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.

Top Chefs return to the Taste of Toronto

The Taste of Toronto brings some of Toronto and North America's Top Chefs of Toronto's Historic Fort York for a fabulous weekend of fantastic food sampling and demonstrations.  The Taste Festival came to Toronto for the first time last year but by no means is this a first time festival.  It operates in 22 cities in North America and is considered a very high end food festival that attracts the best of the cities restaurants to participate.
It hosts about 25 of the top Toronto restaurants that set up shop at the Festival from July 2 -5 that are broken down into 4 hour sessions.  Ticket entrance fee is $19-$25 depending on the day and to purchase food samples you load a credit card called a Crown Card for as much money as you would like.  Each dish costs between 6-10 crown points.  1 Crown point = $1.

This is by no means an inexpensive festival if you add up the cost of parking in a nearby lot at $14 and the entrance fee of $25 and then for 4 dishes plus 2 drinks could cost you about $50 and that's not over doing it.  It does turn into an expensive day/night out but the benefit of this festival is it's like restaurant hopping or somewhat of a Tapas experience in one place.  You get tapas sized plates but from the best restaurants in the city all in one location.  It's a bit like Summerlicious with small plates in one location.

I think it's a great way for people that don't have the time to get to all of the restaurants or who want to see what the food is like at a restaurant without paying for a huge meal.  If you don't like a dish there is always another one to try and you can set up your a la carte meal the way you like it.   My friend joked that I would write about her only having desserts at the show which she did mostly.

The features of the show include the Metro masterclass sessions which I have yet to experience because they fill up so fast.  I am determined to try and get to one with Chef Lynn Crawford this sunday though as she is always hilarious and I am sure it will be a great session.

There is also the Cadillac Theatre where Chefs like Iron Chef Masuharu Morimoto, Michael Bonacini,  Mark McEwan, Masterchef winner Eric Chong and Alvin Leung and Jonathan Waxman have had cooking demos.  I was lucky to attend all of these sessions and they were entertaining and informative.

The demo that blew my mind was Iron Chef Marimoto breaking down a 100+ pound fresh Tuna in about 15-20 minutes all while cracking jokes and promoting his upcoming restaurant opening Morimoto Toronto in April 2016.  

He is much funnier in person than he appears on Iron Chef and I had a little fun with him at the Morimoto booth when he got up close and personal with my cell phone camera.

I also had a chance to chat with Demon Chef Alvin Leung from Masterchef Canada.  He was super friendly and his demo was so funny.  I wish he was that funny on Masterchef instead of his demon chef persona.

Another feature at the show is the Toronto Life talks with Chefs doing more informal sit down talks.  I didn't get to any of those sessions so I don't know exactly how they operate.

Besides the 25 restaurants with food booths there are a large number of other vendors set up either selling or sampling their products or both.  Some of my favourites included Craft Soda, a farmer's market, Blackbird bakery and I also stopped by the KitchenAid booth where the ladies were telling people about the Culinary Showdown that is coming up in November to raise funds for Breast Cancer.  I am participating in fundraising and you can find more info on a previous post.

Now to the Food.  I have to say that you really can't try it all in one session and I went both thursday and friday and am returning with a friend on sunday to try a couple of things I missed.   You can't try it all in one session for a couple of reasons.  The sessions are 4 hours long and by the time you walk around to check out all the booths to decide what to eat you have spent a lot of time and then some of the popular booths have lineups to get the food and if you want to do any of the sessions it doesn't leave you much time to get in a lot of food unless you just power through and load up all in one shot.  My stomach doesn't allow me to do that so I have to spread it out.

I tried the following dishes:

Paella from Patria, this humungous dish takes 30 minutes to make and there is a video monitor that counts down the time until it's ready.  It was the first thing I tried when I got to the festival on the thursday and I had some from the very first batch so you could say I got the freshest plate you could get.  It was the best Paella I have ever tried with the rice perfectly cooked and not too salty and perfectly seasoned for my taste.

Babi Panggang Roasted Pork Belly, chili sauce, bean sprouts and red onion from Little Sister, the smell of this pork belly was incredible and it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  It won the Silver Taste award and I can see why.

1.  East Coast Fish Fry with Clams and Haddock by The Drake,  this was actually the last thing I ate on the second day after my food blogger friend told me it was great.  This one was worth it for 6 crowns.  Also worth getting for me because I don't like to deep fry food at home. The fish was perfectly cooked with a simple batter.
2.  Uni Carbonara from Morimoto Toronto,  It's the first time I have ever tried Uni which was pretty interesting.  It was a good dish but not my favourite of the day.
3.  Toro Tuna from Morimoto Toronto, this was a tiny little bit but full of flavour with the caviar, sour cream, wasabi and dashi soy sauce.  This one was 10 crowns.
4.  Funnel cake, vanilla ice cream and blueberries from Richmond Station, I love Richmond Station and their desserts but this wasn't one of my favourites, it was just ok where most of their desserts are spectacular.  I do plan on going back for their signature Station burger though.
5.  Fried Chicken from Weslodge, it was great fried chicken with a jalapeno sauce but the coleslaw and biscuit weren't as impressive.
6.  Ceviche from Los Colabris/El Cabalito,  It was ok but I have had better ceviche recently.
7.  Crispy Black Vinegar Chicken from Bosk which was one of the winning dishes. It really hit all the flavours and was worth the 10 crowns.
8.  CSB (char siu bao) bbq pork buns, I liked this so much that I had it on both days.  It's a sweet bun with a special glaze put on the top of the bun that really sets this milk bun apart from all of the other regular dim sum pork buns that you normally see.


