Toronto's St. Lawrence Market Food Tour!! Best Market In Canada!!

What's your favorite memory in this market over the past 38 years? My father. Your father? Yeah. I was working with my father here. And my brother and my mother. That's the biggest memory I still have. This is the biggest market in Toronto. And in 2012 voted the best market in the world and it's my second home. But first, let's take a step back. Considered to be one of the best markets in the world, the original St. Lawrence Market was established in the early 19th century as a public market for the city of Toronto. Many of the buildings have been replaced over the centuries, but the actual St. Lawrence Hall we see today was built in 1851, a few years after the 1849 Toronto Great Fire. Today, I'm here to tell you the stories of the people and the food. The St. Lawrence Market stands as one of the most iconic symbols of Toronto and is the culinary heart of the city. It's also home to the incredible Pmeal Bacon Sandwich. I can't wait to try it. Let's go. Yes. Oh my gosh. This is dope. This is amazing. So Pmeal Bacon here is a huge thing. And Pmeal Bacon is said to be invented in Toronto. As soon as you walk in, you see specials on Pmeal Bacon. And Pmeal Bacon is not bacon, eh? Bacon comes from the pork belly, right? So Pmeal is a Toronto thing. It's a Toronto thing, right? So it's wet cured. It's not smoked. It's rolled in cornmeal. It's good. It's not as good as bacon, but here it is legendary. We have to go try it. First impressions, I feel like I'm entering a Spanish market. That's what I'm looking at. Like somewhere in France. This is cool. Over here we have... La Boqueria. Yeah, La Boqueria, exactly. Just like pies, meats. Our first stop is Carousel. It's known all around the world, man, Carousel Bakery. They are said to be the inventors of this. And a lot of celebrities over the years have come here. This is pasta de nata and this is butter tart. This is David from David's Vineyard. Hey, how you doing? He is a superstar. He's almost as popular as his producer, Nate. Why is this the home of Pmeal Bacon? Well, first of all, the city itself and St. Lawrence Market was where it all started with William Davies, who came over from England in the mid-1800s. And that's when he started a stall here in the market selling bacon and also cured hams. And it just blossomed with him. At one point, he was the largest pork processor in all of the United Kingdom, around the world. And how long have you been working here? Since 85. How has it changed over these years? Hours. The customer bases, they've changed. We're only a five-day operation at one time. Now we're a six-day operation. So that's changed quite a bit. And are you from Toronto? No. Where are you from? I was born in Italy. I came over when I was 6 1⁄2 years old. I'm 77 now. You speak Italian, right? Yes, a little bit. I was born in Rimini. Ah, Rimini! I've been there only once. My family is from Umbria. That's great. We're family now. This is amazing! What's your favorite memory in this market over the past 38 years? Oh my God. Any memory. My father. Your father? I was working with my father here. And my brother and my mother. That's the biggest memory I have. Of course. I was going to show you this. Everybody has to go, you know? I know. Essentially, it'll be my turn. I just wanted to show you that. So Pimio, what's the process to do this? Because I have no idea. First time I see this in my life. It's the loin of pork with the backs removed. The back ribs. And what happens is the meat is then processed and it goes into a brine comprised of water, brown sugar, salt and other spices. And it's injected with the brine with hypodermic needles as it goes through the line. And then the entire piece is put into the vat containing the same brine. It then is removed after several days. It's drained and rolled in cornmeal. It used to be rolled in crushed peas. That's where the name Pimio comes from. But they replaced the crushed peas with the crushed corn. That's why you see on the sign there it says Pimio Bacon Style in order to conform for the wording. Ooh, it's going to taste good. This is classic, man. If you're going to dress that way, you've got to eat like a Canadian too. What are we doing over here? Ooh, that looks good. Look at that. So that's the Pimio Bacon already cooked? Oh my gosh, look. He's putting the Pimio Bacon straight onto the hot top. The flat top. This is going to be nuts. What did he put in there? This oil? Pimio Bacon, not bacon. So the inherent fat that we get from pork belly is not here. So our boy here has to add a little bit more fat to it. So Pimio Bacon smells amazing. Wow, look how many he's doing. How many you sell a day? How many you guys do in a day? Hundreds. Hundreds? Hundreds. So right now he's going to put some more oil. This is a Toronto legendary breakfast item. They're packed. They're busy all the time. There's always someone ordering a Pimio Bacon sandwich. Look how beautiful that is. Cheese? Anything else? Hot peppers? You want the pickled peppers or jalapeno? Pickles. Maple mustard, please. Maple mustard? You want to try it with honey? If you have one with maple, you want to try the honey? Would you recommend honey? Liquid gold. Liquid gold? Liquid gold. Oh, I like that. Wow. This is going to be the best sandwich of all time. This is going to be so good. Oh my gosh. Hey. No, no. Thank you. Thank you for everything. Sensato. The famous Pimio Bacon sandwich. Mine has mustard with maple. I got hot peppers, the pickled banana peppers. I also have the maple mustard and honey and cheese. Wow. I'm a condiment guy. Let's do it. Salud. Cheers. Mmm. Bro. Maple mustard. Where have you been my whole life? It's like sweet, a little peppery. The layers. You have four. Look at that. Four pieces of bacon. Cheese in the middle too. And this Pimio Bacon is perfectly cooked. It's nice and juicy. This is one of the best sandwiches ever, man. Ooh, the mustard and the maple, bro. Well, that was delicious. Pimio Bacon sandwich from Carousel Bakery here at the St. Lawrence Market. So, David, I got to take you to the spot. It's called Placewares. It's in the center of the market and we're up on the second floor right now. But you have to check it out because as a chef, this is where you get all the kitchen gadgets. The tweezers, the gloves, everything is here. Let's just do a quick walk. This is wonderland for me. