Remembering White Night.

So this year, unlike the years past filled with aimless wandering, Nuit Blanche had a purpose. That single mission: Food Trucks.
Our plan- get there on time, divide, conquer, eat and drink then begin aimless wandering.
Success rate- 10.

Here's the lowdown. I have a few friends who share my unnatural love of food that comes from vendors- in fact my partner in truck crime was also present to witness my face-shovelling at the Underground Food Market- she is the bomb.

So we agreed to meet at another friend's distillery condo and attack the food trucks for dinner.
So here's what we had;

We began at Cava and had some Chorizo Paella and some cod, bacon and avocado fritters- both were incredible- then we saw the mother ship- Gorilla Cheese. If you have cheese in your title, I want you and the super long line only made the trucks fare more enticing- people don't line up for crap now do they? ( well, yes, the technically do- but still). We got ourselves in line and then took turns perusing the neighbouring vendors spending our whole 20 minute line up shoving shit into our mouths.

We got Bacon Maple glazed doughnuts from Beast, our men brought us baby Chorizo dogs and tamales from an unnamed vendor- or perhaps it was named but the food coma was setting in, we got Peameal Bacon sandwiches from the line up beside us from some other truck, and a Wood burned pizza topped with meat and potatoes. Finally, after 20 minutes of waiting (read: eating) we decided that we would do the unthinkable and bud the line.

So shady, I know but drugged with grease and pork we were not thinking clearly and to cut in 3 people from the front of the Gorilla Cheese line was just too easy for our food manic minds. We did it. I will one day just let people bud me in a long line to balance karma.

Worth.It.

nom nom nom. This grilled cheese was the bomb- we got the OG, and original cheese and bread combi, a bacon and apple grilled cheese and a pesto and mozzarella grilled cheese. D-lish.

I unfortunately spent the whole rest of my night walking around like a pregnant woman clutching her belly and waddling down streets.

After a few more hours sharing drinks with our friends my fiance and I decided to break away from the group and go out on our own exploring. This was our best Nuit Blanche decision to date.

Every year we have a huge crew that we go out with, every year we spend the majority of the night rounding up said wicked crew and trying to move on without losing anyone....

Although the spectacle of trying to keep us all together and moving is worthy of an exhibition itself, it never yields in more than us giving up and getting way too drunk in lieu of the art we miss. Being alone with just him by my side made it possible to actually see things- and things were pretty cool.

We saw The Heart Machine- a pyros wet dream, the tennis match, Soon- my favorite as it felt like an apocalypse approaching, and a few more random exhibits as we walked from the distillery up to Yonge and Bloor.

Of course, as is every year, the true spectacle and the true "art" is watching hundreds of very different people come together and walk around in relative peace (although I read that a man got shot at Trinity Bellwoods so peace would certainly be relative) and enjoying their city.

I love shit like that.

Until next year.....

Yum Tum in my Tum

So this morning I realized that it is October this week. Dear time, please slow down- I am so incredibly overwhelmed in the best way possible by the constant passing of minutes, days weeks, months...eeeeeeeeeeee.

So people, what you should be doing today is getting your grubby hands on a ticket to the Toronto Underground Food Festival- because I went on Saturday night and had Super.Food.Orgasm.

Here’s the lowdown, This past Saturday was the first of hopefully many events to come. You pay 5 bucks at the door (but you MUST pre-order tickets as they sell out fast) and then are treated to a bevy of booths boasting foods that will blow your mind. The foods themselves are about 2-5 dollars per plate and there were 4 custom craft breweries and 1 Vineyard represented- I can only imagine the roster will grow with the event itself.

The event is at the Brickworks- Holy crap have I rekindled my love for that spot- the other weekend I did that mega hike over to it and wandered around it a bit and then got to be there Saturday night. It is a seriously cool venue- there are so many relics and preserved areas of the grounds.

Anyways- let’s get to the food because you should all know what I ate.

So, we began with a trio of vegetarian rice- one was a spicy eggplant, one was a lemon lime rice and one was a coriander rice. To say this was the highlight of the night would be untrue but it was ok- maybe took a spot that pork could have filled but cest la vie.
Next we got into an inordinately long line for what promised to be grilled cheese. When we finally got to the counter, it turned out that you could get some kind of sandwich, a tamale and a ticket for a grilled cheese which you had to stand in another long line for. We got all 3 and took our food to the next line to wait and eat.
Sandwich- pulled meat with coleslaw on a Portuguese pastry bun. This was fucking good.

Tamale- made with chocolate- tasted like Chalva. Don’t know what Chalva is? Consider yourself lucky.

In the middle of our line we ran into friends who were also at the event and they were kind enough to bring us Chorizo tacos in line. Hel-a-good.

The Grilled cheese was a Cornbread grilled cheese with ample cheddar smothered in guac, sour cream and cilantro- this dish received mixed reviews among my friends- some of whom really didn’t enjoy- I thought it was amazeballs.the sweet bread with the tangy cheese and the toppings- a full mouth experience.

Next up was the dumplings. Like a dim sum esque dumpling stuffed with bacon and an egg- American fusion maybe- dare I make that assertion?

I know this is going to sound stupid but the yolk was like heaven- I think cooking an egg is an art form- to make the yolk of perfect consistency is a big deal- too runny is gross, too cooked missed the mark but a perfect egg is like yellow delish. This yolk had some texture but also ran into your mouth and contrasted with the bacon (um, always there should be bacon in shit) and the fried dumpling- So good.

THEN, we had a pork belly sandwich called the Auld Spot- pork anything is fine by me any time, any day.

At that point, despite encouraging from my co-eater, I had to tap out- I literally looked pregnant and my belly was a firm solid. But, by that time there were no lines and the venue had cleared substantially- although some fares were sold out at this point, we both noted that if we came again (which I would have loved to in 2011 but alas the next 2 dates- October 22 and November 19th are already occupied for me)we would come later.

So run, don’t walk tot he following website http://yumtum.ca/ and get your tickets before they sell out- your tastebuds will thank you- for reals.