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.

Food, Travel & Photographer/Chef Dennis Prescott

The Tourism Authority of Thailand invited me to a lunch event recently with  none other than celebrated Canadian ‘foodstagramer’ (357k followers and counting) and newly published author of "Eat Delicious”, Dennis Prescott (@dennistheprescott) hosting the lunch to learn all things Thailand and #foodstagram shooting tips! 
The event took place at Mengrai Gourmet Thai located at 82 Ontario Street (at Richmond Street East). 

Dennis is a  former musician and self-taught cook who learned to cook by taking out Jamie Oliver cookbooks and working through them.

We celebrated their travel brands’ 2017 Asia launches and guest culinary experiences. 

We viewed a presentation on travelling to Thailand before Dennis gave us some of his tips to taking better food photos.  A couple of his tips included telling a story with your photos and try and get movement into your photos.  After the presentations we sat down to some delicious Thai food prepared by Mengrai Thai.  I didn't know about this hidden restaurant but I heard it's in the know of some celebrities.  My favourite dish was the Chicken Curry served in a Pineapple, it's a showstopper with amazing comforting flavour.

Check out Thai trips at https://ttc.com/destinations/asia/ and make sure to follow them on Twitter and Instagram at @ttc_canada and @thailandinsider

For more information on their brands, check out https://ttc.com/destinations/asia/;  follow  on Twitter and Instagram at @ttc_canada and @thailandinsider. 

I have loved Thai food for years and have been wanting to go to Thailand and see all the beautiful traditional foods and beautiful views.  I hope to get there one day.

The Great Canadian Cheese Festival - Prince Edward County

OH CHEEZE!!!

 The Great Canadian Cheese Festival takes over the Crystal Palace Fair grounds in Picton in the Prince Edward Country region once a year and pretty much everyone who is in town becomes a cheese head.  You can't help but not too with all the great cheeses at the Festival and at other surrounding Wineries, cheese producers, restaurants and other off shoots.  The event is just wrapping up as I write this blog post.  It was held June 4-5, 2016 this year.  I was able to go and spend the day in Picton on the Saturday with a couple of friends. It's about a 2 hour drive from Toronto and in between Kingston and Belleville. If you want to stay in a hotel then you have to stay in Kingston or Belleville because Picton isn't big enough for a hotel.

 I certainly picked the right day to go because it was the most perfect weather, although a wee bit hot in the afternoon and not great for melting cheese but a great day to attend a festival.  This was my second year going to the festival.  Last year we got distracted by the big apple on the way but this year I was determined to see more vendors.  Some were returning, a few not there and a few new ones so you never know what you will see.

It is a massive event that brings together cheese producers and other vendors from across Canada and many of them from the area and from Quebec.  We have some of the finest cheese producers in Canada and we don't support our own enough.

You either have to go the 2 days of the festival to try all the cheese samples or you have to have a competition size appetite.  Sadly I don't even think I tried half of the samples at the festival but we gave it a good try anyway.  It's really hard to pick favourites when you try so many great cheeses.

 I would say that about 75% of the festival is cheese so those of you with dairy issues you have to hunt for those lactose free items and there are a few.
Other vendors included Ottawa's Seed to Sausage who had a very popular booth.

 

Some interesting vendors were these spicy sauces using all kinds of peppers blended with other things like fruits and other flavourings and cute little cat labels with funny names.  They ranged from mild to Ghost pepper hot.

I can't name all of the cheeses I tried and you have to trust me when I tell you there were a lot of all kinds of cheese,  soft brie's, cheddars, smoked cheeses, beer washed rinds, aged, goat cheese, one was torched, some were mixed with things like jalapeno and salsa and a whole lot of other things like cheese curds and I am sure a bunch I missed.

There were a few preserves and pickles and this new product THE SPREAD which is a savoury spread with Sesame seeds and other things in it that would pair well with cheese and probably add flavour to a grilled cheese sandwich.

We shared a wood oven pizza from Via Pizzeria which happens to be one of my friends names who was there with me.  We also had cheese that was grilled with garlic powder and plain.  I liked the garlic one.

It's hard not to bring home all kinds of cheese and other goodies that you can't find at your local market.  I had to have some restraint and picked these among some of my favourite things.  The cheeses were prices pretty reasonably too.  I think all of my cheese choices are from the Ottawa/Quebec area and the nuts are from Ontario.

Even after all that cheese and diary we stopped into an Ice cream shop called Slickers Ice Cream, one of the Cheese Festival volunteers recommended.  She warned us that there would be a lineup since it's a tiny place.  When we got there the lineup had about 8 people in it and to us folks from Toronto who stand in lines for everything and waste most of our lives in line, this was a small price to pay for some amazing ice cream.  I got the Jack Daniels Chocolate and the Campfire flavours in a waffle cone.  It was delicious and really hit the spot on a hot June day after wondering around a festival all afternoon.

I would go back for that ice cream even if there was no festival happening in Picton but it was all a bonus to a great day.