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Everything that you could ever need. A slotted spoon, a mini whisk, everything is in this. Everything. Look at how many knives there are. Knives, whisks. So, metal straws are in here, things that catch my eyes, like cheese cutters, you know, all different types. You can get dairy, eggs, produce, meats, everything like that, grains, legumes, everything. But you can also get all the equipment to cook it. And a lot of chefs come and they shop right here. They come get their cutting boards, potato mashers. You know what we use these for? This is to make the softest mashed potatoes in the world, especially the softest gnocchi. Wow, I haven't even seen this before. You know what this is? No. Is it a hammer? It's for making crepes. Oh, for crepes? Yeah, spin that around. Let's go. Delicious. David, pleasure. Jamie, how are you? Nice to meet you. This is Chris. Chris, pleasure. Hey guys. Wow, what are you doing there? A little marinade, chicken thighs. We're going to pull out some dry-aged beef for you. The longer it's aged, the more kind of funky notes come out with it. It's really neat. You can go for a wide range of stuff, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. Only prime grade Ontario-raised stuff. Look at that. So, lawn herb chicken, Montego Bay jerk chicken right there. Over here, this looks like, oh, they have everything here. Pancetta wrapped pork steak, fast-fried Miami pork chops. Wow. Marinated Capicola steaks. Everything looks phenomenal. Can't wait. Look at the marbling, bro. Stupid. Oh my gosh. Look right here. Look at that. So, what do we have here? So, this is all prime grade Ontario-raised stuff. We've got some PEI as well. Potato-fed stuff. Really, really nice. Super tender. And I got all my, I got some Wagyu's down in the bottom there. Some Snake River Farms from the U.S. I got some Japanese Wagyu. Let's talk about the dry-aging process and exactly what is that doing to the meat. Why are we dry-aging in the first place? Yeah. So, what it's doing is it's taking some of that moisture content out of the beef, essentially like water weight, and it's just concentrating that beef flavor. So, really nice flavor. It just, we only use prime grade because the fat is what really holds that flavor. So, when you age something that's less marble, it's not going to carry that blue cheesy, that sort of aged cheddar type of flavor profile that Dev was talking about earlier. So, really, it holds it in the fat. We go usually 30 to 40 days on this stuff. Custom requests always taken. Like I said, that one's going 70 days there. Oh, wow. And it's like, you know, it's all sort of scabbed over on the outside. But as soon as we cut into that, it's going to be beautiful red, ready to eat. So, is this like wine that it just ages? It tastes better? You know, you can get to a certain point where... Where it's too much. And how long have you been here at the market? I've been here for about 10 years. 10 years? Yeah. And when the pandemic happened, what happened here in that time? Because it shut down and you guys closed for like almost two years? No, we were open the whole time. Oh, okay. We're still a grocery store. So, you know, places like souvenir places like that were shut down. But David, let's pick something, man. Dude, whatever you think. I mean... So, why don't we cut one of Dev's favorite, the limits in there. Yeah. So, we're going to grab this guy out here. All right, here we go. Here we go. I could always... When cutting the beef, I could tell if the steak was going to be good just by the way it smelled. I knew I was going to love it. It smells. That peppery taste. Oh. Take this part off. Clean it up. And then what we'll usually do is we'll cut the first couple. Don't want to go too deep. You get that smell there right off that. Yeah. And that's still pretty young too. That's not, you know... I know, I know. Smells great. Clean up just a little bit more. You cut like a super thin sliver. Just trying to take the dried bits off. And then we're going to expose that there. So, people always wonder what it's like on the inside. And it's just like a regular steak. That's all that is. This is a short loin. So, what you got here is your strip loin. New York strip. And then you got your tenderloin here as well. So, what we do here is we'll cut probably two Fiorentinas off there. That's all you can really get without getting too small in the tenderloin. Because then it doesn't do it justice when you're doing a big piece of meat like that. That's how big it is, the Fiorentina. This guy's getting married in Florence. We're going to have that in a few weeks. Are you? Yeah, man. Fiorentina is thick. Yeah, it is. It's massive. There we go. That's a big piece. Where's the grill, bro? Where's the grill? Bro, I am drooling right now. What we do is just clean that guy up a little bit. I almost take a bite out of that. Is that edible right there? No, that's just scrabble. This in Florence with some Brunello di Montalcino. Perfect. So I got one guy that cooks it. He'll cook it on the grill just like this. He'll do it the whole time. And then the last minute or so, he'll go like this, 30 seconds. This, 30 seconds. That's it. It's almost like searing it. Yeah, yeah. The other thing I like to do on my charcoal grill is I'll do the indirect. And I'll just keep it on one side. Keep the probe in there. Watch the thing cook. It needs some good time. Yeah, I love doing that. This guy will take me probably 45 minutes or so to get it up to temp. That looks great too, bro. Yeah, that's pork capicolo with our house-made cilantro lime marinade. Some good food. And now we're going downstairs. Here we're going to see maple syrup. Maple syrup everywhere. CN Tower. Gift shop. Flag of Canada. Look, this is a nice