Canada

The Northern Neighbor

August 31th, 2022 – September 5th, 2022

Table of Contents

Why not?

Canada started the way all great ideas begin: A bored weekend. As we were sitting around the TV, the question came up, “Want to go to Canada next weekend?” “Sure, why not?”. Within 30 minutes our hotel was booked.

The Long Drive

The next item of business was transportation. How would we get to Toronto? We could easily fly, but tickets for Labor Day weekend were notoriously expensive. This lead to only one other option: A Road trip.

Our plan of action was simple. Drive 7 hours to Newport News, Virginia to stay with Emily’s family. Then drive another 6 hours and spend a day and a half exploring Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and finally another 8 hour drive to Toronto with a stopover in Buffalo, New York. Sounds easy, right?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is famous for its Cheesesteaks. The most famous place to get these is at either Pat’s King of Steaks or Geno’s. Coincidentally, these stores are located right across the street from each other, creating a rivalry between the two.

I’d been to Philadelphia a couple times as a kid and always been a fan of the original, Pat’s. The story of the cheesesteak creation is that in 1930, Pat Olivieri, owner of a hotdog stand, wanted something different for his lunch and sent for some chopped meat from the butcher shop. He cooked the meat on his hot dog grill, placed it onto an Italian roll, and dressed it with some onions. As he finished, a customer insisted that Pat make him one. He took one bite and told Pat that this is what he should be selling.

Now, locals will tell you that the Pat’s Cheesesteak is terrible and simply a tourist trap. But, so what? We’re tourists and it’s fun to have the original of such a famous sandwich. Is the sandwich good? Yes. Is it great? No.

The next day we headed out to explore a bit of Philly. Reading Terminal Market is one of the oldest and largest markets in the USA. Opened in 1893, it is packed to the brim with stores and filled with bustling Philly locals in the morning.

Here we stopped by Dinic’s to have a Roast Pork Sandwich. In 2012, this was voted by Adam Richman as the ‘Best Sandwich in the USA’. No pressure on it tasting great then.

Oh yeah, we also went and cracked the Liberty Bell.

For dinner we stopped by a famous Belgian restaurant, Monks Cafe. Our time in Brussels had turned us on to Belgian food and we couldn’t wait for Steak Frites with that beautiful Belgian aioli. They also had one of my favorite beers on tap here, Pliny the Elder. What an experience!

The next day, before setting off, we pulled up to a little shack with the words ‘James Beard Award Winner’ painted on the side and construction workers lining up in the front. Oh yes, we made the right decision. This was John’s Roast Pork.

After getting a ticket from the stand, we waited as orders were called out. The level of quality between this Cheesesteak and Pat’s was immense. The bread was fresher, the meat tasted more like meat, and the cheese was perfectly melted. To day, this is one of the greatest sandwich I have ever eaten.

Bison

7 hours of driving later and we were almost to Canada. But first, there was something we had to do: Wings.

The story of Anchor Bar goes that on a Friday night in 1964, Dominic Bellissimo was tending the bar when a group of his friends came in asking for food. Dominic asked his mother, Teressa, to prepare something for his friends to eat. At that time chicken wings usually went into the stock pot for soup, but Teressa decided to deep fry them and flavored them with a secret sauce. They immediately became a hit.

Now, wings are by far my favorite American dish, so this was a Mecca trip for me. They did not disappoint. The depth of flavor in these wings was incredible.

Crossing the Border

After munching down on the wings and gaining back some much needed energy, it was time for the moment we’d been waiting for: crossing the border. We’d be heading over Rainbow Bridge Crossing. We waited impatiently for an hour and a half as we moved bumper to bumper across the bridge.

We arrived at the border to a kind French Canadian woman.
“Hi, why are you here?”

“Just visiting for the weekend?”

“How’d you get here?”

“Drove”

“You’re crazy. Continue ahead.”

Gooooood Morning Toronto

We started the next day as we love to do, a trip to the local market. St Lawrence Market was opened in 1813 and voted by National Geographic in 2012 as the world’s best food market.

It was busy. Walking through the doors, the excitement of a busy crowd hit us. All around were colorful stalls and people hustling about. To our left was Brown Brother’s, the oldest stall in the market. The banging of a cleaver hitting a chopping board was like a metronome as people ordered meats of all cuts and sizes. Up ahead would be our breakfast for the day: a Peameal Bacon sandwich.

The best place to get this sandwich was from Carousal Bakery. Bacon sandwiches were always my favorite breakfast back in England. The meatiness of English bacon is far superior to fatty American bacon, sorry Americans it’s just the truth. Peameal Bacon is the closest I have ever had to the English way. Canadians use the same cut of pork (back bacon), and then roll it in ground yellow cornmeal. Put that on a fresh roll and there we have it, a Peameal Bacon sandwich. It was so, so good. Each bite brought me back to sitting in my Grandma’s house by the fireplace, stuffing my face. Food can really transport you through time.

With our bellies happy, we continued to walk around the market, taking in our surroundings. We even bought some maple syrup because why not, it’s Canada.

Old Toronto

A decent walk through Toronto’s streets took us to the Distillery District, named after the local Gooderham and Worts Distillery which was founded in 1832.

The area was really cool. ‘Industrial vibes with an artsy flair’ as Emily put it. What we had seen of Toronto so far had just been a modern city, so walking in here was a complete 180. Everything was brick or metal.

A Gooderham and Worts Distillery sign hung overhead on a bridge and made a great photo. It’s crazy to think this distillery once provided 2 million gallons of whisky to the world (thanks Wikipedia).

A short walk away was Mill St Brewery where we’d get our first taste of Canadian beer. The vibes were immaculate. The sun was shining, plants covered the nearby brick courtyard, and we were sitting outside breathing in all that nice fresh Toronto air.

