From the Pacific to the Atlantic - Crossing Canada by Train
2 October - 5 November 2024

Canada 2024
9 October 2024: Day 8

A day in Toronto

Introduction

The hotel tarrif, although steep, did not include breakfast, and having been underwhelmed (to say the least) by the hotel restaurant the night before, I wandered around the corner to the local "Tim Hortons" cafe and brought back coffee and donuts. After that we ventured two blocks away to the St Lawrence Market. This is a large building full of food shops - vegetables, meat, fish etc. Then a walk up Yonge St to the Eaton Centre to wander past all the high-end shops. We had been here 39 years earlier and our overwhelming recollections were the impossible prices and the overwhelming heat of the place - both memories proved to be correct.

Dinner this night was at the "Old Spagetti Factory" a faux-Italian joint that served various concoctions of pasta. They provide a standard three-course fare in the price of the main. I've had better (both food and service).

Toronto - St Lawrence Markets

That's our room with the gable windows

Clock across the road

Old street lights

recycle your cigarette butts here!

Clearly the gardens are too manicured to allow pets free reign.

The tall and the narrow

It was recycling day

The Pop-up Market

That's the real markets over the road

How quaint - Cape Cod chairs (little did we know how many more we would see and photograph later in the trip!)

The St Lawrence Market

Inside, we found the market quite fascinating, partloy because of the range of foods, fruit, vegetables and meats that were being sold. We inevitably compared it to the Prahran Markets in Melbourne, which we know well - but decided Prahran had the edge. Later in our tour of Canada we made a special trip to visit the Jean Talon Markets in Montreal after all the online hype about them, but we were most disappointed.

What surprised us the most in both Canadian markets was the pricing structure. Some we could understand: Corn 4 for $5.00; cabbage 2.99/head; avocados 2 for $7.00. But Brussel Sprout's (sic) 5.99/cluster; wild blueberries 19.99/box. Fresh blueberries 4.99/box. But what got us puzzled the most was potatoes 3.99/lb; beet's (sic) 2.99/lb or peppers $2.99/lb. Imperial pound?? What on earth?? It was way back in 1976 that the government required all foods to be displayed in metric units. That was 48 years ago. Sad. But at least the butchers were up with the play: Lamb Shoulder $19.50/lb AND $42.98/kg. When you see the difference it is not surprising that the vegetable sellers still try to con you with the lower price.

Inside the St Lawrence Markets

Breakfast on a Bun?

Spices..

Fingerling potato..

radishes..

Avocados: 2 for $7.00.

Sprouts per bunch

An Adventure in Cheese!

So this is Burrata. We had seen it on menus. Why not just call it Mozzarella?

Ahh. Salmon fillet at $23.99/lb (!) or $52.89/kg. I pay $NZ48 at home.

Now that's a useful gadget. A peanut butter stirrer for a mere $26. Maybe I will keep using a knife...

The beef shanks were interesting

St James CHurch and other delights

After browsing the stalls at the St Lawrence Markets we headed north-west towards Younge St. This path intersected with the St James Church grounds, so after avoiding several homeless people (Toronto seemed to have quite a few of them) we stepepd into the church for a look. Then we continued north to the Eaton Centre (it was as overpriced and overheated as it was on our last visit in 1985). After walking back to our hotel for a while we headed across the road for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, a strange establishment where the food was only marginally better than the service and decor.

St James Church in Toronto

The church was festooned with the flags of many countries. We were heartened to see the new Zealand flag, but the Australian flag was surprisingly absent.