Pan American Food & Music Festival

Festival:     Pan American Food & Film Festival
Date:          August 11-13, 2017
Location:   Yonge & Dundas Square
Website:     http://panamfest.com/
Twitter/Instagram @PanamFestTO

It's Food Festival season in Toronto and there were at least 5 food festivals happening in Toronto on August 12th but I dropped by the Pan American Food & Music Festival.  Celebrating it's 4th year and moving to Yonge and Dundas from the former Daniels Spectrum venue.

I went to check out the Chef's Challenge and had a chance to chat with Chef Jagger Gordon.  Chef Gordon has an organization called Feed it Forward where he utilizes his skills as a Chef and an activist to feed people in need.  He has recently opened a Soup restaurant that feeds people in need using tokens paid for by other customers.  He is looking for a space to be able to set up cooking meals for more people and wants to open a grocery store to share donated food.   At the Pan American festival he set up a Chef's Challenge using some of the produce from his farm and other donations and had 3 local chef teams competing to create some great dishes using the food provided.  In 45 minutes they had to test their creative skills and feed the people in the audience for a $5 ticket.  Chef Gordon operates using skilled and non skilled volunteers and is always looking for more help to expand.  He would also like to get people to sign a petition to get the government to make it illegal for grocery stores to throw food out but have to donate it to charities and food banks.  
You can sign the Petition CLICK here:

The Chefs competing in the Chef's Challenge included local Chefs Devan Rajkumar, Doris Fin and Nick Vorlicek.   I don't even know who won because it was chaos afterward with the audience jumping to the front to get their food.  They got to try all 3 dishes for $5.   Chef Devan was the first to finish using his Ninja knife skills to make his version of a vegetarian Ceviche.  Chef Doris also made a salad and Chef Nick made a pasta dish.

Chef Devon

Chef Doris

Chef Nick

           

 

Here is my quick interview with Chef Jagger Gordon on Feed it Forward and the Chef Challenge.




After the Chef Challenge there was also a butter tart challenge.  For $10 you could try 6 different versions of butter tarts.  The 2 people i knew put a creative spin on theirs.  Vanessa from Holy Cannoli made butter tart Cannoli's and Olivia Simpson from Hawthorne Food & Drink made Coconut charcoal activated crusted butter tarts.  Another competitor added beer and another one added peach bits and there was a pecan one and a gooey traditional one which was the winner the previous year.  I really like that one.

 

 There is also a few food trucks and vendors at the festival to sample things from BBQ'd meat to Corn on the Cob and more.

I was there for the food mostly but heard the music in the background and a lot of the chefs  were even dancing to the music.  I saw a little bit of one of the dance groups but I couldn't stay late to watch more.   But everyone had a great time and even when it rained nobody left and it didn't seem to bother anyone.

It was also nice to see my festival friend Pamela volunteering at the program table.  She volunteers at a lot of the festivals around town and I run into her at both film and food festivals all the time. I used to volunteer and now I write but it's always fun to be at a good festival.

FREE POLAR PIZZA Ice Cream from Basking & Robbins

FREE Polar Pizza for the People!

One of the most eagerly awaited weekends on the annual calendar just got cooler.

Baskin-Robbins Canada's first pop-up food truck is set to hit the streets of the GTA from May 19-21.  

The pop-up truck will be serving free slices of the brand's famous

Polar Pizza to celebrate National Pizza Party Day (May 19) and the Victoria Day long weekend.

WHAT:                          The Baskin-Robbins food truck takes to the streets to serve free Polar Pizza slices! 

WHO:                             Coney, the Baskin-Robbins Mascot, along with a team of Baskin-Robbins Canada

WHEN/WHERE:            The Baskin-Robbins Polar Pizza Truck will be making stops in the following areas: 

                                 Friday May 19, 2017 (National Pizza Party Day) 

                                                Downtown Toronto   YONGE DUNDAS SQUARE

                                                Saturday May 20, 2017

                                                Hamilton

                                                Burlington Waterfront 

                                                Mississauga

                                                Brampton

                                 Sunday May 21, 2017

                                The Beaches

  

Follow the truck’s exact whereabouts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and through the hashtag #PolarPizzaTruck.

Lovin Local at Yonge Dundas Square

           Who:        Live green Toronto
           What:       Lovin Local Food Fest
           Where:    Yonge Dundas Square
           When:     August 8, 2015
           Why:       To showcase local food & music
           Hashtag:  #lovinlocal
           Website:  www.toronto.ca

I have gone to the Live Green Festival a few times over the years but this year Livegreen Toronto added the Lovin Local Food Fest to the mix with a 1 day festival at Yonge and Dundas Square.  I went down to check it out and got there just in time to see my fav local Chef Lynn Crawford finishing her local food demo on the main stage.  She is always fun to watch because she really engages the audience.





I was planning on sticking around to see the Spoons.. .yes a band from the 80's that I once did makeup for on a video shoot back in the day.  But I went down there at about 1:30 and pretty much checked out the whole festival in about an hour so I was getting tired of waiting around so I left.  If I lived closer I would probably just go back for the Spoons.  Jully Black is also playing a bit later than the Spoons but I am old and have things to do like write this blog so I skipped out.

But you never know what you might find at these street festivals so while I was wandering around and checking out the food vendors I was listening to the artist that was on after Lynn Crawford and then all of a sudden this guy really caught my attention.  I never heard of him before but this guy had loads of energy and was all over the stage and really rockin the stage.  I still don't know who he is but now I know his name at least,  it's Eric Zayne.  I would suggest that you keep an eye out for this guy because I have a feeling he will pop up and get some attention.

As for the Food Portion.   I waiting in the smokey big green egg lineup to get a Steak Sandwich from Bespoke Butchers for $6.  The steak was good but I really wish the bun was toasted or a bit fresher.  It was a bit dry so it took away from the juicy steak a bit.   I also tried 2 pakoras from Bindia for $2.  A nice little snack with tamarind sauce on top.  I picked up 2 cookies from Brad Long's Cafe Belong booth for $3.  I got one double chocolate and one chocolate chip.  I just ate those and they were delicious, especially the double chocolate one.  I also picked up a bacon and cheese Scone which I have't tried yet.  It was $3 from Marche 59.  I never heard of them before so I don't know anything about them but they had a nice selection of baked goods that included muffins and quiches.

There was a huge amount of corn from the corn roaster guys but I am sure they won't go through that much corn in one day.   I don't know how well attended this festival will be because everyone seems to be either doing Parapanam stuff or going to the Taste of the Danforth.  It wasn't very busy when I was there but I picked the busiest lineup for food of course.  Anything where there smoke there is usually a crowd of people.  There was lots of things for the kids to do at this small festival and I even got in on the dress up selfie pics for a bit of fun.

I always like to support local vendors and Canadian artists so I like to showcase these types of events as much as I can.  I hope you read this and have time to drop down there before the end of the night but if not I hope you look out for more of these kinds of festivals in the future.

#lovinlocal  is put on by the City of Toronto but too bad it got a bit overshadowed this weekend.

For more information:   City of Toronto website