Toronto Underground Market’s big debut (Image: Caroline Aksich)
After much anticipation, 1,500 of Toronto’s keenest foodies filled the Evergreen Brick Works this Saturday for the inaugural edition of the Toronto Underground Market. As the sun set, they snacked on crisps and dumplings, sipped local wines, gorged on beef and pork sliders and downed wholesome Ontario microbrews and locally roasted coffee. Some TUMers even shimmied to the music, all while 25 vendors cooked their faces off trying to keep up with the demand (it was an honourable defeat). The vibe was decidedly amusement park, with smiles all around and lineups snaking around corners.
Inspired by the epic all-night food raves in San Francisco, organizer Hassel Aviles set out to give home cooks—and professionals like Guy Rawlings—the opportunity to strut their stuff. By paying a $150 admission fee, vendors were given a table and access to a commercial kitchen, allowing them to get past public health impediments. Has Toronto’s long history of red tape come to an end? Probably not. But Torontonians are learning that there are always ways to get creative with the rules.
Check out our tour of the event »
salmon battle. Is it a dessert? An app? A snack? An amuse-bouche? Who knows? But how can a marriage between smoked salmon, lemon rind, cream cheese ice cream and a lemon dill cookie ($4) be a bad thing?
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Nice Bake Shop: sea salt; thyme and cracked pepper; and rosemary, garlic and sea salt. When Deirdre Crampton and her hubby moved back to Canada from the U.K. (where she operated a bakery out of her home), she longed for good old-fashioned—and greasy—English crisps.
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L-Eat Catering. For those hankering to get some of their canned goods post-market, L-Eat is one of the few vendors with permanent lodgings (located at Adelaide and Brant).
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Tita Flips is a family business that started 30 years ago in the Philippines. Luckily for us, they brought their garlic peanuts (along with a slew of other scrumptious secret family recipes) to Toronto. Diona Joyce’s ukoys—shrimp fritters with pumpkin squash, corn and sprouts—were selling faster than she could fry them up.
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Tartina’s cute three-bite tarts were available in coconut cream or Dutch apple caramel ($2.75).
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Big Smoke Coffee Company doesn’t usually do food (normally they’re strictly into micro-roasting coffee), but they decided to showcase how java isn’t just for drinking. Their coffee-marinated pork-belly slider with Brazilian inspired fixings was much sought after.
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Bistro Filipino’s deep-fried quail eggs.
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Bistro Filipino.
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Tags
coffee, Evergreen Brick Works, Guy Rawlings, microbrews, San Francisco, street food, Toronto, Toronto Underground Market