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Holiday Sweets Tour

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The Christmas Season is not just for decorating our homes and shopping but also a season for feasting. Last weekend, I joined a Holiday Sweets Tour organised by the Tasty Tours here in our own City of Toronto. The tour is a walking tour around Kensington Market right beside Chinatown in Downtown Toronto. To be honest, I have lived in Toronto for so many years but I have never been to Kensington Market. So when I read in our newspaper, Toronto Star, about some Food Tours around our City, I immediately joined Tasty Tours which luckily had a tour of Holiday Sweets during this month of December.

Tasty Tour was founded and organised by Audrey.  This is her business where she leads a group of people during the weekend for a walking tour of sweet treats. Tasty Tours offers two different tours, the Kensington Market Tour and the Chocolate Tour. Our  group met Audrey at Ding Dong's Bakery right on Spadina Avenue's Chinatown. Right away, Audrey gave us a brief history of  Chinatown and the many different Chinese cuisines in the area.   After some introductions, we had some Egg Tarts in the Bakery and some time to shop for some Chinese pastries and buns.  All of Audrey's tours involves tasting in every food establishment we visited and of course shopping too. One of the things I enjoyed besides the eating and shopping together, was that we had the chance to meet the owners of the Food Establishments we visited, and they gave us some introduction to themselves and their business.  Audrey was very knowledgeable about the history of the area, the market and also about the sweets that we tried. We learnt so many things about sweets that day and also about this part of our City. We all enjoyed it and ended the day so full from Holiday sweets and knowledge about this part of Toronto. 

I learnt during this tour that Kensington Market is not your typical market. It is actually a huge market that is composed of diverse community here in Toronto. It encompasses several blocks of streets near Chinatown in Toronto's West side. Every street that we turned was full of Food establishments from Bakeries, Restaurants and other Food Specialities. One thing that also surprised me, was that the prices here are so low compared to other areas in the City. Audrey explained that this is due to the large competition within this area alone. That the producers and businesses produce and sell according to volume.
We visited Cora's Kitchen where we were treated to some Gingerbread cookies.


For the Chocolate Lovers...


These are freshly made truffles in many different flavours. When we arrived we were treated to freshly made Hot Chocolate and also a tasting of the truffles of our own choice. Which one did I try? I tried the Candy Cane. I'm in the Christmas Spirit! Which one will you try?
Candy Cane and Egg Nog are special Christmas truffles.


Akram's Shoppe/ Middle  Eastern Sweets

We met the owner of this Middle Eastern Bakery who was so sweet. She explained to us that she is Syrian and her husband is Lebanese. The bakery, Akram, means "most generous" in the Arabic language, was named after her husband. This bakery is definitely generous in all of these nuts above and sweets from the Middle East, Turkey and even Greece. She also mentioned that the beauty of Toronto is that the city "Welcomed us and the community here call  me and my husband, Mom and Dad." 
See the prices above. The Food around Kensington Market and Chinatown are mostly priced at $1 each, 3 Egg tarts for $1. Unbelievable! Truly a food shopping haven!
The sweets here are Middle Eastern, some Turkish Delight and Greek Baklava. She made us try some Middle Eastern cookie that has sesame seeds with Dates, powdered Almond cookies with pistachio and another cookie with mixed nuts. They were all delicious! I bought some to bring home.


Pancho's Bakery/Latin American


This is a sweet that have childhood memories for me, Churros, which is originally from Spain. When we were young, my mother would serve churros and hot chocolate for our snack. Then when we visit Spain, we never miss eating churros and Spanish Hot Chocolate. Try them when you visit Spain.
But this Churros is quite different because this bakery is actually Mexican. There is a whole in the middle where they fill it with your own choice of Caramel, Strawberry or Chocolate. Nothing beats the taste of  a hot churros with some chocolate. After eating the Churros, I was already so full! I hope you are not that full yet?



