October 14 – Toronto, Pizza tour and Kensington Neighborhood

Today we hit the Hop-on, Hop-off bus first thing.  Unfortunately it was pretty cold so we sat inside.  This was not conducive to taking photos but the commentary was somewhat interesting.  The young guide really needed to work on his info delivery. 

After completing about half of the tour we gave up because of the cold, got off, found a Starbucks for hot chocolate and a bathroom break, and then headed to the rendezvous point for our main tour of the day…a pizza tour.  There were us and a family of four from Toronto on the tour.  The guide was a chef and took us to several pizza places while providing running commentary about the area we were in.

First stop was Big Trouble Pizza, owned and run by some young Asian men who had developed some pretty unusual topping combinations.  Mary had the prosciutto, mushroom, and truffle ricotta and Paul had the three cheese margherita.  In addition the guide bought a piece of the Butter Jam Jam Pizza, a combination of butter cream, mozzarella, bocconcini (a type of cheese), balsamic reduction, lemon zest, and raspberry jam.  It was only slightly sweet and Mary thought it was amazing.  They have their own special crust that was light and not filling.  It made it difficult to not overeat.

Next stop was Maker, where we had Return of the Mac (a play on McDonalds Big Mac…tasted just like a Big Mac) and Frank’s Best (caramelized onions, goat cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, roasted garlic, rosemary, sea salt, sesame crust and honey.  Again both were unusual and amazing.  It was getting harder to not over eat.  There is more pizza to come.

Next stop was truly weird…Toronto Popcorn Company where we were given cups and spoons and were allowed to sample many of their flavors of popcorn.  And we were all given a bag of pizza flavored popcorn.  It was okay but not a favorite.

Next was Pizzaria Via Mercanti, an award winning Italian restaurant.  We had Margarita pizza and Jim and Phyllis and the others had a Via Mercanti Pizza, a two-layer pizza stuffed with mozzarella, Prosciutto cotto, mixed mushrooms, hot soppressata (sort of a pepperoni) and topped with a margherita pizza.  Another winner

Across the street from Via Mercanti is the only restaurant in Toronto owned by and featuring First Nations food.  The name (Pow Wow) and rail "stockade" for outdoor dining was a salute to their origins.

Last restaurant was quite a hike and a bit of a hole in the wall.  But it had very good pizza.  The name was Bitondo’s.   They had seating for about 10 people with most of their business being take-out.  It was very good but we decided that for interest the first two pizzerias were more interesting.

We passed this old church on the way to the last pizza place.  It was a little run down but rather quaint.

The walk took us through China Town...

and the Kensington area.  Kensington is a funky neighborhood with lots of shops and eateries.  We passed a new shop that opened only last week.  It features extra huge donuts with interesting flavors, such as this maple and bacon donut.

 It was a very eclectic neighborhood.  

There were plenty of murals on the sides of buildings...

and an interesting car that had been converted to a garden.  The guide said that it was replanted every few months.

One of the entrances to the neighborhood featured this large sign spelling out the word "Kensington" made out of giant size bicycle chain links.  It also served as a bike rack.

The pizzas were great but the walk through the neighborhood made the tour much more memorable.  We all had a great time and were totally stuffed.  No need for dinner tonight.