SWEETERY TORONTO – Front & Portland
Just like Taste of Danforth or Night Markets, Sweetery Toronto hosted Toronto’s inaugural sweets-only food festival this year on Aug 15 to 16th. The event seeks to showcase the culinary arts of local Toronto chefs such as George Brown College Chef’s School, and all of its proceeds was donated to the Sick Kids Foundation.
So… yes I went to both the Sweetery festival and T&T night market on the same day back in August, however since I went on the last day, I figured I didn’t need to rush the blog post and have been delaying it until now.
Since my friends weren’t interested in these kinds of festivals, C and I went on the last days at 4PM and because of this, most of the food at Sweetery festival was already sold out by the time I got there on the day before (Aug 15).
Since it was really humid that day, we got the watermelon juice for $10 with free refill. I thought it was worth the $10, especially with the free refill and the watermelon meats were actually frozen beforehand, which resulted into a super refreshing and hydrating watermelon juice.
Next up C and I tried the crepe cake from Catering Diva.
Catering Diva was offering a matcha (green tea) and Vietnamese coffee Mille Crepe cake that day for $6/slice. I have tried the matcha one many times from Millie Creperie (review here), plus I’m Viet so my obvious choice was the Vietnamese Coffee!
While the espresso and condense milk flavor was really apparent and the crepe was not too sweet either, I was disappointed with the texture as it was not as airy as I wanted. The cake was really dense from being stored in the fridge for too long.
Surprisingly Toast Delight was here as well! I’ve been meaning to try them for so long, however the actual store was located in Markham and it isn’t really easy to me to get a ride up there :(.
Instead of the normal Western style waffle that you would normally have, Toast Delight sell the Hong Kong style egg waffle and to be honest, I have had these in Pmall before and I didn’t like the texture and flavor back then. However Toast Delight have completely changed my mind about egg waffle! The store offers a wide variety of flavors such as original, to sweets like red bean and even savory like pork floss and seaweed!
From reviews, it seems the pork floss and seaweed was the most popular choice so C and I decided to get that. Each waffle was freshly made to order and didn’t take too long to be made. Each “bubble” of the Hong Kong egg waffle was infused with bits of pork floss and dry seaweed. I liked how the waffle wasn’t too salty either, very unique and delicious! I don’t know what’s the real texture is supposed to be like as I haven’t have the ones in Hong Kong yet, the exterior was very crispy however the inside was a bit too dense for my liking.
Before leaving to the T&T Night Market, I decided to check out the pastries by George Brown students. One thing I noticed that they left the pastries out under the sun and it was really hot that day, so I’m not sure why they did that? Wouldn’t the extreme heat change the texture and taste of the tarts and eclair? And how about sanitary issue?
It was such a huge mess to eat this eclair. Since it was out in the sun for so long, the pastry cream already melted and became runny. The flavor was good as it wasn’t too street with a strong tangy flavor from the black currant and lemon almond streusel, however I was too disappointed with the pastry cream….
There were other shops at the festival that I wanted to try like the pastries from Masterchef Christopher Siu, however his was sold out (seriously after just a day?) and he didn’t come back on the last day. Kakigori was another one I wanted to try, however the lineup was approx. to be longer than an hour and we couldn’t wait…
T&T Waterfront Night Market
Next stop was the T&T Waterfront Night Market. To be honest before going here, I know this place will be super crowded and humid, but I haven’t been here for 2-3 years already and I just wanted to try some “fun” snacks.
I went around 6PM and the night market was super crowded to the point it was hard to move sometimes. Most of the stands had a 10-15 minutes line up, however I was unable to try most of the food because my friend wasn’t in the mood for it…….
C and I probably spend around 10 minutes starring at these machines LOL! We were completely in awe as we didn’t know how these were made before.
How can a crunchy and crisp twisted potato not be good?! The BBQ seasoning added a nice touch of flavor but I should have spread it evenly :(.
Another reason why I wanted to go to Night market was because of this Vietlicious Food Stand. Apparently a well-known food blogger was preparing the food there, and being a picky person when it comes to Viet food, I wanted to try lol.
Everything was priced reasonably and cheap!
This was definitely a steal and the squid was huge! While the squid was cooked perfectly and very spicy (in a good way), I was quite disappointed at how tasteless it was.
A bit too small for $5, but I enjoyed it! You can taste the slightly charred lolot leaf and meat was juicy. I believe this was the southern style as it was a bit too sweet for me, but it wasn’t really a big deal :).
Other than those two items, we ended up not getting anything else :(. I really wanted to try some other vendors, however C didn’t want to line up so we ended up leaving after an hour of walking around.
Overall I think just like CNE, Night Market is something nice to go once in a while. If you live in Markham/Scarborough, there are also two other night markets there and honestly you will find every year the vendors tend to stay the same.
Regarding the Sweetery festival, I thought it was a really nice concept and I was quite pleased with its organization. However I do wish there were more vendors and perhaps next year the festival can be hosted in a bigger or air conditioned area? There weren’t enough space for people to sit down and enjoy their sweets, so a bigger seating area was a must! Would I return for next year? Of course! I really appreciate how the event had free entrance for everyone, unlike some other festivals that ask you to pay entrance fee then money for food on top.. Next time I would go on the day of the festival at an earlier time and pace myself to cover more vendors.