate is a lot better.

5.  Thanksgiving Waffle - (Fran's) This is one that I really wanted to try but it was massive and if I would have had this I probably wouldn't have been able to eat anything else.  Although it really smelled good and I would love to go back just to try it another time.  It consists of a stuffing waffle with turkey on top with gravy and cranberry relish.  This one makes sense to me but I would probably want it more if it wasn't supposed to be summer right now.  This one is from Fran's, it was there first year ever at the CNE.

6. Elvis Grilled Cheese (Coffee Zone) - I didn't see this one but it's located in the Midway section.  A grilled cheese with Bacon and peanut butter and I think it has banana in it too.  Not so original as Elvis was eating them years ago but I guess new to the Midway of the Ex.

7. Spicy Peanut Butter Sriracha Rolls (Fran's Restaurant) - I was curious to try this one but wasn't too sure and thought I might go back to try it but didn't.  

Ok, so I only tried a couple of things out of this new foods list and I liked them but wasn't blown away by them.

What else did I eat?  I went for the not so well known Dutch Frites, I met the guys behind the Dutch Frites booth at the TOFoodFest where they told me they were going to be at the CNE this year so I hit up their booth first thing before I got too stuffed on other things.  I sampled their frites at the TOFoodFest and decided to get a full, although it was a small order of Frites with a side of the garlic mayo.  I was going to get the Poutine but thought it would have done me in for other food but I would recommend that if you want to try the full on flavours.  Dutch frites are twice cooked fries.  They fry them twice to make them crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  The ones I had at the TOFoodFest seemed to be cooked a bit better than the ones at the CNE though but if you like good fries it's worth a try.  

These frites filled me up but I continued on my Carb loading and had the Crowbar after these and then I was fully carbed out and wandered around the buildings where I stumbled on the Cheese Tasting seminars.  Can't walk passed cheese without having some so I sat in on a cooking demo one, although it was more of an assembling demo.  They made an appetizer of an endive leaf with beets, a piece of cheese and a radish slice.  I went back for the cheese demo where they sample 6 different kinds of cheese.  They also had cheese samples outside of the booth where they were selling some of the cheeses.  So I stuffed my face on some really tasty cheese.  My favourite was the 5 year old cheddar.  I really wanted to buy some but didn't want to carry cheese around the EX.   I did win a Black Cheese Apron for answering one of their trivia questions but I would rather carry around an apron than Cheese.

So after having my carb load at the Food Building and then some cheese loading at one of the other buildings it was time to continue wandering.  I really wanted to try some more food but only had room for one more of my traditional food stops at the CNE.  Yes the classic ICE CREAM WAFFLE.  It's such a simple thing but the combination of a fresh hot waffle and some cold Vanilla Ice Cream just seems to work and I was ok with the ice cream melting down my arm while I was eating it because the taste is simply good.



I would have loved to get a bunch of things to go to try the next day.  Maybe they should have a take out section next year.  I would be into that.  I did take home one thing though.  When I started wandering around the Food Building I saw a great fudge booth with a bunch of different flavours.  I picked up this delicious piece of fudge that I have been nibbling on for the past few days but I forget what this flavour was called but I can tell you it's yummy.

One of the other Carb heavy foods that entices you as you wander around the midway is the smell of the roasted corn.  I like my corn roasted without the husk but the smell of the corn roasting makes you salivate for one.  I skipped it but I suppose it's one of the healthier carb options at the EX.  

I guess there isn't much of a demand for salads at the EX because they don't have smells that waft through out the walk around the CNE grounds

One of the other attention grabbing foods that I spotted while walking around were these Flinstone sized Turkey legs.  They brushed them with BBQ sauce.  I guess they are catering to the Big Meaty guys with this one.  Although it was a woman that I saw purchasing one.  Can you imagine a woman chomping on a turkey leg while wandering down the Midway.
They did look good though.


The last thing that I had was a bit of a disappointment.  It was this large lemonade.  I love having ice cold lemonade in the summer but this stand gave me sugar water.  I could barely taste any lemon and pretty much tasted a spoonful of sugar in a little water and ice.  I think I just picked the wrong lemonade vendor because I have had lemonade at these big yellow lemon stands before and it was great.  This one not so much.

That was it for my food adventure at the EX.  The only other thing I had was a Tim Horton's Ice Cap while walking around in the sun in the afternoon.  The one thing to note is they don't sell small sizes at the EX so I had to get the medium size which contributed to me not having room in my stomach to try more foods.  If I go back again before the end of this season I will try and have a lot more variety of foods although I think the CNE foods tend to be super Carb heavy.   Cheap, easy, filling and addictive.   Not a great place for someone that is on a low carb diet.  

It was the perfect day to go to the EX.  It's was the Opening Day on a friday when it was only $8 for admission.  The regular price is $18.   It was also not super jam packed so it was comfortable to walk around and not get run over by strollers or people carrying large stuffed animals.  There were also no long lineups for food and other things which was amazing.  I have never been there on opening day before and really found it great.

Here are some other pics that I took at the EX that day.  I really love all the colors and lights.