This year I figured out how to do this festival with a lot more enjoyment.  The first day I took the TTC and found a much easier and faster way to get there.  Last year it took me an hour and a half of multiple transfers, standing and waiting.  This year it was one subway and a streetcar and a closer stop to the entrance.  On the second day my friend drove and I found a closer lot although parking is still expensive but it was the same distance as the streetcar stop to the entrance.  I also tried to pack light and make sure you skip the high heels because you will have to walk on gravel to get there and the whole festival is set up on the grass.

I wish I could get some of the foods I tried at take out restaurants because some of the dishes would make perfect quick lunches.  Something to hope for the future of food.

There are still a couple days left for the festival at the time of this posting so I hope this reached you in time to check it out.  Maybe I will bump into you in one of the food lineups at the festival.

Disclaimer:  The entrance ticket was complimentary but the food was paid for by me and as always the opinions in this post are my own.

Block Party III at Muzik Nightclub -Event

I am way past nightclub days but I received an invite from Food Bloggers of Canada about Block Party III at Muzik Nightclub and proceeds would go to the Daily Bread Food Bank.  That's always a good thing in my books and this event seemed to come up a lot from different sources. This event was presented by the Food Dudes who do events, have a food truck, a restaurant and do catering as well.

 My friend who lives in the area where it was held asked if I was going and after thinking about it I decided to go because I didn't have any plans and i knew she wanted to go.

I knew there were going to be young, skinny girls in high heels and little clothing and there was but they were the models that were scattered around the venue some with body painted tops and some just skimpy clothing to attract the boys.

But I have to say that I was blown away when I walked into the venue.  It looked like Miami beach landed in Toronto.

I have never been to Muzik Nightclub at Exhibition Place, so I don't know what it looks like normally but I imagine a lot of it was just the way the venue was designed and then kicked up by the great branding and attention to detail by the Food Dudes who were hosting the event.

There were food vendors spread out around the perimeter of the outside patio and the Food Dudes Food Truck was parked just inside to the right of the entrance and 2 other food trucks tucked away in between the other food vendors.  So there wasn't big blaring ugly noisy food trucks taking away from the beauty of the venue.  I found that impressive the way it all flowed.  I am all about the flow of an event and having seating areas that are comfortable and blend into the settings.  There was plenty of seating with lounge chairs, big comfy cuddling chairs,  long table seating with umbrellas and couches set inside cabana areas around the outside.  But there was still a lot of places to walk around and all kinds of things to do besides just stand around or sit around and eat and drink.  It was an adult playground.

There was a little bus that was a photo booth and they had fun things to take photos with.
There was ping pong tables, connect things, a huge Jenga, and a fooseball table even.

That's not all.  There were DJ's, musicians and on top of that there were Artists painting huge paintings inside the Dome and at the back of the venue which were part of Art Battle.  Some really talented artists I must say.

Let's get back to the food for a minute.  Some of the Vendors included Pizzeria Libretto, Food Dudes, Rodney's Oyster House, Khao San Road, Gourmet Bitches, Rasa and more.

I tried the Food Dudes Japanese Poutine, an interesting mix of fries, pork belly, curds, gravy, nori and a few other things.  It filled me up but I tried a forkful of my friends Lamb biryani but I liked my Poutine better.  We all tried the Nitro Ice Cream sandwiches but unfortunately we were all disappointed with them.  The vanilla ice cream tasted sour and it was totally melted and the cookies weren't all that fabulous but the presentation of the nitro was amazing.  At the end of the night I got 2 huge Malbec Oysters from Rodney's but that's about all that I ate.  My other friend had a burger that she said was pretty good.  There was some mystery empanada thing we saw a few people with but we couldn't figure out where they came from.  I probably would have tried that if we had found it.

Then on top of the food vendors there was the Chef Battle put on by the Underground Chef Cartel (UCC) and hosted by Chef Devan Rajkumar.  The battle was between the chef of Mata Restaurant and I am not sure who the female chef was but she won the battle and afterward said it was time to get "hammered".

After the battle was over the sun set and the roaming entertainment outside on the patio began.  So many things to keep you entertained.   A woman with a glowing Food Dudes baton that she twirled by the pool, another girl with a multi colored glowing hula hoop,  a couple of guys juggling also multi colored lit up juggling pins.  A lady in a Victorian outfit with a crystal ball and who knows what else I didn't see.  You really couldn't get bored with so much to see and do.

This was not a typical food blogger event and one of my blogger friends that I met up with there was a bit intimidated by the environment but we ended up having a great time and the best part of it was that it was supporting Daily Bread.

Today is Canada Day and I wish the City put on an event like that for adults to Celebrate Canada Day along with the usual family friendly events.

This past clubbing girl felt old and young at the same time at this event and I have to say congrats to the Food Dudes and the other organizers, staff and vendors for putting on a great event.
Oh.. I have to add that there was a couple of dudes wearing red shorts and they had Food Dudes tattoos on their chests.
The Food Dudes really know how to brand an event.  Even the beach balls that floated in the pool had the Food Dudes logo on them.

Well done boys... Hope it was successful for everyone.