veggie burgers in Toronto

Julian, The Jew, & Coyote at Kensington Market

Next time you fly to Toronto you'll want to give yourself a good 2 hours to get out of Pearson International. Not that I necessarily needed to be greeted with a box of Canadian Maple Cremes as I got off the plane but it could been a smoother transition.  When I finally made it to the Minority Report cop behind the booth to stamp my passport I felt for a second like I was staring at an actor in an interrogation room...but that movie was in the future, like 30 years from now. A lot of Toronto aside from the prices feels somewhere in the nineties.

From certain points in the city, Toronto looks a lot like Chicago with spurts of a working class German city taken over by lots of Asians. December here most days looks a lot like a London Fog add. everyone's all fit and pretty and groomed. And the restaurants-obviously theres money here but they all stop somewhere shy of something interesting like a clever new Fort Green Brooklyn restaurant. They don't push the envelope. its also normal to wait more than an hour for food and everybody seems fine with it. From an American perspective at least, service here's not the best. But I don't mind. The food here tho has been killer.

My first free morning I followed Spadina to Longs asian market. Health wise at least the food safety here in Canada actually has stricter rules than ours. Interesting. So I wasn't afraid of the bagged whole fish or the 3 ft long salted spear fish or the saran wrapped inverted pork rectum. A ton of things you won't catch most places outside of New York City. Across the Street is Pho Hung. the mass amount of people always eating here is a good sign. Lulu ended my obsession with this mysterious packed house and treate

It was a short walk to Kensington Market- like a separate bohemian section of town. a few local butcher shops where small rows of quail and pheasant and all kinds of game sit in the front windows..A spice shop called The House of Spice was like a dark bookstore with rows of large jars of every spice imaginable. Instead of buying a $6 jar of turmeric, I could fill a bag twice the size for a dollar. Check out 'the Patty King' for a slamming good Jamaican patty-fresh out of the warmer. I asked the old Asian man behind the counter if he had coco bread 'Ya Mon' he says all nonchalant, in a spot-on Jamaican patois. Is he for real?? Try the curried goat patty. also try the callaloo (spinach) patty with coco bread. further down Kensington is Wanda's pie in the Sky. you'll probably catch Wanda giving one of her cake makers a lesson on the perfect pointy merengue. Be sure to order the sour cherry pie.

Wanda

My first of 3 trips to Kensington during the month of December, I also befriended a boxer named Saint Nicholas that lived on top of a mountain of rugs in his dad's rug shop in the center of Kensington. I've been a magnet to boxers and American bulldogs recently...and I have to explain my crazy obsession to owners just so they don't think I'd walk off with their dogs. I think its a sign that I need another dog. Charlie would want that.





In our building here management put up signs in the halls and elevators that forbid Christmas trees or wreaths from the building. It was the beginning of December so management put the word out in advance. its a fire hazard and therefore no flammable tree's.

After mentally preparing for a tree break in, we ended sneaking in a 13 ft tree wrapped tight in string and 2 large white plastic bags. maybe it would look like a carpet??  Anyway that was gonna be our excuse in case the doorman stopped us. we got in! We stuck the tree in a trash can filled with water. Over the next 3 weeks of ornament donations from our friends and a ping pong match and a night we stayed up till 5 cutting out snowflakes from doilies, our living room (and tree) looked like a glowing shrine to Ping Pong, Canada, underwear and bras, and a tribute to Kim, Jong Il. Our New Years eve bash was a perfect blowout before we had to ditch the tree we named Charlie. He was a good tree.

Indoor Sparklers on New Years Eve

For Julians birthday we went to SPiN. Susan Sarandon started this ping pong hall chain first thing after her divorce with Tim Robbins. I wonder if it was something to do with her split...  we also visited the Milwaukee and New York versions earlier this year.  Our journey in pics...

SPiN Toronto

SPiN Milwaukee

New York City

One of us got the idea to take balls as ornaments for the tree So we (accidentally) took a few and cut small holes and they fit perfectly on the tree lights. looking up 20 floors from King St, you could see the orange glowing balls in the middle a skyscraper of just darkness.

I made it my mission to perfect the veggie burger in Toronto. My first veggie burger attempt was in San Francisco... I used beluga lentils, celeriac, barley, almonds, porcini's, figs, and rye bread crumbs. I wanted something different from the way most restaurants prepare veg burgers-which (taste-wise) is usually decent but the texture always mushes up when you bite into the burger. I have yet to taste a burger that, like a real burger, holds its shape and texture in the middle without being too dense. the result of my first attempt? the celeriac made it a bit too sweet and it was more dense than I wanted.

Maybe something mushy wasn't so bad. After all, the celebrated veggie burger at 'Plant' in San Fran, one of the best I've had, is beet and black bean based and had the mush but, come to think of it, I didn't mind the texture. Maybe a veggie burger isn't supposed to be compared to a real burger when it comes to taste/texture. Its it own thing. I went back to the drawing board in Toronto and borrowed this beet idea to see what I could find. for my ingredients I used small diced roasted beets, black beans (canned is fine), roasted chestnuts, cider vinegar, spanish onion, brown rice (cooked in mushroom stock), porcini's, falafel flour, and panko for the outside. The result is a crispy exterior with a semi mushy inside. the falafel flour (as opposed to chickpea flour) was a key ingredient for that crispy and flavorful firmness. The porcini adds the meatiness and the chestnut, with its fried plantain consistency, adds a perfect sweetness. Turns out I can make a good veggie burger.

Only in Canada, are outdoor ice rinks as popular as American ballparks. We couldn't find a good ice fishing spot so we ended up at Alexandra Park's Ice Rink a few days of the week...don't forget your spiked cider!