present. Look at this thing. Wow, pure maple syrup in a maple leaf shape. That's the perfect gift. From Canada? David, this is the maple syrup mountain I was telling you about, you know? This is like one of the biggest things in all of Canada. Quebec accounts for 70% of maple syrup production. In the world? In Canada. But Canada is obviously the largest producer of maple syrup. They call honey liquid gold. This stuff, I just want to pour it all over my body, bro. Remember the butter tart yesterday? I just wanted to keep it on my hands. This is the gift. The gift of gold here in Canada. What a beauty, bro. Do I just chug one of these? I think you should, man. And we do so much with it. We cook with it. There's all these different types of culinary preparations that you can do with maple syrup. But the best thing about it is, yes, you can just shoot it straight from the bottle. You do it, man. It's so pure, bro. Yeah, yeah, do it. I'll do it with you. A little one like this? Four bucks? I guess we'll pay for it after. Quick? Can you just twist it? I guess. I guess that's it. There you go. All right. Here. Syrup d'érable. Il faut pratiquer ton français. Syrup d'érable. Compris? Merci beaucoup. Santé. Oh, my God. I've never tasted such goodness, bro. That is crack. Genial. Isn't that so good? Keep it down. Keep it down, bro. $4 shot. It's expensive. This stuff is not cheap. And so sober. It's not cheap, bro. It's not cheap at all. Well, no, it's an arduous process, bro. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow. Have you ever seen how they get rubber out of the tree? Same thing with syrup. They just tap the tree. Oh, they tap the tree? They tap the tree. Same exact thing. It's so good. So good. This is David's vineyard. He travels the world learning about cultures and food. He's been to over 100 countries. And I look after him and make sure he has his coffee and things like that. Where are you from originally? From Miami. Oh, okay. How about you guys? I'm from Japan. Oh, yeah? Ni hao. Arigato. Oh! No, so-so, so-so. You've been both countries? I've been both countries, yeah. Oh, great. And now he's here in Toronto. So we're eating every day. Today we literally have 90 minutes left here. I should take one of these for my kids though. So as a chef, I'm always coming to St. Lawrence Market. They have incredible produce. Check out this spot that I've shopped at my entire life. Let's go. This spot is called Phil's Place. And what I love most about them is that they have very unique types of produce. And it's always super fresh. So you come here, everything organic. This is all farm-to-table action going on. This is all premium type produce, right? Beautiful selection of mushrooms always. Nice hot peppers. This is my favorite area in the whole store, obviously. Because this is where I get all my heat. You know what I love about this? It really feels like I'm in a European market. It has European vibes. It's very neat. And they take a lot of pride. There's a lot of produce upstairs as well. But a lot of times when I come to the market, I'm running in this ground floor and I'm getting out of here. But I love how organized it is. Like, look at this. The way they do it. Like, farm, right? So I was telling you at St. Lawrence Market, you can get anything that you want, right? So quinoa, lentils, all these grains, chickpeas, basmati, jasmine, everything is over there. I shot photos in the cookbook that I'm gonna give you later. We were shooting here for my cookbook. What's really exciting about this place, it's a mecca, in my opinion, for dry goods, dried fruits, chocolate, everything. Look, peanut brittle over there. Look at this. We have a place down here we call Bulk Barn. We have Bulk Barn. They got these big bins and you take out, like, you know, all your cashews and all that stuff, all your rices, all your flours. This is, like, this is magic. This right here? It's like spicy cashews. It's like a bagel cashew, actually. Yeah, let's keep going. So we have all kinds of dried fruit here. We have all kinds of chocolates, apricots, everything. Check this out. Just keep going. Keep going. This is the end. So many nuts. So many dried fruits. So if you're a baker, if you're into pastry, all the chocolate chips here, you have tons of different types of espresso in here. Oh, wow. This is heavy. This is just all coconut, bro. Yeah. You know? So this is why I had to show you this spot. It's very exciting. Arguably, my favorite part of Domino, dry spices, okay? Check this out, man. Oh, man, the cinnamon. Isn't this beautiful? Wow. So woody, earthy floral, everything here. Ras al Hanout, Kashmiri chili powder, my favorite spice in the world. All your peppercorns, garlic, nutmeg, everything you find here. Also, chiles. You have ancho, you have guajillo, everything you need to make moles, birria tacos, any of that style of food. Everything's here, man. Cardamom. This is the best. This is what makes everything better. If you just throw this into your coffee, you don't need sugar. Green peppercorn, white peppercorn, Indian curry powder, hot. This is actually super helpful, too, pickling spice. So this is gonna be a lot of mustard seed, coriander. You have allspice berries in here, cinnamon. This is stupid, bro. No, it smells like India, bro. It smells great. Chef just told me there's a famous place in Perogies right here, Ukrainian Perogies. Perogies. More dumplings. So here we have a few different styles of Perogies. Potato cheddar, cheddar and onion, blueberry, cherry. And this place is very famous for the Perogies. They'll cook them up for you. I think they'll steam or saute them, and then they'll add sour cream, bacon, scallions, stuff like that. So coming from culinary school just down the road, I'd come here often, about 16 years ago or so, and we'd get Perogies because it's also a cheaper lunch, but they're famous for it. Let's try it. Oh, yeah, bro. Look at the tiny forks. Potato cheddar? Potato cheddar. I'm pretty sure this is like the national dish of Russia. I think it's borscht, actually. Is it borscht? Yeah. Ooh, they're hot. They're