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Vanessa Toye

@misfittoye

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social innovation and transformation design . flâneur . eater ex·tra·or·di·naire . plays in the mud . #veryasian

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Thankful that tomorrow will come.

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One week of eating in Toronto, part 3 of 3.
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Next up was ALL. THE. THINGS @rosespantryto down the street. Hello to their perfect challah, which forms the base for many of their baked goods. So many delicious things: the blueberry kolache, the egg salad sandwich, the excellent salami roll, the cookies, the coffee cake. I greedily ordered a loaf of the challah and a tub of egg salad to take home.
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But. But…
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Let’s take a moment for their chicken schnitzel sandwich. I wanted this the first time they posted about it. I love a schnitzel sandwich, and this is now at the top of my love list. I was worried the bread/meat ratio would be too much, but I needed have worried. What I expected to be a regular focaccia is in reality a light, tender focaccia-like challah (or challah-like focaccia?). It worked very well here. The chicken is crisp, tender and juicy, and the mustard and slaw add a welcome bright tang to the whole affair. They come out around 11am and are available until they sell out for the day.
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And bless Rose’s Pantry for making soft serve. It was a perfect way to wrap up our carb feast. Chamomile and sour cherry. Yum.
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I’ve been a fan of what @shaunagodfrey has been doing @maventoronto and now my love extends to Rose’s Pantry. Congratulations and thank you for sharing more of your cooking with Toronto.
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My week in Toronto ended with a beautiful tea tasting @studiomikafleur with @mikafleurliving. Her knowledge and passion are a joy to experience. Keep an eye on her IG for upcoming tea socials and the resumption of her private tea tastings.
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OK, that’s a wrap on a beautiful week of breaking bread with friends. My eating schedule is rarely this jam packed, but things just worked out this way.
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If you’re still here, I’m curious…for many reasons, I’ve fallen out of the habit of writing longer-form posts about delicious things and rely more on posting quick stories or brief digests/roundups in the feed. Is anyone still reading longer posts like this? Should I even bother?

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One week of eating in Toronto, part 2 of 3.
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A perfect light dinner @aloetterestaurants sitting at the bar with @taraobrady. It’s a favourite nosh-and-gab spot for us and I will never not love it there. I especially appreciate that they will do half orders on many of the dishes—making a grazing meal much easier. Delicious tomatoes, fried chicken, and always, always the wedge salad. And haiii @patrickkriss, lovely to see you, it’s been a while!
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Another perfect light-ish nosh-and-gab dinner the next night with @foodpr0n at the bar @primeseafoodpalace. Holy cow, @coulsoncooks’ burger and fries are shades of perfect and a fantastic splurge. The tres leches cake from @marilsl was sooo good. The best service from (and nerdy chats with) Raimey and Jess.
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Friday night @letambourtavern in Hamilton with my beloved @bdiversitygroup. First time to this very cute spot and was not disappointed. Loved their fun take on a panzanella salad and yes, please to those perfectly crisp and fluffy chunky fries. Lovely service, tasty food, will return. Serendipity to see @tastehamont there—thank you for the ginger cake, Jen! It went home with Ren and was reported to be very delicious.
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A @phancybodega grilled cheese lunch with @somachocolatemaker peeps. This was my tuna melt grilled cheese and I devoured it. Every other Phancy’s grilled cheese variant was ordered and reported to be damn tasty (hubby loved his breakfast grilled cheese).
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I couldn’t help but have one of my precious stash of @futuragraniteria cantaloupe granita freezies. I bought a supply to get me through the winter. They have freezies in stock right now and you should go get some so you won’t be too sad when granita season ends.
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The first half of a Saturday AFM carb fest to celebrate @misfittoye’s birthday was goods from @emmertoronto. Sausage roll (always hits), savoury brioches, cherry brioche, cookies (the PB miso cookie is especially good), a loaf of their delicious sesame bread.
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See my next post for the final post about the week.

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I’ve given up on catching up on my summer backlog, so I’m just skipping straight to this past week in Toronto, where somehow I ate out every day. Here’s part 1 of 3.

