Toronto Underground Market, Part 2

Last night we headed to the Evergreen Brickworks for the second installment of the Toronto Underground Market. The first event, held last September in the same space, was wildly successful and last night’s event sold out in just a few days! The cold weather didn’t deter anyone and there was a huge crowd of hungry foodies waiting outside the doors at 6pm sharp, waiting anxiously.

Among the vendors were some old favourites (La Carnita was back and so were Comida del Pueblo and Popover Girl), as well as many new additions. While I did a lap to see what was new, Richard volunteered to go and wait in the line at La Carnita, which was strategically placed at the end of a hall of old brick kilns so that their predictably massive line-up wouldn’t impose itself too much on the surrounding vendors. Richard said that as he speed-walked towards their booth he saw people actually sprinting to get there first. By the time I joined him in line fifteen minutes later he was near the front, but the line was easily over 20 feet long by then.

This time they were serving up their famous Voltron fish taco (which I’ve raved about before) and there was a new guy in town: Cochinata Pibil pork taco. The Voltron fish taco was just as perfect as I remember it, and though the presentation seemed to have been sacrificed a bit in the name of speed, which was understanable.  This time around there was a very generous amount of Voltron sauce. It still had that perfect amount of heat and cinnamon, and the breaded fish was crispy on the outside and moist and flaky on the inside. I love this taco to death! I think that I’d request it as a last meal.

The Cochinata Pibil taco certainly gave the Voltron fish taco some healthy competition for my heart, though. The pork was juicy, spicy, tangy and almost tasted a bit smokey, which may have been because the meat was cooked in banana leaves. It was well balanced by crumbly cheese and little pieces sweet and slightly tart fruit, and topped with pea shoots and a ring of something beautifully bright and pink which I couldn’t identify. One of the many things that I love about La Carnita is their attention to detail. They always make sure that the ingredients in their tacos are as interesting to look at as they are to taste.

We visited Kurt at Westside Beef again so that my dad and his girlfriend, who came all the way from Brantford for the night after hearing about the last event, could try his beef po boys. They were just as good as last time!

I didn’t try the popovers from Popover Girl at the first Underground Market, but there were healthy debates about her popovers in the comments on my post. People thought that the flavours weren’t very prominent and wanted the popovers themselves to be served hot. Lora, Popover Girl herself, said that next time she was going to focus more on just a few different kinds of popovers and stuffing them with fresh, hot fillings. When I saw the big trays of hot fillings behind her booth this time around I couldn’t resist finding out how these changes would affect the quality. I ordered an eggplant popover, which was filled with a deconstructed eggplant Parmesan and my dad’s girlfriend got the mini walnut and fig tapenade popovers. There weren’t many people in line ahead of us, but they had lost power right before the market opened and they were playing catch-up trying to get things hot again. They were worth the wait and I really respect a person who takes constructive criticism and comes out on top. When we walked past her booth at 8pm it had a line that was almost as long as La Carnita’s line! I wish that I had tried the porchetta popover since it seems that it was a huge hit with everyone I talked to.

Right beside Popover Girl was F&M Brewery‘s booth. They’re located in Guelph and I’ve heard good things about them but hadn’t had the opportunity to try their beer yet because it’s hard to find in Toronto. I was thrilled to see that they had an oatmeal coffee stout on tap because I love dark beer. The darker the better! And this beer was definitely dark. Not a single wave of light was penetrating this glass. It was a very good stout with lots of deep flavour and a good amount of bitterness. Other breweries at the event were Mill Street, Spearhead (Richard had their Hawaiian style Pale Ale, brewed with pineapples) and Flying Monkeys, all of whom are great local craft breweries. There was also a hard alcohol vendor selling rum, but his booth looked pretty lonely every time we walked by.

I was starting to lose some steam at this point, but Richard wanted to try this Romanian meatball soup from Hai La Masa. It had meatballs and roasted vegetables, and the sign said that it was “soured with bors and lovage”. Bors is a fermented wheat water, and it did have an interesting sour taste, but nothing overwhelming. For the most part it tasted like a comforting homemade soup, like the kind your grandma would make for you on a cold day.

