Eat & Drink
The top 8 food trends in Toronto for 2012
The top food trends for 2012 reflect a diverse and eclectic restaurant scene drawing from many cultural influences. While previous years' trends such as nose-to-tail dining, locavore-focused menus, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, rustic Italian, Canadiana, gluten-free foods, cupcakes and whoopie pies are mostly still going strong, we're thankful for a new batch of food trends ready to mix things up this summer and beyond.
Here's a list of 8 food trends ready to take on Toronto.
Street Food
Street food has arrived in Toronto in a big way in recent months. Loosely connected to the Food Truck movement but distinct in its own right, street food in Toronto has expanded beyond Indian and Pakistani eats to include a wide range of cultural influences and cuisines. Most notable are Avo (Portuguese street eats) and Kim's a La Cart (Korean), both part of the expanding vendor line-up at 214 Augusta. There's also Hawker Bar on Ossington, the just-opened restaurant that sells Singaporean street food and TUM vendors including ESE that cooks up LA style Mexican Food. This summer will also see the return of the Live Local Marketplace at Scadding Court. Cheap, tasty eats? This is a food trend I can get behind. (See also: The Street Food Block Party happening in May)
Seafood
Can seafood really be a food trend? Its prevalence in the caveman diet is testament to the fact it's nothing new, but the wealth of seafood-focused restaurants that have recently opened in Toronto suggests our city is having a fish moment. Hopgood's Foodliner has introduced Roncesvalles locals to how Nova Scotians do things (the right way) and then there's Catch, a fish-heavy sister restaurant to the Rushton on St. Clair. Add to the mix Diana's Seafood Oyster Bar, Fishbar and a seafood heavy menu at Acadia and there's suddenly a seafood landscape in this city where not all roads lead to Rodney's.
Japanese pub food
Following in the obscenely successful footsteps of Guu and its Annex sibling Guu Sakabar, restaurateurs have taken notice that there's an appetite for Japanese food in Toronto beyond Dragon rolls. After a wave of wanna-be izakayas like Kokoni, Izakaya on College St and Fin, the Japanese pub food scene is set to soon rival Vancouver's with a number of west coast eateries scoping out Hogtown locations. 2012 has also seen the opening of Don Don Izakaya near Dundas and Bay and Masaru Ogasawara told us that Guu number 3 should be open by next winter.
Communal dining
To the surprise of the preternaturally shy, communal dining will really hit its stride in 2012. While communal (or long) tables have been surfacing for a while now at Toronto restaurants like the now-shuttered OddFellows or newbies like Ursa, this social experience is being amplified by outfits such as Dishcrawl, The Social Feed and soon-to-launch Foodies on Foot. It's enough for me to think that communal dining is the new dating site. LavaLife, you've been served notice.
Pop-up restaurants
Capitulating on the idea that transience builds desire, pop-up restaurants seem to have moved from fad to trend in recent months. The Secret Kitchen, a monthly pop-up evening showcasing innovative, several-course meals is just one of the many case studies here along with the increasingly ubiquitous Fidel Gastro. Long-time darling of the scene, La Carnita, has been selling tacos (er, art) for almost a year now but is rumoured to be settling in to a permanent kitchen soon.
Home-made sodas
The focus on natural foods shows no signs of waning, and given the war against chemical-laden pops, a move toward home-made sodas was inevitable. This year, look for more establishments to serve hand-made, all-natural artisan pops such as Cheesewerks' mix of simple syrup, fruit and carbonated water and Hey Meatball!'s fruit and veggie sodas or ginger ale (complete with bits of ginger). Not to be overlooked is The Federal Reserve's original takes on pop classics such as root beer, cream soda and cola. I might never drink Fanta again.
