Ontario's first food truck rally was a huge success. Food writer Suresh Doss rounded up some fabulous food trucks at Toronto's Distillery District on July 2nd for Food Truck Eats - Part 1. The huge crowd was able to feast on tacos, cupcakes, grilled cheese, wood fired pizza, wings, porchetta sandwiches, kulfi, churros, and many more.
There were trucks from:
El Gastronomo Vagabundo The Cupcake Diner Gorilla Cheese Bonfire Catering Steamwhistle Brewery
There were other food vendors as well:
Cava Marben Simple Fish and Chips Buster Rhino's Southern BBQ Augie's Gourmet Ice Pops Baker Street Bakery Distillery District Restaurant Group Tiffin Day Geoffrey Hopgood Rossy Earle Joshna Maharaj
This event was part 1 of 3, so look forward to a couple more chances to relish great food outdoors.
Joey Restaurants has opened a brand-spanking-new location at the Eaton Centre. Something was needed in that space, and I will happily welcome another restaurant - I like to shop too, but there are enough shops there - bring on the new restos! (We had also just hit up Trattoria Mercatto, another brand-new resto in the Eaton's Centre, a couple weeks before).
Let's talk design for a second: the interior is beautiful, there is a section that is open-air, and there are huge big-screen TVs that were playing vintage movies while we were there. It's a large restaurant with an upper level as well. I did hear the bathroom was awfully far away from where you dine, but meh. When it comes down to it, it's really mostly about the food and drink!
Since food was more pass-out style rather than a sit-down dinner menu, I can't say for sure that everything we ate was on the menu - but everything was pretty solid. I checked the menu and my favourite item, the Phanaeng or Penang or Panang curry (which is typically mild in spice but is still nicely flavoured) is on the regular menu. Was disappointed not to eat any of his seared Ahi tuna tacos at the event like we had at Shops at Don Mills, but I did check the menu and they are available. Yum!
If you want to know more about Joey Restaurants and Chef Chris Mills, check this out: we've covered Chef Mills both at his restaurant opening and patio opening at his location at Shops at Don Mills. We also were lucky enough to taste-teste the Pacific-Rim-inspired menu he created right before he went to cook it at the prestigious James Beard House in New York.
Located at 55 Colborne St., The Bowery, a new ‘punk meets farm’ restaurant and bar (and soon to be live music venue) opened its doors on June 27th. Executive Chef Tawfik Shehata (currently also Executive Chef at The Ballroom and formerly of Vertical Restaurant) along with Chef de Cuisine Jason Maw (formerly of Starfish Oysterbed and Grill; Boba) have crafted a wonderfully local inspired menu heavily utilizing the five foot long custom charcoal grill situated in the open kitchen.
Looking for a patio after shopping or a long day at work? Trattoria Mercatto at the Toronto Eaton Centre may be the spot for you. Serving classic Italian comfort food in a smartly designed space, it's a welcome addition to the three other Mercatto restaurants: Toronto St., Bay St., and Elizabeth and College.
Mark and I were lucky enough to be Official Roving Twitter Reporters for Second Harvest's largest fundraiser, Toronto Taste, and it was a BLAST! If you do only one charitable thing next year, make sure it's Toronto Taste - it was a ton of fun for a great cause!
Since the first Toronto Taste 21 years ago (then known as Taste of the Nation), the event has raised over $4 million, enabling Second Harvest to secure enough fresh food to deliver over 8 million meals to those in Toronto living with hunger. That’s enough to feed almost every one of Regent Park’s 2,045 families with children three square meals a day for a whole year.
As it's held at the Royal Ontario Museum, the ambiance was great - with the way it's set up, you get the best of both worlds - food and drink were served up by 60 top chefs and 30 beverage purveyors both inside and outside the ROM. There was live music plus a ton of opportunities to win great prizes through a raffle as well as via live/silent auctions.
While we certainly didn't get around to every chef and beverage purveyor (you couldn't possibly in just one night!), we had a couple stand-outs to share:
Chicken lollipops in a mayo-spice sauce covered with Indian rice puffs from Roger Mooking which we paired with a Rickards White with the help of our friend Steve Riley from Better Beer.com
Salty Chocolate Caramel from Xococava (served by men walking around with old-style candy boxes strapped to their chests no less!) and washed down with a Henry of Pelham 2008 Riesling
Ricotta orange donut with candied orange and cardamom orange smoothie shot from Pangaea
White chocolate mascarpone meringue with strawberry sauce from Baker Street
We also learned, again from our friend Steve Riley at Better Beer.com, how to taste beer. Check out the diagram to the left or visit his site to find out more!
