Plaza Latina is the heartbeat of Toronto’s Latin American community [Globe & Mail]
Plaza Latina is the heartbeat of Toronto’s Latin American community [Globe & Mail]
by moo422
2 Comments
moo422
> You can get easy-to-find items such as Mexican tacos, but also food from countries rarely represented in Toronto restaurants, such as Salvadoran hen soup, the Peruvian noodle dish tallarines saltado and Chilean humitas – a corn cake steamed inside a corn husk.
> A Mexican food stand advertises dishes such as pozole, a soup, and quesadillas, cheese-stuffed tortillas.
> The mix of food stalls changes regularly and a new wing has recently allowed more to operate.
> Martha Quintero’s shop, which sells fresh juices and other beverages, is among the oldest at the plaza.
> In a new wing of the food court, Roza L. Ramos Moran prepares Salvadoran food at her son’s stall, Pupuseria El Guanaquito Salvadoreno. Ramos Moran comes to Canada from El Salvador for several months each year to visit her son and grandchildren, she explained in Spanish. The restaurant specializes in El Salvador’s signature dish, pupusas: corn-flour flatbread stuffed with chicken, cheese, pork, octopus or loroco, a tropical vine with edible flowers.
> Paula Resendiz, who moved to Canada several months ago, sells tacos at Tortas el Chavo, a Mexican sandwich shop. Popular items include the meat-heavy torta cubana and tacos de cabeza – beef cheek tacos. Resendiz makes this fatty, flavourful delicacy by slicing the meat directly off a cow’s skull.
> Autentica Spanish Foods and Empanadas offers eight types of empanadas and a wide range of sweets, such as alfajores – a crumbly coconut cookie – and milhojas (“thousand layers”) – a cake filled with dense, caramel-like dulce de leche. The most popular item is the churrasco sandwich, which layers grilled steak, avocado, melted cheese and mayonnaise onto a house-made bun to create a sloppy, tasty mess
> Tito Gallardo, the Ecuadorean owner and chef at El Comedor Popular Ecuatoriano, says his country’s food varies widely, with recipes from coastal and mountain regions. The menu includes the traditional comfort food sopa de pata – a soup with large-kernel corn, chickpeas and sliced cow’s foot – and gooey, cheese-filled empanadas, which are crispier and lighter than their Chilean cousins.
> Plaza Latina is located at 9 Milvan Dr., in Toronto
Smart-Ferret-1826
I’ll check it out this weekend. I doubt there’s anything from Panama but my Panamanian wife will enjoy it. We usually go to Kensington for Latin food but always looking to try new places.
2 Comments
> You can get easy-to-find items such as Mexican tacos, but also food from countries rarely represented in Toronto restaurants, such as Salvadoran hen soup, the Peruvian noodle dish tallarines saltado and Chilean humitas – a corn cake steamed inside a corn husk.
> A Mexican food stand advertises dishes such as pozole, a soup, and quesadillas, cheese-stuffed tortillas.
> The mix of food stalls changes regularly and a new wing has recently allowed more to operate.
> Martha Quintero’s shop, which sells fresh juices and other beverages, is among the oldest at the plaza.
> In a new wing of the food court, Roza L. Ramos Moran prepares Salvadoran food at her son’s stall, Pupuseria El Guanaquito Salvadoreno. Ramos Moran comes to Canada from El Salvador for several months each year to visit her son and grandchildren, she explained in Spanish. The restaurant specializes in El Salvador’s signature dish, pupusas: corn-flour flatbread stuffed with chicken, cheese, pork, octopus or loroco, a tropical vine with edible flowers.
> Paula Resendiz, who moved to Canada several months ago, sells tacos at Tortas el Chavo, a Mexican sandwich shop. Popular items include the meat-heavy torta cubana and tacos de cabeza – beef cheek tacos. Resendiz makes this fatty, flavourful delicacy by slicing the meat directly off a cow’s skull.
> Autentica Spanish Foods and Empanadas offers eight types of empanadas and a wide range of sweets, such as alfajores – a crumbly coconut cookie – and milhojas (“thousand layers”) – a cake filled with dense, caramel-like dulce de leche. The most popular item is the churrasco sandwich, which layers grilled steak, avocado, melted cheese and mayonnaise onto a house-made bun to create a sloppy, tasty mess
> Tito Gallardo, the Ecuadorean owner and chef at El Comedor Popular Ecuatoriano, says his country’s food varies widely, with recipes from coastal and mountain regions. The menu includes the traditional comfort food sopa de pata – a soup with large-kernel corn, chickpeas and sliced cow’s foot – and gooey, cheese-filled empanadas, which are crispier and lighter than their Chilean cousins.
> Plaza Latina is located at 9 Milvan Dr., in Toronto
I’ll check it out this weekend. I doubt there’s anything from Panama but my Panamanian wife will enjoy it. We usually go to Kensington for Latin food but always looking to try new places.