Exploring at the Toronto winter Veg Market!

This week I had a fantastic chance to visit the Toronto Vegetarian Association's Veg Holiday Market! It was an event held at Wychwood Barns here in Toronto, and I got the chance to tour around some vegetarian food options, things such as vegetarian and vegan proteins, and sampled some really cool food.

(A tofu bao sandwich I got at the market.)

(Moi, standing in front of Wychwood Barns and the event.)

There was so much going on inside! There were easily a hundred people or so, at 11:30 AM, and the event was scheduled to continue until 8pm! That being said, it was a well-populated event. Let's recap some foods I had!

(A poster advertising almond cheese.)

(Some sampling cups and chips for the almond cheese.)

One thing that is a very big topic in the vegan community is vegan 'dairy' products, such as cheese and milk substitutes. Soy milk or almond milk is simple enough to cover the milk category, but there are some up-in-the-air options for the cheese. As you can see, we got almond cheese, a kind of cheese made out of - you guessed it - almonds! It was a fairly good cheese option, and they had some interesting flavours, however the cheese was actually a little bit grainy, which is not enjoyable for a cheese. The better option we had was the tofu-made cheese, which was so good I actually bought some... 

(A passionate chef frying up some Tibetan momos.)

(The menu of momos.)

While at the event, I stumbled upon someone who was selling a food I had never heard of before. It was called a "momo" and it is a Tibetan dish. As it turns out, a momo is a steamed or fried dumpling generally filled with a range of meat or vegetables (at this event the momos were meatless). They looked very tasty, but I did not try any myself. I will be looking out for any of these in the future as a possible subject for a blog post!

(A menu of vegan perogies.)

(My perogies, cooked and dressed.)

Perogies are very similar to momos in the sense that they are stuffed and cooked. These perogies were filled with all kinds of vegan foods, as it had a veggie bacon, beyond meat beef, and more! I tried the perogies filled with coconut bacon, cheddar, and potato. Now, in case you've never tried coconut bacon, it is essentially smoked coconut chips. These perogies were good, as they had great flavour, but they were a little dry and dense. They could use a little more moisture. Overall, a very good eat.

(Menu images of the tofu bao.)

(The tofu bao, lined up.)

(My tofu bao, tasty as ever.)

For lunch, we decided to stop by the vegan Vietnamese bao sandwich vendors, who were selling some MEAN looking sandwiches. And oh boy they were mean. They were the perfect mix of flavour, texture and protein on a perfect bao bun. No wonder that place constantly had a lineup, this was good. Bao, a steamed rice bun, is traditionally served with pork or sometimes beef, but having tofu on a bao sandwich was just as tasty.

(A miso glazed cinnamon roll... mmmmm.)

(Me and my miso cinnamon roll.)

Sweets, sweets, sweets. What more does a boy want in his life? After this sweet, not much! This was an Asian-inspired cinnamon bun that uses miso as a main ingredient for the spread! Even though it uses the miso, it tastes almost the same as a regular cinnamon bun, if not better! Miso is a salty fermented soybean product, and it created a salted caramel kind of taste on the roll. It was super tasty and I would have it again.

(Me holding some vegan ice cream.)

If I told you the phrase "vegan ice cream", what would you think? Probably not an oat-based cream product that is naturally flavoured! This vegan ice cream had absolutely zero animal products in it, and it is an entirely unique dessert! However, being made out of oats, it is a little bit more gummy than a usual ice cream, and suffers a little bit from it. It also melts very quickly, so it can be challenging to eat. Not my favourite eat of the day.

I really enjoyed my time at the vegetarian market, and after experiencing new foods and new cultures, I can't wait to try new recipes that I find. What should I do next? Mexican? Vietnamese? Italian? Let me know what you think!

Thanks For reading,

Sam