St. Lawrence Market

By Monday, we had enjoyed so many movies we'd morphed into couch potatoes. Since my bum had begun to resemble a movie theater seat, I suggested we go for a walk... to a market :D

Now, this isn't just any market. This is St. Lawrence Market, the oldest food hall in Toronto, known for excellent produce and prepared food. Its first Farmers Market took place in 1803, when traders from across Ontario gathered to sell fruit, vegetables, bread, cheese, and meat. Today, the market is home to over 120 vendors, from bakers and butchers to cheese and fishmongers.

Inside, the market is all hustle and bustle. (Photo credit: Kiril Strax)

When my mom, sister, and I walked through the front door, we encountered a barrage of colors and smells. Stinky cheese wafted down the walkway and fruit sat piled in pyramids. We spotted artisanal mustard and jam and plenty of pickles. The scent of savory sandwiches and empanadas filled the air. There was a little bit of everything, and it was all incredibly high quality.

(Photo credit: Expedia)

We agreed to grab a variety of food and make a meal of small bites. We sampled as much cheese as humanly possible (all in the name of research, of course) before the cheesemonger abruptly cut us off. I guess we were depleting his samples. Oops. Brenna and I debated our cheese choices before selecting a soft, floral French Brie and a salty, flakey Canadian cheddar.

Cutting the cheese, literally. (Photo credit: Canadian Tourism Commission).

While in the cheese shop, some small jars caught my eye. I moved closer, and saw creamy white yogurt layered atop colorful fruit. Several jars contained a deep purple puree (black currant) while others held bright yellow fruit (a mix of mango, banana, and passion fruit). Maybe I'm a sucker for adorable European style jars, or maybe I just love dairy (answer: both!). Either way, they looked delightful so I grabbed a few. Later, when I ate one for breakfast, I learned these were actually fromage blanc, a yogurt-like French dessert. In my opinion, it's totally ok to have dessert for breakfast while on vacation.

Sticking with the theme of “zero calorie French food,” I selected some foie gras. Whitehouse Meats, which has a stall in the middle of the market, looked best. The butcher I spoke with showed me their Mousse de Foie Gras; according to him, they blend the liver with a little cream to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth smoothness. This mousse is completely different from the other foie gras products they offer, such as fresh and raw whole livers, or the bloc de foie gras, which has a much firmer texture. I prefer the creaminess and spreadability of the mousse. When I asked for other suggestions, the butcher waxed poetic about how a dollop of Mousse de Foie Gras would melt beautifully atop a hot, freshly grilled steak. Yum!

Intrigued, I checked out the rest of Whitehouse Meats. Funnily enough, they carry a bunch of obscure, unusual game, from camel to emu to pheasant. Have a craving for crocodile burgers? You’re in luck! If you want it, they likely have it.

After gawking at meat, I dropped into another cheese shop for some toppings. Since berries and foie gras are a match made in heaven, I chose two jams – wild blueberry and cherry-merlot.

The fruit and wine jam was a tasty match for foie gras. (Photo credit: Provisions Food Company)

Of course we needed carbs to slather it all on, so I grabbed some crispy toast crackers. We top off our quest for antipasto with a variety of olives (green, black, brown), cherry peppers stuffed with feta, dolmas, eggplant dip, and goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto. We threw in some fresh figs that looked plump and juicy.

Famished by our intense shopping trip, we ran back to the airbnb and created a delicious spread of all the antipasto. Everyone loved the crackers slathered with foie gras and jam, but the cheese was a close contender.

(Photo credit: Breakaway Experiences)

St. Lawrence Market was a lovely stop on our food tour of Toronto. You can come to sample everything from fruit to mustard to seafood, or stop by to soak up the hustle and bustle of a busy marketplace. Although we only explored the food hall, St. Lawrence has three buildings total, full of antiques shopping, small exhibits, and the occasional cooking class to improve your culinary skills. If you're looking for new pots and pans or an obscure kitchen tool, you can find that too. After visiting St. Lawrence, it's clear why National Geographic once voted it the world’s best food market. Whether you're looking for ham or jam, pastries or pickles, one thing's for sure: you won't leave hungry!

A Royal Feast

In Toronto, we tried a rare and special kind of cuisine - royal Thai.

I absolutely love Thai food. While in the deep throws of my thesis revisions I'd order red curry at least once a week. I could eat shrimp dumplings by the bucket and slurp pad thai by the pound. But when I searched for Thai food in Toronto, I found something quite different from my usual comfort food. Kiin, a restaurant that described itself as "royal Thai cuisine," stood out. "What's 'royal' about it?" I wondered. Curious, I booked a reservation.

The booths at Kiin are upholstered in lush green fabric. Small glowing candles lend soft light at night.

After flying to Toronto and lugging our bags up to the Airbnb, my mom, sister, and I were totally famished. At Kiin, we kicked off our meal with the dumpling platter.

To me, the definition of "dumpling" is an oily, doughy meat crescent. Very tasty, but uniform in taste. I expected Kiin's dumplings to be some elevated version of this. However, I was completely surprised by what arrived at our table.

These were unlike any dumplings I’d had before. Colorful, delicate, and complicated, these dumplings looked fit for royalty. Our waiter instructed us to eat the treats from left to right like a tasting flight. First came a tiny cup carved of pineapple and topped with a salty peanut ball. It was sweet, tangy, and nutty.