Dinner @bar.eugenie. What a gem of a restaurant. We ordered most of the menu and I can confidently say that every dish was a hit for us. Highlights for me were the green peppercorn squid, the tomato leaf cavatelli, the iberico pluma, the trout amandine and the zucchini with red shrimp. How wonderful to have a woman chef and owner paying homage to a pioneer woman chef. This is going into the AFM rotation.
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Couldn’t resist getting some of @steventranchocolates ridiculously perfect doughnuts at his Roncy Polish Festival table. The plum jam-filled ones made for the best paczki I’ve ever had. And his longanisa sausage roll was so satisfying. @chefsteventran really needs to make doughnuts and savoury pastries a regular thing at the shop.
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@holmpeicafe is an unassuming cafe/bistro at Bay and Dundas. They are known for their brunch, but I had both brunch and dinner there last week and both were fun and tasty. Really enjoyed the croque madame and the curry steak udon. For a brunch café, I was pleasantly surprised by my ragu Bolognese tagliatelle. Weekend brunch is super busy and the service was friendly but scattered. For brunch, I would go right at open.
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Dinner @qingbistro under the expert guidance of @ridetowander. My first foray into the regional cooking of Yunnan province. What a joyous discovery to explore a Chinese cuisine that shares so many flavours and ingredients with SE Asian cuisine—hello, lemongrass, lime, tamarind, passionfruit, mint, dill…and so much more. A fascinating, delicious experience. That passionfruit and tomato sour soup hot pot alone was enough to make me a convert. I need to go back for MORE.
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Grabbed an ebi sando @imanishisandobar on my walk to pick up some goods at the Soma factory. Ate it in the park in the perfect Fall weather. Always a favourite.
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See my next post for part 2 of 3.

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Naagan by @chefzachkeeshig has been on my “would love to try” list for some time. When I saw that they were doing a Naagan popups in Toronto last month, it was a no brainer to jump on those tickets.
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What a beautiful meal this was, truly. The idea of “local” is ubiquitous in restaurants these days (for which I am very grateful), but Chef Keeshig gave us such different perspective on what eating local can mean. Not just farmed locally, but foraged and caught. Working with ingredients that are challenging to eat in their natural forms and transforming them through technique and time. It was impressive and educational, but more importantly, it was delicious. All the courses had balance, depth and delightful textural contrasts…and not a small amount of whimsy.
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A consistent element that stood out for me were all the crackers and crisps in various dishes that were all made with non-traditional flours. Yellow oyster mushrooms. Wild rice. Chaga. Fantastic.
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The menu:
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* Bannock with Rainbow Trout
* Bison Tartare
* Tartlet w/Parsnip & Herb
* Wild Rice Croustade with Salmon
* Squab with Aronia Berries
* Rhubarb Granita
* Brown Butter Honey Buns
* Duck with Red Currant Jelly
* Birch Bark Ice Cream Sandwich
* Chaga Sea Buckthorn Tart
* Sherbet with Beeswax Shell
* Cream Sandwich
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Bravo to Chef Keeshig and his whole team! Let’s hear it for more indigenous voices in our culinary world, please.
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Many of you know that I don’t love tasting menus because I’m weird and picky. But Naagan was special and I look forward to visiting them on their home turf in Owen Sound this summer. There’s an AFM long-weekend circuit of the area planned, with targets for Down Home, The Pine, Naagan, Heart’s, Marilynne, The Gate, Ted’s. Clearly, I’ll be setting aside my general avoidance of tasting menus as well as any semblance of fiscal prudence. But I’m never up North, so this is us just being efficient. 🤣

