Chinatown Toronto - Spadina and College - Picture Perfect Movie Location, Shopping

A walk through Toronto's Chinatown area along Spadina south of College is like being in China itself. It's a popular location for movie filming, and a mecca for shopping in shops that could easily be lifted whole from any city in China -- Beijing, Nanning, Shanghai or Hong Kong.

Here are some pictures of Toronto's Chinatown I took earlier this week. If you've been to China, you'll see what I mean. If you haven't , well, trust me, this is as good as being there without the jet lag:-)(Click on image to enlarge, then click the Back button to return to this page.)

Wicker, Rattan, Bamboo, Purses and Shirts

This shop fronts on Spadina (map at bottom of this post), and, like its neighbours, goods are spread out along the sidewalk. Stores in Chinatown often have much lower prices than western chain stores. This shop had 6 ft-high bamboo poles that I needed, but I didn't want to carry them around town and to dinner.

Red Roses International Spadina Avenue

This is another shop I will come back to when I have more time. I found some wonderful cotton tunic tops for about $10 CAD. Some of them would make great beach cover ups, and all would go well with jeans. Red Roses also carries purses and bags, jewellery and assorted gift items.

BBQ Meats in Window Display

A few shops south on Spadina, this BBQ and meat store hung its wares in the front window. Many if not most of the clerks in Chinatown do not speak English, or else they don't speak it well enough to talk with non-Chinese. Just like in China! If a clerk really doesn't speak English, they will call in someone who does to answer your questions.

Dried Seafood ~ Fruits ~Vegetables

Also as in China (Hong Kong comes to mind, and Tai O village on Lantau Island), this shop sells dried seafoods, as well as Asian fruits and vegetables, and of course, our usual Canadian ones. At some stalls, the vendor sat in a chair on the sidewalk, busily trimming fresh greens pulled from the delivery carton. But unlike China, in Toronto doesn't allow sales of live fowl -- chickens, ducks, etc. -- from cages on city streets.

Carton of Sweet RambuTan ~ Spadina Shop

Named for its 'hairy' covering (enlarge this then come back!) Rambutan is quite lovely. Related to and tasting much like lychee or longan, and costing $4 a pound, it weighs next to nothing. I paid about 30 cents CAD each for three of these fruits. If you have the time and inclination, peel and seed these fruits and fill seed cavity with a honeyed cream cheese. Yum!

Asian Grocery Store Spadina Avenue

With the streetcars running on tracks in the center of Spadina, and parking at a premium, both people and vehicle traffic can be chaotic. Just like -- well, you know. This shop was a few doors down from a CIBC bank, and boasted a nearby fortune teller.

Filming Location - Spadina near Bright Pearl Restaurant

Across Spadina from the grocery store above, the red traffic cones herald a film shoot in progress. This area borders the somewhat notorious Kensington Market neighbourhood. We crossed Spadina to the west side, and saw more trucks and traffic cones in front of the Bright Pearl, a huge (400+ seat, 2 storey) dim sum restaurant that's very popular.

Cat on a Chair Up in the Air

No idea of the backstory to this art work. If you know, post a comment!

CN Tower Seen from Spadina north of Dundas

The CN Tower (spiky thing in background) is easily visible from much of downtown Toronto. What's not so easy is to get a photo of the tower without power lines.

Not all shops in Chinatown are geared to bargain hunters. One lovely shop at 297 Spadina (east side) sold high end jade and Chinese artifacts, including stunning bronze sculptures and ceramics; a good percentage of them were priced in the thousands of dollars.

So if you find yourself in downtown Toronto, and yearning for a taste of China, then go west from the Eaton Center on Dundas until you get to Spadina. There are lots of good restaurants here, but if you're not in the mood for Chinese or pho, as we weren't that day, then walk north to trendy College Street, and find yourself a nice outdoor patio, like Kalendar.

T & T Supermarket Mississauga Ontario Canada

Update: July 25, 2009
Today's Toronto Star reports that T&T taken over by a Loblaw subsidiary. I am not really happy about this, though I imagine T&T must be.

In my own experience, western grocery stores raise and lower prices at whim (my preferred brand of milk fluctuates between $4.69/2L to $5.19/2L every few weeks at the same neighborhood Loblaw store).

So I will have to keep an eye on what happens to our beloved T&T (T&T Toronto Store near Docks, photo) over the coming months.

Should it morph into the usual western grocery store, then I will keep shopping at the Asian supermarkets like Ming Yuan (googlemap).

Original Post: How T&T Web Site Hard to Find
To perhaps 99.95 percent of the general population, the name of this Chinese grocery store in Mississauga (T&T) means nada nothing zippo zilch. To the other point oh five percent, however, this is apparently big news, since many of them have been visiting my Mississauga Chinese Centre page, eager for food news.

The new 'T & T Supermarket' reference on that page is part of a quote about shopping for Chinese grocery items in the area west of Toronto. Though I had not even remembered the quote, the search engines certainly did.

As with all company names that include characters such as the ampersand (&) in print, they are tricky to locate in directories like phone books and search engines. And so for some months, I had many visitors to this page, which I attributed to a keen interest in Chinese lifestyle. That is, I did until I actually looked at the search term used.

Then I realized that, rather than my brilliant story, the big draw was this 'new' Chinese grocery store in town. Then I felt bad for the frustrated searchers. Imagine coming to this page, skimming through the contents and maybe even missing the T & T reference in all the other words.

So one day a month or so ago, I drove by the location and saw that construction was nearly completed and I posted a note to that effect on that page. Then our community paper ran a full-page ad (with the website name) announcing the Grand Opening. Turned out that the actual website for this company is www.tnt-supermarket.com. Now who would stumble upon that one? Looks like a shop for explosives, no? And these people were looking for food, not fireworks.

I'm mentioning this on the blog so the search engines will have yet another way to direct people to this Chinese grocery. It can also serve as a cautionary tale for anyone planning to name a web site or a business. Think about it long and hard before you plunk down the money to register the name. Make sure it's easy to spell.

And in case you are wondering if, perhaps, given the hyphenated name of my blog, that I am a bit hypocritical, well, this doesn't apply to blogs. Most of you get here by clicking the blogger scroll, a search engine link or hot link from my site or email signature. I'll bet real money that the only two people in the world who actually ever TYPE my blog name are me and my friend Teena in Australia.