News   Aug 30, 2024
Scarborough Shooting Stars To Play At New Arena at Consilium Place
 262     1 
News   Aug 30, 2024
Two-Tower Complex Proposed Near Richmond Hill GO Station
 814     0 
News   Aug 30, 2024
News Roundup for August 30, 2024
 431     0 

National Geographic: St. Lawrence Market the world's best

kkgg7 said:
Your first paragraph contradicts the second, as they seem to imply that "the world" equals North America and Europe. Please don't talk about the world if North America and Europe is all that you have visited. There are many people and countries outside them.
Click to expand...

You had to latch onto that, eh? Notice how I used the word "might", the disclaimer "at least it's the best I've seen" and the observation that a market in a developing world country (okay, so I missed the markets in the non-NA/Europe developed world), while "bigger and busier" has almost certainly less variety in terms of foodstuffs sold. I guess my final disclaimer is that this is my opinion - not objective fact - which I think I stated up front.

Instead of talking trash, what's a better market in your eyes?
 
Hipster Duck said:
You had to latch onto that, eh? Notice how I used the word "might", the disclaimer "at least it's the best I've seen" and the observation that a market in a developing world country (okay, so I missed the markets in the non-NA/Europe developed world), while "bigger and busier" has almost certainly less variety in terms of foodstuffs sold. I guess my final disclaimer is that this is my opinion - not objective fact - which I think I stated up front.

Instead of talking trash, what's a better market in your eyes?
Click to expand...

I just thought we shouldn't be talking about "best in the world" when all we have seen is only a small part of it, isn't that a fair statement?

And how do you come to the conclusion that markets in developing countries have certainly less variety in terms of foodstuffs? I live pretty close to St Lawrence Market and visted it many times. If I am not mistaken, I have never seen a lot of things I would like to have

all kinds of fish, live fish that are still swimming in the water
live seafood, such as crabs, shrimps, mussels, clams etc.
live chicken, duck, quails, sparrows etc.
A lot of fresh tropical fruits

How can a market be even considered "great" without these?
Your defintion of a good market is typical beef and cheese eating North American point of view, completely ignoring "the variety of foodstuffs" that you don't normall eat but are essential to a much larger population than just "Europe and North America".

All I am saying is "the best" whatever is purely subjective. The St lawrence market is great only for those with a typical western dietary tradition. But when you say it is great because of the variety of food sold, that's just far from the truth.
 
kkgg7 said:
I just thought we shouldn't be talking about "best in the world" when all we have seen is only a small part of it, isn't that a fair statement?

And how do you come to the conclusion that markets in developing countries have certainly less variety in terms of foodstuffs? I live pretty close to St Lawrence Market and visted it many times. If I am not mistaken, I have never seen a lot of things I would like to have

all kinds of fish, live fish that are still swimming in the water
live seafood, such as crabs, shrimps, mussels, clams etc.
live chicken, duck, quails, sparrows etc.
A lot of fresh tropical fruits

How can a market be even considered "great" without these?
Your defintion of a good market is typical beef and cheese eating North American point of view, completely ignoring "the variety of foodstuffs" that you don't normall eat but are essential to a much larger population than just "Europe and North America".

All I am saying is "the best" whatever is purely subjective. The St lawrence market is great only for those with a typical western dietary tradition. But when you say it is great because of the variety of food sold, that's just far from the truth.
Click to expand...

Sooo... you'd like a Chinese market, then? Didn't you just trash someone for being culturally insensitive for not including Asia in their list of places they'd visited with cool markets ('cause they've never been there)?

One of the great strengths of St. Lawrence market is the north building's local farm produce. Where are we going to get fresh tropical fruit within 100 miles of Toronto? Seriously -- "live chicken, duck, quails, sparrows etc." -- in Toronto? That's just a ridiculous thing to expect from St. Lawrence market.

As for the live seafood -- they usually have live lobster and shellfish, and sometimes crab. But it's not a market with space for gutting fish, so that's another goofy demand.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
Sooo... you'd like a Chinese market, then? Didn't you just trash someone for being culturally insensitive for not including Asia in their list of places they'd visited with cool markets ('cause they've never been there)?

One of the great strengths of St. Lawrence market is the north building's local farm produce. Where are we going to get fresh tropical fruit within 100 miles of Toronto? Seriously -- "live chicken, duck, quails, sparrows etc." -- in Toronto? That's just a ridiculous thing to expect from St. Lawrence market.