This was a very smart choice for the Underground Market: Bacon Caramel popcorn from the Picnic Society! It was easy to serve quickly, so there were virtually no line-ups even though they were cranking this stuff out like crack. Foodies love their bacon, especially when it’s combined with something sweet. This popcorn was a perfect combination of sweet and savory and had a little bite of heat to it at the end. It went really well with my oatmeal coffee stout from F&M, but probably would have been well complimented by their homemade lemonade, which was being served with cute paper straws. I loved their branding.

We really wanted to go to Comida del Pueblo after tasting their jalapeno corn bread grilled cheese at the last market, but their line-up was huge! It snaked around the space in a semi-circle and I’m sure that it would have taken nearly half an hour to get to the front. They were serving the corn bread grilled cheese again, and this time they also had a water buffalo empananda and banana beignets with a caramel filling. Friends told me that the beignets alone were worth the wait.

Just when I thought that we were done eating, Richard appeared with 3 samosas in his hand. I thought that I was full, but I couldn’t resist. They were piping hot and crispy and they were filled with chicken and beef with lots of bright vegetables. They weren’t ground-breaking, but their ingredients were of a much higher quality than most of the samosas that I’ve had.

For dessert we had a cute little pumpkin whoopie pie from Morsel. It had an amazing pumpkin pie flavour and the filling was creamy and sweet.

How cute are these mini cupcakes from Sullivan & Bleeker Baking Co.? I couldn’t resist this little guy. They looked like itty-bitty ice-cream sundaes! I’m sorry to report that shortly after Richard took this picture of me, I was trying to balance my camera and my cupcakes and my cell phone and I dropped a cupcake on the ground! At least it wasn’t my camera, right?

Why is it that you always find such delicious food when you’re way too full to eat it? We ran into a friend who had just picked up this plate of jerk chicken, slaw, plantains and rice from a vendor whose name he couldn’t remember. The jerk chicken smelled so peppery and good! Another vendor that I really wish I had seen earlier was the one right at the entrance. The booth was run by the Thistletown High School Chefs – A group of high school students under the guidance of a teacher/chef. They were serving a few different types of pasta and while we were milling around the doors getting ready to leave we smelled their food and saw people walking away with the most beautiful looking pasta dishes. I wished that I had room in my stomach for some of it. I hope that they’re at the next market in November. Apparently there were also some lobster churros being served somewhere. I wish that I’d seen those, too!

All in all, this month’s market was a big success. I think that Hassel and the other organizers learned a lot from the inaugural event last month. It seemed less crowded this time (even though it was sold out like the last one) and we were able to stay until 8pm without feeling like we might get trampled. I think that part of the reason for this was that the vendors that they expected to draw the biggest lines spaced apart from each other so that their lines don’t converge and cause congestion. The list of vendors was well chosen with lots of variety and a good balance between professionals (caterers, bakeries, breweries) and home chefs.

The last Underground Market of 2011 will be on November 19th (but there will be more events in 2012). Tickets sell out fast, so watch Toronto Underground Market on Twitter or Facebook to find out when you can buy yours.

Toronto Underground Market, Part 1

The food revolution in Toronto started with events like Food Truck Eats and La Carnita’s pop-up taco stands, and it continued last night at the Toronto Underground Market. 25 vendors without their own restaurants or food trucks came together to share their food with Toronto’s hungry masses. Organized by the ambitious Hassel Aviles, it took place at the Evergreen Brickworks, nestled between old brick kilns.

I loved the Brickworks as a venue for this event. Before Evergreen bought this building and renovated it, Richard and I used to sneak in with our cameras to take pictures. It was strange and nice to be back in this room, buzzing with life, when we had spent so much time there in silence and darkness. It created a great vibe for the market, which wouldn’t have felt quite as cool and underground if it had been held in a more modern or sterile venue.

