Things I love Thursday – Mostly Food, Sometimes Company.

Today was a great day. I discovered a way to streamline a process that had otherwise been taking hours to complete at work, and then the rest of the day’s good stuff happened.

– Food Truck Eats
– Sadie’s Diner and Juice bar (with Donuts from Rise Above)
– Dufferin Farmers Market
– the Lovemuffin Bakery delivery
– PAX East Badges

First JC and I had lunch together, which normally doesn’t happen since we work in different parts of the city, but today was Food Truck Eats at the UofT. Most of the Food Truck Eats are meaty events, or at the very least cheesy. This one wasn’t much different. Even the truck with “vegan” options consisted of “just take the cheese off” rather than “hey we made these awesome vegan snacks for you.”

Unfortunately even the “vegan” pies all had honey in them. Someone should tell them that doesn’t count since I will only vaguely tweet it at them. So ultimately while I was somewhat disappointed with the cart experience, I was very happy that I was having lunch with JC.

We ordered the Tacos (hold the cheese) – 5$
Fresh crisp tomatoes and chopped vegetables, black beans, and soy ground round.

And the Chili – 5$
JC really liked this, but I like his chili better.

And the Portabella Mushroom Burger (hold the goat cheese and the mayo) – 7$
It was a bit boring but the peppers added a lot. I imagine some kind of non-mayo sauce would have really kicked up up a notch.

I think my biggest problem is that I’m spoiled (in general, and with regard to food trucks). Portland introduced me to amazing, exciting, and inventive vegan and explicitly vegan-friendly food trucks. So while these Toronto food truck events are still exciting (because I’m excited about the growing street food movement), I’ve had amazing amazing stuff elsewhere, and I think Toronto is worthy of even better.

We walked over to Kensington Market because I thought I had our Indie Coffee Passports with me, and we could have taken advantage of them at Moonbeam or I Deal Coffee. But no such luck. As we walked into the market, I remembered I had taken them out of my purse. Darn. (Which means our Saturday is going to be very caffeinated.)

Instead we went to Sadie’s Juice Bar (146 Baldwin Toronto) in hopes of finding a Thursday delivery of donuts, but they hadn’t come yet. But there were other Rise Above snacks like this amazing chewy chocolate brownie:

And this peanut butter cup cookie thing.

As we were sitting there…  the Donut Delivery arrived. Success! JC and I each left with a donut, and the perfect mid afternoon snack. JC had the coconut-coconut, and I, being patriotic (or just a fierce lover of maple), got a maple glazed cream filled one. These weren’t my first Rise Above donuts, but they were certainly the best.

Then some work happened. I went back to my computer filled afternoon for several hours, all the while looking forward to my first visit to the Dufferin Grove Farmer’s Market.

Once I got there, I wandered around the market for a while in a little circle taking all the options in. I’ve got to say, I can see the Dufferin Grove Farmer’s Market turning into a regular Thursday activity (at least for me). It’s got such a nice atmosphere and even at 6pm, still had a steady stream of people buying and selling. Though I wasn’t able to find Kalmplex for some Jamaican Pattys as I had intended, we found other great things to eat.

First we tried the molé chili and the best chick pea coconut soup (with cilantro!) from the Zamboni Café (inside the Dufferin Grove Centre)

I left with a bag full of sprouts, loaves of bread, salsa, Black Duck wild rice from just north of Toronto (here’s an interesting article about James Whetung and his wild rice), and that nice feeling of knowing where some of my food came from.

After already getting into bed, I realized that my Lovemuffin Bakery order had arrived. I RAN up the stairs, and checked the designated drop off point. There was a cute white cake box outside, waiting for me to rip it open.

How awesome is it that there is a vegan bakery that will delivery goodies to your house here? And what’s even better? They were actually tasty. I’m really looking forward to some banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast tomorrow. I imagine I’ll be talking about this bakery again very soon.

Then finally, our Pax East badges arrived. We’re going to be heading to Boston for a nice nerdy convention in a week or so, and I can’t wait. Last year I was an Enforcer/Volunteer and it was an amazing experience, but this year due to time constraints, I’m just a normal convention goer.

Boston Trip planning coming soon!