Toronto Underground Market

Saturday was a day of firsts.  Finally I made it to the famed Toronto Underground Market.  All of the past events always have left me with scheduled conflicts that I had to back out last minute at going.  I found myself at the opposite side of the table though.  This time, I did not come as a spectator.  This time I was in the midst of all the organized chaos that was Toronto Underground Market.  I came to help TitaFlips a.k.a Diona Joyce, functioning as her cashier/runner/phone central/twitterati for the night.  The whole experience made me appreciate all the more the motivation and effort that indie food vendors have to sell quality food.

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We arrived at a little past 2pm to organize our booth.  TitaFlips, having opened Kanto at Scaddington Court, was set to showcase her best-sellers, Ukoy (Shrimp and squash fritters), Pancit Palabok (gluten-free noodles with chicken, tofu, green onions and pork cracklings) and Turon (banana in spring roll wrapper, deep-fried with brown sugar).  It seemed simple and straightforward enough to just be the cashier.  But when people started lining up, it was such an adrenalin high to keep up with the hungry crowd wanting to try Filipino food and getting my list straight who gets what first.  Whew!  I think this experience was an eye-opener of how much driven and motivated indie food vendors have to be to stay on top of what foodies want.  My hat’s off to every food vendor who participated in this month’s Toronto Underground Market.

Even though I got so busy and haven’t hit too many food booths, I did have the chance to sample a few.  Diona tipped me off which food booth was the crowd favorite and we strategically planned to line up before 5 minutes before the event started.  We got to sample Comida del Pueblo‘s ever popular cornbread grilled cheese sandwich, burgers by West Side Beef Co. and Bonfire Catering’s curry and skewers.  I wish I had the time to try out the most popular item of the night which were the lobster and pork belly buns from Baoss.  But the thought of lining up a long line to get one was out of the question.  I guess the next TUM, Diona and I have to come up with a better strategy to get more dibs at a variety of food.  This foodie learns fast. I look forward for the next TUM!