Day 2 - the world's tallest self-supporting tower

So a certain sharp-tongued blogger beat me to the punch in wrapping up our Toronto adventures! Since he painstakingly recounted our trip with utmost accuracy and a pinch of humor (was he spying on us?), I’ll simply summarize the highlights of days 2 and 3 or will I?

After 6 strange and strained months in Jacksonville, we were seriously craving stimulation from a world-class city. So for this short trip, we chose to skip museums, galleries and your typical tourist sites. Now I know that most people cannot go to Toronto without visiting the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas, but that simply didn’t interest us. And just because we chose not to go to the top of the CN Tower doesn’t mean that we didn’t experience its significant presence in the skyline and in song (thanks to the Great Lake Swimmers’ “Concrete Heart”). It’s pretty hard to miss. Instead we totally immersed ourselves in funky, walkable neighborhoods, music, and the thriving foodie scene of the city, which is worlds away from the abysmal food “culture” of Jacksonville.

Day 2 started with coffees and pastries in Little Italy followed by an amazing shiatsu treatment at the Shiatsu College of Canada. With both mind and body balanced for the first time in months, we headed off to the second largest Chinatown in North America. It should be noted that Toronto has the largest Chinese population in North America, and this historic Chinatown is actually one of 6 in the city! Our destination on this day was Bright Pearl for a classic yum cha/dim sum. We didn’t find it exceptional, but it definitely satisfied our cravings for good steamed dumplings, chicken feet, stuffed bean curd, and baked pork buns all washed down with a pot of jasmine tea. Bellies not quite full, we continued our tour of Chinatown popping in numerous herb shops, markets and bakeries. The Kim Moon Bakery on Dundas St West had some of the most delicious char siu bao we’ve had and an incredibly nice owner to boot! Definitely not to be missed when in town.

After Chinatown we headed over to the Kensington Market neighborhood with its narrow streets filled with butchers, produce stands, cheese shops, coffee shops, various ethnic restaurants, as well as vintage clothing and furniture shops. ‘Tis a pity we were so full from yum cha because the empanada restaurant smelled divine! The best coffee we had in Toronto – I Deal Coffee – also calls Kensington Market home.

By mid-afternoon our feet were throbbing, bruised and bloody. (Remember we are way out of practice walking because in JAX it’s ALL about the car.) So we decided to head back to the Inn to relax for bit before dinner. Of course that idea didn’t last long as we decided to stop in High Park for yet more walking. High Park is almost 400 acres of natural and manicured park land with trails and paths. If you refer to my previous post, you’ll realize that we were rather bummed that we missed out on the blooming cherry blossoms. Despite our disappointment, we hobbled around a significant portion of this beautiful park before the storm clouds rolled in and cut out tour short, but not before we finished walking our spiritual journey in the labyrinth…. (Yes at this stage we really needed to chill for a bit.)

Around 6:30 pm we hopped on a street car and headed towards Little Italy for dinner. Based on numerous reviews, we decided on Pizzeria Libretto. All I can say is “wow”! Libretto serves the only real Neapolitan pizza in Toronto using the guidelines set out by Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana and the Italian Government. I kid you not. There are apparently 13 of these “commandments”, which include dough being kneaded with fingertips only, crust rising no higher than 2 centimeters, pizza being 35 cm wide with the center only 0.3 cm thick! The pizzas are then baked quickly for 90 seconds in a 900 degree wood-burning oven that was handmade in Naples by a 3rd generation pizza builder, and they are phenomenal. (Yes – I know I'm both a food snob and nerd.)

We started our meal with a fresh green salad with shaved fennel in a chardonnay peach vinaigrette. For our entrees, Matt had the duck confit pizza with bosc pear, panna and fiore di latte mozzarella. He raved about this pizza and savored every single bite. On this particular night, he found it to be the best pizza he's ever tasted, which is quite the compliment from my husband! I had the wild mushroom pizza with taleggio, basil, parsley and fiore di latte mozzarella – so wonderfully earthy and tangy. The meal was paired well with a 2005 Rosso di Montalcino. It was a simple but elegant night out that made us (later) bemoan the fact that even Jacksonville’s nicest restaurant doesn’t hold a candle to Pizzeria Libretto in terms of style and food quality….

To be continued....