Taste of the Danforth and The Ex Festival Edition

Hey All,

It has been a while.

I thought I would bring out some good eats from the summer festivities that go on around the city.

1st up Taste of the Danforth

I live right near the Danforth so I had to hit it up for some food. 1st of all I would like to say that if you do not like crowds then this is not the place for you. But if you are ok with them then just right in and it is a great people watching place.
Off the bat i was hungry so I grabbed some chaved beef on a pita from a Brazilian restaurant right near Broadview and Danforth. It was amazing and I wanted more of the tender and perfectly spiced meat but I had to go on seeing as this was just 10 feet inside of the start of the festival.
Walking along I was tempted to get some food from my favorite places along Greek town but it seemed that everyone in the city had discovered where these places were and the lines topped 50 or 60 people so I moved along knowing that I could get there any day.
Corn is essential on Taste of the Danforth (TOD). There is 1 place on the south side near Pape Ave that has the best roasted corn. Not because of how it is roasted but becasue of the flavors that it can be topped with. Over 50 flavors cover the table and we chose black pepper lime and something else I cant even remember. GET THIS CORN!!
Moving along right beside this place there was some home made soft drinks in barrels that you poured for yourself into oldtimey tin mugs that you got to keep. It even came with a clip for your belt so you could carry it around. We tried the Cola and the Root beer and they were both great but especially the Root beer.

The Ex
I am not usually a huge fan of the Ex. I understand its appeal but for me I think there are som many amazing things to do in the city that you can do other things. However, the food building cannot be missed. It is very large and packed and has everything under the sun.
I ventured down here just before I hit up the Toronto FC soccer game (free admission with a ticket). I needed some food.
1st thing I got was some deep fried pierogies with tons of onions and sour cream. they blew me away as I love pierogies but had never had them deep fried like this. My suggestion is to find the oldest looking person who is serving and go to that booth as they for sure have had good experience.
I went onto the main course which consisted of a half pound burger bacon in between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches.......................... yes you heard me right. Wow!! I could not bring myself to get the burger that was between 2 Krispy Kreame Donuts but I had to go for this one. The cheese was whelming (but not over). I thought to myself as well, "I should do this at home". The bread was thick Texas toast so I almost had to unhinge the jaw to get around it all. It filled me for hours later. I would suggest getting it if you can handle it.


So that is that. get out during the summer and visit everything in the city because there are so many great places. Eat well during these places too.

Hogtown Vegan!!

OK, do other people think like me and think vegan meals can't be greasy and awesome? I used to think that. But I was wrong.

Enter Hogtown Vegan.

Does all the amazing things that you wish you could do with vegan foods.

We started with what is described as "Vegan Wings". Not so much wings but they were triangle shaped and fried and not too bad at all. The sauce was delicious and made them taste more like wings. The consistency was close to chicken but not quite. Good effort.

Next we went onto the main course.

I got 2 of them naturally. The first was some classic Mac and Cheese. It was amazing with a perfect blend of fake cheeses and Chipotle spices as well as a nice crisp bread crumb topping.

The second was a vegan Po'Boy sandwich. Instead of seafood they had some vegan stuff that was pretty close to a pulled pork. It was amazing. With shredded lettuce and sweet tomato relish along with horseradish mayo on a soft bun. It was incredible and took me about 2 min to eat the whole thing. Served with fries or a Ceaser salad it is not to be missed!!

All in all great experience and I will go back again. although they do not have a liquor license yet so maybe I will wait till then.

A Holy Burger

BURGERS PRIEST!!

For lunch today I had a great burger. It was in the beaches at Queen and Coxwell across from the beaches theatre.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I had heard of this place but never been till I drove by today. got there right at 11:30 and glad I did because that is when it opened and less than 5 mins after it did the lineup was out the door of this small place.

This is cash only and only take out and only has a few choices. I went for "The Priest" which is the cheese burger mixed with "The option".