very hot. Oh. Very satiating. Very filling. I would really like some chopped bacon on it, though. Yeah, for sure. And you know what else I want to add? Hot sauce. Hot sauce? No hot sauce in Russia, though. No. No, you have to go to Hungary to get the paprika. You put the paprika on top. He's so offended by that. No, don't be offended by that. Spasibo. My mind is too mixed up with the languages here. Man, more maple? This is the one they say is the best. One of them. Wow, man, the cheese. Look at this. Entire cheese section over here. Look how massive this is. Products from all over Canada. So, where are we going? Jamie. We wanted to give you this gift. Oh, thanks, man. We appreciate your time. And that's David's hot sauce. Beautiful. And we want you to put it on everything. Especially your toothbrush. I love guava. Age something in it. That would be awesome. We did an experiment one time a couple years ago. We did bourbon aging. So I wrapped those short loins in a cheesecloth, and for three weeks, once a week, I'd pour a third of a bottle of bourbon over it. Did it taste good? I would say the end pieces, you got it from. The middle, not so much, but the end pieces, you definitely got something from it. So you felt something when you ate that steak. Yes. Thank you, bro. You're going to enjoy it. Yeah. Awesome. So the next spot we're going to, we're going to check out Anton Kozlik. So many different types of mustard. When we went to Carousel, we saw that mustard was on their menu. It's like all over the city. It's all over Canada, really, man. We're going to check it out. I'm not a mayo guy. I'm a mustard guy, and that comes from France. Kozlik. Hi. How are you, man? Good. And you? I'm good. I'm Chef Dev. This is David's Vineyard. Famous YouTuber. Yeah, pleasure. We have clearance from Sam today, Samantha, to shoot everything. And I used to come here from culinary school at George Brown about 15, 16 years ago with the pretzel sticks. They got to try sweet and smoky, my all-time favourite, if you have that available. And maybe you can bring out a few for us to try. And tell us a little bit about Kozlik. How many different mustards do they have? Yeah, a lot, man. And they're innovating too all the time, which is exciting. But the sweet and smoky, man, is like my jam, bro. Yeah, so we've been around since 1948. We started in the market. Now we've expanded internationally. We're in the States. We're in Mexico. We're slowly going global. So yeah, we'll start off with our most popular, the amazing maple. Of course. So I'll give you guys some pretzels. Thank you. And you're going to give it a dip. Maple mustard is the first for me. Nice. Now this has that underlying sweetness. Remember you were chugging maple syrup? So you get a really beautiful flavor here. This is also very Canadian. But I'll tell you right now, I like the mustards that hurt. And this is not one of them. No. Tastes a bit like breakfast. That sweet taste of maple. Imagine this on barbecue. I mean, you can brush this on a nice piece of fish. It would also be really good on vegetables as well. It can go anywhere. On bacon as well. But I want a mustard that's going to punish us. So let's do it. Give it extra hot, right? Yeah. Well, I think the horseradish might actually be hotter at the moment. Horseradish is always hot. It always stinks. And always keep in mind with our hot mustards, the fresh jars are going to be even hotter. Oh, you're going for a lot, eh? Turning Canadian, eh? I want to get punished. I immediately want beef. And I mean that. Yeah. Oh, my nose. It's like the wasabi burn. Yeah, exactly what it is. Right there in the sinuses. Wow. That was fantastic. I said you wanted to try the sweet and smoky. That's my all-time favorite. It's always in my fridge. Is that... The sweet and smoky is my... Even since culinary school, 2009, I was coming here just having... And we would eat the whole bowl of pretzels, poor person, whoever was working here. It's honey, garlic, and hickory smoked. Dude, and it's thicker than the rest. You have a really nice portion there. I just do it like this. Stupid. Honey, hickory? Honey, hickory smoked and garlic. Bro, wow. So how many flavours do you have? So we have, I believe, 33 at the moment. We will be shuffling things around in the next few months. So there's going to be some new products coming out. Some old ones going in the vault. Some becoming seasonal. But yeah, keep an eye out. New products coming out. We tried some distinct flavors here. Is there any crazy one? I mean, what's the most unique one you got? This one's a bit of an odd duck. But it's very, very nice. It's called the Bordeaux. It's more of a play on words. It is made with, it's essentially a red wine vinegar Dijon with spices. It almost kind of tastes like a savory mulled wine. Nice and thick. Bordeaux. You have to practice. Bordeaux. Wow. That's out there. It's a unique one. And a lot of spice. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of vaguely nutmeggy. Kind of warm. It has a bit of heat. Yeah. I'd love to make a dressing with that. A salad dressing? Or on a charcuterie board. Oh, absolutely. Are you the real employee of the month? I am the, currently the only employee at this location. I'm also the manager. So by default, I am the employee of the month. So let me ask you, what's the history of mustard? Is it from France, right? Am I crazy? So mustard has actually been cultivated, as far as I know, for I think as far back as maybe 4,000 years. Asia was the main, was the main history of it. And then it slowly spread out. Canada actually now grows up to 90% of the world's mustard. No way. Yeah. So all over the prairies, tiny little yellow flowers. So yeah, all of your French mustard, German, Russian, we pretty much grow all of it now. And I love this. The mustard seeds. That right there. Oh, nice bite. Yeah. So the triple crunch is three types of mustard seeds soaked in whiskey and honey. Nuts. It's very nice mixed in with salad dressings or other mustards if you want to make a crunchy mustard out of a smooth one. This is called the Black Harp Guinness mustard. Wow. It's a creamy one. Twice I went to smell it, and twice it hit my nose. It's soft. Very light. I got that stout coming through. Yeah. A little bit musky. I like it. I like it a lot. This on fish and chips and a Guinness. Or on a bacon sandwich. On a bacon sandwich. It's even better. