On the way from Montréal to Toronto, signs became less French and more English. We stopped by A&W.
I think I had not been there for maybe 15 years, since it had closed
down in Holland Village in Singapore. To those who know not of A&W,
you are probably super young (ugh). A&W is a fast
food chain that perhaps went bankrupt and closed what I think is about
99% of their restaurants. Their website says they are known for their
root beer and root beer float, but really, they also used to be known,
in my opinion, for their curly fries and coney dog. So I walk to the
counter, but I don't see the curly fries on the menu anymore. I am
disappointed as heck, and I ask the lady, and apparently there have been
no curly fries for like 10 years or something. (BTW I just googled it,
and I think they still have curly fries at A&W restaurants in
Malaysia. Whaaaaaa?) Also there was no coney dog on the menu, though
they had hot dogs with an addition of coney sauce, but it just did not
feel the same. I ordered some thick cut fries and a root beer float.
The float was not even served in the nice mug, but a crappy plastic cup,
and the ice cream was not very nice. Makes me wonder if the Asia
A&W service is different, and I think the answer has to be yes.
Anyway, my curiosity has been satisfied, and I think I will have to look
for an A&W in Asia after this disappointing experience.
Our friend had visited a while ago, and told us to visit Momofuku, the famous Japanese New York chain. However, there is always so much to do in NYC, and Momofuku never quite attracted us that much, so we never quite made it there. However, in Toronto, we did not know much, so I decided to go there. The building is quite a beautiful one. Looked brand new, shiny glass building with weird dragon-esque metallic sculpture on the exterior, attached to the Shangri-la hotel. It was not meal time, and I was solo, so I decided to check out the Milk Bar which sold sweets of some kind. The sweet shop is actually somewhat unmanned, and one can probably steal a bunch of stuff from there, which is not too cool. I suppose they assume people who go in are honest. Anyhow. Some other folks were in there with me and they were chatting among themselves, and I deduced from their conversation that the Crack Pie was the thing to get. It was just disgustingly sweet, I kind of liked it, and I saved some for Lingon but he did not like it. Later on, we got some cookies. My favourite was some blueberry one, and also the cornflake one. We got the compost cookie (??), but it seemed a bit dry.
That evening, we decided to return to the noodle bar. We ordered the Momofuku noodle, dan dan mian (one of Lingon's favourite type) and the okonomiyaki. They were all pretty tasty, nothing too unique about them, but nice to have Asian food.
I drove out for lunch the next day since I wanted Chinese food and had no cash and was sick of paying ATM fees and found somewhere that took credit card. I ordered a mixed BBQ meat platter to go for our car ride (best decision ever), and then had porridge and dou miao there. Pretty good and I was very pleased.
I spent some time being a tourist and got to see some cool sights of Toronto. Black Mass red carpet event for the Toronto Film Festival. Interior of the Shangri-La. Cute coffee cart on my morning run. Old City Hall (I think). View of Lake Ontario from our hotel room. A cool looking bar. Some kind of government building. Yorkville Park in Yorkville (shopping district, actually really really nice, good to stay there if we had been there for tourism) with its "650-tonne hunk of billion-year-old granite, cut out of the Canadian Shield and transported to the park in pieces". Modern Toronto City Hall.
I took a drive on Queen Street with cool hipstar shops and cafes and stuff. Also drove to the Distillery District where there was an old distillery building converted into retail and restaurants with a cool park, but ran out of time so no picture of that. I thought I was taking the scenic route back on Queens Quay Road which was next ish to the water, but just saw a bunch of quarry looking things and warehouses and storage stuff.
By the way, if anyone knows where there are large groups of people outside Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto, please let me know. The people did not look particularly like tourists, more like business people, but congregated like a tour group. Maybe they were looking at the building across the road with gold windows, since I eavesdropped on a tour group, but seemed kind of weird.
Toronto was happening and most enjoyable, especially with the heat that we were graced with. Very modern, nice and comfortable facilities. I would be happy if we found our way back again.
Our friend had visited a while ago, and told us to visit Momofuku, the famous Japanese New York chain. However, there is always so much to do in NYC, and Momofuku never quite attracted us that much, so we never quite made it there. However, in Toronto, we did not know much, so I decided to go there. The building is quite a beautiful one. Looked brand new, shiny glass building with weird dragon-esque metallic sculpture on the exterior, attached to the Shangri-la hotel. It was not meal time, and I was solo, so I decided to check out the Milk Bar which sold sweets of some kind. The sweet shop is actually somewhat unmanned, and one can probably steal a bunch of stuff from there, which is not too cool. I suppose they assume people who go in are honest. Anyhow. Some other folks were in there with me and they were chatting among themselves, and I deduced from their conversation that the Crack Pie was the thing to get. It was just disgustingly sweet, I kind of liked it, and I saved some for Lingon but he did not like it. Later on, we got some cookies. My favourite was some blueberry one, and also the cornflake one. We got the compost cookie (??), but it seemed a bit dry.
That evening, we decided to return to the noodle bar. We ordered the Momofuku noodle, dan dan mian (one of Lingon's favourite type) and the okonomiyaki. They were all pretty tasty, nothing too unique about them, but nice to have Asian food.
I drove out for lunch the next day since I wanted Chinese food and had no cash and was sick of paying ATM fees and found somewhere that took credit card. I ordered a mixed BBQ meat platter to go for our car ride (best decision ever), and then had porridge and dou miao there. Pretty good and I was very pleased.
I spent some time being a tourist and got to see some cool sights of Toronto. Black Mass red carpet event for the Toronto Film Festival. Interior of the Shangri-La. Cute coffee cart on my morning run. Old City Hall (I think). View of Lake Ontario from our hotel room. A cool looking bar. Some kind of government building. Yorkville Park in Yorkville (shopping district, actually really really nice, good to stay there if we had been there for tourism) with its "650-tonne hunk of billion-year-old granite, cut out of the Canadian Shield and transported to the park in pieces". Modern Toronto City Hall.
I took a drive on Queen Street with cool hipstar shops and cafes and stuff. Also drove to the Distillery District where there was an old distillery building converted into retail and restaurants with a cool park, but ran out of time so no picture of that. I thought I was taking the scenic route back on Queens Quay Road which was next ish to the water, but just saw a bunch of quarry looking things and warehouses and storage stuff.
By the way, if anyone knows where there are large groups of people outside Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto, please let me know. The people did not look particularly like tourists, more like business people, but congregated like a tour group. Maybe they were looking at the building across the road with gold windows, since I eavesdropped on a tour group, but seemed kind of weird.
Toronto was happening and most enjoyable, especially with the heat that we were graced with. Very modern, nice and comfortable facilities. I would be happy if we found our way back again.
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