Taste of the Danforth 2015

Sunday 9 August 2015



Admittedly, I've never been to the Taste of the Danforth until yesterday. I had meant to go in previous years, but something always came up (or I forgot). My boyfriend and I started the day at the quieter end of the street festival, first ordering Chicken Souvlaki on a stick for $3. I forgot to take a photo of that one because I was so preoccupied with fumbling between my wallet, my bag, the food and the can of Pure Genius sparkling water in Cantaloupe. I hadn't eaten or drank anything prior to this (and was really parched), so I got desperate and got that drink. I don't normally order sparkling water since carbonated drinks aren't my thing, but whatever.



Our next food item was a classic favourite of mine, which was the Chicken Souvlaki in a pita...


The few times that I had Greek food, Chicken Souvlaki in a pita was always my go-to (or interchangeably, the Beef Souvlaki if I felt like changing things up). You can't go wrong with yogurt, meat, and vegetables wrapped in a pita for me. I loved that it was prepared right on the spot with fresh, soft pita bread. Bonus points to the lady at the front being nice and friendly, talking to us while we were waiting for our food!

As we were walking along the street, I saw several lemonade stands. I had some slight regrets for not waiting to get a drink, haha. But then again, there's always next year.




Already half eaten... oops :P

At this point, the pita I had earlier had occupied a good portion of my stomach. Ordering a whole dish almost immediately was not a viable option if my boyfriend and I wanted to try a variety of things. A first, he was going to order chicken and waffles (because he is a chicken fanatic... so I'm not surprised at all), but thought better of it and ordered the Saganaki Opa and Meatballs. At the time of writing this, I still haven't gotten around to googling what the heck an Opa is made out of. Total greek food n00b, I know :P Considering that I never had it before, I can't really gauge whether or not the Opa was of excellent calibre or not. To me, it was pretty good. It was kinda cheesy and had it not been for the my stomach still needing to digest, I would've taken a couple of more bites. The meatballs were pretty standard, so I don't have much to say about that.





As we walked further down the street, it was getting more and more crowded. There were a few carnival booths and rides, reminiscent of a small-scale CNE. The weather also started looking up as well, as skies were clearing.




Our third dish was the "World Famous Gyro". Again, I never had this stuff before. I wanted to save my stomach for other food later on, so I only took a few bites while my boyfriend ate the rest. I loved every bite of this. The beef was nicely marinated with a somewhat sweet, savoury sauce, and was tender as well. My boyfriend on the other hand, felt that there was too much sauce. I'm going to have to try a full gyros dish myself next time to be a proper judge for that...


Man, at this rate, it was getting pretty hot. We used our umbrellas to avoid the sun beating down on us (that, and protect our skin from the UV rays), which is funny because earlier (before we arrived at TotD) it was raining. Much like that time I went to the zoo, I overheard a couple of comments concerning our use of umbrellas. You know, I really don't get it. People use patio umbrellas at the patio for shade all the time, so what's so weird about using an umbrella to shade yourself? It's pretty much the same thing, except a lot smaller and portable. I'm almost tempted to make a Batman joker meme out of that particular train of thought. If you've been on 9gag, you totally know what I mean :P

Anyway, our last full dish was the fish taco.


It was a good thing the vendor had provided us with plates for these. The moment I bit into the taco portion, it was crackling and crumbling underneath me, so at least the plate caught the leftover crumbs. The slightly spicy salsa sauce and coleslaw/salad was a nice touch to the tasting experience, as it filled in the void whenever I found myself eating the taco piece by itself. The fish had a crispy outer layer with soft meat on the inside, which was further enhanced whenever I so happened to eat the coleslaw with it. I liked this dish too :)


Lastly, before we left, I got some gelato. It's not Greek food, but why not? While it would've been interesting to try some Greek pastries, I wanted to order something cold and something both my boyfriend and I would enjoy. Pictured above are the milk chocolate and "Bacio" flavours — Bacio being chocolate and hazelnut. Both were very creamy in texture, instantaneously melting in our mouths. Personally, Bacio was my favourite because I just love that flavour, and I found it neat that it had some extra bits of leaves (or maybe something else? I don't know what it was exactly!) in it. I liked the milk chocolate too, but I was bit wary since it had milk in its name and I'm a really weird case of lactose intolerant...

Overall, I enjoyed most of the food. It was a bit odd to see some non-Greek restaurants holding outside stalls as well, considering this was mostly advertised as a Greek festival, but I digress. If I come back next time though, I'm definitely trying the Greek fries and at least one of the Greek pastries there (that I haven't tried before). Oh, and I'll definitely line up for the stalls that have more people lining up, so I can actually gauge/differentiate between good Greek food and great Greek food.
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Until next time!

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