Food and beer pairing
Roger Mooking drops in
Like I said, if there is just one charitable thing you do next year, make it Toronto Taste. You will not be disappointed!
We recently had a chance to check out Bloom Restaurant's new menu. The restaurant's philosophy is to be an extension of your family, rather than being "the stuffy aunt who visits once a year." While being chic, it also felt like a family-friendly space too, and they have a kids menu too which I'm sure parents appreciate.
We're not out in Bloor West Village often but we really enjoyed our time there and since we love walking around the city, we spent some time exploring the area and relaxing on a bench that one of the local businesses had sponsored (maybe I'm a weirdo but I'd say there are an abundance of benches compared to other neighbourhoods we frequent! Seriously! So many places to rest your weary feet and many shops to explore). The restaurant itself was at Bloor and Windermere, about equal distance between Jane and Runnymede subway stations.
You can click through to see the full online menu, but here are some of the highlights:
Cassava frites - what a smart idea! Never have I had cassava in the form of fries. Cassava is a starchy tuberous root popular in tropical climates - though be careful, if not cooked properly it can make you ill! I've had cassava cake quite often, since it's a Filipino recipe. But I've got to say cassava in the form of fries was a very, very pleasant surprise! Note: This item doesn't appear on their online menu, so I'm not sure if they offer it on the regular.
The chimichurri sauce on the pan-seared flank steak was to-die-for. Chimichurri is basically a sauce made from chopped parsley, minced garlic, vegetable or olive oil, white or red vinegar and red pepper flakes (although there are variations with added ingredients). Flank steak is known to be a bit tougher than other cuts of meat no matter which way you slice it, but boy oh boy, that chimichurri sauce made up for that!
The Malivoire 2008 Icewine Riesling VQA was a truly delicious dessert wine to end the night with. It's no secret that I love icewine, and this was one of my favourites. Note: All wine pairings that night were Malivoire, so again I'm not sure if they keep this specific icewine on the regular.
Check out our full set of pics or watch the slideshow above. Thanks to Sizzling Communications for the invite!
With summer on its way, I was reminded that there's something I wanted to share with you all from last summer: Mark and I decided to check out Starving Artist, an awesome place on Lansdowne known for using waffles in place of bread products.
Yes, you heard me right: You can get some great classic dishes and sandwiches here where they put their own twist on them: waffles in place of bread products!
We had the Waffle Benny (two poached eggs, two mini potato waffles, caramelized bacon, hollandaise sauce) and the Monte Cristo (roasted ham and mozzarella sandwiched in between French toast waffles). Both were served with a bed of greens and a fruit salad but you also have the choice of getting the bed of greens with baked beans or potato salad instead of fruit salad if you wish.
Oh, and of course they have dessert waffles served on a "waffle boat" too - we split a S'mores waffle (graham crumb waffle, roasted marshmallow fluff, chocolate chips & chocolate sauce).
They have a cute little patio area, so we sat outside and enjoyed the nice sunny weather. We recommend you all pick a nice day this summer and make your way over there at least once. It's tasty and affordable, and what's not to love about changing up bread for waffles once in a while?!
If you want to learn about fun things to do in Toronto, see Toronto Smarts. Learn about places to visit in Toronto, get concert information and sports info like when the Blue Jays play the Red Sox.
On an imported slab of heat-retention stone from Australia, you cook your own meal. Looks like fun! However it might be more about the experience than anything else - we heard some not-so-good reviews from a friend recently. We'll try anything once though!
¤Kultura (King East - Furniture District) Heard a lot about Roger Mooking's restaurants - think we're more obsessed with going there because of the fact that he used to be in Bass is Base!
¤ Cafe Gilead (King East - Furniture District) Jamie Kennedy's stuff is usually pretty good so we want to try it. ¤ Guu (Church St - The Gaybourhood) This place is trendy, so some people go there for that reason alone, but we'd be heading there to see what "Japanese tapas" is all about.
Follow a couple of foodies around the city as they discover the best (and worst) of what Toronto's culinary scene has to offer.
You can visit this site for some more info on the bloggers: http://www.tastingtoronto.ca/2009/06/so-who-is-behind-tasting-toronto.html
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