Currently viewing the tag: "VV Canada"
Last minute low-ball bidding on Priceline is a skill I can add to my resume. Being V.I.V.B. (very important vegan bloggers), we needed a safe haven to recuperate from a long day of eating. Luckily, the boutique Indigo Hotel gave us a $100 room for about $50 bucks. After some restful sleep, an invigorating session in the sauna and some much needed exercise in the pool, we were ready for another day of eating.
For breakfast on a beautiful Saturday morning we stopped at Hibiscus in the bustling area of Kensington Market, a cute and hip neighborhood in downtown Toronto. I must admit that this was not our first choice for morning eats. We tried to go to Fressen for their brunch menu, which had me at “tofu omelette”, but they were closed. So Hibiscus it was. It was a delicious stop! I was thankful we were able to try this option, which otherwise would have not made the cut due to time restrictions.
Hibiscus is predominantly a creperie. Correction: predominantly a vegan creperie. To get more taste for our CAD, we split a sweet and a savory. Everything at Hibiscus; the crepes, coffee, sample treat by the register, ambiance and service; was great. Above is our savory crepe: Chutney, Pecan & Pear–a vegan pesto, fresh greens, sliced pear and pecan with some Daiya. It was more a sweet and savory crepe after a drizzle of agave and a sprinkle of cinnamon. So very good.
And the sweet! A Banana & {Vegan} Nutella–sliced banana, dark chocolate and hazelnuts, chocolate chips dusted with cocoa and powdered sugar. So. Darn. Good. Dare I say that there was a bit too much chocolate, however? There I said it. Both crepes had great texture, thin like a true crepe. [Not pancakes called crepes (worst offender: Caravan of Dreams: see here from my 2008 post)] Thanks, Hibiscus. Onward and outward, we cut across Toronto’s grid for our next sweet fix.
Bunners.
I’m going to say it again, Bunners. Bunners is an all-vegan and gluten-free bakery in The Junction in Toronto. Like the photo collage of my amazing cupcake above illustrates, they make a heavenly cupcake. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of its pretty self. Then I bit it…
I have had a ton of vegan cupcakes in my lifetime. Bunners is up there as one of the best. Simply put, it’s got a great taste, scoring maximum cupcake points for a unique and nuanced flavor. Like Eco Bella Bakery in Rochester (post here), Bunners is not superficial sugarfest. There is a taste, there is texture and it’s their own recipe clearly. Their frosting is not a gritty pile of confectionary sugar. There is more to it. Overall, 5 stars on the cupcake scale.
Besides cupcakes, they’ve got a whole bunch of other baked goods like cinnamon buns, muffins, cookies and donuts.
Given I won’t soon be back in Toronto, I should have stocked up.
Thanks, Toronto! For the amazing vegan eats and for Jeff Mangum. Now it’s back to The States!
Quick! Name as many starches as you can in this dish from the all-vegan One Love in Toronto, Canada.
I’ll help you. 1) Green banana, steamed… 2) sweet potato… 3) yucca… 4) yellow yam… 5) plantain, as well as cooked greens and some fresh avocado slices. As the darling name implies, One Love is a Caribbean take-out restaurant, bringing their unique Ital cuisine to the very diverse Seaton Village neighborhood of Toronto.
With its gorgeous mural, One Love’s hard to miss. The place’s atmosphere is calm and benevolent and its food, simple and delicious. After all, it was 2009′s Critics’ Pick for Best Vegan restaurant in Now Magazine, Toronto’s Village Voice-equivalent. Prices are a tad high, but we found that to be true of everything in Toronto (No joke, 75$ CAD to fill up the car. It was $50-ish in The States.).. but luckily not true of our parking ticket.
Though I had created the loose itinerary for our last summer hurrah to Toronto, it was CandyPenny‘s keen eye who caught sight of the v-bomb as we ventured down the eclectic Bloor street for the umpteenth time and luckily we were able to stop and eat. The Hogtown Vegan, an all-vegan restaurant serving scrumptious comfort food… barely a month and a half old… simply blew us away.
