Taste of Lawrence

Hurray for street festivals!
I love that Taste of Lawrence is a stone’s throw away from my church, and that it’s a multicultural event! I go to a lot of Asian street festivals, but there’s a lot of repeated stalls there. This one had BBQ’ed seafood done Asian style and it did have lamb skewers, tornado potatoes, bbq squid and whatnot, but it also had European chimney desserts (?), tacos, Thai food, Carribean food, African food, Italian food, Hawaiian food, Filipino food, etc. They also had churros and lemonade and burgers and pizza. I know a lot of people find that area slightly sketchy, but there’s a lot of good food around that area, and that makes this festival exciting to come to each year.
A highlight that wasn’t actually on Lawrence, but was part of this whole festival was that outside of FV foods (a Filipino grocery store with hot table), they had a big street stand open and they were selling plenty of grilled skewers (had the pig large intestine and it was delicious. Slightly sweet, slightly savory, and slightly smokey), sweet and savory snacks (I had a turon — a deep fried springroll of sorts, stuffed with banana, and covered in some slightly sticky syrup), and cool desserts/​drinks (coconut/​pandan everything, anyone?) These were very reasonably priced ($ 1-​$ 5 ish), which is starting to become increasingly difficult to find at street festivals in Toronto. I got three different snacks for a total of $ 5 here!
Interesting, but not food-​related, they have a family stage (apart from their main stage) that is primarily to entertain the kids. When I was passing through, Spiderman and Batman (um…Marvel vs DC anyone?) were having a friendly chat and a staged fight. It was… interesting. They also have rides and whatnot. One year, they had those giant hamster balls people get into and roll around in over a pool of shallow water. That was interesting to see.
All in all, a fun time to be had by all.