Food in jars
As any Dwell reader will attest to, now is the moment of the mason jar. These rustic-looking canning canisters are increasingly being used as serving dishes for food and drink around Toronto, and while it may seem to be a purely aesthetic trend, think of how it affects the dish as a whole. Yours Truly's whipped potato concoction releases wafts of cream and potato upon being opened, while Grand Electric's key lime vasos is perfectly suited to its mini-mason jar. Even at mini-chain Mercatto, I recently spied a conveyor belt of mason jars being prepped for dishes. Are plates passe?
Filipino food
Say what? Yes, Thai food's ugly sister will be surfacing in Toronto in a big way in 2012. You'll be tasting a lot more Filipino food thanks to Kanto from Tita Flips and Lamesa, a new Filipino kitchen opening soon in the old Rosebud space. Helmed by chef Rudy Boquila, the restaurant promises a full menu of richly spiced stews and other traditional Filipino eats. Now, we're just waiting for Max's Restaurant to open locations in Toronto proper.
Discussion
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*wink*
Really BlogTO? I'm actually offended by this.
"You mean Thai's beautiful and delicious sister. That ugly comment is unnecessary"
Oh, please! Get off your high horse, and stop being so politically correct! Sheesh.
If you're true to yourself, you damn well know that Phillipino cuisine is ugly. Just look at Balut (boiled fertilized chicken/duck embryo), grilled chicken intestines, dried chicken blood, grilled pork ears, grilled chicken heads,...and the list goes on. Need I say more?
http://www.blogto.com/toronto/the_best_filipino_restaurants_in_toronto/
That is also why white people always order butter chicken at Indian restaurants instead of the actual good stuff on the menu.
"Well put!! This world has become too "correct". Ugly it is!!!"
Or, maybe ppl like you are overly "sensitive". I bet you that most of those who are offended here--including yourself--are poor, white folks trying to find pseudo meaning in their lives.
Ironic, don't you think? It was whites who enslaved. And, now, it's whites being offended and outraged when they realize that not all cultures are equal.
Pop-ups? Don't forget Come and Get it.
That is all.
I have tracked ur IP address and have notified Manny Pacquiao
May God have mercy on your soul
When will BlogTO readers get their heads out of their bum holes?!
It's an account connected to the Toronto event Eat to the Beat.
Includes:
Antique Foods - Dishes popular in the 18th century are reemerging (ie. pigeon dishes)
Creative Ice Cream Flavours (i.e. candied beet, licorice sabayon, grass & horseradish)
Peruvian Food
"For a Filipino to write 'Thai food's ugly sister' is some sad self-hatin' Filipino sh**. For TO Blog to let that slide is some hipster sh**."
Amanda, I suspect you're white.
I believe that is what we call a stereotype. I'm not saying that poking fun at one's culture is a bad thing but it sends the wrong impression about our cuisine to non-Filippinos or those unfamiliar to the cuisine. Self depreciation does not equate to good PR.
I was offended once but my eyes were opened when my friend pointed it out to me. Ask any non filipino what food they know of. Pancit? Lumpia? ... riiiight.... Ever introduce a non Filipino to Dinugguan(pork blood stew)... Yeah guy!
Cambodian food is Thai food's ugly sister.
If you really think so then sure but in my experience as a consultant (worked extensively with local BIAs and some neighbourhood associations) building off merits rather than jabbing at weaknesses is usually a better policy.
walk into a Thai restaurant, you to eat near a giant buddha near bamboo decor and maybe even a nice waterfall and the waiter who's bringing your food on a banana leaf is wearing some traditional Thai attire. The dish is plated nicely and there's lots of colour on the plate.
go into most Filipino restos in TO and the person behind the hot lamp table is sitting while reading ATIN ITO and she wearing her pajama top while the guy chopping the lechon has a black garbage bag as a shirt. Hours old Filipino food slopped in a styro container and no where to sit for you! I experienced that just last week (and I forgave it because the food tasted great, but STILL)
I'm waiting to try Kanto and Lamesa and I grew up with Filipinos, so I'm pretty familiar - but the comment probably just meant that Filipino restaurants need to pay more attention to the APPEARANCE of the dish's presentation - not that it's innately ugly. Calm the EFF down.
you guys who are mad at the ugly sister comment should demand better presentation for the beautiful filipino food you love from the restaurants that serve it in an ugly way.
