More Reflections on Toronto...

I will definitely be making another trip to Toronto when I get the chance. It is one of those big cities that everyone should see once in their life. It is big and crowded and diverse, like NYC, but maybe has more art & culture in places you wouldn't expect. There is art everywhere. And the people are so fashionably dressed. We went first to China town, which reminded me a little bit of the China town in NYC, but seemed more homey somehow. The streets were packed with sellers of fresh produce and dim sum restaurants. We randomly picked one restaurant to eat at and the connaisseurs in our group thought it was okay, but it was a real treat for me because I never had dim sum before, and there is supposedly no good dim sum Pittsburgh. We had some fabulous dim sum later that weekend in Kitchener, at the "King Tin" restaurant.

Close by, is Queens Street, which was lined with vintage and funky clothing stores, nothing like what we have in da'Burgh. My theory is that buyers for these types of stores regularly scour the Goodwill and thrift shops of other towns for the good stuff, and that is why it's hard to find anything in those types of places--you have to go to the vintage clothing mecca in Toronto (or NYC for that matter) and pay top dollar to get the good stuff. Anyway, we moved on to Little India, where I was overwhelmed by the variety and selection of saris in the shops. I could not choose one--there were just too many to choose from. The one sari that truly stood out and spoke to me was drippingly gorgeous shot silk wine color with gold embroidery and elaborate pallu encrusted with rhinestones, for only $450 Canadian--a wedding sari. But considering that I didn't have that much money on me AND I don't often go to Indian weddings, I passed on it.

We then shot over to the Royal Ontario Musem, which was open late on Fridays, and we had our daily allowance of antiquities. Then we had a marvelous good time at "The Sultan's Tent" Morroccan restaurant where we were treated to some awesome cuisine and entertainment, but sadly the place is closing for good at the end of the month.

Oh, and here are some more pictures from the Belly Button Ball, taken by one of the other performers, Kizmet.