Street Food Block Party... the video

The photos were just the beginning, here's a video recap of the biggest food party in Toronto this year! It was the best of both worlds, Toronto Underground Market and Food Trucks Eats, together in one place. 

And a reminder that the next Toronto Underground Market, (TUM) is happening June 9th, but tickets go on sale THIS Friday, (May 18th). They will sell out, so get yours early. 

Street Food Block Party

Street. Food. Block. Party.

Hell yeah Toronto! Photo highlights from one of the biggest food parties of the year.  3000 people at the Brickworks eating food, drinking craft beer and local wines and having a great time.

A huge thank you to Hassel Aviles and Suresh Doss, (and all the volunteers) for their tireless efforts in promoting street food, food trucks and budding entrepreneurs in Toronto. You guys are amazing, (and inspiring) this nights proves that.

Video recap coming soon!

Terroir 2012

I had the pleasure of attending the 2012 Terroir Symposium, a hospitality industry event held at Arcadian Court in Toronto. Terroir brings together industry experts, chefs, restaurateurs, marketers and food writers alike to discuss current trends in the culinary world and what the innovators are doing.

Of course, the discussion was interesting and the speakers were engaging but when you host such a large selection of hospitality industry professionals for an all day event, one of the big questions that everyone wants answered is: What did they eat?

I put together a little highlight reel of the day's eats to show you. Bon appetit.

The Secret Pickle Documentary

For the past 8 months I've been immersed in a New Media Journalism postgrad program at Sheridan College. For my final project, I created a documentary about the Secret Pickle Supper Club. The name alone should intrigue you enough to spend 10 minutes watching my video. It was enough to make me want to do a documentary on it. Enjoy!

More Food Trucks!

I'm becoming a food truck chaser. It's like a storm chaser, but tastier.

In what was the second event put on by UeaT, 11 food trucks took over two of the University of Toronto campuses. Where was this when I was at U of T??? Check out the video above for highlights of the trucks at the St. George campus.

If you want to see more food trucks in Toronto, you can help! Tweet your councillor, tweet the mayor, email them both and don't give me any excuses about not knowing how to find their info, it's all right here  at the Toronto Street Food Project.

If you're looking to see where the trucks will be next, you can follow them on Twitter or find out about events at Ontario Food Trucks. You could also probably just ask me, odds are, I'll be there...

Food Trucks Roll Into Liberty Village

After spending the morning in a dark classroom without windows, I was more than ready to get outside for some lunch. By the time I got to the food trucks in Liberty Village, just past 12:30pm, the sun was out and so were the crowds. Lines were already formed at the three trucks that came out to play: El Gastronomo Vagabundo, Caplansky’s and Blue Donkey Streatery.

I spotted Suresh, (he of Food Truck Eats and Spotlight Toronto who is leading the fight for food trucks in Toronto) and he told me to get in line fast if I wanted to get some food. I hurried over to El Gastronomo Vagabundo just in time to see them cross the Biltong Pork Belly Tacos off the chalkboard menu. Damnit, that was my first choice!

So I went with Plan B and set my sights on the Senor Ghandi Ceviche- smoked albacore tuna and scallop ceviche with salsa verde, madras curry paste, cherry tomatoes and corn chips. And then I waited.

As I stood in line, I struck up a conversation with the guy behind me. You never know who you’re going to meet at a Food Truck event but at least you know they’ve got good taste in food. Turns out, Martin’s an illustrator and has done designs for Threadless, one of my favourite companies! He also just happens to have completed a food truck t-shirt design, check it out, it’s awesome! 

The Secret Pickle Supper Club

Good news for the Toronto food community, 2012’s first Secret Pickle Supper Club has just been announced. It will be taking place on March 31^st at the mezzanine kitchen in the St Lawrence market.

This month’s Secret Pickle Supper Club will mark the dinner party’s 2^nd year anniversary and will appropriately revisit the Spanish theme that began it all. Since the first dinner in 2010, the Pickle has been creating unique dining experiences around Toronto. Every dinner party has a theme, limited seating and a specially designed menu.

