T&T Waterfront Night Market

In my  recent post on Globe IMC’s Blog, I talked about Taste of Asia, one of this summer’s first night market/street festivals. If there is anything that I can tell you about these events, it is that Asian Night Markets are the best places to go when you’re looking for a place to try out new foods and take your date (or friends) for an affordable price!

If you are planning to go somewhere this weekend, the T&T Waterfront Night Market is taking place again this weekend. Opening its doors to the public this past Thursday night, tonight will be the third night of the 2011 night market. Located in the parking lot of T&T by Lakeshore on Cherry Street, the event will be attracting approximately 10,000 visitors per night to its night market.

Starting off with a performance by Danny Fernandes on Thursday’s opening night and a Live Graffitti competition in the parking lot, the Waterfront Night market will continue to have many other performances this weekend (tonight and tomorrow night) taking place centre stage. Tonight, the stage will be joined by Kraft Kitchen's Chef Oliver Li, who will be giving a live cooking demo (and off stage, Kraft’s Chef Sursur Lee will offer yummy cheeseburger spring rolls at his booth!)

Tonight the Glow & Shine Custom Car Show will also be taking place. It will feature custom modified cars from all over Toronto – where car owners will engage in a friendly competition and showcase their cars at the festival for the public to see. If you’re a fan of modified cars, this will be something to see.

Coming Sunday will be the 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament throughout the day.

Compared to Taste of Asia & Night it Up, the T&T Night Market is one that is of a much smaller scale. With its debut in July of last year, the T&T Night Market was created not long after Loblaw bought T&T Supermarket. This year, the President Choice booth is handing out free ice cream and PC sausages – if you are planning to get your hands on these free samples, beware that you will probably have to stand in line for a good half hour before you can get anything at all.

The best way to go about a Night Market is to plan it out. If there’s anything I learned from going to Taste of Asia, Taste of Lawrence, and Night it up, it is to bring a group of friends. Why? Strategy. With the vast number of people that you will have to first get through and stand behind in line, it will take close to thirty to fourty minutes per booth to get the food that you want. Annual returning vendors that have never failed to make a great snack and attract many visitors to their booth include: the fresh, juicy, extra plump oysters from Diana’s Seafood, Smelly Tofu Booths, Tornado Potatoes, Chicken/Beef/Lamb Skewers, and of course Takoyaki (Squid balls). If you plan on hitting up any of these booths and trying everything, here’s some advice from both myself and Angela:

1)      Go with a group of friends (4 to 5 people, ideally).

2)      Set up a meeting area that all your friends will recognize and easily find.

3)      Assign an item for each person to go out to hunt for and split up.

By assigning and splitting up food hunt duties, you would have saved yourself hours of line-ups and being up close and personal with many smelly, sweaty people.

For a full schedule of T&T Waterfront Night Market’s Event Schedule, check out: http://www.waterfrontnightmarket.com/features.html

Looking to get there tonight? You can check directions on : http://www.waterfrontnightmarket.com/directions.html

Shuttle Bus information from assigned parking areas will also be shown on the website.

Have fun & don’t forget to leave us a message after you’ve gone this weekend to tell us your favourite food or favourite experience of the night market!

Taste of Asia - July 2, 2011.

The following post was written by Callie, one of henhaochi's co-bloggers on the http://www.globeimc.com/ 's iBlog.

This post is dated July 2, 2011.

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Summer is here and that means food festivals to help celebrate Canada’s cultural diversity will be popping up all over the city! Just last weekend, Toronto hosted its 9th Annual Taste of Asia Festival, Canada’s largest Asian Street Festival.

Located in the parking lot of Pacific Mall in Markham just on Kennedy and Steeles, its East meets West. The Taste of Asia Festival is a cultural food festival that aims to bring as many unique dishes from the far east corners of Asia to the local streets of Toronto.

From the showcase of famous dishes like Taiwanese stinky tofu to Malaysia’s delicious murtabak, the festival included over 100 food vendors, clothing/accessories/electronics booths, and a variety of musical and cultural acts. Kung-fu demonstrations wow’ed the crowd and an on-stage cooking competition hosted in an Iron-chef style had competitors creating unique dishes within a set theme and a given ‘secret’ ingredient that must be used.

Toronto’s Taste of Asia is definitely the place to be to celebrate the summer alongside with food, art, and culture. Being a foodie myself, I can assure you that if you love food, fun, and partying too, street festivals are the way to go. The many vendor booths offer a generous amount of food for a very affordable price.

Plan on going to a night market sometime to celebrate Toronto’s international foods? Some interesting dishes that are worth trying:

• Taiwanese Stinky Tofu
• Korean Spicy Rice Cakes (Duk Bokki)
• Malaysian Murtabaks
• Japanese Takoyaki
• Assorted BBQ/Satay skewers (lamb, beef, chicken, octopus, squid, eggs)
• Tornado Potato
• Sweet Tofu Dessert Pudding
• Fresh coconut juice / pineapple juice
• And much more!