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate you. Let's go. Now time to try something that's very popular, especially in Montreal. Well, my boy Tom used to run Buster's Seafood, which is a seafood shop in here. Well, they do prepare goods. They have different types of chowders and swordfish sandwiches and lobster rolls and all that. Tom now opened a new spot, and I want us to go check it out. He's known for these smoked meat sandwiches that you can't fit into your mouth. Wow. So let's go check it out. It's right down here. This place is amazing. Truly epic day here. This place is mental. Mental. What we got? This place right here? Five chips. Wow. That's fire. Mad fire. Mad fire? Mad fire. What's your name? Tommy. Tommy? Pleasure. Nice to meet you. Is that what we're trying today? We're going to make you a nice Reuben today, guys. Reuben. Wow. We got that. We got a little brisket. We got that brisket action. There you go, madam. That's all we got. Yes. Thank you. Let's do this. Going in the back. Let's make a sandwich. A nice Reuben. Hey, how you guys doing? Everything good? Great. Hey, how you doing? Ready. Yo, yo, yo. Hey, how you doing? Nice to meet you. What's up, Tom? How you doing? Pleasure. Good? YouTube world. How are you? This is Lorraine. Hi. She's going to make your Reuben. We're going to start with buttering it. So how does it work? Yeah. Absolutely. For sure. So how does it work? How do we start with the butter? We start with the butter. We're going to grill it. Let that grill on the flat top for about a minute and a half, two minutes. Then we're going to slice some smoked meat for you. Let's get slicing. So, Tom, how long have you been here at the market? In total, about 19 years. 19 years. That's a long time. And how has it changed? We got old here. Um, how has it changed? Just different owners in different locations. Market's the market. Best place in the city, right? There's nothing like the market. And are you from Toronto? Yeah. Originally from Toronto. Oh, originally from Greece, but I call myself Canadian, Torontonian. Kalimera. Let me start slicing for you guys. Jump in here. So we're going to take a nice hot piece out of the steamer. Oh, my God. Steam coming out of there. Get you a nice clean piece. Looks like brisket. It is. Smoked meat brisket. That's Texas brisket. Then we let the machine do all the work. Close that baby up. Dude, you got gloves there. Gloves. So you were born in Greece? Born in Greece, yeah. Where? Rhodes. In Rhodes. Yeah, Rhodes. That a boy. My Greek buddy. Yeah, of course. You been there? Yeah, I've been to Rhodes. I've been to Rhodes, yeah. There's over 100 countries. Dedikines, guys. Dedikines. That's amazing. The 12 islands. Kalimnos, Kos. You've been to Larma? I haven't. Larma near Lindos. Yes, yes. It's a huge island, by the way. Massive island. It's a beautiful island. I'm just waiting for the bread to grill. Then we're going to put it together. Yeah, so tell me about the Reuben meat. It's a Montreal smoked meat, and we actually bring it in from Montreal right now. We're eventually going to be smoking our own Montreal smoked meat and briskets. And when people talk about smoked meat and pastrami and corned beef, what's the difference between all of these? It all starts off as corned beef, and they just add the spices, and the spices. That's all, basically. It all starts off as brisket. Brisket, corned beef, and then we go on to... It's a seven-day brining process. Our bread's toasted. We're going to start preparing it. We're going to start with some Kozik's mustard, who's a local... Yeah, we just came from Kozik's. Kozik's the best. Where's the mustard? Oh, horseradish mustard? No, it's actually just a regular market mustard. Oh, okay. But I see you have horseradish in the window. Yes. What a monster. Yeah, we don't like to skimp out, right? We stack it. We stack. Stack. Then we put our sauerkraut right on top of that. Then we're going to go in with the Swiss cheese. A nice couple slices of Swiss cheese. And then the finale. We torch it. And the last thing remaining is the Russian dressing. We make it in-house. We chop pickles, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, salt and pepper. Can't give everything. Yeah, yeah, no. It reminds me of like a mayo, ketchup, something in that color. A little more taste here. Yeah, yeah, for sure. There we go. Been watching lots of dev shows. This guy told me, don't eat too much before because this is what we came here for. Yeah. This bite. This is our traditional smoked meat sandwich. It's on rye. Again, the rye comes from our local Futures Bakery in the market. So everything, we try to source in-house. In-house being the market. Is it safe to assume that you sell more smoked meat than rubens? Our number one seller is the smoked meat, yes. There you go. All set. Simple, fast, easy, clean. Filling. So let me ask you, over the past few decades, what's your fondest memory here at this market? Serving Samuel L. Jackson. Wow. He was amazing. I remember serving him a seafood dinner one day with all his crew. It was a Monday, we were closed, and it was pretty special. Great guy. Thank you. He loved it. So that was the most memorable time. Perfect. This is the bread that's going on. Nice baguette. This is our number two seller. It's the roast beef hoagie. Roast beef mushroom melt. This will fill you up for the day, huh? