As the weather gets warmer, I’m a sucker for these outdoor food stalls. Like the semi-permanent ones that repurpose shipping containers as stores. I love places that allow owners to test different concepts before they find permanent locations or are rotated out by the landlords. Any stores worth trying at these markets?
Let’s omit food festivals and markets which are time-limited or those you need to pay an entry fee (CNE, ribfests, T&T Asian night market, food truck gatherings, etc…). Hopefully the vendor is there for a longer period so other readers can visit.
I’ll start it off with one that opened recently: Hangout Street (https://www.instagram.com/hangoutstreetgta/) at Parliament & Queen E. It seems not all stores are open yet, at least when I visited. The stores are:
TamalMex (Mexican)
Shawarma Dose (Middle Eastern)
Mansafji (Levantine)
Poutine Hub (International fusion)
Sanskriti Foods (Indian)
Sabores De Casa (Portugese)
Gigi’s Love Bites (Breakfast)
I tried mansaf at Mansafji which is the national dish of Jordan. As I’ve never tried this dish before, I’ve no reference. But I enjoyed the difference of this to other other “lamb on rice” dishes from the region. The fermented dried yogurt sauce was tangy and much richer than you’d expect… dare I say fattier. I’ve no clue how they make it. I’ll return for sure.
I don’t know if this qualifies, but the mini food court at 214 Augusta in Kensington Market is similar in principle. A number of places that started here go on to create their own places subsequently. I have quite enjoyed stuff there.
I haven’t yet tried anything at Hangout St., despite it being close to my neighbourhood.
Oh yeah, 214 Augusta definitely qualifies. I’ve tried all the current vendors except for the churros store. My favourite there (and the neighbourhood thus far) is Pico De Gallo’s tacos. All the meats there were good but the suadero, tripe, and lengua were outstanding. They’ve opened a location on Ossington too.
We really like Pico de Gallo, particularly the suadero (really moist beef). The conchinita pibil at Ko’ox Hana is also quite good. We also really like La Chilaca and Birria Catrina.
Initially I omitted Chef’s Hall (https://www.chefshall.com) York & Richmond because it contained a lot of “outposts” of known restaurants. But I passed by today and not only did they drop the “Assembly” in the name, but some outposts have left (some still remain) and replaced with new vendors.
Opening next month is Waterworks Food Hall (https://waterworksfoodhall.com) Augusta & Richmond. I wonder if will be an outpost kind of deal or geared towards more new vendors.
Happy Pops - tried the peach mango with no sugar - was actually a little bland but still refreshing; the coconut pineapple was mainly coconut and better overall.
Pimenton - a regular for many years, they make a tasty paella with green beans, chorizo, and perfectly cooked chicken.
Ostrichland - Chebureki with ostrich meat and spices - delicious deep-fried turnover; oversteamed but otherwise lovely ostrich pelmeni with sour cream.
Tapioca Toronto - tried the Brazilian pão de queijo - tasty, chewy and salty .
The Pop Stand - had the London Fog with Lavender, which had lovely bitter and floral notes.
Gebeta Ethiopian - tibs (very tasty meat with orange peppers), which came with a little rolled up injera and some rice, and some gomen (mainly cabbage), missir wot and alicha wot (both a little bland), and a green chili garlic sauce.
Alma Bakery - oven baked piroshki (ground beef, tomato paste, parsley, potatoes, spices - light moist bread with a great savoury filling.
Monforte - tarragon coated cheese; “black sheep” (ash covered washed rind) - great as always.
Almarium Sours - a place specializing in crabapple products that has been at the market for years. We took home some crabapple jelly and pâte de fruits.
I was back at Evergreen on Sunday. A few of the food vendors are there, including Salt & Tobacco, making thin-crust pizzas in a wood-fired oven installed on a retired fire truck. We had tried the bricks and mortar location previously. There they use an electric oven and we thought the pizza was good, but perhaps not a priority to get back to. However their fire truck version of the margherita was excellent, with a loverly charred crust and a tangy sauce of what seemed like just pureed tomatoes.
