Toronto, Part II - Do You Want Fries With That? [Yes, Please, With Gravy and Cheese]

If you were to ask Francisco, we were just in Toronto to eat. In fact, this is what he told the border guard when we crossed into Canada [prompting me to nudge him and tell him to just say we were having a weekend trip before this guy thinks we're driving 8 hours to just have lunch. THAT might raise some eyebrows.]

But yes, we had scoped out the restaurant scene ahead of time, and there were plenty of items on our list to check out. Poutini's House of Poutine was up first, and this may have been my favorite poutine out of our entire trip.  
After this poutine stop, we went to the place of my dreams...a frigging vegetarian butcher shop!!  I was almost giddy.
Of course, it would have been a long 8-hour drive home, so we didn't actually buy any fresh food to take with us, but we did pick up some Maple Bacon flavored Peanut Butter and some Coconut Ba-con, plus we decided to consider the poutine our appetizer and eat lunch here off of their limited prepared foods menu.  I had the Fishless Fish Tacos, and Francisco had the Pulled BBQ Chick'n. Everything was delicious.
Well, hey, after lunch, everyone wants more food, right? Well, I guess if it's ice cream. ;-) OK, we maybe should have went with a slightly lighter dish, BUT the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe was right across the street, and they had some amazing sounding desserts. [OK, writing this post is making me hungry.]
OK, we needed to pump the brakes on the eating for a while, so we headed to the beach.
Where I did my requisite rock gathering in the frigid Lake Ontario water.
Squirrel!
Obviously, it had been a while since we'd eaten, so we headed over to Smoke's Poutinerie, where we had poutine topped with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. Hmm, not my favorite - probably should've just left out the extra toppings.
We headed a bit out of town for lodging, so everything was booked around town. But we were back the next morning, ready for some good breakfast. We'd decided to Google the top doughnut places around town, and there were plenty of places popping up on the list. [Damn, Cincinnati, pick up your doughnut game: we only have Holtman's!]

We started with a half-dozen at Von's Doughnuts, including Caramel Salt N' Pepa, Creme Brulee, and Peanut Butter & Jelly.  Amazing.
Then there was a failed attempt at hiking... [It was too hot and parking was hard to find around where I actually wanted to be.]
...a failed attempt at shopping. [PATH is Toronto's underground pedestrian walkway with 30 kilometers of shopping and entertainment...but it's apparently closed on Sundays.]
...and a failed attempt at castling. [We were going to visit Casa Loma, but the lot was full, so we just did a drive-by instead and went about our business.]
And in the middle of all that failure was a lunch stop at Fancy Frank's...
...and I guess a second breakfast at Jelly Modern Doughnuts. [Not as good as Von's.]
Then we hit the mall and spent a good amount of time shopping. When we went in, the sun was shining, but when we came out, a big storm was blowing in.
It had mostly dried up by the time we pulled up for dinner at The Hogtown Vegan. I had the Hot Roast Beef Sandwich, and Francisco had the Peppersteak and Dumplings. We shared the Deep-Fried Banana Split for dessert.
We had one last night in Ontario, so we headed out of the city and stayed at a Best Western close to our route.
The drive home wasn't too bad...until we ran into traffic at a dead stop. Fire engines squeezed by as we waited for an accident somewhere up ahead to be cleared. But it was taking a while. And then a fireman came walking by, clearing a path for the fire truck to safely back up and get out of the stopped traffic. Another driver started backing up his vehicle along with him; as he passed us, he commented "I don't know how legal this is, but I'm getting out of here." We watched to see if anyone would follow him, but it didn't seem like it after a few minutes. Finally, with enough encouragement, Francisco began backing up down the interstate...and we were finally free from the entanglement. Other cars started joining the line, although some had room to turn around, so they avoided the struggle of reverse-driving on the expressway lol!

The food scene in Toronto was amazing, and it really was a nice city overall. It was a short trip, but we definitely covered a lot of ground while we were there. [My Fitbit confirmed it lol!]

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