We wanted to get some tacos from La Carnita, but the line-up was huge. It stretched from their booth in the corner of the market all the way to the seating area in between the kilns! It’s amazing to see the response that La Carnita gets everywhere they go. They’re celebrities of the underground food scene in Toronto. People love their tacos, and for good reason! You can see my behind-the-scenes post about one of their pop-up taco stands here.

The first thing that we tried was the beef po boy from Westside Beef. Kurt, the owner, is one of the guys who is usually helping with La Carnita, but Westside Beef is his baby. The po boy was small, but what it lacked in size it made up for in taste. The beef was hearty and saucy while still being easy to eat while standing, and it was incredibly tender. This was one of my favourite dishes of the night!

Next, we tried some traditional scotch eggs. These were good, especially after drizzling them with some Tabasco, but I think that they would have been better if they hadn’t been so cold. I know that they’re traditionally served at this temperature, but I think that they would have been much better if they were a bit warmer. They didn’t even need to be hot, they just needed to be closer to room temperature. This is probably just a personal preference.

Next up: More eggs! These were bacon and egg dumplings from Les Amis d’Oeuf. I have no idea how they made these, but they were very interesting. The egg seemed to be steamed in the wrapper, and the yolk was still runny in the middle. It was an inventive dish and it was very well executed. This was another favourite. I’d like to see them do other breakfast dumplings for next month’s market.

A nice change of pace was the chicken curry from The Backyard Kitchen. It had a nice coconut taste and a bit of spice and heat. It had wonderful little beads of oil on the top. It wasn’t as rich was I was expecting it to be, but I really enjoyed it. We were lucky to find a table to eat it on, though. It would have been quite difficult to eat this while standing up. This booth was also serving pulled pork sandwiches that looked really good, but at this point we were trying to save room in our stomachs.

We got a sneak peek of some of the dishes that would be at the Underground Market a few months ago and this was one that I was very excited to try. It’s a Latino bánh mì from Comida del Pueblo. It looked very similar to a traditional bánh mì, but it tasted unlike any bánh mì I’ve ever had. The buns are homemade! There was chicken hiding behind the pickled carrots and the cilantro and it was well complimented by a tangy sauce.

Also from Comida del Pueblo, we got this grilled cheese sandwich. Like the bánh mì, it wasn’t your average grilled cheese. It was made with homemade jalapeno cornbread. Sharing space in between the slices of cornbread was the cheese and some refried beans, and on top of the sandwich was some very exceptional guacamole. I would have eaten a bowl of that guacamole on its own. This was a good sandwich, but it was so hard to eat! The cornbread was crumbly and it fell apart as we picked it up. Still, after finishing his half and some of mine, Richard wanted to go back for seconds!

We’d had our fill of savory treats, so we moved on to the sweets. The macarons from Katrina’s were so beautiful! We got the salted caramel and the lemon marscapone, and I wish that we’d bought some to bring home. The salted caramel were especially good. The flavours were a lot more intense than I’ve tasted in other macarons.

This ice cream sandwich was confusing. I wasn’t sure if it was a dessert or not! It certainly looked like one, but the ice cream was made of cream cheese and instead of chocolate chips there were little chunks of smoked salmon and lemon zest in it. The concept was a good one, but something about it wasn’t quite right. When you got a bite of the smoked salmon, it was really salty but there wasn’t anything to balance it out. The savory foods in ice cream thing seems to work a lot better with bacon than with fish.

This was our last treat: Creme brulee from The Lunch Room. I was really full at this point but I did find some room and I’m glad that I did. It was one of the better creme brulees I’ve had. I find that some creme brulees are a bit too firm and Jello-y in texture, but this had the velvety texture of soft ice cream. The custard underneath was flecked with vanilla and the burnt sugar topping was perfectly crunchy. Definitely a nice way to end the night.

This was the inaugural Toronto Underground Market and there will be many more in the future, with Part 2 on October 22. Tickets for October’s market go on sale on Monday September 26th and if the response is anything like it was for the first market, you should buy your tickets soon because they’ll sell out quickly!

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