Hollywood of the Canadian North

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N o v e m b e r 1 2 0 0 8 S AT UR DAY S TA R TRAVEL 16
HOLLYWOOD
OF THE CANADIAN NORTH
There’s more to Toronto than grizzlies and pine, writes Heidi Kingstone
C
anadians easily accom-
modate the faintly odd
remarks of foreigners
who think that this
vast land is solely
inhabited by wild salmon-eating
grizzly bears and Heather Mills
McCartney stretched out on an ice
floe saving seals from clubbing by
crazed natives ...
Where nothing exists apart from
lakes and endless landscapes of pine
trees or melting ice with stranded
polar bears. Where huskies are
a man’s best friend and a woman’s
place is in the igloo pounding whale
blubber.
Not surprisingly, the truth is
somewhat more complex. There’s
actually more to Toronto than the
Film Festival, which finds true
Hollywood stars heading north for
its red carpets and glamorous par-
ties each September, second only to
Cannes in the movie world.
My tradition has always been to
get off the plane and head straight
into town for dim sum. As a hugely
multicultural city, Toronto has
three Chinese areas – Canada’s
ethnic Chinese population now
exceeds 1 million – and one of the
results is great cuisine.
I’m not sure that Toronto ranks
with Paris or even London when it
comes to gastronomy, but it does
offer some excellent restaurants
and there is at least one interna-
tionally ranked chef. Susur Lee has
gone to New York, but has two spots
in town, the revamped Susur and
Lee, side by side on King St W.
In my dreams I have discovered
a place where I cannot shop. From
the middle of the African bush to
Chicken Street in Kabul I have been
able to support local economies.
Toronto offers also pretty good
opportunities – from fashion to art.
There are good museums, too.
Bata, the Canadian shoe company,
opened the first Shoe Museum
designed by Raymond Moriyama.
Frank Gehry, the architect who
designed the Guggenheim museum
in Bilbao, was born in the province
and is completing the redesign of
the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Daniel Libeskind, the architect
who drew up the original plan for
the redevelopment of the World
Trade Centre in Manhattan, is mar-
ried to a Canadian. His controver-
sial Michael Lee-Chin Crystal ex-
tends the Royal Ontario Museum.
It has the largest dinosaur on
permanent display in Canada and
one of only two such skeletons
being shown in the world.
The Gardiner Museum has col-
lections of ceramic art from South
American religious worship to cen-
tury-old British drinking games
and aristocratic pursuits. It is also
a fabulous example of modernist
architecture – and the restaurant
has great views.
As the city is so cosmopolitan
each ethnic group has its own area
in which to feast and simply admire.
The traditional trendy ’hood,
Yorkville, is now only one of several
that lure the fashionable crowd.
To Page 17
Early morning
strolls along
the boardwalk
by Lake
Ontario in
Toronto.
A couple watch
the sun setting
behind the
Toronto
skyline.
S AT UR DAY S TA R N o v e m b e r 1 2 0 0 8 TRAVEL 17
From opposite page
Queen Street West, King Street
West, the lakefront, the Distillery
District, have restaurants, galleries,
cafes. For Greek food there is the
Danforth, for Italian Little Italy,
and Asian cuisine Little India.
Toronto also has a castle, Casa
Loma. Another thing to do on the
tourist route is to go to the CN
Tower, once the tallest free-standing
structure in the world, and look
down 342mthrough its 6.35cm glass
floor. In winter, you can skate at the
rink in Nathan Phillips Square, the
remarkable City Hall building. In
summer take a ferry across Lake
Ontario to Toronto Island or walk
the 3km boardwalk down by the
beach. Go see landscape architect
Martha Schwartz’s garden in
Yorkville created to reflect the land-
scapes of Canada. And there is
more. Devotees of The Sound of
Music will be relieved to know its
male lead, Christopher Plummer, is
alive and well. The Canadian-born
star gives an outstanding perform-
ance in George Bernard Shaw’s
Caesar and Cleopatra.
It takes about two hours to drive
from Toronto. As a Torontonian orig-
inally, I had completely forgotten
just how beautiful the rolling, green
countryside is. In summer Ontario
thaws, but the winter landscape has
a different if chilling beauty. While
in Stratford I ate at a jewel of
a restaurant called Bijou. Plummer
ended up there the same night at the
private dining room. The menu
changes daily so you have to read
from a chalk board, and the Cana-
dian wines are impressively good.
In fact, Niagara, the heart of the
wine district, is known as Napa
North, in the same way as Toronto
is known as Hollywood North. That
was when the American greenback
had might. Now the Canadian dol-
lar’s strength makes filming north
of the 49th Parallel somewhat less
attractive. Southern Ontario has
the right climate and soil to grow
good grapes, and winemakers have
the know-how. Actor and comic Dan
Aykroyd, who started in Ghost-
busters and was one of the original
Blues Brothers, has his own winery
famous for ice wine, a sweet wine.
Even if wine isn’t your passion,
and you want to give the serious
tastings a miss, there are pretty
good restaurants, On The Twenty
in Jordan is one mixing good food
and amazing scenery overlooking
a Niagara escarpment ravine. Nia-
gara-on-the-Lake is another town
that is picturesque, and is an easy
day trip from Toronto.
I went to visit friends who have
a house in Fenelon Falls, another
absolutely spectacular drive through
the vast and beautiful countryside.
Bobcaygeon is the local town, an-
other lovely place, totally unlike the
grim small places that you think of
that define middle America.
At Kawartha Dairies try the
“bear claw”– dark chocolate ice
cream filled with chocolate coated
cashews and swirled with golden
caramel or “moose tracks” – vanilla
ice cream with chocolate peanut
butter cups swirled with moose
tracks fudge. You can also rent bicy-
cles and tour.
I know which one I would
choose.
Canadians will happily let others
think clubbing on a Saturday night
means bashing poor baby seals over
the head, while we get on with the
wine-tasting, touring and kicking
convention – along with the huskies.
Some things never change.
King and Queen St West offer many shopping and eating experiences for the visitor to Toronto (above left). The CN Tower in Toronto is shrouded in cloud after cold damp weather. On the right is a
statue erected in 1930 to signify the peaceful relations between the United States and Canada. Shoppers and the skyline are reflected in the window of a shop selling roast duck, squid and chicken.

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