This weekend the Everyman and I converged on Harbourfront for a little-known Luminato event called 1000 Tastes 0f Toronto.
Chances are good that you might not have heard about it because they didn’t seem to do much PR around the event, again. Even my attempts to procure the participating vendors list via my neighbour (who conveniently works for Luminato) by way of their PR firm was still sort of an exercise in futility. I suppose it’s par for the course, though. I didn’t even hear about last year’s event until it was already over, at which point I cursed their marketing department for not informing me of such potential deliciousness.
I unequivocally love street food festivals, if you remove one thing; the people. I’m not claustrophobic, but I hate being in large crowds for the slow, lazy, meandering nature of the mob. I suppose I could just secede and admit that it all boils down to my rampant impatience. I like being able to get where I need to go in a quick and orderly fashion, that’s all. At any rate, after a bit of good-natured jostling, we managed to find ourselves with nothing but food stands in front of us and time on our hands; in other words, it was chow time!
First off, I have to say that all the food I tried was first rate, especially given the limitations inherent in cooking in the middle of the street (with the exception of one caterer who I will get to later). Toronto city council could really learn a thing or two for their A La Cart program from an event like this (coincidentally, a few of them were on hand, though who would bother with them with all the other food around, I’m not certain).
The first complaint I have though, is regarding the setup. Perhaps in an effort to tie it all into the “brand”, every station had the name of the vendor emblazoned onto a white dinner plate… in tiny, nearly impossible to read font. While I definitely eat with my eyes first, I still want to know who is feeding me, and with the volume of people on the strip there were moments that you’re wandering from booth to booth and are five people thick from the actual vendor’s stand. It’d be nice to be able to make a decision without having to elbow your way to the front to see who they are is all. This is especially annoying for me, because I am so short I can’t usually see over the heads of the crowd to gauge anything, anyway.
Secondly, and somewhat tied into the first, the vendors had no consistent manner of presenting their menu options. Again, with such large crowds it doesn’t help if I can’t tell what you’re serving unless I jockey for position. Some stalls employed large chalkboard menus with great success (good idea) while others pasted a piece of paper to the top of their table, ensuring that you had to get to the front of the line first to find out what they were serving (bad idea). I think the event sponsor could have done a lot to prevent this just by providing each booth with proper signage (like a chalkboard) that they could hang off their sponsor logo-covered patio umbrellas.
Lastly, I have to question the bizarre locations that were selected for the ticket booths. The Everyman and I (fearing overindulgence) had decided to walk to the event from our home in Little Italy. By the time we arrived we were starving, having skipped lunch in favour of this. We got to the first set of booths and the sea of tables and there were no ticket sellers to be found. We ended up having to pass the first full block of vendors before we hit a ticket booth. It turned out to be a moot point for us anyway, because we didn’t want anything from those vendors, but I feel like they got the shit end of the stick. Everyone just passed them by on the way to finding the tickets, and who knows how many sales they missed on account of that?
But, I know what you’re really here for, you want to know about the food, so I’ll give it to you. Unfortunately, because the portions (for the most part) were so big, the Everyman and I were only able to sample 7 dishes between us. If this event survives into next year, I hope they consider scaling back the portion size and cost per item a little, if for no other reason than to make it easier to sample more. So, without further adieu, let’s get to the food!
The first stand we stopped at belonged to La Bruschetta, who were serving classic Italian sandwiches on a bun. The Everyman opted for a veal cutlet with peppers, and I selected the wild boar meatball with mushrooms and smoked cheese. Both were massive and satisfyingly delicious and a great way to start off the meal. The smoky sweet combination of the meatball and the cheese was balanced, and the sauteed mushrooms provided just the right hit of texture. The veal was pounded thin, tender and rich without being heavy or greasy. Two noms up!
Out of the corner of my eye I spied the next booth over (Amuse Bouche) serving an Everyman staple, the pulled pork sandwich. I gestured in their direction and let the Everyman go to it. This version was fancified with a tiny toasted ciabatta-like bun and cocoa chipotle barbecue sauce. It was also finger-scortchingly hot, but the Everyman remarked on it’s superiority of flavour, and I just smiled and nodded, not being a big fan of pulled pork (and it’s stringy texture) to begin with.
Next up I saw the massive lines at Dos Amigos, and the giant tamales people were walking away with and I knew I had to have one. After close to 10 minutes in line (during which the Everyman sampled a small plate of what looked like from frozen supermarket lamb spiedini and tasted like propane, from the adjoining booth) I got to the front and was told they were all out of chicken tamales unless I wanted to wait 10 minutes more. I didn’t, so I stuck with a veggie tamale instead. It was also ginormous and subtly spiced, but much too large for me to conquer in it’s entirety. I relished the unexpected extra serving of vegetables, and it really says something when I enjoy food enough that I don’t even miss the meat.
Journeying back toward the front of the vendor lineup, we made our way toward the Globe Bistro stand. Having arrived just prior to 3pm, and the changing of the guard at some of the food stands, we had initially passed Globe on our way in, been mesmerized by their menu, and subsequently noticed the sign declaring they would return at 3:30. I had no intention of missing their grilled flatbread sandwich, so we got in line after our second pass and waited out the 15-20 minutes while Ed Ho and co. set up, and started to work through serving the snaking line. I wish I could say the wait was worth it, but the slow braised pork belly on flatbread with wild leek yogurt sauce, pickled onions and apple matchsticks was sloppy and too dry. It certainly didn’t have the unctuous texture of pork belly that I’ve become accustomed to. It’s clear they were doing a riff on a Greek souvlaki on a pita kind of meal, but the pork belly really ruined it for me. I threw mine away after not even finishing half, but not before it leaked watery yogurt juice all over my hand.
With one ticket left each, the Everyman and I were now trying to chart out the perfect place to end. While in line at Globe he overheard another taster extolling the virtues of the smoothie stand, and got it in his head that he had to have one. After 10 minutes in line for that, he gave up and we were about to go home, when I decided I wanted a little more vegetable and stopped at the Hot House Cafe (an old favourite of mine) and ordered up 2 caprese salads on a stick. Perfect concept, amazing execution and fantastic flavours. It was the ideal way to end our adventure, with the popping cherry tomatoes, sweet boconcini, pungent basil and sticky tart zing of the reduced balsamic drizzle. Heaven.
It’s ironic that what was probably my favourite item of the day was also the simplest one. Sometimes you don’t need all the fancy, gussied-up extras to impress, I guess.
Until next time…
Tags: 1000 Tastes Of Toronto, Amuse Bouche, Dos Amigos, Ed Ho, Globe Bistro, Harbourfront, Hot House Cafe, La Bruschetta, Luminato, Restaurants, Reviews
