…there are great reasons to leave the city I call home, from the cold winters to the eternal construction – but most importantly, the food. Not that the food is bad here, but there’s literally a world of flavours out there to discover and by which to be inspired.
This fall, I got away a few extra times. Mostly to eat. There were musicals and family and a wedding involved (my family, not my wedding), but let’s be honest, I was there for the food.
My destinations? Barbados, New York City, Toronto and Tucson, Arizona. I already wrote a fair bit about the New York trip (I left out the fact that I had to run 10 blocks with my bag and laptop to make it just before the doors closed at The Book of Mormon and that 6 hours of Harry Potter on Broadway is a crazy investment that should be studded with a better eating experience than Beyond Sushi, a vegan sushi chain in NY that can’t hold a candle to Sushi Momo in Montreal.
And I’ve been to Barbados a number of times to write for a magazine there called Menu International (you can read a lot of my articles on the magazine’s website).
And last year, I wrote a piece for Fine Dining Lovers about eating your way through Tucson (more on that city later).
But the city that surprised and impressed me the most this year was Toronto. Food highlights included an incredible caramelized crumb on a rum-raisin loaf (I thought it was rum-raisin, but that flavour’s not on the website; could it have been the cinnamon bun loaf?) at the gluten free, vegan, soy-free, nut-free, but very Instagram-able Sorelle bakery and café in Yorkville ; the timed, 30-minute sushi dinner at Tachi, the stand-up sushi bar at the new Chef’s Food Hall in the downtown (after which my confused and rushed stomach sent me for a BBQ jackfruit rice bowl at Calii Love back in Yorkville) and a walk down memory lane with a vegetarian cabbage roll and buckwheat patty at the downstairs Ukrainian store Dnister in St. Lawrence Market (not the one that sells cherry pierogies, but the one next to the bulk store).
Let’s work backwards. That cabbage roll.
St. Lawrence Market
A decade ago, when I lived in Toronto, my weekly trip was to St. Lawrence Market on Saturday morning. I’d run down from the Annex with a bag in my pocket, buy all the peaches and peppers and sweet potatoes I could from the farmer’s market, adjacent to the giant southside building, grab free samples of strudel (in my pre-gluten free days) and sweet potato pies and muffins (in my post-gf days) and then wander inside to taste the full line of Kozlik’s mustards (horseradish or XXX or the fig one were my rotating favourites), try as many sheep’s milk cheeses as possible, buy a cabbage roll or a packaged plate of sushi from one of the fish stalls or the Chinese-owned sushi place downstairs (my standards were lower then for sustainability) and settle in and watch the crowds go by until about 3pm when the fish went on sale, when I’d buy a filet of halibut, some sockeye salmon, maybe some black cod and take the subway home (I just tried to write “metro” instead of subway, proving how much of a Montrealer I’ve become).
Sometimes I didn’t stick around for fish, but getting to the market kept me sane in a time in my life that didn’t make much sense. I was finishing an undergraduate degree in percussion, planning to move to Montreal for my masters, and trying to figure out if contemporary percussion was the way to go or just the easy next step because of a scholarship. Who’s to say if I made the right decision? But I made one and my life is what happened because of it.
Enough about drums. Back to food. I still remember the first time I explored the entire St. Lawrence Market, venturing into the nooks and crannies of the basement, from the bulk rice to the Manuka honey guy (who’ll have you tasting 10 honeys before you make your $50 purchase) to the cabbage rolls. Gosh I love that little Ukrainian store called Dnister, huddled off in the corner of the basement by the bulk foods shop. It might have something to do with my minimal Ukrainian heritage. My mom’s side of the family comes from Saskatchewan and a few generations before that from Ukraine, but before that, Germany. Her grandparents spoke German at home.
Ukraine got sandwiched in the middle like unwanted spam. I feel no connection with the country. I never ate pierogy or sauerkraut growing up. But I wanted to know more about that food (because I always want to know more about food…), so that first time I explored the market, I got a cabbage roll. Basically I wanted to know what the big deal was. Why are these things so beloved by some? (Aside: I made a vegan slow-cooker cabbage roll recipe once; it was disgusting, hence my confusion).
But I chose a vegetarian roll from the woman at the shop. She heated it up in the microwave and doused it in tomato sauce. It was oily and warm and softly chewy. A little acidic from the tomato sauce, a little savoury from the rice and peas inside, and a little sweet from the cabbage. It was comfort food, like a warm sweater. I got it.
I bought the buckwheat burger from the shop (essentially a vegetarian patty with cooked buckwheat and some onions and spice – bland but also strangely addictive, probably from the oily crust).
Over the years, I’d buy the shop’s sauerkraut (long before I started making my own – though theirs is pasteurized, I believe) and try the chicken patties and latkes. So much oil, I thought, with no strong flavours, but I still crave it as though I grew up with it.
In fact, I never grew up with Ukrainian latkes or crepes, like in this photo above. Instead, I grew up with pancakes from a box and Aunt Jemima maple syrup on weekends. Mid-week would come Old El Paso tacos with ground beef. Other nights, spaghetti and a jar of tomato sauce mixed into frozen and microwave-thawed and –cooked (again) ground beef. Not so Ukrainian. But very Canadian. I suppose the ground beef could have passed. either way.
Or what I thought of as Canadian. Because, in fact, St. Lawrence Market, with its Mexican food and veal-parmiggiana sandwiches, Greek potatoes, homemade pasta and three sauces, Portuguese natas, fresh-pressed juice, organic fruits and vegetables owned by Asian-Ontarians, fish ‘n’ chips, vine leaves, a raw-vegan café, Future’s Bakery challah, the downstairs truffles and brownies and Carousel’s peameal bacon sandwiches is a demo of the multicultural side of Toronto that inspired this blog.