Blue Banana is a new concept store where it is composed of over 200 Merchants but you do not see them in there. The store looks like a normal store but there are booths within each section selling different products.
Different flavours of Marshmallows.
Hot Chocolate topped with marshmallows and your own tiny stir.
Candy canes and candies.
More chocolates.
Candies galore!
Who would like to try Reindeer Poop and Snowman Poo Chocolates?
 A Food Lover's Christmas card.

Thank you Audrey and Tasty Tours for a fun and delicious tour!


Have a fun weekend everyone! 

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23 comments

  1. Replies
    1. Rosemary, you are right, this is Heaven and fun!

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  2. OMG!!^^ I wish I was in TO to take part into this gourmand tour! Lol I just loved it!! There are many yummy things, oh churros and all those gingerbread cookies, yum yum! my dream!:P Happy weekend Pamela, big kiss!:***

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    Replies
    1. Lilli, you will enjoy this tour and discover this part of the city. Happy weekend to you too.

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  3. What a fun tour! I really must visit Toronto some day. Wasabi truffles??? I would have to try those. What a crazy idea. Tho I'm partial to chocolates with liquer. Yum. I want to thank you for all of your positive encouragement these past months. You are such a dear. I'm moving rather slowly right now but I should be back to my crazy self in no time! Have a wonderful holiday. Love, Connie*

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    Replies
    1. Connie, Wasabi Truffles is a brave choice. Get well soon!

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  4. This looks like my kind of tour! those egg nog candies are calling my name! lovely post!!

    www.nycstylelittlecannoli.com

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    1. Rosemary, Eggnog is a good choice for this Christmas season. The Chocolate Addict is so creative in their chocolate creations. All of our diets were left at the door when we entered that shop.

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  5. I am not a candy person, so the Mexican churro would have to be my pick! I used to have them every summer in Spain... The Mexican version is a tad different, but I would still enjoy them... pas de problème! Make mine a plain one, simply dusted with sugar, s'il vous plaît! Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)

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    1. Bonjour Veronique, Je suis sûr le churro un avec le sucre épousseté est délicieux aussi. Merci.

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  6. I'm full too no. What a great tour Pamela! The churros look quite delicious, I've not tried them before, I must see if they are available here.

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    1. You are not full yet? Well, I hope you will find some Churros over there in London soon! They are perfect for an afternoon snack.

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  7. Replies
    1. Francesca, it was a fun and delicious experience. You will enjoy a tour like this one.

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  8. this made me hungry!looks delicious!
    http://www.asparklyhanger.blogspot.ro/

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    Replies
    1. The sweets we tried were all delicious and filling. Thank you for stopping by.

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  9. Everything looks amazing, the sweets are so pretty, I bet they taste as god as they look, I want something sweet now! Your have a lovely blog by the way and I am a new follower on GFC and Bloglovin! Hope you will like my blog and follow back!

    Pop Culture&Fashion Magic

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    Replies
    1. The sweets all look amazing and taste delicious. Thank you for following. I will check out your blog.

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  10. Exсеllent aгticle. Keеp wгiting such
    kind оf information οn yοur
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    ReplyDelete
  11. those truffles look delicious! haha this post is making me hungry!

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  12. What a delicious interesting and joyful tour! Thanks for sharing these amazing images with us!

    LA By Diana Live Magazine

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  13. What an amazing thing to do - I would absolutely love this - sweet treats and learning about different cultures at the same time - perfect! I love the two quotes especially the one about not being a quitter and the food lover's Christmas card is wonderful and so original.
    Great post, Pamela!
    PS A fabulous selection of photos too.
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

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  14. wow!! this looks so awesome. I must go check out some of these places..

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I enjoy reading your wonderful comments. Thank you for visiting here.

Pamela lives in Toronto, Canada, currently working in Banking in the field of Credit and Finance. The Chic Delights blog has evolved into an on-line magazine about my experiences and inspirations on style, travel, people, lifestyle and current events. My features are not sponsored posts. The photographs and stories featured here are all from my own resources and experiences. [Pamela RG] (https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-43Wqs-SmwEU/UggtnO60INI/AAAAAAAAQw0/HZa9oGRC8Bc/w200-h200-no/DSCN0550.jpg)