Toronto Street Food

[adma]

Noodles!

It would be awesome being able to get a nice serving of hot pad thai or shanghai noodles or singapore noodles right on the street. Mmmmm I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

When you said "noodles", first thing to come to mind was Kraft Dinner. Come to think of it, that *would* be a particularly hoser-friendly form of street food...

 

[Dan416]

Personally I love the sausages they sell at those vendors. Love to add ketchup, mustard, sliced pickles. Yum. But I definitely would love to see more variety. I don't know if you can made pad thai from a cart, but pad thai is one of my favourite foods and I'd love to see it in a cart. Pretzels are great too. Crepes sound tasty too. And baguettes. Man I am hungry now!

 

[smokin]

what about chicken ?

What about chicken?

would you like to see smoked barbeque chicken served with fries/salad ?

 

[gboykovekin]

I also patronized a couple of them at Queen and Spadina last summer, when they had a price war at that corner and seemed to be selling hot dogs at cost, or maybe even less. Not sure if that is still going on.

Nopes; there's only one or two carts remaining now selling the hotdogs at the city average ($2), compared to up to four carts selling at $1 (and then $1.50).

 

[adma]

Y'know what I'd like food carts to serve? Cuy

 

[nfitz]

I'm not sure why anyone is in favour of the current system where the city regulates what food can be served.

Why not simply eliminate the bureaucracy, and let the food vendors serve any type of food? I'm sure market forces would quickly wittle it down to things that would actually sell. Then health inspectors would simply inspect the cart in the same manner they inspect a restaurant.

I can't see any benefit to the current system. Can you imagine if restraurants were limited to only serving food that was on a list at city hall?

 

[wyliepoon]

^ I can imagine such a food stand in Chinatown if that were the case... roast pigeon fresh from the sidewalk!

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

what about casu marzu?


mmm mmm maggots.

 

[ducati0000]

I want street Shawarma! The city has doner kebabs on their list but no shawarma!!

Shawarma is the best fast food in the history of time!!

I agree...but its not the best fast food but it be the best for a mobile cart..How can you people eat the hotdogs majority of these vendors sells..unless you top it off with a ton of toppings its totally tasteless.

 

[Whoaccio]

TheStar.com | Opinion | More street food, finally
More street food, finally

It is taking an absurdly long time, but Toronto is gradually moving toward allowing healthier and more exotic foods to be sold by street vendors. For now, anyone buying a quick snack from an outdoor cart has little choice beyond ordering a hot dog or sausage. That, however, could change by next spring. Earlier this week, the city's executive committee approved two pilot projects to expand street fare.

Culinary diversity is long overdue. An ill-thought-out earlier initiative would have had Toronto borrow $700,000 to buy 35 carts in order to lease them to street vendors. That idea was axed last November. Now the prospect of curbside ethnic foods is back, without the city-owned carts.

One of the pilot projects approved by the executive committee on Monday would see the licensing of some existing street vendors to provide an expanded menu of healthy treats requiring minimal preparation, including items such as salads and bagels with cream cheese. In the second pilot project, 15 operators, selected by the city, would provide ethnic foods requiring more cooking – perhaps souvlakis or samosas. Before taking to the streets, these vendors would have to buy a special cart at a cost of up to $27,000, with a built-in fridge.

The new, more sanitary carts would enhance public safety, and that's a laudable goal. But it should have been possible to meet that need and still get more diverse street food to market far sooner. After all, what's involved here isn't some groundbreaking culinary concept; in New York City, thousands of street vendors have been safely selling a wide variety of foods for years. Toronto's bland fare, by contrast, can't cut the mustard. Put simply, we need to catch up.

Are you kidding me? What the hell is wrong with this city, in any other country this would have been resolved within a week. How bloody hard is it to license someone to sell a samosa?!

 

[W. K. Lis]

Too much micro-managing! It's like have Donald Trump doing all the construction work in a new building himself personally because he wants things done only his way.
What next? Only mustard produced by one company according to one and only one recipe can be used?

 

[adma]

Speaking of mustard, I'd love if Toronto took on Bosnywash streetfood like hot pretzels...

 

[egotrippin]

Too much micro-managing! It's like have Donald Trump doing all the construction work in a new building himself personally because he wants things done only his way.
What next? Only mustard produced by one company according to one and only one recipe can be used?

We're practically there anyway, seeing as French's controls most of the market, and any other table mustard's recipe is near identical anyway. It's all the same garbage.

However I know what you're trying to say.

 

[AKS]

It's not surprising the City is in debt by the way they spend money. Good concept but what a stupid solution.

 

[allabootmatt]

Yeah, this is truly a textbook example of bureaucratic excess. The original plan to have the City (!) pay for pilot carts was truly insane. No one suggests that the taxpayer finance the risk on a new restaurant, or that restaurants purchase certain types of equipment. Entrepreneurs make decisions themselves, and our (excellent) municipal health inspectors check on the safety of the results. Why that logic has to be suspended for carts is truly beyond me.