Field Trip -Fort York & Garrison Common, Toronto ON

What an adventure! My friends Sophie and Joel run a small catering side business called The Backyard Kitchen. Their talents have been recognized by various Foodies in Toronto, and have landed them some interesting gigs around the city, primarily TUM (Toronto Underground Market), where they have auditioned and were successfully chosen to serve in a food market at BrickWorks. After several successful TUM entries, they were invited to sell food at Field Trip.

Field Trip is an outdoor concert featuring various bands including Stars, Fiest, and Broken Social Scene. They had two stages, an Etsy exhibit, food trucks, and two TUM venues to choose from. I was excited to help out and experience the party from the other side of the table.

It was like a gigantic outdoor Hippie picnic with wine tasting and hula hooping.

"Pulled Pork, 3 all day, waiting on sliders!"

What an amazing team! Seven month pregnant Sophie needed many reminders to sit down as a whirlwind of beet sliders, pulled pork on a bun, and banana fritters were prepared on the fly.

The rushes came in waves. They were unfortunately located in the Kid Zone, which had much less traffic then the main TUM market or by the west gate near the main stage. Joel had built a big sign to help direct people to our booth. It worked for the most part, although, the booth two tables down were also selling pork, and people would end up there asking for the pulled pork. Oh well. I think by the end, the Backyard Kitchen did alright considering.

We lucked out with the weather: overcast but no rain. The food was great too. Banana fritters are unbelievable. The booth next to us was selling crepes. Bartering with food is awesome. One pulled pork sandwich for a chocolate banana crepe? Sure! Maybe some ribs for some banana fritters? And the booth to the right let us try the mango ice cream sandwiches and the stout ice cream on a maple bacon chocolate chip cookie. Yum. They even had a gluten free version!

Mango ice cream on gluten free cookies. Dry ice keeps things very VERY cold.

What better way to spend an afternoon in the city? Outdoors, music, food and friends. The concert went all day and we stopped selling food around 10 so the deep fryer had time to cool down. After of course, we experimented with some deep fried, battered pulled pork. You can really deep fry anything!

Great day!