Emily had the Hazy Organic IPA and I went with the TFC Italian Pilsner (Named after the local MLS team we’d soon be watching). Overall, they were a bit meh. If this was what Canadian beer was like, they had a long way to go to catch up to their neighbors.

Walking somewhat disappointedly away, a sign caught our attention, ‘Drink of the GODS – Ultimate Drinking Chocolate’. Say less, we were there. Inside the tiny cobbled store we watched as a lady poured out a thick brown liquid from a shiny metal cannister into a paper shot cup. We sat outside in the now 85+ degree heat and took a sip of the steaming chocolate substance. ‘Daniel, why did we get a fancy hot chocolate when it’s this hot ‘. ‘I don’t know’.

Honestly, it would have been amazing on a cold, Canadian day. It was rich as hell, really chocolatey, and thick. But because it was 85+ degrees outside, again we felt meh. Maybe we just make bad choices.

Toronto Islands

Breakfast, beer, and hot chocolate inside us, it was time for the main event of the day: Toronto Islands. Another decent walk away took us back into downtown where we would catch a ferry to the island on Lake Ontario. We bought our tickets and headed into a docking area, where we learned that everyone in Toronto had the same idea today. Inside this small, old area were three turnstiles, each with the name of the island that ferry was going to. We waited in the small, crowded area taking a beating from the rays of the sun. ‘We’ll just take the first one that shows up’ I told Emily. After 10 minutes of tasting the breathe of the guy standing next to me, we heard the sounds of a boat horn. The middle turnstile opened up. Above it were the words:

Centre Island.

The vibe here was once again so incredibly different from what we had already seen of Toronto. In just 30 minutes, we’d gone from Modern Metropolitan Downtown to Old Industrial Brick to now Rural Lakeside Park.

If you could imagine the perfect picnic spot, this would be it. Bikes wizzed by, families sat under trees eating their lunch, birds were chirping, the sun was out, and all around was cleanly kept grass dotted with trees. As we made our way to the center of Centre Island, we walked across a bridge and looked out to the bay in the distance. This was such a beautiful little stop. Jet ski’s and kayaks raced around the water. No wonder so many people came here.

Our goal had originally been to rent bikes and go around the entire island. This plan quickly changed when we saw the bike rental line. We’d already walked so far so, why couldn’t we do a little more?

Imagine taking a ferry to school everyday

On the island was the oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes and the 4th oldest building in Toronto: the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, built in 1808. It’s also supposed to be haunted, just like every old building in the world.

In addition to the family friendly beaches, further down the island was a quite a famous ‘optional clothing beach’ called Hanlan’s Point Beach. We walked down the boardwalk in curiosity, immediately saw an old man hanging dong, and turned around. Not today.

Journey back to the mainland. Not a bad view.

Back at the hotel we took a much needed rest and prepared ourselves to experience the famous Toronto nightlife.

We were shattered. We ended up walking almost 12 miles that day. It was time for bed.

Chips, Gravy, and Cheese

Canada isn’t renowned for its cuisine, but I’d been excited to try Poutine for some time. Fries, gravy, and cheese takes everything I love in the world and combines them into one meal.

So today, we woke up early and began the trek. We walked through Toronto’s famous Chinatown and ended up at our Poutine destination: Smoke’s Poutinerie. Smoke’s is a chain restaurant in Canada and serves up all different kinds of Poutine. They definitely take their tagline, ‘How do you like your Poutine’, seriously.

We walked in to a colorful, red and black plaided store. The walls covered in graphics of Poutine. We were in Poutine Disneyland. We went with the original. No fancy addons, just straight up, vanilla Poutine. The lady gave us a large box filled to the brim with fries, gravy, and cheese.

I took a bite of a cheese curd. A little rubbery. I tried again, this time with the brown gravy and a floppy fry. I couldn’t help but want more out of it. It felt flat. There wasn’t much cohesion or depth of flavor and it was a little salty. I looked up at Emily and could see in her eyes she thought the same thing. A great hangover meal, but not much more than that.

Red Army

Filled with gravy and grease we marched on. It was a chilly, foggy morning and the streets were now quiet. Brick buildings marked University of Toronto lined the street as we walked by its campus.

With the Madison Avenue Pub in sight, a roar emitted from it’s windows. It could only mean one thing. Earlier in the week I had found that Man United has a pretty large supporters group in the area. As we entered the building and went upstairs, Man United shirts filled the crowded room, and my suspicions were confirmed. Man United 1, Arsenal 0.

We ordered a pint and sat in one of the rooms overflowing with red shirts. I thought back to our time in Iceland when we watched United at a pub in the heart of Reykjavik. Again, in that situation I had heard a roar emit from a building and we sat and watched with other die hard Man United fans. Football is beautiful. It binds all fans, no matter language or country. I was a thousand miles from Charleston, yet I felt at home and surrounded by friends.

We won 3-1. The celebrations got louder each goal.

That night the soccer theme continued as we watched Toronto vs Montreal at BMO Field, the Canadian Classique. After scoring 2 early goals, Toronto ended up losing 4-2.

The Falls

We left Toronto early morning and made our way back to the US border. There was, however, one last item on the schedule, something we could never miss: Niagara Falls.

It was another cold and misty morning with a slight drizzle. We heard the crashing of the falls before they were even visible, and then through the rising mist, there it was.

We had another 12 hours of driving left in the day. Brutal. But we could spend our time talking over what was such a fun, spontaneous trip. And isn’t that one of the great joys of travelling with loved ones? The conversations, stories, and memories that link you together for a life time. We certainly had another chapter in our travel book after this one.