st lawrence market

When traveling I like to visit the local food market. So when I discovered that Toronto had a pretty famous one, the St Lawrence Market, rated as one of the best in the world by National Geographic, I had to check it out.

The market is housed in what appears to be a converted brick warehouse.

First order of business: find some coffee. Then roam around the market looking for food.

There were several coffee dealers. I was tempted to buy some of ‘Mike’s Blend #3’ since it had my name on it. But I don’t own a coffee grinder. I should probably buy a grinder and a french press.

The market is a large indoor market with many different seafood and meat vendors, kind of like Pike’s Place market in Seattle, but smaller and not as crowded.

They had fresh oysters and clams.

They shuck the oysters and serve them right there for you if you so desire. In hindsight I should have ordered more than three. They were quite tasty.

The smoked salmon from Mike’s Fish Market was calling out to me. How could I resist fish from a market with my name on it?

After wandering around the market for a bit, I settled on what to buy for lunch. A bit of smoked salmon, some herbed goat cheese, a few sun-dried tomatoes, and a small french baguette. It was quite a tasty meal, though not as tasty as the magical market meal I had in the Nachsmarkt in Vienna. Overall I was a bit disappointed with the St Lawrence Market. Because it was rated so highly by National Geographic, I was expecting it to be truly amazing, but I found it to be more or less on par with the other markets I’ve been to.