Food!

Hard to believe I’ve been in Toronto this long and I haven’t yet mentioned the food—because it’s awesome!

Because people of all different cultures live here, it’d be tough to find a food scene that’s as rich and diverse and Toronto. Personally, I just love the Asian restaurants. As far as I know, Toronto has three prominent sectors devoted to Asian businesses: Little India, China Town and Korea Town. So far, the one I’m most familiar with is Korea Town, because it’s on Bloor Street, right by where I work! There, your choice of restaurants mainly boils down to pricy Korean barbeque joints and wallet-friendly establishments that serve simple entrees. One of my favorites is pork bone soup, though I do admit it was a bit more boney than porky.

When it comes to Chinese food, I haven’t been to China Town yet, but Korea Town has plenty of Chinese establishments. Most of these are cheap and casual eateries, who give you good food for reasonable prices—great for lunch breaks. Probably the best Chinese food I’ve had is the Kung Pao chicken at Dumpling House on Bloor.

With all this talk of Korean and Chinese food, I shouldn’t forget to mention the Vietnamese food here, which I think I prefer to the other two.  One amazing place is called Bahn Mi in China Town. They make amazing Subway-style sandwiches with Vietnamese ingredients. My personal favorite is the lemongrass sausage sandwich that comes with carrots, cilantro and a variety of sauces—all for $3.00! You also can’t afford to miss stopping by Mean Bao, a chain that has various locations throughout the city. Speaking with one of the servers, I learned that a bao is a type of Vietnamese bread that has a fluffy, almost cloudlike texture.  Below is a picture of the pork belly bao. It’s definitely as delicious as it looks, but I’d wager that the tofu one is even better (as a dedicated carnivore, trust me).

What I'm really loving about Toronto is that, due to its large immigrant population, boring old Ohioans like myself get to try so many new and exciting cuisines that are more difficult to come by in Cincinnati. What's more, you hardly ever have to travel very far to get to where the good food is. If that's not reason enough to get out of town, I'm not sure what is.