Though we were taken aback by the horrid traffic on the QEW, a gazillion lane highway connecting Buffalo, New York with Toronto, and confused by the hectic metropolis we battled through at the mercy of our GPS, we were so impressed with what we ate. Hogtown Vegan was the perfect remedy for the urban sprawl. From the brainchildren of Hot Beans, an all-vegan Mexican take-out and donut shop in the hip Kensington Market, and Hello Vegan zine, comes some thoughtful grub. We split the roasted sweet potato sandwich: roasted sweet potato with some fresh greens, dressed with a tangy drizzle and some pepitas for texture. Collards on the side. So damn good.
Behold their fancy-pants fries! Housemade cheese, housemade cashew sour cream, housemade “bacon” bits (see the trend? Housemade makes me feel as good as “all-vegan”) and some green onion. Unbelievable. Can I reiterate how happy I am they are not relying on Daiya for cheese or Tofutti for sour cream? If I wanted store-bought, I’d go to the store.
These made us happy. But we had to run…
It was time to head to the Trinity St. Paul’s United Church to see the one and only Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. Yes, the sought-after tickets I nabbed in late February (blog after-math here) were finally picked up at will-call. Though we had driven by the church earlier, frightened by the length of the line, we hurried in after dinner easily and secured an upper level pew to watch the show. It was a gorgeous setting to finally see him live.
The show, as expected, was fantastic. His powerful and familiar voice traveled high in the domed steeple of the church leaving me stupefied and 16 again… when I traveled for music, when it was that good. The polite crowd and I were on the same wavelength, just so happy to see him. Not a sea of cell phones cameras, in fact I saw none during his hour-ish set and encore. But I had to snap something to take home with me.
Being the significant other of a JetBlue employee, I am awarded his flight benefits. Without the variable of being able to afford airfare, spontaneous excursions will be a-plenty this summer as I continue to struggle with settling into normal life here, otherwise know as work. For our first air venture together, we chose Buffalo. Not at all a glamorous destination but one that afforded a doable weekend itinerary of thrifting, nature and food.
Opting for taking the extra charge of a GPS system in the rental car, the otherwise unknown terrain of Western NY became an easy, almost disturbingly mindless minor roadtrip. First stop was the Salvation Army Thrift located at 2196 Seneca street. Typical, by Salvy’s standards, I snatched up more unnecessary decorative purchases for my apartment, including a huge pristine matador and bull wall tapestry, and a turtle planter, and some more clothing that will most probably fit me awkwardly. Also in my goody bag the first of what became a reoccurring theme of thrifting in Buffalo, a 80′s exercise leotard.
Cognizant of Salvy’s 6 p.m. closing time, we hit another one at 1080 Military road. This huge store did not live up to the parking lot excitement however. I nabbed a cross-stitch kit for my mouse pad, a Moby Dick paperback with impressive cover art and a one of them ironic and witty vintage tees that sell in NYC for double digits. More impressive were the two Amvets thrifts that were next programmed into the GPS, one at 1833 Elmwood and the other at 1900 Ridge road.
Buffalo is indeed a strange city. Being college is out, the place was a ghost town, save for many day mayors. Along with the many interesting sociological observations, this home seemed to be the personification of the weirdness in the air: vacant yet populated.
Real vegan offerings are slim in Buffalo but many websites reported Betty’s as vegan-friendly. After a yummy lentil soup & a Boylan cola, I ordered the only item on the menu that could be made vegan and remain substantive, the grilled veggie wrap (its official name was yummwich). Despite it’s lack of dressing or accompaniment, the wrap was delicious- stuffed with sweet potato (a nice touch), onion, pepper, mushroom and the usual suspects. It never sogged and fall-out was minimal, two problems that usually turn me off to ordering wraps.
The following it was onward to one of the great wonders of the world, Niagara Falls where I rainbow chased obsessively. Not since working in Chelsea had I seen so many rainbows! It was a beautiful day to see the falls, and relatively uncrowded to boot.
Before heading back to New York, New York, it was mealtime again. New York Restaurant offer a full vegetarian menu of mock meats. Pictured here is the sweet corn and bean curd soup I order at these joints with the hope it’ll be like Seattle’s Bamboo Garden, and almond beef on top of ginger rice. Yummy but lingered heavy in the belly making the silly shenanigans of Clifton Hill less enjoyable.
Vegan Reporting By Location
