August 4th was the launch of the new Summer Series held at St. Lawrence Market. This timeless market holds a special place in the hearts of Torontonians and was the perfect location for this inaugural event.
This event, which featured grafitti artists, live singers, DJs, and of course, many different food vendors, is the result of a partnership between the market and The Food Dudes. The event was held on the huge patio that runs right around the historic building.
The cost of admission was $30 and included two food tickets. If you wanted additional food or drink tickets you could easily find them at one of the many stalls that were set up all along the patio. Even though only two food tickets came with your admission, you could be comfortably full because of the sizes of some of the dishes.
Here are some of the dishes I sampled:
First up were some fresh Glacier Bay Oysters from Mike’s Fish Market. I don’t know who the first person to eat oysters was, but I’d like to say thank you for letting us know how good oysters can be.
Glacier Bay Oysters
Jamalaya Balls with tasso mayo and shrimp powder from Rube’s Rice and Bulk Foods and Food Dudes. This was one of my favorite dishes. They were basically arancinis but they were made with the famous meat and seafood rice dish from Louisiana.
Jambalaya balls
Brussel sprouts with General Tao sauce, toasted sesame seeds, pickled chilies, fried onions, cilantro sprouts from Urban Fresh Produce and Food Dudes. I love brussels sprouts but I love them even more when they’re deep fried and mixed with Asian flavours.
Brussels Sprouts
Street corn with jerk brown butter, cilantro crema, jerk sauce, and lime queso from Urban Fresh Produce and Food Dudes. I didn’t have this so I can’t comment on the taste, but I can comment on the price and I thought that this was grossly overpriced. How can one corn be sold for $10?
Street Corn
My second favorite eat of the night were the Fish Tacos from Domenic’s Fish Market and The Food Dudes. Lightly battered and fried pieces of halibut with guacamole, pickled red cabbage, smoked sour cream, hot sauce, scallions, and tomatoes. I would’ve preferred corn tortillas though.
Fish Tacos
The biggest and most bang-for-your-buck dish goes to the Market Burger from Brown Brothers Meats, Olympic Cheese, and The Food Dudes. The juicy, flame grilled patty was toppped with fried halloumi, bacon onion jam, gochujang aioli, pickles, arugula and pomme frites. While the burger was delicious, I felt that the halloumi and cheddar (I can’t believe I’m saying this) was a bit too much cheese. The halloumi itself was very salty and I think this burger would’ve benefited from having another cheese instead, maybe some blue cheese instead.
Market Burger
So there you have it, those are the things that I ate (except the corn) and what I thought of them, but there was a lot more food available. Scroll down to the end of this post for some more sights from this fun night.
All in all it was a hugely successful event. There were some misses, like the price of the street corn for example, but all the positives outweighed that one blip. The weather was hot, the location was perfect and not overcrowded, food was plentiful and delicious. Yep, I’d say that that was a successful event. This was just the first in a series and I’m sure the rest are going to be a huge hit, especially if St Lawrence continues to team up with successful caterers like The Food Dudes.
Disclaimer: My admission to this event and additional food tickets were complimentary but all opinions expressed are completely my own.
