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.
