4 Apr 09

17:38 EST

Well another busy day, after the torrential rain yesterday the wind had picked up, up to 80 mph according to the news. We started this morning with breakfast at a local diner which only serves breakfast all day, it was full when we arrived and when we left the queue was out of the door. S had the gargantuan breakfast, bacon, sausage, ham, pancake, some form of meat paste, beans and potatoes and M had museli and banana filled crepes with fresh fruit and yoghurt, all of which came un-sweetened and it was really very good.

We then headed up a couple blocks to one of the main trendy shopping areas and S brought some new trainers and M a couple of tops, we then dropped the shopping back off at the hostel and got the street car to St Lawrence Market which is brilliant, loads of fresh sea food, some amazing bakeries and plenty of cooked food, S opted for a spicy sausage dog and i went for some fresh pasta canaloni, and we shared the very famous (!) Peameal Bacon Sarnie which was acutually really very good indeed.

We then took a walk to the new distillery district. It is a former brewery which was built in the Victorian period and is now a fully pedestrianised very posh shopping, arts and entertainment district which has apparently appeared in loads of Hollywood films including Chicago and X-Men. We went to the Mill Street Microbrewery and were pleasantly surprised by the free samples we tried so brought a couple of bottles. we then went to the chocolate laboratory opposite and brought some chocolates to take away and some to sample in house with a couple of glasses of hot chocolate, all very yummy and busy.

We then headed back to the street car and went back to the Hockey Hall of Fame as S had finally decided on a shirt to buy. We then got our wires crossed and walked miles around the middle of Toronto to see if there are any tickets left for this evenings hockey match, and after much walking and being blown about the place we found there wasn't (not a big shock) and M was more than flagging so we are now back at the hostel to recouperate before heading to Chinatown for dinner.

So Chinatown, we headed up the road outside our hostel which takes you right into the heat of Chinatown, we had looked at the guidebook and it had recommended a place called Lee Garden which when we found it had queues out the door, but we felt that the vast majority of the clientèle were not locals of Chinatown so we decided to wing it instead and chose the second busiest looking place called something Sky. We got the last table and ordered the spicy chicken with onion, crispy beef with ginger and Singapore vermicelli which were all superb, it was only after we finished that we read a newspaper review stuck on the wall which said the best and most authentic food was only in the Chinese section of the menu and that the best thing to order was the steamed chicken in lotus leaves and the live fish (apparently exactly like the restaurant at the end of the Universe) so we will just have to do that next time!