Shopping in Kensington Market

Perola Super Market is a little bit of Mexico right here in Toronto. Actually it's not so little, this good sized store has every thing you need for your next Mexican fest, from fresh cactus nopales to Jarritos soft drinks - try the Tamarindos flavor. Or buy Tamarinds in the pods by the kilo. Along this stretch of Augusta street in Toronto's famed Kensington market are several Mexican food purveyors. They also make make delicious tacos, burritos and tamales to go.

After having just been in Mexico and been overwhelmed by how many Canadians there were in Puerto Vallarta I'm glad to see that when the snow birds have come back home from the beach they can enjoy all the wonderful delicacies of Mexico at home.

4 Life Natural Foods store is a funky organic grocery store that epitomizes the funky aesthetic of Kensington market. Added on to the front of an old house in an almost third word style with a very much inside outside feeling, cement floors and a makeshift feel to the shelving, it has a great selection of local organic seasonal vegetables along with all the basic you need to fill you pantry with , like canned organic tomatoes and a small selection of bulk goods.

I look like some aged hound pointing with it noise to the nearest coffee shop.

And the nearest coffee shop and my favorite this trip is Ideal Coffee. They have two locations one on Ossington street and the original right here in Kensington market. This place reminds me of the original Ninth Street Espresso on 9th and C in the East Village of NYC. Funky in a falling apart hap hazard way with great music, twenty something hipster baristas (who really know what they are doing) and awesome good coffee.

Kensington market is definitely the place I most feel at home at here in Toronto, I love the diverse multi-culti crowd everything from punk rockers with their pit bulls, Rastafarians, hipsters, university students and stoners. My favorite store front is Roach-O-Rama a cafe, head shop who signed proudly states:

serving potheads since...aw I forgot

Thanks again to my brother David who took all these pics except the last one of roach-o-rama