How amazing is it that Toronto gets it's own dim sum festival? We were so excited that this was happening, scrambled to get tickets right when their ticket site launched and even more stoked when we got to be a vendor! It was another great event by Suresh Doss (@spotlightcity) and Frank Kocis (@yoyodyne) Really well organized with amazing food vendors dishing out their unique next-level dim sum's and us amongst them dishing out our dim sum plushies and food-themed T-shirts!
We'd like to thank everyone for stopping by and for all your support! And of course, thank you to the organizers Suresh and Frank for having us there. Looking forward to the next one!
Here are a few photos and a list of deliciously unique dim sum creations from the vendors we visited:
The lineup in the morning stretched onto the street from on the top of the 2nd floor stairs. Worth the wait!
Our booth and cuisine-themed products on the 2nd floor with a new type of setup at the front to showcase the designs
The 3rd floor at the Chinese Freemason's Assocation where half of the vendors were setup along with awesome hip hop/R&B Canto pop playing in the background
Now for some of the next-level dim sum the amazing food vendors were dishing out! The section below features food from vendors we had the chance to try. (Please excuse some lower quality pics as they were taken with my Note 2 phone)
First up, Me.N.U - ME & YOU FOOD TRUCK
menuTDot.com
@meNuFoodTruck
Dished out a trio of of:
- Green Onion Pancake Roll
Pulled beef brisket in Korean BBQ sauce, green onion pancake, sweet chilli slaw and cilantro - Thai Bean Curd Spring Roll
Pork burger with Kaffir Lime, Chillies, Lemongrass and Garlic wrapped in a fresh Bean Curd Roll. Topped with Red Curry Sauce. - 3 Jacked Pigs Rice Balls
Marinated pork butt in black bean sauce, Chinese sausage, Shiitaki mushrooms, Caramelized onions and Chinese broccoli along with a topping of sweet soy reduction, Sriracha mayo and Chinese sausage.
Their signature rice balls didn't disappoint. Love the crispy texture and well seasoned filling. Ingredients make a well balanced mix of savoury flavours. The pancake roll was hot off the pan and was a very enjoyable sweet and savoury mix of crispy, meaty and saucy textures. Bean curd rolls were not bad. Mild flavours and a bit on the cold side.
Green Onion Pancake Roll
Thai Bean Curd Spring Roll
3 Jacked Pigs Rice Balls - (Sorry for the blur. Too excited to eat this again!)
Next up, GWAILO TORONTO
@Ninjachefnick
- Caplansky @caplansky smoked meat spring rolls
with braised cabbage and yellow mustard/pickle mayo <cue massive drooling>
A brilliant fusion with such flavourful smoked meat. These were easly one of my favourites there!
Also on the menu was a Big Mac Bao but unfortunately missed out on it due to busyness of working our booth =(
On to the next one! HOTBUNZZ STREET CUIZINE
http://www.hotbunzz.com
@hotbunzzTO
Dished out a trio offering of which we tried two.
- Emperor’s (Not So) Traditional BBQ Pork
BBQ pork bun topped with a layer of rice noodle, BBQ pork, green onions and a sesame soy sauce - Golden Curry BBQ Duck
BBQ duck bun topped with BBQ Duck and green onions.
Soft, pillowy buns with flavourful toppings, fillings and enjoyable mix of textures. Love the "cheung fun" type topping with the BBQ pork bun. The curry in the BBQ duck bun though seemed to overpower the duck flavour a bit. Overall quite delish!
Ok next up is LINDA MODERN THAI
lindamodernthai.com
@lindamodernthai
Featuring international dim sum award winning chef Wing Li, the Linda team dished out a trio of:
- chicken-lemongrass siu mai (steamed)
- prawn and sticky rice roll (deep fried)
- pandan custard with dulce de leche (chilled)
As siu mai is my favourite dim sum I was quite stoked to try this. The siu-mai had fresh and subtle chicken flavour which was deliciously enhanced by the flavour of lemongrass. The stand out was the pandan custard as the finishing touch to a well thought out line up. The crispy, crunchy texture of the fried roll and prawn cracker sealed the deal for an enjoyable textural balance.
And on to the next. OLIVER AND BONACINI'S CANOE
oliverbonacini.com
@Oliver_Bonacini
A delectable trio of good eats:
- Shrimp and Scallop dumpling
- Game Steamed Bun
- Heart cold roll
Loved the really enhanced flavours in each item. An amazing coaxing out of flavours from the venison in the steam bun, tasty beef heart so good and cold too. The real stand out for me was the shrimp and scallop dumpling. Such a depth of savoury flavour, deep fried to a slight crisp. Could have had 10 more of those!
Onward to the next one! feasTO
http://feasto.tumblr.com/
@feasTOronto
Ordered up one of the two dumpling offerings. The other was a Tom Yum dumpling.
- Pho Dumplings
Think of the elements you'd have in a bowl of Pho in dumpling form. Makes for a unique dumping. Well wrapped, thin skins and quite spot on with the flavours!
And finally we tried LA BREA FOODS
LaBreaFood.com
@LaBreaFoodTO
- Camarones “Juan”ton Gow
shrimp wontons with corn esquites, jalapeno, ginger, cilantro blend on chili oil soya and roasted peanuts
A part of their MexicAsian dim sum line up, these wontons had a very flavourful mix of ingredients. Nicely wrapped and steaming hot. Roasted peanuts for a little textural contrast. A tasty dish!
Well that wraps it up for this super long, first food post of the Dim Sum City blog. All in all a very enjoyable event as a vendor and as a patron. Now to look forward to #YumchaTO part 2 in a few weeks. Be sure to get your tickets here while they last. And I hear they are going fast!
Until the next post, good eating and happy dim summing to you!
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