What it was was a cheeseburger topped with 2 Portobello mushrooms that have been stuffed with cheese, floured and deep fried. I had it with the works on it.

This was an amazing burger. When I bite into it the cheese just flowed into my mouth and it continued with every bite.

I would get this but expect to be right around $10 for the burger.

Hibiscus in the Market

Good Morning,

Delicious brunch this weekend.

Now I know I know I love meat and cheese but I hit up a vegan restaurant this weekend.

News Flash: It was really good!!

I decided on a couple of things while I was there. First I chose the Potato and Leek Soup. It was really good and a great consistancy that I was not expecting. The cracker that was given also created a great mix of flavors and seemed to have had the mix in mind while baking it.

The second thing that I got was a crepe wrapped around Spinach mushrooms, and vegan mozzarella. I had my reservations befor but it was actually great. the Mushrooms were not dry and the buckwheat crepe had a great crispyness to it. The only thing I would change is the amount of spinach. I would have a little less of it to balance the fillings out. All in all it was great though.

I finished it off with a Kiwi Soy smoothie. this was actually the best smoothie that I have ever had. It had a great consistency and was riddled with flavor. A+

Go here and be great!!

The Abby

Hey all.

Check out this place.

Pretty standard pub if you are in the west end.

It is called The Abby and is on College just west of Ossington.

Went there for a quiet night and has a pretty cool patio with a huge mural on the wall just to the side of it. Decent beer choices with an Irish waitress set the mood and a good selection of food on the menu.

I decided on a curried chicken but I went off menu a little with subbing fries for the rice. Curried chicken on fries is amazing. it soaks into the fries and amazes the taste buds.

There was entirely too much food for everyone. All of the portions were very large and would feed 2 people at least so ring your appetite.

Good food. Decent prices. Decent beers. Not a place to go out of your way to but if you are in the area and looking for these things please pop in.

NXNE Take it to the Street!!

This is the second in a 2 part series from the NXNE festival.

I love events to say the least. Unintentionally I was involved in a second one on the same day. After getting out of a NXNE show at the Mod Club I found I was right in the middle of Taste of Little Italy. On College between Bathurst and Ossington there is a large street party that went all weekend. All of the restaurants and other venders pull out their patio and spill into the street. Go for a walk and have some fun. There were many band everywhere and lots of old people dancing.

I got some samosas and it came with a "secret sauce" which was tomato base and amazing. The meat was nice and moist which sometimes gets baked out in samosas.

Where was also some spaducci which is some juicy lamb on a small skewer. You add a little salt and cook it on a special charcoal grill that is exactly the width of the meat on the stick. Amazing little snack right off the grill.

We then stopped at Duff's on College for some beers and to people watch.

Check it out again next year and also check out Taste of the Danforth in August.

Cheers.

NXNE Portuguese Edition

Long time coming but I have set it out here.

This is the first installment of my NXNE food tour. For those who don't know NXNE is a music festival in Toronto called North By Northeast and ran last weekend with over 700 bands from across the world playing in small venues all over Toronto. If you can you should get a wristband which gets you into everything and just giver' for the week/weekend.

Churrasqueiras. They are the primary restaurant in little Portugal. They are also delicious. It is a style of cooking rotisserie chicken and is a staple of the Portuguese diet and I went to a place on Dundas just West of Dufferin called Ribeirinha Da Dundas. Between 2 shows we needed a fairly quick dinner and we decided to check it out.

I will be trying more places like this. It was quick and it was amazing and the meal was as follows;

1/2 chicken: Juicy and cooked very well with a little bit of a chrispy skin. This was the grilled chicken and not the rotisserie (that would have take 30 mins longer and we did not have the time).

Salad: Pretty standard but huge and very fresh garden salad.

Potatoes: Cooked into little balls that were a little bit crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a little bit of balsamic drizzled over top.

All in all there was too much food for me to handle and I will be checking out some more of these restaurants as I love the style of food.

Eat it up!!