Toronto Part 2

 

Well here we are, half way through another 4 month stint abroad and it’s been very different at the very least. I’ve eaten some amazing food, seen some crazy places, and met some amazing people. And on top of all of that managed to do well in college grade wise. Not too shabby if you ask me !

Food in Toronto

Luckily we are absolutely spoilt for choice here with food. Whether it be vegan sushi to barbacoa, all of it is very delicious. Just this past weekend, I went to St. Lawrence’s Market downtown, were there is so much inspiration to be had. From massive Tomahawk steaks, in season vegetables, all the way to Alaskan King Crab, so much room for creativity. Within the market I bought a staple Toronto bagel wit smoked salmon, chive cream cheese and “the works”, so basically tomato, lettuce, onion and capers. Honestly it was so good, the ideal condition for a bagel, in a market surrounded by food and people talking, exploring and trying all things food. A chefs paradise. Afterwards I got talking to a few people and found a stand selling baby back ribs, which I devoured. And then cam the dessert of a raisin tart and a Portuguese custard tart. All of this came to about €15 in total, which is so cheap for essentially a full days worth of food. Of course there’s far more food than in the market, for example we tried proper Ramen, lovely broth, thick noodles, and all the toppings. In here there was also unreal dumpling of pork and shrimp. The actual experience of eating at a ramen shop was surreal, as the team at the front of the house all come to greet all customers coming through with a warm cosy feeling, much like is experienced at Noma! Street food here is second to none, it’s just so addictive. Phi and myself got Birria Tacos for about $7, and they were just so juicy and the perfect amount of spice also. Toronto is of course known to be highly multi cultural, street food back ups that statement tenfold and I would highly recommend people visit here for the food as the reason alone.

Sightseeing

As I’ve come to learn, Toronto is absolutely stunning with an ever changing street life, and a breath taking skyline. As part of our faculty we were taken to CN Tower on a day out and we could see all of Toronto from up there, with it being the largest sightseeing building in all of North America. Sam and myself went up another 30 stories to see a bit more and it was class, with a smaller room and a kind of tilt here and there but a bigger field of view. Of course there’s beautiful buildings all around the city, with my favourite being on King’s Street. The Hockey Hall of Fame is situated there and stands out like a sore thumb but it looks stunning, and before that there is a triangular building straight out of a movie but it looks stunning against the backdrop of skyscrapers.

Cuba

For our mid term, we decided we’d go on holidays. This took a solid month of planning before we finally decided on somewhere to go, but we eventually decided we’d head to Varadero, Cuba. So off we went for a week from Saturday to Saturday, LeeAnn, Sam, Anna, Sophie, Pernilla and I ready to have a bit of craic. Sure who else can say they did that on Erasmus! Cuba is a beautiful country full of culture, music, cigars and happy people. Of course there is a few rules you may follow but other than that it’s as safe as back home, or so we seen. We stayed in an all inclusive resort, so free food and drink as well as organised games and shows. It was some craic to be fair, we definitely lived it up.

College

College is going grand, we started new modules in this new term, with myself and LeeAnn doing Advanced Nutritional Cuisine and also Emerging Trends in Canadian Cuisine, which is essentially Molecular Gastronomy. We have guest chefs such as Dustin Gallagher, an ex Top Chef Canada Finalist. We are doing our internship within the college and are just off 2 weeks running the express café inside the college, cooking around 120 dishes a day for students and lecturers alike.