If you’ve missed this opportunity to taste the many international delicacies last weekend, Night it Up! Will be taking place in a weekend’s time, followed by T&T’s Waterfront Night Market in the last weekend of the month.

Il Posto - Simple, Traditional, Elegant

Whenever someone says Yorkville, the words expensive, shopping and celebrity pop into my head. Yorkville is known to be filled with the best designer stores, the most expensive rent per square feet in Toronto, and of course restaurants that know how to bring the most simple comfort foods to the next level. Il Posto most definitely falls in to that. Tucked away in a corner of Yorkville, Il Posto is an elegant Italian restaurant that is difficult to find but an ideal place for a romantic dinner for two as it is away from the rush of the city.

Il Posto's Entrance

Il Posto's Interior

Calamari Alla Grigli

Walking in, you could immediately see a meticulously furnished dining room with dark wood furniture and a semi-formal place setting. It felt a little intimidating when I first walked in but then again we were in Yorkville so it's totally the norm. We went on a weekday so there were a couple people at the bar and 2 couples in the dining area. Because we had a couple munchies at a previous engagement ,we shared an appetizer. The Calamari Alla Grigli is a grilled calamari dish served with a spicy twist. The calamari was perfectly grilled and the roasted peppers were a nice combination with fricasse and black olive. However, the spicy olive oil dressing was slightly unforgiving for me as it wasn't so much of a dressing but olive oil with Sriracha on the side. As much as I can appreciate a modern twist to great classics, this could be labelled as an attempt that fell short. 

Spaghettini Al Frutti Di Mare

For my main, I was craving a big bowl of pasta, so I ordered Spaghettini Al Frutti Di Mare, fresh seafood tossed with spaghettini in a light tomato wine sauce. The combination was delicious, the tomato sauce tasted exactly like how a homemade tomato sauce should taste. It was almost as good as my Uncle Tony's (yes I had an Italian uncle, he passed away 4 years ago RIP Uncle) homemade, packed and sealed tomato sauce. The pasta was cooked perfectly as well, al dente (firm but not hard). I've had restaurants take al dente too far which makes it very difficult to eat but I can tell you I cleared my plate. Il Posto gave a fairly large amount and a variety of seafood. There were mussels, calamari, shrimp, clams, scallops and fish. All of which were well-cooked and fresh. What I really enjoyed was the fact that you could still taste the seafood blend nicely with the tomato sauce. 

Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina

Callie had the Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, a delicious  plate of well made homemade potato dumplings with fresh tomatoes sauce, garlic and mozzarella cheese. I took a bite and I immediately tasted the excellent tomato sauce but with a bigger punch of garlic. The gnocchi was soft and complimented the sauce, garlic and mozzarella well.

Overall my experience at Il Posto would be a 7.8/10. The service and food was good but it wouldn't be a restaurant I would jump to revisit again if I was back in Yorkville.

Let's get busy! : our summer 2011 bucket list

Spring / Summer 2011 Bucket List:

·       

·         Take advantage of Summerlicious 2011 in July

·         Bar Hop and Try Toronto’s 10 Best Cocktails as feature in NOW

·         Find the Top 5 patio lounges in Toronto

·         Be a true Torontonian – go to a baseball game!

·         Beach time! – tanning for Angela & try-not-to-burn for Callie

·         Go to some secluded North Ontario place / park – enjoy the great outdoors

·         Long weekend camping!

·         Niagara Falls – Casino & Wine Tasting

·         Ice cream & Gelatos!

·         Scope out the best cupcakes in TO.

·         Bubble Tea

·         Play board games at Snakes & Lattes

·         Take a bartending class & become mix masters

·         Cross the border for fantastic finds

·         Take out any left-over academic/work stress at a firing range

·         Have high tea @ Windsor Arms à always fully booked >.<

·         Eat eat eat , party party party @ King St. West

·         Boy hunt at Toronto Island Dragon Boat Festival

·         Be dangerous. Go drag racing… well, circuit racing maybe

·         Develop a Summer reading list

·         Milestones Monday Girl’s Night Out

·         Go to concerts (see below)

·         Go to a Rib Fest

·         Watch a summer theatre show or musical

·         St. Lawrence Market

·         Drive-in movie

·         C.N.E.

·         Run a marathon

·         Toronto Festivals!

