The Tourist's Guide To Toronto: Let's Get Eating!

you can call it T dot the six Toronto the good the city of many colors many flavors and many identities we love our ethnic neighborhoods we love to show off our city and I don't care what anyone says we love our sports teams yes that is our mayor taking in the Raptors game with us we share common loathing of our never-ending rush-hour traffic but we also share our food stories experiences and above all we lean in to our reputation as Canada's center of the universe this is the tourist Sky to Toronto and I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about getting around the city the best spots to visit and how to best enjoy your time here so let's dive into it I think Torontonians afraid chill yeah killer than your parents and everyone's very very polite and very generous like you can go up to anyone in the street and ask them how to get somewhere and they'll gladly help you their streets of this different ethnicities like Little Italy like Chinatown anywhere every culture and every different ethnicity has their own little spot in Toronto if you're one of the thousands of people who fly in Toronto each day your Toronto adventure will start here at Pearson International Airport but the YYZ actually is an inter Anto it's in the difficult to pronounce suburb of Mississauga about an hour west of Toronto so you need to get from Pearson to Toronto's Union Station you could rent a car and drive in or take a taxi but Toronto's rush hour lasts from 7 a.m. to about 8 p.m. so if you drive in you get a lot of this so save your precious vacation time and take Toronto's Union Pearson Express it's a train that runs between Pearson Airport and downtown Toronto is Union Station it's clean relaxing has free Wi-Fi and get you into downtown Toronto and 25 minutes flat and this is Union Station now you're officially in Toronto the best way to get around Toronto is walking or taking a bath because if you take a bus you can see some views like great views arts different places I'd say depends where you're going if you're a to go somewhere on the subway like that's usually pretty good yeah sometimes you'll want to take the subway in this like uber in the last stretch it's summer you can even take a bike build streets like this one when you have big are Street arts it's really really wonderful so there are a lot of ways to get around but the TTC is my favorite and the TCC offers the Presto day pass which gets you unlimited rides on the entire TTC network for the entire day this pass can be bought at the TTC fare vending machines at each subway station just tap the card on the reader and off you go ensure you could visit the mainstream tourist sites in the city and I won't stop you if that's what you want to do but the best way to experience Toronto is by experiencing it's awesome neighborhoods one great neighborhood to start with is finding their market it's small only about a block and a half but there's a lot packed in here ethnic food from almost every corner of the world interesting people and shops of all types like cxp Oh chocolates this beautiful art float auklets are handcrafted by the Willy Wonka of Toronto chef Brandon Olson and artist filmmaker Sarah keenly side resist the urge to dive headfirst into the display and to learn more about this cool neighborhood I cooked with Chef Sean Adler the owner at Kensington's powwow cafe okay so do you want to tell me a little bit more about what an Indian taco is absolutely so this is a like a traditional powwow food it's what I grew up eating when I was a kid going to pow wows with my family so this is our fry bread most cultures have a bread so like basically the traditional one that we do is like a meat sauce it's like a beef chili so we just take all sorts of global flavors but put them on fry bread this is our special today we've got a wild rice pilaf these are our highway home fries these are venison meatballs everything is made here use a lot of indigenous Lee sourced ingredients a lot of our fish comes from Lake Nipissing first nation like our maple syrup comes from Michigan mink a croaker first nation for me I wanted to be part of this neighborhood because from my door I can see like so many cultures right can't even change a lot in the last couple years I think it is always like in a state of transition and change it's like it's a it's a living City right like people in Kensington tend to want to keep it the same but it's never been the same it was originally the Jewish quarter and then it became like very Portuguese and now that it's like almost like little Japan is popping up especially on Bald land while you're here be sure to try out wild side soda it's craft fruit in house and has soda flavors like cedar and sweet grass it goes perfect with their tacos it's no secret that Toronto has a large East Asian population so naturally we have a big Chinatown to manage and it's right next to Kensington Market and it's not just home to Chinese Torontonians you'll find everyone from Vietnamese to Koreans to Japanese out and about in this neighborhood it's one of the best places for cheap eats cool street art people watching and shopping for random knickknacks if you're staying at a nearby Airbnb and need some cheap food to cook with this is the best place to pick up your ingredients and a cheap price Chinatown Toronto is also the place to explore and get outside of your comfort zone curious about the hanging peeking nuts in the window go right inside and have a seat see a dumpling getting stuffed with a mystery filling walk right in and order five and if you like comfort food served in a small hole in the wall type establishment visit Chinese traditional bun for some of the best homestyle Chinese dumplings and noodles in the neighborhood and if you need a new Instagram profile photo walk south of Chinatown Ilan Spadina for about eight minutes and you'll find graffiti alley Toronto's most Instagram Abul neighborhood just remember to post with one leg against the ball leaning back just a bit and look to your left when in Rome do as the Romans do now that you've got your new Instagram photo continue walking down Queen Street and head right into schnitzel Queen here you'll find the best schnitzels in the city because you haven't had a