05/2024: touched grass
May 2024 Edition of The JEFF Blog
Sorry for the delay on this month’s blog. April was a fun month of visiting Toronto, but also busy wrapping up projects. Some exploring, food and visiting in the Kensington/Trinity Bellwoods area and checking off some bucket list visits and purchases. I also finally wrapped up a longer project and excited to jump back into some personal work and other smaller commissions. Let’s jump into it.
This month was my first time living alone in downtown Toronto! On Instagram, I saw a mutual was offering to let someone house-sit their place while they were on vacation, so I took the offer and had a nice first floor of a townhouse to myself for two weeks. I wasn’t in full-vacation mode since I was still working, but I had a good amount of exploring on the weekends with eating, going to pop-ups, and visiting a few stores on my bucket list.
My hometown doesn’t have many options for Mexican food or tacos, so I took up my sister’s recommendation on Seven Lives Tacos. This place’s highlight are the fish tacos, but I’m allergic to seafood so I went with the Carnitas (braised pork) and Pollo Asado (grilled chicken). I thought it was nothing crazy, maybe because the seafood options are better, but it was still great. I love any taco with lime on top. Around $7 per taco, which is a bit.
My friend recommended an onigiri/omusubi place to try out, and I got a variety of meat and vegetables that were good. Omusubi Bar Suzume, which is a food stall with some seating and benches close by. The omusubi were decent, high quality ingredients with a seasonal menu. This place is great for a quick snack, around $4 each.
Went to a brunch place with friends, Ohiru Cafe, which served some decent sized portions of pork and egg sandos. The pork katsu sando have cole slaw in the sandwich and came with a good amount of salted, seaweed seasonned fries and salad. By the end, we all wanted more sauce or cole slaw to balance the dryness and saltiness (probably how they get you to buy a drink), but I was happy with the portion size for the price ($15). Lots of other options here for drinks and brunch food. Man, I really want another sando.
Last highlight was a sandwich place I found walking from Trinity Bellwoods, Lambo’s Deli. An authentic deli selling sandwiches and cuts of meat. I got their classic combo with salami, ham and a bunch of different veggies. Some solid ingredients in a sub worth it’s size, not bad for $15. Would definitely come back to try the other sandwiches.
I also got a chance to visit these art stores and thrifting stores and pop-ups, mostly around Kensington Market and Trinity Bellwoods:
BAZAAR, thrifting store with a local artist goods and thrifted clothing. Especially impressed by the basement area, unique decor.
Weekend Characters, apparel and stationery store owned by Polyester Studios. Very cute characters and animation, some nice prints and shirts with character designs you won’t find elsewhere in the area. Got some nice prints and a sticker.
Kid Icarus, handmade goods and print shop. a large variety of prints, cards and screen printed posters.
Secret Planet, art prints, zines and cards from a screen-printing studio. Great vibe with art and prints from local and global artists. Got some cute cards from here.
Good Friends Market, a pop-up event a friend introduced me to. On weekends featuring vintage clothing, local artisans, tattoo artists and more. Great selection of thrifted clothing that’s fun to look through and different line-up of vendors each weekend.
Hippie Market, another pop-up event focused on thrifted clothing and vintage objects in a uniquely narrow venue.
Toutoune Gallery, one of my favourite places to revisit and see the unique stock they have in store. I found a comic from Freddy Carrasco here and a holographic bookmark from minisupersticker.club.
Overall, a lot of fun downtown Toronto but as a person chronically online, I couldn’t justify the cost of living with my lifestyle. It would be nice to be connected to the subway to downtown though.
Music vibes of the month:
hi grace by Dominic Fike. From his newly released “14 minutes” album on Youtube, some hits and misses for me.
The Hills by Rachel Chinouriri. Found her recently, a refreshing voice in indie pop.
Linger (The Cranberries Cover) by Royel Otis. A fun cover, vibey song.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse & Mark Ronson Cover) by Remi Wolf. Great voice and fun cover.
Thanks for reading! I hope that you try out some of the places I went to if you’re ever in Toronto. Now that I’m finally closing out a bigger project, I want to go back to some smaller commissions, personal work and gaming (I still haven’t gotten the chance to try Hades 2). Hoping to have some exciting art updates next month. Stay tuned for June 5 for the next blog!
What a fun way to sample a completely different life for a short time. I’m excited to try and check out these spots you recommended the next time I’m in TO!