I started at Kensington Market, which starts west of Spadina and north of Dundas. I ran into the Chinatown festival on my way there. It was a little too crowded for my taste and it didn't seem like much of a cultural experience for me. I stopped briefly to check out some food deals that they had on the street...BBQ Pork on rice for $2 was a good deal, but didn't seem that appetizing.
In any case, another block onwards and I was in Kensington Market. It's a neat place that's different from the big buildings and business suit areas of the downtown core. It's got an alternative artsy feel to it...some strange people too. The small fruit markets are nice and there are a couple of army surplus stores as well as some safety clothing/equipment shops...you could probably find a good deal if you looked hard enough.
I stumbled onto a gem: The House of Spice. The strong smells hit you as you step in the store. They've got almost everything to suit your culinary needs. I thought I might find some Filipino spice mixes like sinigang and tinola mixtures, but they didn't have any. Lots of other stuff though. I ended up buying a pack of bay leaves (I didn't have any at home) and a loose leaf mix of Masala Chai. Reasonable pricing. It's good to know there's a place like that around town. Here are a couple pictures of the place:
I kept wandering around the neighbourhood looking for a decent place to eat...there were some interesting looking places but none of them appealed to me at the time. I just kept on walking and taking pictures along the way. Here are some interesting shots:
The art gallery of Ontario is in the neighbourhood too. I stopped in because there were a couple of exhibits I was interested in. One was an exhibit by Chuck Close, an artist who does some wacky and large portraits of people. For this particular exhibit, he used Daguerreotype photographs as a base and painted his portraits from there. Interesting exhibit, he collaborated with a poet to have some verbage alongside the images.
The other exhibit I was interested in had to do with modert art from India. I found them unremarkable to be honest, and the exhibit itself was modest. The other two exhibits on display had to do with medieval art pieces that were mainly christian artifacts and some First Nation artifacts. The latter was interesting but not very informative with captions such as "Bowl with a Beaver" and "Frog on a bowl". Overall, I may have spent 20 minutes in there, but not much more than that. It was a nice way to cool off a bit, but not worth the $15 admission fee...
After that, I found a place that sold shawarmas...unfortunately my excitement faded after I payed $6 dollars for the combo that just included a drink and the shawarma wasn't traditional. The handwritten sign offering Motza Ball soup for $2.50 should have been a clue, but I was already pretty hungry.
I thought about walking across town to check out some camera stores on Queen St. E, but decided against it. I was starting to get tired...been walking for around 4 hours by that point. There was lots going on around town that day...here are some pictures from the walk to the subway station:
I was pretty tired when I got home. I had a small bite to eat, drank lots of water, and then settled down for some reading. It was a good day...the weather could not have been better. I'll have to decided on another part of the city to check out.
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