·         Vacation in August

Toronto Events:

·         Toronto Island Dragon Boating – June 25-26, 2011

·         Mississauga’s Carassauga or Bread & Honey Festival – June 3-5, 2011

·         Glee Live at the ACC– June 12, 2011

·         Katy Perry Concert – June 30, 2011

·         Rib Fest

o   Toronto June 30 – July 3, 2011

o   Mississauga July 14-17, 2011

o   Scarborough July 29- August 1, 2011

·         Scotiabank Caribana Festival – July 14, 2011

·         Night it Up! In Markham – July 15-16, 2011

·         Jazz Fest – July 15-24, 2011 

·         Festival of Beer – August 5-7, 2011

·         Taste of Danforth – Augsut 5-7, 2011

·         Kiss 92.5 WHAM BAM ft. Kesha & LMFAO @ Wonderland – August 14, 2011

·         Canadian National Exhibition CNE - August 19, 2011

·         Buskerfest – August 25-28, 2011

Mother's Day High Tea

Happy One-Week-Belated Mother’s Day!, for all those mothers (including mine) reading our blog. Last Sunday, I took my mom out to Yorkville for Mother’s Day in the afternoon. We went to Avenue Road to pick out flowers and Four Seasons hotel for high tea.

Originally, I was going to order flowers for my mother but since we were going to Yorkville anyways, picking out flowers from the flower market at Avenue Road was a much better choice; and you’ll see why:

Along Avenue Road, there are a bunch of “flower market” stores /combined convenience stores that sell fresh flowers for much less than what you would get them for at your typical floral shop. They will wrap your flowers for no extra charge and you’ll end up getting a better bouquet for a better price.


 

Lovely roses outside the store...

Lots of Roses! Here are 6 roses in a bouquet for $6.99!

Inside Yang's, they have a selection of beautiful Orchids -- my favourite flower! (Angela's too!)

Here's an example of a handpicked bouquet that will costs approx less than $30

Inside Yang's...

The place that I bought my flowers from was Yang’s Flower Market. There are many more flower stores along that street, and everything is around the same price. So, if you’re around the area and you want to buy flowers at a reasonable price for yourself or for someone else, this is the place to go. Not to mention that Yorkville has a lot of good restaurants and shops to explore as well.

Yang's Flower Market

For our afternoon tea, we went to the Four Seasons hotel. A typical tea set costs $38.00 per person. It includes a selection of sandwiches, pastries, freshly baked raisin or plain scones, and your choice of tea. Depending on the season, you will find that you’ll be able to try a different selection of sandwiches and pastries.

Here’s what my tea set looked like:

On the top we have,

·         Chestnut Cake with Cognac cream

·         Hazelnut Financier

·         Four Seasons Tea Infused Chocolate Tart

·         Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookie

Then there are the freshly baked raisin & plain scones (which do come with different jams, lemon curd, and Devonshire Cream).

And finally these sandwiches on the bottom shelf:

·         House Smoked Salmon & Lemon Dill Butter

·         Maple Raosted Ham & Aged Cheddar

·         Spiced Roasted Pumpkin & Green Apple

·         Roasted Portobello and Asiago Cheese

·         Chicken Pastrami and Sundried Cranberry Relish

They serve all your normal standard teas (earl grey/English breakfast/orange pekoe) as well as their own special blends.

This one is the Mountain Berry tea. It features a sip of Saskatoon berry pie filled with currants, raisins & blue berries. It’s a very sweet tea that is fruit based – something you probably wouldn’t need to add sugar to unless you’re me (sweet tooth).

At Four Seasons, The scones are delicious. They are freshly baked and served warm. The sandwiches, on the other hand were unique. They always have one or two standard ones that they always have on their menu and the rest are seasonal selections that will change during different times of the year. My favourite two from this selection are the Maple Roasted Ham sandwich, and the Chicken Pastrami /Cranberry Relish Sandwich – which had a very tangy citrus taste to it.

The desserts, although presented well, didn’t taste as good as they looked.

Oh and here's what the Four Seasons Lobby looks like. 

Pretty? =P

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If you’re interested in high tea, there are several other places aside from Four Seasons.

Some other well-known high tea places are:

Windsor Arms Hotel Tea Room
18 St. Thomas Street, Toronto ON

·         They are very expensive compared to the other tea rooms in Toronto and are usually fully booked during holidays. I tried to book them a month in advance for Mother’s Day and they were fully booked for Mother’s Day weekend.

Moroco Chocolat
99 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto ON

·         Well known for their chocolate desserts and macaroons, they also serve afternoon tea during the day and feature a selection of chocolate desserts, sandwiches, and a wide selection of tea. When ordering tea, they will bring out a whole stand of tea leaves in containers for you to smell and choose from.

Fairmont Royal York

100 Front Street West, Toronto ON

·         Located on Front Street, it is the most convenient high tea place to go to. It is right across from Union Station (no need to go all the way to Yorkville!)

                                                                                                                  

The Team Room at Robinson-Bray House

223 Queen St. South, Mississauga (Streetsville) ON

·         If you are in Mississauga, this is the tea room to go to! Located in the quaint and beautiful village of Streetsville, this tea room is located in a historical red-brick building that was built in 1885. Although quite small, it features 40 different teas and costs at most $18.25 per person (or if you go with the basic tea set $14.75 per person), which is quite inexpensive compared to all the other tea rooms.

That's it for now! Leave us some comments below!


- Callie