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Hooray and congratulations to the team @casapaco_to! They celebrated their three-year anniversary yesterday, and that feels worth shouting about.
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My friends and I happened to have a reservation for Paella Sunday yesterday, so that was a lovely coincidence. It’s been over a year since my last visit and we’ve all agreed that’s too long.
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The TL:DR bottom line is that paella from @robbragagnolo and @cymnc is forever worth seeking out. Needless to say, my visits to Casa Paco have always revolved around their Paella Sundays—a gorgeous set menu that makes you feel like you’re eating in Spain.
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The menu started with pan con tomate with piquillo peppers and a smoked cheese (this course always makes me so happy), then moved onto a remarkable cured albacore tuna and grilled artichoke, with a beautiful add on plate of cured Ontario wagyu w/burrata Pugliese and perigord truffles.
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We chose the seafood paella and the mushroom and truffle paella. There is a small menu of gorgeous add ons and we chose to add a couple of carabiñero shrimp to our seafood paella (totally worth it—more like lobster than shrimp, yum). As always, the paella was perfect. Deeply flavourful rice with the perfect texture. Gorgeous seafood, wonderful mushrooms. And hallelujah for all the rice bits stuck to the pan. You *know* we scraped every last bit of crunchy goodness off the pan, even after we were stuffed. The salad was the bright foil to all richness of the paella.
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If you haven’t been to Casa Paco, put it on your list. Everything is so thoughtful and intentional: from the sourcing, to the preparation, to the cocktails, to the wines, to the service. Thank you to Chefs Rob and Caroline, @ailbhe_mc @tommydthunder and @garynysus for a beautiful meal. See you in a few months. ❤️
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Wow. I didn’t realize so much time had passed since my last food post (September!). It’s hard to write anything thoughtful about food when the world is a raging dumpster fire. But I don’t want to stop celebrating and supporting independent businesses. I’ll take my joy however I can these days (Heated Rivalry, anyone?).

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🍪Cookie Day 2025! ❄️
One of the best days of the year.
Baker friends who gather to eat and swap cookies for the holidays. 🌲
20+ bakers and over 1000 total cookies.
Many thanks to super organized pals for organizing this delicious gathering.
If you want the full list of cookies, check out @torontoyeee for the full list 🍪
My contribution was lemon crinkle cookies 🍋 from the @jennaraecakes book
@foodpr0n @misfittoye @boneats @toronto2niagara @somachocolatemaker @dc__soma @taraobrady @brenplatts @tonoariki @chefsteventran @gizlau @mattmark416 @pancancooks @bobz_doodles @_alteredstate_ @isabel_chan13 @roselle_to #cookieday #cookieswap #cookieexchange

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If Yanksgiving had an award show, Joanne & Richard would sweep every category. Best Hosts, Best Food, Best Reason to Wear Stretchy Pants. Thank you!

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Delicious eats at @toronto2niagara Yanksgiving dinner. Incredibly grateful for JoAnne and Richard’s wonderful hospitality and friendship. A lovely evening with friends 💕

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Our AFM Cookie Day fundraiser is back!

Our annual Cookie Day is fast approaching, when the AFM & Friends gather together for a glorified cookie exchange. As always, we expect lots of extra cookies, so we're offering up a selection of this year's Cookie Day cookies (not the ones pictured--this was back in 2023!).

DONATE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!
Donate to any of our chosen charities below. 1 entry = $5 donation. Take a screenshot of your donation receipt (that includes your name, date, and amount) and attach it with your entry via our designated Google Form (see link in bio). Enter before 7:00 am on Sun. Dec. 7. We'll pull 5 names shortly thereafter.

Winners MUST be able to pick-up their cookies.
Pickup Location/Time: 401 & Leslie area; Sunday, December 7 between 7-10 pm
(Alternative arrangements can be made for Niagara-on-the-Lake or downtown Toronto (University & Queen area) after Dec. 7th, but your cookie freshness may vary.)

Support one (or all!) of the following charities:
• @foodshareto
• @blacklegalactioncentre
• @indspire.ca
• @birchwayniagara

When you're ready, donate and then ENTER HERE:
https://forms.gle/a5jSuHq4nvETkGfo9
(link is also in my bio)

#cookies #cookieexchange #cookiegiveaway #fundraiser #cookiefundraiser

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Thankful for the people who have been there- for a moment, a season, and a lifetime.
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#thanksgiving #grateful #thanks #friends #rideordie #plur #oldernotwiser

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