Flavor Flirt: June 2013

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Halal Food Festival Toronto 2013

We've been travelling (mainly to Toronto) quite a lot lately. Although I do cook since we stay in a place where there is a working kitchen, but we eat out a lot too. Most of the time we go to the same old 'tried and tested' places, for there have been times when we have tried a new place only to find out that, not only did the food taste good.. but it was downright bad. As in stomach issues causing bad.

Anyhow, every time we feel like eating out, I Google "desi/Pakistani/Indian/halal places to eat in Toronto", and one time "The Halal Foodie" blog came up. It was a good read, also like the food photography. So I started checking her blog for updates now and then. (To be honest, I haven't really tried any of the recommendations, because there were two restaurants that were viewed by the blogger that I had the misfortune of dining at.. and was super disappointed.)

Anyhow, I have this annoying habit of digressing so getting back to the subject at hand..

A couple of months ago I found out about the Halal Food Festival and instantly thought, "this sounds like fun.... gotta try and attend". As luck would have it we were in Toronto when it happened and I was able to drop in on Saturday, the first day of the festival for an hour around noon. We went straight in, got registered, got $10 worth of tickets and went about sampling some great Halal cuisines from all over Toronto. Food items I never thought we could get in the halal form and as tasty as the real thing. Everything was fresh and decent sized for one person. There were information session, live cooking presentation, and lots more that was waiting to happen.

There were stalls for jewellery, clothes, décor, some other stuff. Walking outside there was some serious grilling happening. It was SO hard to pick one thing to try... I finally gave in to the Ribs from Karachi Kitchen, which were A-mazing.

The thing I loved about Sample City was that I could try everything. It was like going into a restaurant and ordering and eating everything on the menu for 10 bucks. No wondering what the yummy looking dish tasted like on the next table :P

Another good thing that came out of this was that I now have a list of the places I will be eating at every time I visit Toronto. Thanks to The Halal Foodie and The Halal Food Festival.

Here are a few snapshots from the event.

I was NOT able to get as many shots as I wanted.

Shortage of time and lots of try :)

Hopefully Next Time!