Our 1st stop in Toronto is St. Lawrence's Market. It is one of the 25 best markets in the world, according to Food & Wine magazine. There a Farmers' Market at the North Market on Saturdays and we went there first...
There are numerous products being sold in the Farmers' Market...
Some interesting ones like black radish, bee wax products, empty emu (green) and ostrich (white) eggs...
This is St. Lawrence Hall located next to the North Market.
Then we walked over to the South St. Lawrence's Market... Some history on the South Market: From 1845 to 1899, this building served as Toronto's first City Hall.
Inside the market are numerous vendors selling all sorts of products... It was also rather crowded, probably because it was a saturday... Fresh fruits and vegetables and meat vendors...
Fresh and huge variety of seafood...
Me taking photo with some barrels... I touched the barrel without realising there was a "Do Not Touch" sign pasted on the lower one... YH only told me after taking the photo... Oops!
Shop selling various flavours of Canadian Mustard... There are really alot of different flavours, each small jar is a different one for you to try... And they all tasted rather nice!
In the end we bought one jar with the name "Double C". =p
Different varieties of cheese at a shop and a woman shredding ham on the spot for us to try...
We saw a queue forming at St. Urbain Bagel and decided to queue for some bagels too... While queueing we saw that it has won some awards as one of Toronto's best bagel shops... We bought 6 of them in plain, onion garlic, flax seed, chocolate chip and cinnamon raisin flavours...
Initially we wondered what these are and later we saw a sign stating "smoked bones for your dog" and selling at CAD2 each... Hmmm... Interesting...
Stall selling peameal bacon which we saw quite alot here... It is a Canadian thing and is actually unsmoked back bacon coated with fine cornmeal...
Rice vendor with many different rice varieties... There's a sign over the stall saying rice is the most popular food in the world...
As we walked around we saw this stall with a sign "The Original Peameal Bacon Sandwich" and we decided to buy one to try... There's the peameal bacon and you can choose which vegetables and sauce you want in your sandwich... It tasted nice but we found another stall that sells even nicer Peameal Bacon Sandwich...
This is the shop, Carousel Bakery, with the best Peameal Bacon Sandwich!!! You can see all the articles on it pasted around the top and there are really lots of people crowding around the stall waiting to buy the sandwich... Actually it was YH who saw many people at this stall and the numerous articles that prompted him to buy this same sandwich for us to try even though we had already bought the other one. And there was no regrets as this was really nice!! There is only peameal bacon in it with neither vege nor sauce but the bacon taste was heavenly and it did not need any other things!! =) This is a must try in St. Lawrence's Market!!! Actually later on I realised that I had noted down to try this during my research on St. Lawrence's Market but somehow we missed seeing it... Haha, luckily we did not miss trying it...
This vendor sells various kinds of homemade pasta and sauces.. It also sells cooked pasta at the other corner...
Rice vendor with many different rice varieties... There's a sign over the stall saying rice is the most popular food in the world...
Interesting tissue box holders... But I don't think I would want one... =p
Then we check into our hotel - The Westin Harbour Castle...
Our hotel room... The bed which they referred to as their Heavenly Bed was really comfortable! The large LCD TV is great too!! =)
After resting a while we embarked on a long walk to Kensington Market and Chinatown... More photos of CN Tower...
Air Canada Centre (ACC), a multi-purpose arena, the home of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, and the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League...
The Old City Hall - a very nice building...
This is a streetcar which is like a tram...
Some structures we see along our way...
Campbell House, a building of historical value...
Interesting sight at the CTV building...
We finally reached Kensington Market... In fact it was not very obvious that we were in Kensington Market, we had to refer to our map to ensure we are really there.
Kensington Market has shops with goods from all over the world... This shop has lots of people in it. In fact when you enter the shop, you have to take a number and then you are served when your number is called...
Very colourful rows of houses which are shops selling clothing...
Then we walked over the nearby Chinatown... The Chinatown in Toronto downtown is really huge with lots of Asian restaurants and shops! It is one of the largest Chinatown in North America. You can see all rows of shops and restaurants with Chinese names and signs. Even the streets have names translated in Chinese. There's lots of Chinese people on the streets too! =)
We saw this bakery and decided to try it... Later we realised that this bakery is mentioned in Lonely Planet...
These are what we tried... The usual egg tart and bo luo bao plus sesame seed ball and bubble tea to share... We did not like the bubble tea... The egg tart and bo luo bao are not too bad but we felt that the ones we had in Chicago was nicer...
Then we walked around more exploring the Chinatown area... More shops...
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on the Eastern edge of Chinatown. We did not go in but felt that the building was nice!
As we walked around Chinatown, we saw this restaurant and a sign that says it has North America's Best BBQ Pork. Further looks saw that there are a few articles recommending it... Hence we decided to try it for dinner...
BBQ Pork with Roasted Duck and BBQ Pork with Chicken... It is cheap and good! =p
Me about to tuck into my food...
After dinner we walked back towards Rogers Centre and CN Tower... This is the Rogers Centre, a multi-purpose stadium, next to CN Tower. It is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of the American League and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Photo of a lighted CN Tower taken during the walk back to our hotel...
Interesting sculptures on 2 sides of the Rogers Centre, they are 2 parts to it...
Then we walked over to the CN Tower...
Taken at the foot of CN Tower...
Taking photo with CN Tower as the backdrop... Spent a long time taking this photo...
We did not go up the CN Tower on that day as we felt that it was going to be dark soon. We wanted to go up on a bright and clear day and not to see the night view. Hence we decided to come back another day. We only bought our day passes at CN Tower and left...
Photo of a lighted CN Tower taken during the walk back to our hotel...
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2 comments:
Haha, we couldn't tell whether we were in Kensington Market while we were there as well! We were expecting a big sign somewhere, but there was none.
Yup we were also expecting an obvious sign.. And we were rather disappointed there cos we felt there was nothing much... St. Lawrence's Market was more interesting...
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