As for the live seafood -- they usually have live lobster and shellfish, and sometimes crab. But it's not a market with space for gutting fish, so that's another goofy demand.
Click to expand...

That's why I don't think the "sheer variety" many boast about here is not that impressive at all.
St Lawrence Market is a nice market place offering decent selection of products to a specific target demographic, but to say its variety of foodstuffs is that great is from from true, nor is it anything close to the best in the world.

Asking for live fish and shrimp is not "goofy". It is just a higher standard compared with eating dead ones ones that are frozen for months. The fact that St Lawrence Market is unable to provide those is a major drawback if you really look at the "world" many seem to be talking about. And it is not just China, many countries share the same preference for fresh fish over frozen fish, right?
 
Most North American markets I've been too don't have live produce ... but there are exceptions.

Anyway, walk up Spadina and there is a ton of what you're referring too.
 
^^I agree, I've been to all the NA ones listed. What I like about SLM is that it does not remotely try to be touristy. It is where many Torontonians (such as myself) go to shop for groceries, whereas most of the other markets are more directed at a tourist or cafe crowd. Pike Place or Granville are far more pleasant to walk around but I never got the sense they would be great places to buy your groceries on a weekly basis (granted I was never really shopping in those markets for groceries). The repetitive vendors helps keep prices in check -- they are not great, but would be far worse if, say, one butcher had an exclusive license. Plus there really is a wide range of product from the different butchers, depending on what you're looking for. And yes, it is crowded, if it sucked it wouldn't be. If you're serious about things you get there early.

Modest doesn't begin to describe it. Talk to the average person on the street and I'm sure you'll get the 'grass is greener on the other side' argument, and it doesn't really matter what city you pick and in what Continent, they'll all be 'better than Toronto'.
Click to expand...

Average person, heck, spend a couple minutes on this forum. For that matter, just go through this thread.
 
kkgg7, try to keep your cultural chauvinism to a minimum...

Most westerners don't enjoy having their food butchered in front of them. So other than seafood, anything with feathers or a hide is usually dead once it hits the market and the majority of Torontonians are ok with this. I remember walking through the blocks of the Hong Kong fish market with food poisoning and frankly it's once of the less pleasant experiences I've had traveling. Turtles stink!

The blurbs for the list aren't that descriptive so whatever the criteria might be for choosing the best markets isn't exactly known. However, I imagine atmosphere and selection and perhaps historic significance are a few of the deciding factors. I'm just surprised La Boqueria in Barcelona didn't make the list.

We just take the market for granted so I guess that's why it's number 1 ranking by NG is a bit surprising. Sometimes we don't realize we have some pretty cool stuff in a fairly great city.
 
Asian markets especially the ones in China, are widely known for their animal cruelty. Probably why they didn't make the list.
 
I remember going to Kensington Market when they had live animals in crates along the sidewalks (yes, I am that old) and the smell was pretty bad, not to mention the noise from hundreds of screaming chickens. I also remember my brother and I both being throughly traumatized by seeing a chicken get its head cut off and how horrible that was. No child should have to ever see that. There is no way any sane person would want to go back to those days because it was bloody horrible. God, it still brings back terrible memories of what Kensington used to be like. Sure, it had its good points (great Jewish restaurants) but the bad parts, were really bad.
 
gabe said:
Asian markets especially the ones in China, are widely known for their animal cruelty. Probably why they didn't make the list.
Click to expand...

Here we go again. Eating beef is fine. Eating dogs is cruel. Typical hypocricy.
When you kill someone, it is murder no matter how you did it. Let's not play the "I am more civilized than you" card and talk about markets and their products only.
 
Torontovibe said:
I remember going to Kensington Market when they had live animals in crates along the sidewalks (yes, I am that old) and the smell was pretty bad, not to mention the noise from hundreds of screaming chickens. I also remember my brother and I both being throughly traumatized by seeing a chicken get its head cut off and how horrible that was. No child should have to ever see that. There is no way any sane person would want to go back to those days because it was bloody horrible. God, it still brings back terrible memories of what Kensington used to be like. Sure, it had its good points (great Jewish restaurants) but the bad parts, were really bad.
Click to expand...

So when you and your children don't see it, those animals don't get slaughtered any more and they just magically show up beautifully on the shelves of the markets?
Humans are cruel. We eat innocent and defenseless animals. Deal with it. Not seeing it doesn't make one less cruel. What kind of animals, let it be beef, pigs, or dogs or monkeys, or how they were killed does not matter. It is killing.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top