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, eh? Fill you up for the day. You don't put any water under there, huh? No, we don't need it. You don't need it, yeah. Then we just put some mustard and some... You're only using Kozlik here. Only Kozlik. We only believe in local Kozliks, and then some garlic aioli. And then we just give it a... There you go. So Tom, did you see a gap in St. Lawrence Market for these types of sandwiches? Yeah, I did. And you knew it's a huge seller. Spending so much years in here doing seafood, I just felt like there was no one doing other than the back bacon sandwich, and that's about it. Over 19 years, few people know the market as well as you do. So you could identify that, hey, I know this will sell here. Something's missing. Oh, man. That's in-house roasted beef. It smells so good. Just like that. All done. Hey. Pleasure, guys. Thank you so much. Take care. Coastlaw. It's one of my favorite things ever. Whenever I get coastlaw, I'm going to go down on it. I think it'll be great. Oh, bro. I'm going to do a book signing here. God bless you. You have a book signing here? For sure. My man. I'm going to hit you up for sure. Fire. I know. It goes nice. It's not the cleanest stuff, right? Yeah, that's why. He knows what he's doing, man. Obviously. Remember this? It's lighter. Of course. In Richmond Hill? I'm back and forth. Let's try this. Yeah, I remember the lobster. Mental. Oh, my God. We still have the truck. Yeah, yeah. I heard. Okay, let's go sample. Let's go. Guys, grab some drinks. Whatever you want. So what we got here? Yo, this is the smoked meat. We have the Reuben, which is what Tom wanted to give us, but there's Russian dressing and slaw on here. I think we should start. This is a little bit cleaner, in my opinion. Yeah. You don't want to mess up the palate here first. They're called stacked for a reason. Stacked. Man, that rice is so soft. My fingers are like just squishing into it. This is money in the bank, bro. It's almost like a naked sandwich. It's so soft. The bread. And then look at that. Look how much meat. It's stacked right here. This is the style, though. If you're doing smoked meat in Montreal, Schwartz is so famous. The main is incredible. It's always going to be a few inches. This is the right way to do it. Cats as well. You have cats, right? Well, that's in New York. Yeah, exactly. Not in Miami. Not yet. Here we go. Mmm. Bro, my teeth glide through that meat like butter. It is so tender. Look how tender this is. You know, it's so thin. It's almost like mortadella. It is, yeah. Man, it melts. It does. Yo, I didn't think it'd be this good. That's my boy, Tom. And he made some amazing food. And I expected it to be great. But this is spectacular. This is one of the ultimate sandwiches. Spect-epentacular. Baby, eat him. You can, you can. I'm very happy. All right, Ruben. All right. Let me get a smaller piece. Bam. Oh, man, that Swiss cheese melted. The smell of Swiss cheese. Man, they are stacked. Like, too much. You know what? This does deserve a photo. It does. Look at that. Look at the juice. Do you notice anything before you go to bite our Ruben compared to our smoked meat? Because immediately, as soon as I grabbed this, I noticed something differently. Yeah, what do you notice differently? The cheese, the way it's melted. What about how it feels? Yeah, it feels a little more buttery and harder. It's toasted. It's toasted, yeah. So as soon as you go to pick this up, this is classically not toasted, but this is toasted in butter. The texture changes. The flavor of the bread's going to change. And I'm really excited. Like a kid. Let's do it. I can't even get my mouth around it. I can't hear you. I couldn't even pick the whole thing. No. Bro. The sauerkraut. The mustard. The Russian dressing. Bro. Really, the most impressive thing to me is the flavor of the meat that's in here. And I mentioned it before. The way my teeth just glide right through it when you're eating it. It's so tender and spiced so well. And we can see those bits and bobs that go into that brining process. They get crusted on top. Two bites. I'm going to stop. I know. I know you're going to stop. I'm going to stop. Wow. He wants to try the beef brisket. He wants to try the beef brisket? It's like I'm back in Texas. Look at that. Wow. Thankfully, I've been limiting myself because this is going to be the bite of bites. I love it. Bro, that piece right there. That whole piece is for you, though, Dad. Nice smoke. Bro. It's so smoky. Canada rivals Texas barbecue. What is this guy on right now? That is mental. It's so soft. Bro. Yo. That's really good, David. Bro. I almost feel like that's the best of all. Right? You brought the best for last. It's hard to be sure of good quality meat. Nah, man. This brisket. Look at this. The color. Like that little fat right there. This is all the pepper. All that. Beautiful seasoning. That Reuben was mental. The brisket was insane. I like that mental. I think it's mental. Add it in there. I think it's mental. Hey. All good? Man, you're sharp as ever. What a guy. Take care, Tom. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. All right. Let's go. Cheese. Never had any cheese. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Very good. I love cheese. That's good. So what do we have today? Forever Cheese. Milder, sharper. What do you like? What do I like? Can you ask him what he has today? This is the whole day you can spend going through all the cheese here. We can start with something milder and go to something sharper. Let's see. What is that? Is this forever? It's from Southern France. It's called Gosaureti. Gosaureti. It's made of sheep's milk. It's on the lines of a Hauda. This one is more like a Gouda cheese. That one more like a Gouda? A little funk. Funky? A little. Cheese, part of life. It's so creamy. That one is creamy. Nice salt in there, too. Salt, Bristol. When the cheese gets aged, the calcium crystallizes. Calcium deposits, yeah. Yep. If you like wine, this cheese is soaked in red wine. Soaked in red wine? Yep. Marlowe. This looks like a charcuterie boar cheese. Oh, wow. They really smell great. Check this. I like smelling things a lot. Compared to the last one? Creamier. It's a little sweeter. A bit sweeter because of the wine. Because of the wine? It gives a fruitier flavor to the cheese. Where are you from? Russia. From Russia? Where in Russia? Moscow. Capital. How long have you been here? 25 years. 