We did things a little backwards though and had the ice cream and then decided to head over to the Drake Devonshire Inn and were able to get a table without a reservation for dinner.  That's something I desperately wanted to do last year but wasn't able to so this time we had my friends unlimited data plan and her Google GPS ready to get efficiently from one destination to the next in quick time so that we could do as much as we could while we were there.  We really didn't want to leave the Drakes amazing waterfront space but we had to head back to Toronto begrudgingly but we will be back and hopefully before next year's festival.

If you want to plan a visit for next year's festival check out there website to get more information:
http://cheesefestival.ca/
Hashtag #tgccf

I join Travel Massive and hop on the UpExpress to the 905

TRAVELLING MASSIVE STYLE ON THE UPExpress

I have been wanting to expand my blog posts to food outside of Toronto so I decided to hop on the Travel Massive UPexpress and head out to a new venue called The Vue to see what's happening in the City of Mississauga and the City of Brampton.  This event was put together by Tourism Toronto. 

I really wanted to attend because I have never hopped on the UpExpress or heard of The Vue so I thought it would be a great opportunity to check them out for not other reason than to see what it's like.

Other than my confusing trek through the under construction Union Station to get to the UpExpress lounge before the designated train left at 5:30pm it was a very pleasant experience.  I am assuming that once all the construction at Union Station is finished they will have proper pathways and signage but for now it's best to enter from front street instead of navigating the confusing signage from the subway.  

Even though I rushed from my office to get there in time I was greeted by some very friendly Travel Massive people who handed me a lovely gift bag as soon as I got there.  I didn't even look inside but it smelled good and it turned out to be Balzacs coffee beans from the Union Station Lounge vendor.  

I got there with about 10 minutes to spare and then we hopped on the train to head to the Pearson stop where we boarded a quick charter bus to the venue.  It was a super quick ride, about 15 minutes with a stop at Weston Station and Bloor.  

I have to say that it was so pleasant and comfortable riding the UpExpress.  It's very quiet and the seats aren't jammed in like other modes of transport.  The whole time I was wishing my TTC subway commute was like that.

The only thing I found unfortunate was the view along the way and that it really doesn't go very far yet.  It seemed to go through the ugliest parts of the greater Toronto area from Dundas West construction, old buildings, junk, and industrial businesses.  It would have been an amazing view if it had flowed along the lakeshore.  Note to infrastructure designers.. Plan your route visually if you are going to go above ground to make it more attractive to be on board. But now that Metrolinx has lowered the cost of it to $9 with a Presto card it's kind of a great way to get from Union to the Airport fast and for less than the cost of a cab and no traffic jams.  It's still a bit of a pain if you have luggage because you have to cart it around but if you travel light this is ideal.

Once we arrived at Pearson we boarded a charter bus to The Vue. I am not sure exactly how long it's been open but I don't think too long.  It's a banquet hall that can be used for all kinds of events and it was the destination to showcase restaurants and attractions happening in the Mississauga and Brampton areas.  

 

Most people think about travelling to Toronto but there are unique and other things to do in Mississauga and Brampton.  The food was provided by a few of the local restaurants and it was pretty delicious.  

Marathi - Chicken Tikka masala

Nobel - Pulled Pork sliders

Corso - Ceviche

Acer - Sushi and Make rolls 

From these tempura asparagus, Thai noodles to the Ice Pops below.  

All fantastic and worth seeking out restaurants outside of your typical Toronto spots.

Some of the attractions and events that were showcased at The Vue were:

• Brampton Battle Archery 
• Treetop Trekking 
• Signifi 
• Stryke Target Range 
• Carassauga 
• Be Relax Airport Spa 
• Woodbine Entertainment Group 
• Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Centre 
• Holiday Inn Toronto Airport East 
• Plaza Premium Lounge 
• iFLY Toronto Indoor Skydiving 
• City of Mississauga 
• City of Brampton 
• Streetsville BIA 
• Port Credit BIA 
• Ontario Summer Games 

There really are a lot of interesting things you can do that you can't do in Toronto.  I have been wanting to go to Carassauga for a long time because as a  child my mother would bring me to the Toronto version around various community centres and churches to experience everything about other cultures from the food to the crafts and dances.  That's where I really developed my curiosity about other foods and how other people live.

I am not an axe throwing kind of person but I could see this as a good team building event for a company after a large stressful project.  Also the IFly skydiving looks so fun. I would like to do this one.  It's sky diving without the scariness of getting kicked out of a plane.
There will also be the upcoming Summer games and there is also the year round Racetrack and gambling at Woodbine.

If you are skipping the U.S. road trips this year because of the high cost of gas or just the time to get away is just too hard to do then this might be a great way to feel like you are taking a mini vacation. Get on the UpExpress from Toronto and go and explore Mississauga or Brampton and stay overnight and you will have that vacation feel without the travelling hassle or the added expenses.
Or bring visitors to the city to these destinations to show them something different than the CN Tower or Niagara Falls.  Everyone knows about them.. show them something most people in Toronto don't even do very often.

Food writer - Mary Luz Mejia

Tourism Toronto.
https://travelmassive.com/