Pączki and Pierogi

An Elvis impersonator on one corner, Polka band on the other, and the smell of pierogi in the air--ah yes, clear signs of the annual Polish Festival on Roncesvalles. The whole street was closed this weekend, allowing for midway carnival games, street vendors, clowns, and other street fare to create a family-friendly party environment. Me, small young and Asian, partied it up with my Polski neighbours, who polka-ed well into the evening.

Street festivals are a weekly event in Toronto in the summer. Some are bigger than others... like the Taste of Danforth that draws over a million people in two days, and Caribana, with it's 8-hour long parade, reputed as the largest Carribbean festival outside of the Carribbean. Our little street festival, though modest in comparison, still had a great turn out, likely because of the warm sunny weather this weekend.

As a Roncies' resident, I went to the festival three or four times in the last couple of days, mainly just buying up food and eating little snacks from food vendors. I'm too big, after all, for the rides, and probably too old for the face painting... so food it was! There were standard festival foods like cotton candy, popcorn, sno cones, and hot dogs... but this being a POLISH festival there were also stands selling pierogi (perogies), bigos [saurekraut and meat stew], cabbage rolls, and pączki [polish donuts]. I'm sure I sound as though I've become a conneisseur of Polish edibles, but actually... that's not true at all. Despite all the yummies, the place that I frequented the most was my neighbourhood favourite, The Friendly Thai. Mmm...