Guest Blogger M82 - Farmer's Market Throwdown

Hello. My name is Mike, I was a Waterlooian for 6 years as a doting University of Waterloo student, and recently moved to Toronto after a 10 month stint in Montreal. Like most mid-20s walking stereotypes, I have been cast under the hypnosis of food. Foodie this, foodie that. Cooking, dining, getting loud over great ingredients and great flavours, and trying to impress people at parties since 1999.

I got into cooking for many reasons. One of them was the same reason why I picked up a guitar. Others are less superficial, such as feeling dissatisfied after being force fed through the entire M&M Meat Shops’ frozen entrée catalogue as a teenager. Some mums just don’t like to cook, and some mums have picky husbands that only like to eat peanut butter and jelly every day for lunch for 40 years. Enter in a curious and live-to-eat (rather than eat-to-live) 17 year old.

So are you ready for the thing? That thing we do? Trying to compare incomparables, trying to listify and countdownify it all? But it’s fun, and almost completely harmless. And so are blogs. So here we are. Overly dramatic extreme food market experiences!! I’ve had the good fortune of frequenting a modest number of food markets during my time, so here are some comparative thoughts on the Farmer's Markets of:

Kitchener vs. St. Jacob’s vs. St. Lawrence (Toronto) vs. Jean Talon (Montreal)

round 1:

Best Signature Food Item.

1. St. Jacob’s fritters
2. Jean Talon’s calmars frits
3. SLM’s Peameal Bacon sandwich
4. Kitchener’s lack of a signature food item.

Most of you won’t require an explanation about these wonderful Mennofritters, along with the mandatory 15 minute queue. But I remember my first time - I had no idea an apple fritter could taste so transcendental. So homestyle, so fresh, so beautifully fried, so sugardressed.

round 2:

Protein Selection

1. St. Lawrence
2. St. Jacob’s
3. Kitchener
4. Jean Talon

St. Lawrence Market’s selection of livestock, fish, and seafood is second to none. The whole south building is mostly dedicated to protein, it’s actually quite intimidating. Rabbit is one of my faves, and you don’t see it around that often, and at least three different SLM vendors have it. Jean Talon goes for quality and not quantity in the biggest sense of the words. For those ethically carnivorous, Jean Talon offers more organic and grass-fed meats than any other market. They also offer harder-to-find selections, from organic turkey legs to $150 hunks of foie. However, there are only a handful of stalls that actually offer meat. St. Jacob’s and Kitchener are quite meat-centric in comparison.

round 3:

Produce Selection

1. Jean Talon
2. St. Lawrence
3. Kitchener
4. St. Jacob’s

Jean Talon is a clear victor, with amazing selection, delicious samples of most produce sold, and a clear obsession with quality ingredients. St. Lawrence follows suit, but I am not interested in waking up at 6AM and sharpening my elbows for a first glance.

So at the end of the day...

I don’t want to do this, too many variables. But it’s a throwdown, so I have to. My gut tells me that it’s... Jean Talon. This market is the epicentre of an internationally renowned food city, boasts the best spice shop in the country, has beautiful proteins, the most/best free samples, open for business every single day, and has been known to make out-of-towners cry.

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Quick Note from M82: I realize there’s a big per capita issue here with the markets, where city and market size are all over the map. The good news is that per capita, K/W markets outshine many others. So take that tourist trap train, buy a leather belt from the parking lot, listen to some Aboriginal pipe music, and know that in Toronto, the crowds are even worse.

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Mike Christie is the sole owner/operator of M82. Go there. You will not be disappointed.