Spanish Plate from the 1st Secret Pickle

This time around, the menu will be heavily influenced by host Alexa Clark’s and Chef Matt Kantor’s  recent trip to Spain, where they attended an olive oil conference and tasted their way around the country. Tickets are on sale now!

I have a special interest in this particular Pickle as I'll be there filming to create a documentary on the supper club! It's going to be a really good time. The venue is amazing- the mezzanine kitchen overlooks the entire St. Lawrence Market and Chef Matt Kantor is plotting a modern Spanish menu which will certainly include some surprises.

I can't wait!

Come and Get It

Come and Get It is Toronto's latest pop-up restaurant, for a limited time only, at Queen and Spadina. I recently had the chance to chat with Chef/Owner Jon Polubiec about what he's up to and how long the pop up shop might last. Watch the video for the inside scoop and then head over to Come and Get It for an amazing lunch, a game of MarioKart on N64 and the pinkest walls you've ever seen in a restaurant.

Allow me to recommend the Chipotle Braised Beef Short Rib or the Hawaiian Pork Belly sandwich. And for the vegetarians, there's more than just salad! Come and Get It makes vegetarian gravy to satisfy your poutine cravings. It's all served in biodegradable take out containers and if you're eating in, you'll find condiments and napkins waiting on your table in retro lunchboxes.

You shouldn't need any more convincing to go check this place out, but if you do- Jon and the cooks at Come and Get It are pretty cute and always friendly! Say hi to them for me! ;)

Twitter @ComeAndGetIt416
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ComeAndGetIt416

Fancy Valentine's Day Breakfast

A gorgeous setting, gourmet food and a panel of talented experts are worth getting up early for on Valentine’s Day. Where did I find all of these things in one place? At the “Steak Your Claim as a Foodie” breakfast held at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

Toronto is one of many cities taking part in Social Media Week around the world between February 13^th and 17^th.   The week features lectures, panel discussions, events and tweet ups all focused on emerging trends in social and mobile media across major industries.

On Valentine’s Day I got up extra early for 7:30am breakfast in the opulent setting of the Ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.  Chefs manned cooking stations at one end of the Ballroom and served a wonderful breakfast to hungry attendees. At one station, eggs were poached on demand to create lobster eggs benedict, at another a rich and spicy hot chocolate was served with Hawaiian malasadas for dipping. And who could resist the multi-tiered chocolate fountain?

There's Still Hope, Toronto

Despite the issue with food trucks that I wrote about a couple days ago, Toronto really is a great city for culinary activities.  There’s hope for Toronto because there are food loving people working to find creative ways to bring fresh, local food to the hungry public.

The Social Feed, is just one example of the recent trend of pop up dinners and supper clubs.  Held at a unique and locally focused restaurant each time, The Social Feed gives diners a chance to get out and meet new people on a week night. 

Meals are served family style, with everyone helping themselves to the platters of food that are brought out  Diners are encouraged to relax and share like they would in their own homes.  No need for glassware with your beer, the bottle will be just fine, thanks. 

Most recently, The Social Feed was held at Marben, (a personal favourite of mine) a downtown Toronto restaurant whose menu features housemade charcuterie and individual  cooks names attached to their signature dishes.

Superbowl Wings

Sweet Thai Chili Wings

I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really care about football.  That's not to say I dislike it though.  I'm a fan of anything that brings people together to eat and drink.  If that means I have to watch a football game to make it happen, I'm cool with that.  Superbowl could happen every month and I'd be happy.

As much as I love to eat deep fried wings, I don't like making them at home.  It's messy and the smell lingers for the next 3 days.  Not to mention the ever present possibility of burning the house down when I forget to turn off the oil or something like that.  To save you from that fate, I've adapted Bon Appetit's recipe for fried chicken into an oven baked chicken wing recipe.

And while I usually groan at the thought of people taking perfectly good foods and ruining them by making them "more healthy", I promise you, this isn't like that.  The chicken wings come out of the oven with enough crispiness that you'd be hard pressed to say they weren't deep friend.  Besides, with the amount of butter in the sauce, there's no need to worry abou these being healthy :)