25 years? Yeah. What's your favorite cheese? My favorite cheese? Yeah. Let's get something. Let's see. And why is this your favorite? What's so special about this one? It's kind of more universal. This one is also from France. Also from France? It smells like a Swiss. It tastes like a Swiss. It's delicious. So it tastes sort of like the Swiss cheese with the holes, but it has more of a texture of a particular ingredient. I get some barnyard notes there too. I get some farm type notes. I forgot how much I like cheese. This one is something unusual. This cheese is covered in flowers. Flowers? Yeah. And these are all Canadian cheeses? Or no? No. Most of the cheeses we carry are mostly imported. Only Five Brothers is Canadian, right? Got it. Only the Five Brothers, yeah. Bitter. A bit bitter. It's a bit sharper. So we're moving from milder to sharper. Good melting cheese. Yeah. So how many years you've been here? 22 years. And in these 22 years, what can you tell me in terms of how it's changed as a market? Do people come and go? Have some people been here for a long time? Yeah. Many people have been working here for a long time. But the main thing, before, when I started here, we had a whole bunch of factories around us, right? And now it's all condos, right? It's very different kind of people now, right? Before, people were going to work and coming from work, and they were shopping. Now it's mostly tourists and people who live in those condos, right? And is business better now? No, it was much busier before. Before? Yeah. Now it's busy only Saturdays and Sundays, right? Before, I would say it was busy almost every day. Oh, wow. But it's also, you know, issue of parking. It's less parking around the market. Hey, spasiba, spasiba. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Yo, so when you're coming to St. Lawrence Market, a big popular thing here is to eat oysters. There's oysters from all over the place. But on Saturday mornings, there's a big crowd huddled around here, and they're kept on ice. And seafood's a big part of St. Lawrence Market. So if we want to eat something, let's get oysters. Man, I don't know the last time I had an umami oyster from Nouvelle-Écosse. C'est où, Nouvelle-Écosse? New Brunswick. Je comprends, yeah. Cherry stone steamer. This beau soleil is very popular. We're going to get some oysters. Yeah, let's do it, man. Yeah. What do you guys want to get? Uh, your recommendation. Me, personally, I don't like to add anything to them. I'm naked, so I like a lot of brine, a lot of salinity in there. Okay, so we're going to get two different styles of oysters. Which ones are we getting? This one is a little bit upside down. How long have you been doing this for? Actually, I've only been here since November, brother. Oh, this is November. Do you like oysters, though? I actually do enjoy oysters, man. I can't do like a whole plate of them myself, but definitely as an appetizer, sure. Well, I'll tell you. I can eat a thousand oysters straight. Give me like ten dozen, man. Seriously, because sometimes, you know, because it's expensive, right? So I can never get to do it. But sometimes I go to a restaurant, they're like, hey, do you want like 24? I'm like, why not? And then a little bit of lemons, guys. I know he wants to do the island pearls naked. Yes. So we'll come over here to the sauces. Okay. So these are rude mama hot sauces, locally made hot sauces, Vietnamese style. We got hot peach. We got mignonettes, red wine, champagne. You got cocktail sauce, hot horseradish. Hot sauce. Guys, enjoy it, man. Thank you so much. Malpeque. Prince Edward Island oysters. Two different styles. I'm starting Malpeque, bro. Malpeque. Yeah, this is pretty cool. Yo, check out when Jeffrey shucked it, how much liquor is in here. I was at an event recently where someone was shucking, I won't name who, but there was nothing left in it. No, and it's really a shame, man. Like this is the gold. And I'm doing this one naked, bro. There's nothing on it? No. I want that minerality. I want that brine. The oceanic burst. I love it. Oh, God, man. Oh. It doesn't get old, man. It's the sea. Take Jeffrey home with me. Salty. Okay, now we're going to have some fun. So now we're going to add some stuff. We can. I mean, Island Pearl oysters, still really great flavor. I love doing naked oysters, David. But there's a lot of toppings here. Minionette's the most popular. Me. I'm just going to go for the hottest ---- today. Actually, you know what? Anytime I see maracuja. Maracuja, perfect. I can't do anything but. Should I add some of the concha sauce? All right. Let's go. Man, he really kept a lot of jus in here, bro. I'm impressed. It's all in there. There's like nothing came out. And that's technique. Because he did it. When he cuts it, he moves it over. Jeffrey's a slayer. Oyster slayer. Oh, it's spicy. Much cleaner. Much cleaner oyster though, eh? Yeah. Oh, smaller. Wonderful. Let's see some fish being broken down. Yeah. I'll tell you. I've had a lot of oysters in my life. Sometimes they're sweet. Sometimes they're salty. These were next level. Sometimes I'm wrong. Because they're Canadian. No, they're Canadian. They're always better when they're Canadian. Wow. Look at this salmon. Where does this come from? Nova Scotia. Best salmon in the world? It is. Yes. Atlantic waters. Nice and cold. Good fat content. Great for sushi. Great for the grill. Wow. Look at that color. This is one of my favorite fish. This and tuna? All day. Yes. Especially elephant ahi is great. Coming out of Japan or the Philippines. Can eat it raw. Or do ceviche. That's a big face, man. I haven't seen it this big before. They get bigger. I think the record is 63 pounds caught in the UK. And what is this one? Roughly. This is about a 10 to 12 pounder. Oh, man. So, I guess six times. Oh, yeah. They can get big. Man, you're a pro. Yeah, but it's not my first rodeo. How many years? About 14 years. 