Day Four in Toronto and it was time to explore the city again. For us, this means seeking out street art and food markets.
Street Art on Route to St Lawrence Market
First up on our 4th day in Toronto was a piece of street art that we could view from our AirBnB.
Found on the corner of Charlotte Street and Adelaide Street West. This was created by an artist duo called Pichiavo. The mural is called Mercury and Psyche and the inspiration for it was taken from a sculpture made by Reinhold Begas.
This mural clearly demonstrates their ability to combine classical and urban street art.
From here we headed to St Lawrence Market and found the next mural. It is on the side of the Flatiron Building. This is near where Wellington Street East and Church Street meet. It is by a Canadian artist, Derek Michael Besant. From the research I have done since seeing the mural, I have found out that Besant wanted to reference the theatre district, where the mural is located. He has created a theatrical giant curtain with architectural facades painted on it, unraveling from the wall that it’s pinned to.
After seeing this mural, we walked down The Esplanade to where it meets Church Street. Here is where a Banksy exists. Banksy created this when he was in Toronto promoting a documentary “Exiting through the Gift Shop”
I have not been able to find any information about what this particular piece of art might mean.
St Lawrence Market
Once I had captured the Banksy, we then made our way to St Lawrence Market for the first time.
St Lawrence Market is must see location if you are into your food. The market has existed since 1803 and it is filled with some excellent vendors and not just ones serving food and fresh produce.
We spent about 30 minutes just wondering around Placewares. This store is rammed full of every kitchen gadget or cooking item you could possible need. Just when we thought we already had every utensil known to man after our visit to William Sonoma in Vancouver. We still managed to find an item that removed the stones cherries and olives, which wasn’t already part of our vast collection!
The cake selection at the market was magnificent. Here are a few pictures of the cakes that caught our eyes at Future Bakery.
A word of advice for when visiting St Lawrence Market, is do not dither. I really fancied the apple caramel tart but by the time I made up my mind and went back for it they had all gone!
Instead we sampled some cakes from Eve’s Temptations.
We chose the Cranberry Orange Bundt Sponge cake and a Custard Tart. The Bundt cake was light and fluffy with a zesty orange flavour. The custard tart was gooey with thin crispy pastry.
We were also tempted by the Apple Caramel Crumble Tart but managed to resist.
The market also has a great selection of butchers. One of our favorites was Di Liso’s Fine Meats for their magnificent selection of steaks.
On the way home from the market, we walked past the Gooderham Building. This also known as the Flatiron Building.
After this, we also walked past the Joni Mitchell star in the Canadian Walk of Fame. Found on King Street, it is significant to me as my mum is such a big fan.
Our Evening Meal
For our evening meal, we couldn’t resist buying some steaks from SK Quality Meats at St Lawrence Market.
The steaks being cooked on the griddle pan that we don’t travel without!
The steaks were served with roasted potatoes from Fresh & Wild Food Market. The whole meal was utterly delicious.
Next up is our final full day in Toronto.