During the long week-end in May I head to Toronto to visit my good friend Susan. We had such an awesome time. I have a few blogs coming soon about the food of the short trip. This one is more of a show and tell. Turns out my Montreal friend Augustin was also going to be in Toronto at the same time.

While Susan stayed home and rested and prepared a “Lost evening” (yeah the religious night of the last show ever) I met up with Agustin for a foodie exploration of Kensington Market and Chinatown. I was half way though a book called The Fruit Hunters at that point and I knew I would find at least a handful of these mysterious fruits I had been reading about.

That book will be making an appearance, several, soon on this blog. A very weird book to read that affected me a lot. Get ready soon enough to go into the dark and exotic world of fruits! Until then enjoy a little windows shopping of my picture below. Pics in markets by Agustin Leon.

Cactus napoles in Kensington market by a Latin grocery store

Rabutans in Chinatown

Inside the Rabutan shell. Flavor and texture is just like gummi bears 🙂

Durian – when cut the smell is putrid but the flesh tastes like heaven…so they say. To big to buy and travel with. Have to wait till I get to taste. Some countries ban people from bringing in Durians in hotels and public places because of the horrid smell once cut.

Mangosteens in Chinatown

The inside of the mangosteen. Wonderful delicate flavor somewhere between a citrus, a peach and vanilla ice cream

Vanilla beans and cocao beans from Mexico. My friend Susan, with whom I was staying, just got back from Mexico. She shared with me some of her foodie Mexican stuff.

Susan also gave me a bottle of Mezcal.

Yep that is the one with a worm in it. Kinda off-putting. No, I have no intention of eating it.

Did you know:Only certain mezcals, usually from the state of Oaxaca, are ever sold con gusano (worm), and that only began as a marketing gimmick in the 1940s. The worm is actually the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis that lives on the agave plant. Finding one in the plant during processing indicates an infestation and, correspondingly, a lower quality product. However this misconception continues, and even with all the effort and marketing to represent tequila as a premium—there are some opportunist producers for the shooters-and-fun market who blur these boundaries