14 years. And this is our favorite part. Oh, that's the belly? Yeah. So, basically, yeah. So, this would be your belly. High fat content. Lots of flavor. Of course. You've got your head stock here with the belly. Then you've got center cut. And then your lean tail. Tail is the leanest part of the animal because it's always working. I'm just going to clean a little bit of the spinal fragment out. Alright. And you're keeping these whole? Are you portioning them into fillets? Are you marinating them? What are you doing? Or all the above? We'll sell whole fillets on the counter. We have portions as well. And then we'll have marinade options as well. We even do sashimi cut for, you know, on-site customers. I notice that's a big thing with St. Lawrence Market is that grab-and-go. Yes. Of the marinated meats, the marinated seafood. So, you come here, you have an event, you have a dinner party, you want to cook dinner, you come, you get something that's seasoned, fresh. Yeah, it saves you all the work. And you get to impress your friends and family. And, you know, it's a little convenience. We do the prep work for you and you just enjoy and share. And I love making this with some maple syrup. Yeah, a little maple syrup, maybe some mustard. Amazing maple mustard. Maple mustard. Yes. The sweet and tang is always great. Especially with the richness of the oil in the animal. It balances nice. I mean, I could taste that when you said it. Oh, yeah. A little brown sugar or even some soy sauce for the salt. And so now what are you doing there? What I'm doing now is called pin boning. So, we've got a line of rib bones that will pass all the way down to about here on the animal. And so, you just feel for them with your thumb. That way, you know, nobody likes choking on fish bones. This will be boneless. You know, the odd bone might break. We can't really dig around in there and ruin the fillet. But most of it will disintegrate in the cooking process. That was really fast, by the way. Yeah, yeah. I've been doing it quite a while. And that's it. There's your fillet. Look at that. Gorgeous, man. This right here, some white anchovies. Yeah, these are imported from Sicily. Sicily, yeah. Yeah, so these are different than your typical anchovies in a glass jar that emphasizes on the salt. Whereas these are a white anchovy. They're not as dark. And the emphasis with this is the brine. So, it's more tart. So, for exotic animals, today we do have lemon salt. Similar to a halibut, but just like a smaller version. It's a dense protein. Mild in flavor. Then we also have from Africa, which we don't get too often, is we have brown grouper. Basically like a giant snapper. Really good protein. Nice and firm. Great on the grill as well. It's got a substantial flesh to it, so it won't fall apart on you. Caribbean, we have king fish. Great with curries and whatnot. You can do it in the steak form. Yeah. Oh, we also have sardines from Greece. Sardines from Greece. These came in today. Oh, they look good. Gorgeous. Wow, they're that color. Oh, yeah. Bro, they're nice. And then we actually have, this is seasonal only to May, but we have soft-shell crab from Florida. Soft-shell crab, directly from my home state. Yeah. Man, these are my favorite, bro. All you need is a light dredging, rice flour, maybe something nice and starchy that crisps up. And just rip it, man. Rip it into a sandwich with some Russian dressing. I know, I know. Soft-shell crab is the one you can eat. The whole thing. While it's molting. Yeah. Wow. Good stuff. Oh, man. She's cutting, this is a Scandinavian curing process called gravlax, using spirits, either vodka, gin, or brandy, sugar, salt, the zest from lemons, limes, and oranges, and chopped fresh dill. We let that cure for about three days, and then we hand-slice it ourselves. What are we trying here? Wow. Whoa. This looks so good. The way she's cutting it, so thin. You want to try it? I'm going to try it. I smell cream cheese. You smell cream cheese? Well, because it's often eaten with that. That was like the best salmon of all time. That and Helsinki, two top. We're working with Samantha to cover fun stuff here. And I told him you're the honey man. Blackcurrant. He's from New Zealand. He's going to want to know where you're from. Ukraine. This is best honey in the world. Best honey in the world. It comes from Tasmanian rainforest, leatherwood. Tasmanian rainforest? If you Google best honey in the world, Tasmanian leatherwood comes up first. How much for one of these? It's only $29. $29? It's a huge jump. Look at this. $29 for this Tasmanian leatherwood honey. So that's from Tasmania, an island in Australia, right? Tasmanian forest. It comes from Crete island. Mediterranean. From Greece. Crete. Why all the thyme? My favorite. You like it? Yeah. That one has like flowery. It would be nice with yogurt, yes. That's why it's floral taste. It's yours. It was a chestnut. Chestnut? It tastes like liquid chocolate. Yeah. This is the better one. They get better and better. What are you doing to me? Oh my gosh. There's so much honey. Pure honey. 100% pure. Harataki. Company's name. From New Zealand. Wow. I caught it in there. This one's buttery. It's super liquidy, this one. I guess I'll take the whole store? Yeah. I'll take the whole store. It's a lot. He's giving us more. Last one for the road. Last one for the road? Last one. You know I have Indian food to go. You don't think that is? These thyme honeys. I've never tried these before. And that's Greek, right? No, it's New Zealand. Oh, it's New Zealand as well? And this is the beauty of St. Lawrence Market, right? You just tried some of the best honey in the world. Right behind you, there's sushi. Behind that, a bakery. To my left, Latin foods. Salsas, all kinds of stuff. Down here, gelato. This is St. Lawrence Market, man. I think we're somewhere familiar. That was St. Lawrence Market with Chef Devin, my man. Thank you so much. Mad love. Thank you for these days. It's been a pleasure, bro. You really showed me the Toronto life, the real food, the culture. Yeah, man. I did my best. This is my home. It's my duty and responsibility to make sure that you get a proper local look into everything. And I look forward to seeing you at the next one. For sure. Mad love is out right now on Amazon. Get it. Good. Thank you. Mad love. Thank you. Thank you for everything. My Canadian brother, bro.