Pastizzi & Off To Niagara On The Lake - Sunday, June 13, 2010

For this vacation Larry and I were completely thrown. I think by the time it took the four of us to pick a location for vacation, vacation was suddenly upon us and we ended up practically doing zilch on researching spots to go to in Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake, where we were renting a cottage. So needless to say, we pretty much winged this trip and probably not to our advantage, particularly in Toronto.

It seems like such a nice city and I know we missed a ton of potential great neighborhoods - hey, I watch Sandra Rinomato on HGTV's Property Virgins and she's always showing great neighborhoods in Toronto!

So on our last day, actually morning, in Toronto, there was actually one area that we were definitely going to: the Maltese neighborhood on Dundas, and specifically the Malta Bake Shop (3256 Dundas Street W,
Toronto, ON, M6P2A3. Phone: 416-769-2174).

As I mentioned in several previous posts, I am 1/2 Maltese. My heritage...actually, all of my heritage...Maltese-Ukrainian-German...is very important to me. And I believe Toronto has the largest Maltese population outside of Malta, so short of Larry and I trekking to Malta, this seemed like a much closer alternative!

And I actually had a selfish motive for going...Pastizzi! Which I have said before I love, love, love!

Pastizzi

So on Sunday morning we went to breakfast, packed up and headed out on College Street towards Dundas in search of Pastizzi and Maltese people!

Ironically, as we were headed out of the city, wouldn't you know it we ran smack into the Little Italy neighborhood! It was actually not too far from the Kensington area. We were quite miffed because it looked like such a fabulous area...lots of great looking restaurant options, shops and people milling about...I can't believe we missed it! Alas, at least we have a place to go to the next time we're in Toronto.

Maltese Cross

We found the Maltese area pretty quickly because...suddenly Maltese crosses were everywhere in sight!



The Malta Bake Shop was exactly what I was hoping for: maltese people having a coffee clutch, probably after mass, all speaking Maltese, great looking pastries, and...Pastizzis!

And as Larry pointed out at the bakery and when we were passing a Maltese Catholic church, everyone looked like a Vassallo! :)

So I was happy as a clam when we all purchased Maltese goodies for the house - can't beat it! Delicious!