real schnitzel until you've seen Carl hips our schnitzel master okay so we ordered them bien we can either get pork or chicken and I got the pork one today potatoes at almost any time of day this place is slam and you'll know exactly why once you have a taste really love this here because everything is flavored perfectly every single item for the table and also espousal thinly it cook very evenly there's gonna drive it and it's just nice and juicy throughout the entire day anything it's a warm slice of czech republic inside of toronto and a hidden gem the Torontonians like to keep secret so now the secret is settled by the way Torontonians aren't the type to hide from snowy weather if you happen to be in the Queen Street area during our blustering winter months drop by Nathan Phillips Square for outdoor markets and skating also make a stop at the Toronto Christmas market in the Distillery District 50-foot Christmas tree with 800 ornaments and 40,000 lights awaits you you've got your Christmas treats warm cocoa and ice wine all under the beautiful backdrop of this historic district so it's no surprise that over 600 thousand people visited each year I've said it once and I'll say it again the best way to experience Toronto is through its unique neighborhoods so take a detour away from the downtown core and drop by Sinclair West it's one of Toronto's oldest districts because of you're serious about authentic and local you need to pass through here for an interesting perspective on Toronto's ethnic neighborhoods i sat down with Stephen Hellman owner of the foodie scream at Rio Grande Tigres Toronto's best Brazilian restaurant so I saw a really cool tour that you do like on the streetcar Trey yeah so what's that all about how do you we love to incorporate what is local and what is really unique about Toronto into our tourists so we actually started transit based tours rather than your traditional walking tour where we get to ride the streetcar and then we do different themed tours around that so one of our signature ones is the 501 streetcar food tour and then we do another one called the best of Toronto tour where we just kind of choose different neighborhoods that we love and again it kind of keeps it fresh and you can really go anywhere in this idiom highlight some of the best seats so do you know a lot about how this area has changed the last seemed like you know drastic evolution I mean this pocket specifically from Lansdowne to Dufferin you know really used to be Italian everything here was a big Italian neighborhood it was kind of the second evolution of the Italians in Toronto moving from college up here into the st. Claire area so again you know you kind of still see some of that something like the classic places like tamati that still exist and Frank's pizza shop but now you see again like all the different kind of cultures that have come through that are starting to kind of you know open up restaurants and then have a piece of the action so if you had to pick like one favorite food destination in Toronto can you pick one location I thought you know what it's so tricky like I mean I live in King West so like you know what it's so convenient and there's so many great places to eat but you know what the downtown's becoming more homogenized like it's becoming a little more commercial bigger groups moving in so it's nice to get to the outskirts to hit up something like here on st. Clair like other parts of you know even Scarborough like you know other parts of which was different neighborhoods that still have that mom-and-pop shop so if you're looking for a completely unique i opening toronto food experience during your visit stevens your guy and if you head over to sinclair west which wit neighborhood you'll notice the bright flags and balloons of bunch dreams Toronto's world-famous dessert place best ice cream crepes and waffles in Toronto are freshly made right here just listen for the cherry voices of owners theo and dina the sinclair west originals who have been feeding the neighborhood for 30 years even sporty spice and drink have been here because this is what places like st. Clair West are all about legendary people who blazed a trail to create something amazing in the city so this is the Dutch pancake with a side of fruit and ice cream generations of families action compares you know it has to be good again your great-grandparents come here down such dreams desserts taste incredible but let's walk off some of this amazing food and for that we have Hyde Park admission is free and the scenery is beautiful at 400 acres is a lot larger than your typical walk in the park but it's a nice way to escape the madness of the city for just a little bit for the best experience visit in the early morning or sunset hours on weekdays because that's when the park is less busy and the wildlife isn't scared off from the traffic and once you walk through High Park hop back onto the streetcar and mark your map for the st. Lawrence Market recently awarded the best food market in the world yes you heard that right best food market on the planet you'll find everyone from local office workers to concert goers sharing a table here and if the locals are eating here you're in the right place from seafood to sandwiches to deli meat to desserts there's no shortage of options here so take a stroll through the market order anything that catches your eye pull up a seat and enjoy some of the best food in the world all in one spot so that's Toronto you'll find that it's a clean and safe city even if you're out late people here are approachable and Torontonians like to share and show off their city and they embrace the confusingly large number of cultural identities that make up the patchwork that is Canada's largest city and don't be surprised if you find yourself cheering for their beloved Raptors alongside the mayor as for myself I'm gonna stay close to where the food is comment below and tell me about your experience in Toronto and which city I should go to next and of course subscribe and follow me here at the joys of cooking because there are more food adventures coming out

Channel: Joyce of Cooking

Views: 218,379

Keywords: #Toronto, #the6ix, #torontotourism

Id: Ark15NemQSo

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2019