Adventures in travelling to eat, with a dash of culinary history.
November 14, 2016
NoshFest: Toronto’s Jewish Food Festival
Growing up in Newfoundland there was a very small Jewish community, and my years in Halifax were spent eating at a pseudo-Jewish deli serving mediocre matzoh ball soup. Needless to say, I don’t know much about Jewish culinary culture. So, when I was invited to attend the first NoshFest, Toronto’s Jewish Food Festival, I jumped at the chance! I wrote a piece published today on the Daily Hive on learning about all the Jewish fare at the inaugural event yesterday.
As someone who spent most of last Tuesday making chicken soup, I felt the need to connect with my inner bubbie and demolish some Jewish fare.
My blood is pretty much brine after attending this event, with all the cured and pickled things, but I’m so happy I went! If you want to learn about Jewish food read the article here, if you just want to drool at some photos, see below.
Here’s the best of what I ate at NoshFest, a.k.a the Toronto Jewish Food Guide
The inaugural event was held at Artscape Wynchwood Barns. We arrived just after 11am, and there was already a line!
There were three different sandwich places, but my fave was Saul’s Corned Beef.
Owned and operated by Max Wolfhond, they use his grandfather Saul’s secret family recipe. This is his mom, Rochelle Reichert, slicing corned beef just right.
Saul ran Teddy’s Lunch in Edmonton for over 50 years. When he sold the place refused to give his corned beef recipe to the new owners. The coleslaw and mustard are homemade too! SO. GOOD.
Chef Veronique of the fames Crepes a Gogo on the corner of Bloor and Spadina was serving up her Limonana. I talked to these ladies for ages, they were so nice and told me all about this delicious bevy, which is super popular in Israel.
Limonana is made with lemons, mint and sugar cane and so freaking delicious. You can drink it hot, cold, and the ladies were serving it hot with a hint of cinnamon — a great wintery touch!
These Knish from Modern Kosher were really tasty! They were filled with meat and I probably could have eaten about 50.
Modern Kosher also serves up a mean bubka. They had the traditional apple cinnamon and chocolate flavours, but also had some pulled beef and chicken ones for a more savoury approach.
The fish in this taco from Kosher Dudes was breaded with Captain Crunch cereal!
Schmaltz Appetizing had a giant line at their table.
For obvious reasons…
Just look at the gorgeous salmon!
Bagels and lox at their best.
I’m not typically a huge fan of pickles, but we just had to try Marty’s Pickles! Their half-sour pickles were really tasty, they still had a little crunch and only a little vinegary.
Caplansky’s had the winning dish for me at NoshFest. This latke poutine was smothered in brisket gravy and cheese curds. Amazeballs.
