Every time we go out in Toronto we tend to go towards the west of the city. We frequent areas like Spadina China Town, Kensington Market, Annex or Queen West. There is a whole east side of town that we rarely walk or visit, the Gerrard Street East neighbourhood. Perhaps, it was never all that interesting to us and to our friends or we simply did not know about it enough.

  

There are certain patches in the map that are vibrant and active like “Gerrard China Town” and “Little India”. I can count the few times I have been there since I live to Toronto. I have been twice to the Indian restaurant “Udupi Palace” and last October I took the streetcar to Gerrard Square mall in order to shop for things to bring to Cuba.

  

Yesterday, for the first time, we walked along Gerrard St., from Yonge St, the heart of downtown, to Coxwell St (about 5 km). I could see how the street view changes in between residential and entertaining, sketchy and boring. A couple with a stroller could be passing you by and then suddenly a guy (who actually does not look like a homeless) could start screaming in the middle of an intersection. I guess that could also happen downtown, but I noticed that this part of the city has a different type of crowd.

This side of Toronto was always poorer, in every sense of the word. You can still notice that by looking at the sometimes rickety old houses and the places around. It shows how much the city has developed in the last few decades.

 

Around 4pm the street is busy with neighbours buying vegetables and getting in and out of hair salons ($8 haircut for men). We ate lunch at a Cantonese place called Pearl Court Restaurant. We got there too late for the Dim Sum lunch special so we ordered a Hunan chicken with veggies and a delicious seafood big congee that can perfectly feed two.

It is fun to discover new places in your own city and Toronto offers a great options. I felt like a tourist again and it reminded me how it is nice to repeat places that you like but also to create new experiences.

We will be coming back that way again soon.

 

Also published on Medium.