My day started with a food tour in Kensington Market, and ended with a visit to the glorious Agha Khan Museum. The weather continues to be perfect for wandering about.

Kensington Market is a diverse community in central Toronto with small independent retailers and restaurants. When our tour guide, Odile, told the group that there are no big box stores in KM, the realization that there is not even a Tim Horton’s elicited a gasp from the three Canadians in the group.  😉

I met up with the tour group at the Moonbeam Coffee Company on St. Andrew Street. Moonbeam is well known for importing its own beans and roasting them on the premises. Today’s fresh brew was made with Peruvian beans; we tasted both regular and iced coffee with ice cubes made of the same brew so the coffee would not be diluted as it warmed, and sampled the Jewish street food boreka – puff pastry filled witih a spinach and cheese mix and shaped like a bagel.

From the Moonbeam we made our way to Takoyaki6ix for octopus and shrimp tastings. Takoyaki is a Japanese snack – chopped seafood is encased in a wheat batter and cooked on a specially shaped griddle. It is served with crispy fish flakes on the top. Very tasty!

We wandered about a bit, learning about the history of the neighbourhood and climbed three flights of stairs in a parkade to get a view of “the back of Toronto.” Odile complained that Toronto is always photographed from Lake Ontario. I gotta say I prefer “the front of Toronto” view I posted yesterday.

We passed a young man painting a floral mural on the street, looked at some of the housing in Kensington Market, and then stopped at the Caribbean Corner for beef patties.

In 1985 there was an uproar about the use of the word “patty” when food inspectors insisted that “beef patties” are cooked slabs of ground meat between two pieces of bread and that the Caribbean community could no longer call its beef patties by the same name. The Caribbean community said that the inspectors were describing a burger, not a patty. A compromise was reached when the Caribbean group agreed to call its product a “Jamaican patty.” The “Jamaican” has now been dropped and the product is referred to as a Caribbean patty. I am afraid my photo does not make this snack look enticing, but it was really very tasty.

Next up were momos at the Tibet Café and Bar. Momos look like steamed gyoza. One was filled with beef and one with vegetables, and both were served with a mildly spicy sauce. Quite delicious, again in spite of my photo! 🫣

Finally we hit Avo Restaurant for churros. This was THE MOST DELICIOUS morsel of the day. Fried pastry dough coated with cinnamon and sugar and filled with dulce de leche – how can you improve on that? We ate our churros standing in the lane next to the restaurant by a truly vibrant mural!

Food tours are not cheap but have a real upside. Would I have ever thought to order a plate of momos or takoyaki? Likely not, though I may have gone for the churros on my own.

An hour and a quarter commute on two buses and the number 2 subway took me to the gorgeous Agha Khan Museum. Like the Art Gallery of Ontario, the architecture of the building rivals the beauty of the collection inside. In one of the reflecting pools in front of the Museum there are letters which form words in reflection: There is a voice that does not use, from a poem attributed to Rumi. I believe this message is part of an exhibition about Rumi that opens the day after I leave Toronto.

Inside the Museum, keeping with the theme of water, there is a beautiful 16th century fountain on display along with many jugs and bowls. Having written my graduate thesis on medieval England, I am always a sucker for manuscripts from the Middle Ages. The photo below is one example. I am astounded by the beauty and size of it. I picture clerics bent over these pages for how many hours on end? It is incalculable.

In the lower level on the way to the underground parking are large portraits inspired by the Seven Saints of Marrakesh. The colour of the clothing represents spiritual introspection the sign says. The plants in the photos represent the wisdom of nature. I’m not sure I really get the symbolism, but I do appreciate the lovely photographs.

I have only one more day in Toronto. It has been great fun getting to know my inner Torontonian!