Toronto's food scene gets boost from New York Times
· Toronto Sun
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Is Toronto a mega multi-cultural foodie town?
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Well, at least one writer from the New York Times , columnist Elaine Glusac, was impressed after a recent visit, with her winning words published on Saturday.
Glusac’s article titled A Food Lover’s Tour of Toronto , finds her going on a restaurant trek of some of the Big Smoke’s ethnic neighbourhoods, which “offer some of the most interesting and varied dining in a city where nearly 47% of the residents are immigrants, more than double the national average,” she writes.
She begins at Chinatown’s Depanneur, where a pop-up evening supper club offers such Filipino dishes as smoked eggplant salad, green papaya in vinegar, tofu with mushrooms, coconut squash, twice-cooked chicken and slices of pork roast stuffed with aromatics, like a Southeast Asian version of porchetta.
“The unique style of Philippines dining is called kamayan, which means, ‘by hand,’ and is meant to be eaten without utensils,” she writes.
In addition to classes and culinary talks, the Depanneur holds periodic dinner parties and it sounds like fun for $79 Canadian and B.Y.O.B.
Later still in Chinatown, Glusac salivates over a sesame ball ($1) and cream-filled bun ($1.25) at Chinese Bakery, and at Rol San Restaurant where the dim sum and shrimp dumplings were “fresh and warm.”
In between meals, she even visited the Art Gallery of Ontario .
“I browsed Canada’s expressive Group of Seven landscape painters,” she writes. “Behind the museum, Grange Park, with its broad shade trees and Henri Moore sculpture, is popular with picnickers.”
At the park she got “a tasty but unevenly assembled banh mi from the Asian deli Nguyen Huong Vietnamese Sandwiches ($4.50)
For another sustaining breakfast, she went to Jian Bing Club for the “jianbing, a messy, addictive Chinese breakfast crepe filled with eggs, crunchy wonton crackers and spicy sauce ($6.99).”
So many kinds of food on offer in Kensington Market
Glusac also signed up for Toronto’s very own Tasty Tours for its Taste of the World expedition in Kensington Market.
“We tried Jamaican patties, or meat turnovers, from the small grocer Caribbean Corner,” she writes.“Around another corner, we had salty butter tea and Nepalese momo dumplings at Tibet Café & Bar. Nearby, we lined up for birria tacos at Gus Tacos, a breakout hit at the market that now has nine locations, followed by dulce de leche churros at Pancho’s Bakery.”
Glusac finally heads out to the wilds of the Scarborough suburbs.
At the Dynasty Centre shopping mall’s Hong Kong-style Great Fountain Fast Food, she “sampled crispy roast pig ($14.50 a pound). In the same parking lot, we visited One2 Snacks for Malaysian takeout (the noodle stir-fry char kway teow cost $11.50).”
Elsewhere, Manzou Bakery, which specializes in Chinese cakes, includes single-serving cake cups layered with mousse ($4.50 dollars), and at Wong’s Asian Cuisine, the chef-owner, Christopher Wong, wok-fried “chili chicken, a popular dish on his Hakka Chinese menu, ensuring that each ingredient was quickly kissed by the flame,” she writes.
Sounds delish.