remnants

With the first week of classes over, here are some smatterings of the end of summer and the beginning of the new school year.

Last Music in the Park with the Happy Pals. Some good jazz, bluegrass and fun times.

Pistachio and rum and raison gelato from G is from Gelata at Jarvis and Adelaide.

 

Lovely accompaniment to the concert.

Near the end of summer I had a sudden panic/realization I’d have less time to cook once school started so I made a bigger-than-expected batch of tofu chili. Eight portions! These are now in my freezer.

A finer affair: green beans with almonds.

Free TCBY from one of Canada’s telecommunications conglomerates.

St. James Park, always lovely.

Tonight I tried  “cooking without a recipe” (as per Michael Smith). I browned some Italian sausage without the casing and added some sliced Brussels sprouts and peppers. It was pretty tasty thanks to the sausage, but that Brussels sprout flavour did not come through as much. I actually quite like the taste of Brussels sprouts so it was a little disappointing!

Over the weekend I plan to catch up on sleep and readings. Hope you have a good weekend!

Celebrate Yonge

From the middle of August to mid-September, two car lanes out of four are closed on Yonge Street from Queen to Gerrard for the new Celebrate Yonge festival. Instead, there are a slew of spaces and activities oriented to pedestrians. I dropped by the festival last weekend.

There was outdoor seating and picnic tables. Restaurants along Yonge were able to use the extra car lane space as patios.

“The Oasis.”

Fancy a game of chess outside Zanzibar? Ha ha, I do love oversized chess pieces.

There was also a planter competition. The planters were partly used as barriers from the street.

Marvelous Parks Canada area.

I love the concept of public space in the downtown core. It was awesome just standing on the road, knowing that cars usually belonged there. I am not sure if this festival is intended to be a test for closing lanes on Yonge St. regularly or even on a permanent basis. If so, I have some notes or hopes for the future.

Firstly, it wasn’t entirely pleasant to sit so close to the cars. Yonge St. is a main road and full of concrete. Initially, I didn’t understand why they would close off Yonge St. in the first place. Then, I realized that for such a major thoroughfare in Toronto, it was good to have wider spaces for pedestrians as well. I think the key in the future will be vegetation to buffer the cars. Already, the planters helped. A change in paving would be helpful as well to demarcate the pedestrian and car areas.

Second, I wasn’t too comfortable sitting in those Muskoka chairs. I might have been sitting them incorrectly (not exactly a cottage girl) or maybe I am too short for them. I felt like I was falling out of the chair especially since the car lanes curve downwards into the gutter.

My other problem with the event was determining public spaces versus private space in terms of restaurant patios. I though it was great that restaurants could have patios with people who added to the street scene. But part of me was not so keen on the fact that people would have to pay to have access to the patios by eating at the restaurant.  On the other hand, there were some stretches of the closed car lanes where there really wasn’t much to see, whereas you could really see life on the patios. I think overall there was a balance between “private” and “public” space during the festival, but it was frustrating walking down a whole block of more private areas.

Finally, I am interested in traffic studies that should be coming out to see how the festival impacted car travel times.

On the topic of festivals, I revisited Buskerfest after walking down Yonge. Mad hops from the Chicago Ultimate Tumblers!

Say Yeah, Say Oh Yeah (Toronto Buskerfest)

This weekend is Buskerfest in Toronto. Front Street is closed off from Yonge Street to Jarvis. Performers from all around the world come to Toronto to display their talents on stages along Front. There is a fair selection of food and great musical performers as well. Donations go towards supporting Epilepsy Toronto.

Buskerfest is one of my favourite festivals in Toronto. Firstly, all the acts feature amazing and sometimes dangerous stunts or some good old-fashioned entertainment. I love just slowly walking along Front Street and seeing all the different performers and the spontaneity of the performances. It is not an odd sight to see someone on stilts sauntering on the street. And yet, there is a very down-to-earth environment. You can tell the performers just love what they do.

Next, it’s awesome that the festival closes off Front Street from cars for a good stretch of road. Front Street is wide enough so you don’t feel claustrophobic even though there are a lot of people. Last year 1M people came during the four days!

While I will always be fond of the Silver Elvis, the Copper Cowgirl, new this year, was very endearing.

 Dream State Circus from Australia. Fire!

I also enjoyed seeing Scott Jackson, a Canadian beatboxer.

My friend and I split this funnel cake. Mmm, deep-fried batter, strawberries and ice cream.

The crowd around St. Lawrence Market during the day.

Buskerfest finishes up tomorrow for another year. There is a Grand Finale is at 6:30 pm.

Pape to Old Town

On my commutes to work, I noticed that the Pape subway station name is currently painted on the concrete walls while the station is being renovated. Does this mean there are “TTC font” stencils? Mm, the possibilities.

Fallen tree in St. James Park after a storm.

Music in St. James Park, Thursday nights during the summer. Such a pleasant free public event. On this night I listened to The Prominent String Quartet, who played music from the Romantic period.

From Mexico to Asia

Don’t ask how I could smell more like stinky tofu in Toronto than I ever did living in Hong Kong for a couple of months. Well, ok, I’ll answer it: when there are more than five stalls selling stinky tofu within a 500m radius, your clothes and hair will start smelling like it. Iech! or should I say I have not yet acquired the taste of stinky tofu? Let me explain how I got into this situation.

First, one of my favourite parts of summer in Toronto is all the public events and festivals. I love people watching. Since I went back to my parents’ house for the weekend I had to fit two weekend festivals on Friday night.

I started off with the Harbourfront Hot and Spicy Festival.

Construction on my walk over.

I hadn’t been to the Harbourfront in so long. It was a perfect scene with the sun, sky and all the people. After visiting the waterfronts in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and Stanley in Hong Kong Island I think, aesthetically, Toronto’s waterfront is just as beautiful. Well, it’s hard not to be beautiful when the sun is setting.

I intended to go to a taco throwdown, but unfortunately I got there too late to get the sampling platter. I lined up elsewhere only to find out that they too ran out of meat. I asked for a “chicken taco” because I was really hungry. I feel bad since that’s not what the vendor intended it to be. It was still delicious though.

Then off I went to the third annual T&T Waterfront Night Market in the Portland. T&T is a very successful line of Chinese grocery stores in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While I’ve heard of the night markets in Markham, it seems that this is fairly new downtown. The night markets were inspired by the Taiwanese night markets.

I love standing south of the CN Tower and seeing the Toronto skyline.

What a fun night, even if there was way too much stinky tofu. I kid, I kid.

Kalbi short ribs – mmm, freshly grilled and fatty.

Oyster omelette, Singapore-style. They served it with the some sweet and spicy sauce which cut through the heaviness of the omelette. There were a lot of oysters too.

I waited the longest for takoyaki, which, according to Toronto Life, is on the list of foods that you have to try before you die. It is rare to find outside of Osaka, but they serve it in the Scarborough T&T. Takoyaki are seafood balls with octopus and tempura flakes. It was served with sauce, a green powder and white flakes. You put the mayonnaise on yourself. It was awesome just watching the people make the takoyaki. They poured a batter into the molds and seemed to roll the batter into the ball shape within the mold while the batter cooked.

Mango shaved ice.

Peanut mochi.

It seems that with these food events, strategy is key. It can get frustrating waiting in a line. Sometimes you just have to forego the buzzy items. The line-ups Friday night were alright. Some were a bit long, but I managed to to find some that weren’t too bad as well.