Second, was a dumpling shaped like a delicate blue flower. Made of rice flour and blue dye (derived from butterfly peas) this was by far the most striking design. After all, it's a dumpling... shaped like a flower... what?! The  dough contained a salty-sweet mix of coconut, peanut, and pickled radish. It was slightly sweet, very chewy, and nutty.

The blue rice flour dough has an almost jelly-like look.

This butterfly pea flower dyes the dumplings a lovely blue.

Here's the flower after it's been dried and powdered.

Next came a lacey egg crêpe wrapped around a filling made of chicken. Good, but not groundbreaking. The final dumpling was a tiny fried bag filled with ground chicken and shrimp. It was nestled in a cucumber cup, which lent a fresh crunch to the fried flakey topping.

This dish was delightfully unique in terms of its presentation and taste. It completely banished my idea of dumplings as mere doughy meat pockets.

Our next dish was equally surprising and twice as beautiful. A large copper bowl arrived at the table, and I peered inside.

Roses are red, violets are blue. I'm ready to eat, how 'bout you?

A gorgeous array of jasmine rice colored red, yellow, and blue lay artfully arranged next to fresh edible flowers, herbs, chili, onion, pickled radish, lemongrass, pomelo, and cucumber. Our waiter explained that the vibrant rice was achieved thanks to natural dyes; beets color the rice red, tamarind lends yellow, and butterfly flowers give it a blue hue.

Our waiter then tossed the ingredients together, coating the rice and veggies in chili pepper, white turmeric, roasted coconut, and a tamarind-lime dressing.

A large copper bowl makes the salad presentation even fancier.

The finished salad was beautiful, fresh, light and bright, with a just a hint of crunch. Two dishes into the meal, and I was already impressed.

The main dish was simpler but even better. A whole salt-crusted sea bream was delivered to our table and dismantled.

Our waiter removed a salt crust to reveal tender fish inside.

We then scooped the delicate fish flesh onto lettuce leaves topped with a tangle of thin vermicelli noodles, a sliver of red chili pepper, and a single toasted peanut. A spicy green chili sauce topped it all off. The entire dish worked so well together. The fish was salty and succulent, the noodles were soft and delicate, the peanut was nutty and roasted, and the bright green sauce pulled the flavors together.

We topped the leaves with fish and rolled them up into tiny packages. Yum!

After my mom nabbed one of my peanuts >:-( I realized that each ingredient matters a lot. The absence of the roasted nut flavor changed the dish entirely. Who knew one peanut could make a difference? But it did! It reminded me how heavily this style of cuisine relies on super fresh, flavorful ingredients.

No sooner had all three of us devoured the succulent fish and said, “I want more!” than a platter of fruit appeared.

Fresh lychee, rambutan, and sliced mango.

The platter glistened and gleamed with rows of ripe mango, lychee, pomelo, and pineapple. Pink and white dragon fruit and rambutan (which look like large lychee) rounded out the platter.

Normally I’d scoff at fruit for dessert. When you could have a slice of chocolate cake, why eat fruit? But this fresh platter was the perfect end to such a colorful meal. My mom, sister, and I left the restaurant feeling totally full and satisfied yet light and healthy.

I chose Kiin because the food looked like nothing I’d ever eaten before. From the delicate dumplings to the vibrant salad to the fresh fish, Kiin is both outstanding and unusual. 

This wasn’t just any Thai food; this was royal Thai food.

Pinky's Ca Phe

This September my family finally tackled a trip on my mom’s bucket list: the Toronto Film Festival.

It was a wonderful week full of delicious food and fun movies. Every day went like this: eat, watch movie, eat, repeat. Really, what more could you want? It was my dream.

We quickly fell in love with the festival, the city, and the food. But especially the food.

Our favorite meal was at Pinky’s Ca Phe, a dimly lit, kitschy little restaurant located in a house off Queen Street. It doesn’t look like much but trust me – this was the best meal we had. We began with Tiger Milk Ceviche, with chunks of fresh fish in coconut milk, lime, and herbs, and crispy taro chips to scoop it all up. "Shovel" might be more accurate; I ran my fingers around the empty bowl, trying to lap up the last drops.

Sliced jalapeños, hot red chili, and creamy coconut milk to cut the heat. Perfection!

Next came the Mango Papaya Salad with charred squid. Sweet, sour, and fresh, the tangles of crunchy papaya and meaty yet delicate squid were right en pointe.

Such color! Red chili, green onions, yellow papaya, and purple squid.

The Grilled Meat Platter was the main dish, with lemongrass chicken, pork jowl, and beef short ribs. We wrapped the succulent meat in crisp lettuce leaves, and stuffed it with julienned carrots, a sweet spicy sauce, and cilantro. The meat was savory and juicy while the herbs and vegetables kept it fresh. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

We each got a FOCO loco - which tastes as fun as it sounds - to wash it all down. The bartender inverts a can of passion fruit juice in a glass filled with alcohol and ice. It was sort of like a refreshing riff on Coronaritas, that beachy Mexican-American drink.

Foco Loco, indeed!

We finished the meal with the tres leches cake, a spicy-sweet batter topped with cool whipped cream. Our waitress compared it to a McCain’s Deep ’n Delicious cake, which is a beloved Canadian grocery store treat. Tres leches is supposed to be creamy (after all, the name means "milk") but it was just a wee too wet for my taste. But, I barely cared; the savory dishes were so good!

The addictive combination of spicy, salty, sweet, and meat, made Pinky's Ca Phe the place I want to revisit again and again and again.