Toronto Foodie Adventures... continued!

Now I'm on a roll, a spring roll that is!

Browsing through my photos from that long ago trip to Toronto, I came across a delightful duo of pics of Abi (of the mighty gastro-literature Literonomy blog) and I slurping our way through big steaming bowls of Phō at Kensington market's branch of cheap n cheerful Vietnamese chain Phō Hung. $CD 5 got you a heaving bowl with generous slivers of raw beef, barely poached in the delicate, coriander-laced noodly broth.

Behold the cheap formica, squeezy Sriracha sauce bottles and those über-cheap chopsitcks that give you splinters as you prize them apart. Hunker down for tasty, cold vietnamese spring rolls

and pho, if you're feeling unoriginal - as I was - you'll still be delighted with the results. Otherwise the menu of over 100 dishes is split aptly into sections (seafood, vegetables, beef, etc.) and the sweet ladies running the place, no English here, will engage joyfully in the grand art of menu-pointing and dubious scribbly-looking bill writing before serving you within about 3 nano seconds of you having ordered. I do so like speedy service!

Oyster Shmoyster in Toronto

I can't write a post about lobster and then forget to tell you about Rodney's Oyster House in Toronto. It's been well over two years since I was there, but the memory lingers on. I do love my oysters...

Rodney's is a paradise designed especially for me and my bottomless gullet.

You walk in through a sober enough entrance: it's candle lit, with mariner's memorabilia all over the place, a huge tub of live crab and lobster on display and a gentleman's club-style horse-shoe bar where you sit and drink stout, or champagne, and in front of you are racks upon racks of crates filled with oysters from all over Canada and America; nova scotia tumthamps, british columbia flat oysters and prince edward island rock oysters. Point at the ones you want, and the number you want and the staff will prepare an ice platter for you, with lemon, fresh grated horseradish, seaweed salad and shallot vinegar and serve it up at the bar. They also do clam chowder, roast scallops on soda bread, pickled swedish herring on rye bread, and spicy vongole soup. To die for.... We had 12 oysters, and the herring and some prosecco and it came to about £23, and sat in the 26 degree evening sun (!!!) watching Torontonians go by...

Rodney's Oyster House
469 King Street West.
Toronto

St Lawrence Food Hall - Toronto

St. Lawrence food market is a traditional covered city centre market with a permanent food hall with deli foods from all the different ethnicities represented in Toronto (hundreds! its fantastically diverse) and a Farmer's Market on Saturdays in an adjoining hall.

THe first is exciting because you'll get a hold of great ethnic foods and all the stalls allow you to taste and try things out, check out the hot chipotle dips at the mexican counter, or Bubble TEa at the Japanese diner...

The latter is exciting because it showcases local Ontario farmer's produce, including some incredibly shaped and coloured gourds (Oh my gourd! exclaimed my friend...), purple peppers, emu oil (as you do...) and of course, peameal bacon, sizzling hot and slathered in wholegrain shallot mustard from a counter which sells over 100 varieties of the condiment!!!

Chat with local farmers, hear some great buskers and organise a great packed lunch to take with you to the lake-front.