Toronto Restaurants 2018
I hadn’t been back to Toronto for more than a year and while not much had changed at St. Lawrence Market, a lot had changed in the city’s restaurant scene. I’d say it’s surpassed Montreal in terms of interesting openings, because while 2018 was a good year for French, small-plates, locally-inspired food with biodynamic and natural wine lists in Montreal, that was basically all that Montreal did, whereas Toronto had Thai places, more exquisite tasting menus, more inspirational Italian, more homestyle Japanese, plus South American, Mexican and vegetarian. Basically, in terms of exciting options, last year it was more, better, bigger.
Case in point: the new Chef’s Assembly Food Hall. Montreal sort of mini-tried to get on the food hall bandwagon with the Marché d’Artisans in the Queen Elizabeth hotel, but I just don’t think the city has the population to support a food hall of restaurant kiosks. The Quai des Eclusiers tries, but it’s not as though some of the city’s best Mexican, Japanese and cupcake shops signed on to sell slightly higher priced versions of their much-loved food to the downtown crowd. In Toronto, Colibri makes hand-made tortillas for their tacos before you eyes and their hot sauces are homemade. You can order a local beer on tap from the bar to go with your ramen. You can even pickup your Foodora order at the hostess station if you don’t feel like being part of the party ambiance of the sit-where-you-like place.
Of course, you could always just make a reservation at Tachi, the stand-up sushi bar people have been talking about. The business model is fascinating. There’s a new service every 45 minutes or something, so dinner lasts 30 minutes. There’s a timer. It doesn’t run long, no matter how many questions you ask the two chefs behind the bar who place nigiri piece by piece on the bar on a banana or pandan leaf in front of you.
You pick up each piece with your (clean) hands and pop it into your mouth while the chef prepares and presents the next one. You’re still chewing and nodding when the chutoro comes after the sea bream. For a while, it was impossible to get a reservation, since the bar only seats about 8, but with so many covers per night, I got the first reservation of the evening at 5:15pm by booking just a few days before. And there were empty (standing) places next to us.
The bar is styled after a Tokyo sushi bar, where you rush to eat quickly. Time is money. There are no stupid garnishes or excess anything. It’s just sushi. Piece after piece. But the fish is top quality. The maguro had real flavour, tender and toothsomeness, which you don’t usually get in your average sushi spot in Montreal. The chutoro melted just enough into buttery, silken flesh (it’s its own marinade), the sweet shrimp was exquisite. It’s a prix fixe menu for $55+ tax, so you usually don’t choose your fish, but since I couldn’t have a few pre-marinated ones (not gluten free) I got to choose a couple extras, like a second scallop (so juicy and sweet) and fluke (beautifully cut, fresh and subtle). My only hesitation comes from getting into a conversation with one of the bartenders about the poor state of sushi restaurants in Montreal, with him arguing that Montreal had better fish than Toronto. This made me a bit skeptical of the place, because while there is good fish in Montreal, there’s nowhere near the variety that Toronto has. There just isn’t a demand or clientele for that fluke or sea bream flown in from Tsukiji Market a few times a week. It’s too expensive and the interest will fade, creating too high restaurant costs. Toronto has more people willing to pay those prices for quality fish that more people are able to appreciate. Until Montrealers increase demand, restaurants can’t justify stocking the variety. And since the population’s not growing that fast, and Montrealers seem to think that current Japanese places are doing a good enough job, I doubt that will happen any time soon.
Would I go back to Tachi? It’s less expensive than other top sushi places in the city, but it’s not as relaxing as a traditional restaurant. I barely got a moment to chat with my friend before dinner was over. We’d eaten extremely well, but the experience was about the food and nothing else. Normally I love that (I was there for the food, after all), but my stomach wanted more even though it had eaten as much. It wasn’t satisfied. To it (and to me), a meal should be more leisurely. It needed time to digest and decide to be full and happy.
So as I said, I went for a gluten free BBQ jackfruit rice bowl at Calii Love to fill up…
On the opposite side of the satisfaction spectrum was Sorelle, a new, very sleek and shiny and Milanese-feeling bakeshop in Yorkville. Oh, and it’s 100% gluten free and vegan. I’d already bought a cinnamon bun at my other favourite gluten free bakery, Bunner’s in Kensington Market, but I can’t turn NOT go into a gluten free bakery. So I asked a million questions about the cupcakes, cakes and pastries and finally went with a slice of the rum-raisin loaf. Doesn’t sound exiting, does it? Rum-raisin loaf. But holy…The vegan butter or coconut oil or whatever it was basted the loaf after it came out of the oven (or maybe before to caramelize it into brown butter-y goodness) was so thick and rich and decadent. Think brown sugar and moist, medium-bodied cake with treacle coating. I don’t care if you think you don’t like raisins. I don’t care that this isn’t the most instagram-able thing at the bakery. This is what you want. (I also bought a gorgeous donut with this white and blue icing and it was pure sugar and oil with zero blueberry flavour; you definitely want the loaf instead – eat with your mouth, not with your eyes).
I just got back to Montreal from Tucson and I miss Toronto so much while writing this. What I wouldn’t give for some rum-raisin loaf from Sorelle…
Sorelle and Co.
161 Yorkville Avenue (multiple locations)
416 234 1340
Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30am – 7pm; Sat-Sun 10am – 7pm
Tachi
Assembly Chef’s Hall, 111 Richmond St. W.
Hours: Mon-Sat
Lunch
– First session 11:15am
– Last session 2:15pm
Dinner
– First session 5:15pm
– Last session 8:15pm
St. Lawrence Market: Ukrainian Store Dnister
416.368.8427
Hours: Open every day except Sunday and Monday, like the market itself
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