Reply With QuoteI hope this goes through. Toronto could use more variety.
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Adding variety to Toronto's street food...
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Fewer hot dogs, more samosas by summer?
DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR
Apr 04, 2007 04:30 AM
Matthew Chung
Staff Reporter
Empanadas outside the Rogers Centre? Samosas in front of the ROM? How about frog-legs porridge after clubbing on Richmond St.?
The diversity of street foods vendors could sell in Toronto seems limitless in this multicultural city.
And if Toronto Councillor John Filion's goal is realized, some of those dishes could be coming to your neighbourhood.
In an interview with the Star, Filion (Ward 23, Willowdale), said he is hoping to turn up the heat on the provincial health ministry, whose regulations stand in the way of his two years of planning.
There will be healthy, affordable and diverse foods sold on city streets this summer, he says, even without Queen's Park's blessing.
"I'm going to stage an event which will show what we could be serving on the streets of Toronto if the province would get back to us and be responsive in adjusting (provincial health) regulations," Filion said.
"Many cities have great street food particular to their cultures. Toronto could become the city with great street food from around the world."
Current food regulations restrict vendors to serving "pre-cooked meat products in the form of wieners or similar sausage products served on a bun."
Filion, chair of the Toronto Board of Health, said he will ask the board later this month to endorse putting on one or more special events this summer to showcase foods from Toronto's diverse cultures.
The street-food event will get around provincial regulations that date to 1984 with a special permit, Filion says, similar to what's granted for the Taste of the Danforth festival.
He will also ask the board to formally request the ministry amend provincial food safety regulations to allow for more food choices on the street.
This can be done without compromising food safety, Filion and others, including Susanne Burkhardt, a certified public health inspector, have said.
Burkhardt favours putting nutritious, affordable foods on the streets to supply meals to under-serviced, low-income areas.
Anticipating the legislative change, Filion is also going to ask David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, and licensing staff to look at whether the city would need new licensing regulations to accommodate various foods.
Filion wants to ensure restaurant owners would not face unfair competition from vendors and will invite Toronto's chefs, restaurant owners and others in the industry to the discussion.
"I think this is really going to happen," Filion said. "I think there's a huge demand out there in the public for more interesting, healthier street food."
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Street eats around the world
Oakland, Calif.: Fruit, tacos
Philadelphia: Chinese food, deli food, hamburgers, salads, soft pretzels, cheese steaks
New York: Hot dogs, bagels, knishes, gyros, chili, falafels, kabobs, corn cakes, burritos
Bangkok: Pad Thai, sticky rice, stir-fried chicken and vegetables, meatballs, satay pork, deep-fried bananas in sesame-seed batter
Frankfurt: Sausages, donairs (precooked shaved meat grilled and served in a pita), chicken kebabs, hamburgers
Ljubljana, Slovenia: Burek (deep-fried pastries filled with cheese, meat or apples)
Ankara, Turkey: Pide (the tourists call it Turkish pizza: a long, thin bread covered with toppings), kebabs
Hong Kong: Oyster omelettes, pho dishes, dim sum with chicken and pig feet.
The Netherlands: Salted herring with onions
Singapore: Frog legs porridge, chicken satay.
Compiled by Star library staff
I hope this goes through. Toronto could use more variety.
i think it'd be really interesting for tourists to come to toronto and see and experience street food of all sorts just sorta all over toronto downtown, it'd be quite a sight and really exciting. great idea
Can't wait to tuck into some frogs leg porridge after a J's game.
Propose a new, mobile vending cart for the City of Toronto. Designs should support the sale of healthy, affordable food and should consider things like current vending regulations; the conditions and needs of Toronto's street food vendors; the social spaces that vending carts create; the contribution of street vending to pedestrian-friendly environments; and the cart's location in Toronto's diverse neighbourhoods, including those without access to healthy, affordable food.
Winning designs will be prototyped and exhibited in Alphabet City's Food Festival and used in a citywide pilot project. As part of the design competition, Multistory Complex and Ryerson University will be hosting "Snack Chats." These informal talks will be given by vendors, planners, designers, food security advocates and others. It will be a chance to learn about vending issues like food security, employment, and the construction and regulation of public space.
The deadline for the competition is June 15, 2007. For more information, please e-mail info@multistorycomplex.org.
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I wish this was part of the city's street furniture program.
Thank goodness someone is taking the lead in this area. I HATE the look and smell of our current hot dog vendors.
Louroz
I was thinking the same thing Louroz!I wish this was part of the city's street furniture program.
I would really like it if there were a Pad Thai vendor or a Papaya Salad vender
If I was a small restauranteur, I would be pissed. Most of these people barely make by and now the city is helping put them of business.new, mobile vending cart for the City of Toronto.
Well, if they are put out of business -- they can open up a cart as well .....
But seriously, restaurant owners "may" have a gripe, if the costs of running a cart on public land is not inline with the costs of running a cart on private land..... but this will be the most difficult to reconcile since space requirements differ.
On the other side, HEALTH regulations should not be used to stiffle competition, and should not be used for purposes other than HEALTH. I find it ironic that some of the most unhealthy food is the only food that is allowed to be sold by carts based on HEALTH regulations.
I want fat pretzels with mustard, as in Noo Yawk!
nothing like those NY soft pretzels!
i'm kinda afraid of buying street meats like hot dogs. much like prostitutes, you don't know what's in them and where they've been & vice versa. :b
I know that this was only meant as an example, but you really need an etc. there. A large number of Thai people do not eat out at fancy restaurants, in fact one of my favourite things about Thailand is the street food. A large number of people come down to street level to eat lunch from these vendors (this includes both blue-collar, and office workers). Often you will have a co-op (I don't know if this is the way it is done, but it looks like it), where you will have many food vendors each serving their own specialty, and one place to wash the dishes of all of the vendors. These vendors can be around the corners of streets, or this can be located in what at other times is parking lots. You will almost always have a Pad Thai cart, a Papaya Salad cart, and a Soup Cart, but you may also even have a place that sells many different rice dishes (with things such as curry). You can get Sticky rice (wrapped in banana leaf), spring rolls, the best fried chicken that I have ever had, cut fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice. I have also had fresh whole fish (salt caked), a thai adaptation of a "hot pot" (Sechuan adaptation), fish cakes, and at night time -- some of the larger groupings of vendors in parking lots have beer (alcohol is restricted and cannot be sold during the daytime). The cost for such a gourmet selection of food is maybe a buck (a little more or a little less) or maybe up to a $1.40 if the add their own foreigner surcharge.....Bangkok: Pad Thai, sticky rice, stir-fried chicken and vegetables, meatballs, satay pork, deep-fried bananas in sesame-seed batter
I am sure I missed out on quite a number of other dishes that are available.
I would just be happier with a wider selection than sausages.
I have NEVER had a problem with the food that I bought at street level in Thailand.
I was going to post this an hour ago but the power went out...grumble grumble.
I'm tending to agree with billonlogan...while the variety and even the competition should be welcome, I do wonder what will happen to some smaller restaurants that depend on quick take out customers. Frankly, I'd rather have the restaurants than a million new food carts everywhere. Maybe the only change will be less hot dog carts and more of other things, not a huge increase in the total number of carts.
Funnel cakes or Ljubljanian burek would be delightful.
where can you buy funnel cake in toronto?
what about pie carts?
Deep fried Mars bars?
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