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| T & T Market at Cherry Beach |
Monday July 23, 12:22 a.m.
It was another blistering hot day yesterday, but me and The Dancer's family went down to the
Cherry Beach area to check out the annual
T & T Night Market festival.
I hadn't been to
Cherry Beach since I was in elementary school. My memories of that time are basically fragmentary, but I could remember very distinctly my brother and I getting into our bathing suits and getting into
Lake Ontario. It was like swimming in slightly more liquefied
Vaseline...ugh...and we had all sorts of bugs crawling all over us.
Traffic getting onto
Cherry St. was annoyingly circuitous, though, since due to construction, the car had to split west on
Lakeshore for a few hundred metres, make a U-turn and then turn right onto Cherry. Luckily, there was plenty of parking although things were getting busy, and if we bought over
$30 worth of items at the
T & T Market itself, there would be a
$5 rebate on the parking.
There were some interesting stalls such as the one selling the
Tornado Tempura. The Dancer told me that this was becoming a new foodie trend in
Toronto. Didn't have a chance to try it out but perhaps next time. The market officially opened at
1 p.m. but the annoying thing that I hope the organizers take into consideration for next year is that the stalls should be ready for selling by that time as well, or at least, there should be signs stating that the food will be ready at
1:30. But there was an ice cream truck that was selling free mini-samples....saved by dessert. Had the
Tiger Tail....pretty good.
Our first official stop was for
takoyaki. I didn't expect
Osaka-level quality with the octopus balls, but still, I was happy with my half-dozen. The sauce, mayo and waving bonito flakes were there, and the balls themselves were very hot and creamy inside. Good for me.
The Dancer's husband went for the famous
Stinky Tofu. Yep, that "aroma"was pretty pervasive throughout the area, but we got used to it quickly. But apparently, the tofu itself isn't the stinky part; the pickled cabbage that's put onto the tofu is the real culprit.
But of course, our foodie tour wasn't over yet. Several minutes later, we accosted our stomachs further. There was a Korean food stall whose residents were exhorting people to buy their stuff. Their next-door neighbours were doing brisker business, so I felt a little bad for the Korean stall and bought a pan of their
japchae....
seasoned glass noodles with carrot and sesame seeds.
I actually did buy the
Popcorn Chicken from those next-door neighbours. I used to buy the stuff at my old supermarket back in
Ichikawa City, and was just addicted to them. The nuggets came with a mild, mustardy sauce which was a good complement. I also noticed that
Casa Manila was also a representative at the Market. That was the Filipino restaurant just across from
the Westin Prince Hotel that The Anime King and I had gone to for dinner last month. Would've tried their
Halo Halo again if I'd had more time. I think we all had a good time there. It looks like the visit to the
Fan Expo is a go for late
August. Just gotta find out how much I'm gonna have to shuck out.
Also, for the first time in a few weeks, I won't have to head over to teach a Monday morning class. And I haven't heard anything from the translation boss as well, so it might be a rather quiet day. Maybe a good thing, since it's gonna be another blistering day.