I have high hopes for Lamesa and so far I'm hearing great things.
BALUT4LYFE
Down to earth is not something that TO's "hip" food scene has heard of, and it is for that reason that I abhor most of BlogTO's offerings.
In any case, what people have to remember is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Filipino cuisine has survived for eons in its current form precisely because it looks and tastes the way it does, and Filipinos liked that.
It shouldn't have to change to fit some Western perception of culinary beauty.
i'd like them to explain why jokingly referring to blogTO as torontoist's ugly sister is unacceptable, but referring to filipino food as thai food's ugly sister is?? it can't be because it is off-topic, since there are other comments that remain.
blogTO, can you please provide a reply?
all i'm saying is the food needs to look inviting for new people to try something new.
the reason why Filipino food is only getting talked about now is that up til now, it looks like a dog's breakfast to those who don't know how good it tastes (and I reiterate, I like it and even tried the blood stuff).
saying it doesn't have to change because Filipinos like it already is closed-minded in a city like TO. There's gotta be some give and take for new people to try it. Either that, or just agree with the ugly sister comment case-closed and Filipinos can have their food all to themselves.
That's a shame because no one will ever go into that mom and pop that might have something really good to eat.
Goes against any Filipino I know, who are ironically always asking me if I already ate.
The idea that dinuguan (blood pudding), for example, is unappetizing, is a byproduct of an ethnocentric p.o.v. with anglo North America at its core. An earlier comment about how the typical anglo customer will only order butter chicken sums it up perfectly.
The issue isn't in dressing up ethnic food for an anglo clientele. The issue is doing that and claiming it as genuine, sincere ethnic food, because it's not. It's already lost a portion of what made it "it" in the first place, by conforming to another culture's expectations.
Like I said, no problem with the idea of providing a clean, respectable environment to enjoy the food, but to imitate the rest of the pretentious faux-bohemian-chic crap in this city is the epitome of BLEH.
So, you can argue all you want about colonial oppression by way of north american cuisine standards all you like, that's on you. I'm not even talking about that.
All I'm saying is people might not try dinuguan unless you put it on a nice plate with maybe a big green pepper to garnish it or something. Trying to make it look appetizing to those who might have different view of food doesn't mean you're diluting it or making it bland. Its the major difference between steam table food and what I might get at this new place for example.
and, there are restaurants in NYC doing it and getting all sorts of new ppl to try Filipino food for the first time. You're saying that's wrong?
I'm just talking about food, dude.
Thank god for butter chicken (and jerk chicken and shawarmas and pho for that matter)
"We also promise to never, ever, call you a "Foodie".
Thank GOD!
Coz you know Filipino foods don't consist of CENTIPEDES, WORMS, OR CRICKETS that you would see in Thailand.
If you REALLY WANT to know REAL THAI FOOD, you peopel should go to Thailand and see how they cook their deep-friend INSECTS. I'm sorry but if that's beautiful to you BLOGTO then you guys are crazy and should consider shutting down your pathetic website.
As for Filipino foods, we dont have crickets, worms, or any of that sh*t. If anything, Filipino food is one of the most diverse in the world with influences from the Chinese, Malays making it one of the most BEAUTIFUL.
sauteed crickets, gizzards on a stick, tree grouts and yes, even dog are things people in the Philippines eat depending on where you visit.
don't make people think that the only food to be considered is the one you saw when you went to the big malls in Manila. There's so much more.
written by him as no one else know such detailed about my trouble.
You're incredible! Thanks!
I think the ugly sister reference should be retracted! It is not fair to Filipinos, and certainly not fair to put Philippine cuisine in that light.
I am not Filipino, but enjoy Philippine cuisine very much. It has such a long history of influences and should be given a fair opportunity for people to make their own judgements without it already having a preconceived title label.
I am trying to find things to enhance my website!
I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!