And I have my reasons for not saying much here about what happened this weekend. What can I say about Toronto? In many ways I would have to agree with Fujian Gal's friend, it is like Chicago. I didn't get to see any of the museums; the old city hall reminds me of Trinity Church in Copley Square--the architecture is very similar. I wish I could have seen Fort York. Personally, I wasn't impressed by the city. Not because it's Toronto (though the new city hall does seem appropriate--something symbolic of the close-minded and proud bureaucracy running the show), but because it's just another megapolis that owes its existence to an industrialized, oil-dependent world.
I suspect Montreal is not much better--there doesn't seem to be a section of Toronto that one can point to as being "historic"--perhaps parts of UofT might quality, but the much-touted multiculturalism of Toronto is not really something to be celebrated, as the city loses its Anglo character and culture, which is being replaced by... a PC liberal ideology.
Quebec City, on the other hand... I imagine it to have historic sections that are still intact and being used.
I did see St. Michael's College and PIMS. Not bad... According to the former Lady Downstairs, St. Basil's is the oldest Catholic church in Toronto. It's ok, but not as pretty as St. Ignatius in Chestnut Hill or St. Paul's... I missed most of the Saturday vigil Mass, but I'm guessing it was typical. On Sunday I went to Holy Family, but I missed the 11:00 Latin Mass, and went to the 12:30 Mass instead. The Church is done in a neo-classical style, but I was surprised by its plainess, and lack of liturgical artwork. Perhaps it is in one of the poorer neighboorhoods of Toronto and doesn't have the money for it.
After Mass, I stepped outside, and there must have been a local airshow, because a F-22 was flying around and making a lot of noise. Some of its maneuvers (like what it can do while in a loop, such as braking?) were impressive, but how much fuel did it burn up for that performance?
F-22 Raptor Team Web Site
We did go to Congee Queen on Saturday. The best congee in North America? Perhaps. Fujian Gal claims that that honor belongs to Congee Village in NYC. (She thought the congee was too watery, I thought it was about right, since I don't like thick congee, although that is what my mom makes.) I suppose if I ever visit NYC again, I will have to try it and make a judgment as to who wins. The congee is not better than what one can find in Hong Kong--but it is difficult to find well-made congee this side of the Pacific. The food at Congee Queen was good for the most part, though the fried been curd was inconsistent. Some of it was really good, some of it was overcooked. I did like the salt and spicy pork, though they used pork chops instead of the fatty pork section (rib meat?) that other places use.
While we were driving down Steeles Ave. in Markham, we passed by Casa Imperial--a lot of well-dressed people were walking up to the front door--I suspect that was a wedding banquet or some other celebration going on. I wonder how good the Chinese food is there...
Niagara Falls was ok, I wish I could have spent more time looking at the water, but the city surrounding it... is a tourist trap. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe--the food was even more overpriced than usual, and the quality no better than what I've had before--perhaps even worse. Someone should open up a Chinese deli that sells cha siu and roast duck--they'd make a bundle of money, I think. We visited Casino Niagara and it was not a pretty sight inside, with all of the people spending their money in that way. I lost my desire to check out Vegas.
5 comments:
Just visiting from Next Blog Over, but yes, Toronto is very much like Chicago. I was in Toronto for a writing convention in April, though they have much more neon.
Dear me, I wish I had been in town. Then I could have dragged you to the great bits myself. Yes, there was an air show in Toronto this weekend, at the Canadian National Exhibition. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the CNE; I went every year when I was a kid, and so it barely blips on my consciousness now.
Holy Family may be so plain because the original church burnt down and they had to build a new one. That is a very new church, although it is built in an old style.
I am very cross with you for going to the Hard Rock Cafe. Toronto has a million restaurants, including more Thai restaurants than Thais, for example, and you could have eaten better. Did you go to that bun shop on Baldwin? Huh?
For an old anglo Canadian city, you'll have to go to Victoria, Kingston or--strangely enough--Montreal (the west part). It is hard for an outsider (or a recent immigrant) to see Toronto's anglo roots. They're still there, but it takes one to see them. But Toronto ceased to be the great whitebread outpost of the British Empire it was in the late 1960s.
Oh, I see that you went to the HRC in Niagara Falls. Well, Niagara Falls is a horrible tourist trap, and there is no reason for being there except to see the Falls. After seeing the Falls, the best thing to do is drive to nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake. Now that is a bit of anglo-Ontario heaven, with houses built right after you Yankees burned the old ones down in 1812. There are lovely Victorians hotels and houses and shops.
Toronto is the financial center of Canada, and its primary industry is and has always been banking, so I don't know how much of that has to do with oil. Alberta is the oil province.
Oh, I wasn't referring to the industry of Toronto, but to the fact that megapolises can only be created (sprawl, suburbs, etc.) and sustained (transport of food, energy) through the use of oil. Centralization has typically accompanied industrialization in Western liberal capital economies.
Well, you shouldn't have gone to Harkham then! When I was a kid, Markham was a village with farmland all around. The Greater Toronto Area, like London, England, is made up of villages and towns that got much bigger and then connected to each other by improved roads and transit. Only in the last thirty years has there been an explosion of really horrible subdivisions to the north, east and west. But I am afraid the subdivisions were necessary because immigrants keep coming here to Toronto, not to, you know, rural Saskatchewan.
The next time you come to Toronto, you should stay in Toronto proper and not float about all over the place. Why on earth did you not tell me you were going to Niagara Falls? I could have saved you a lot of boredom, bad food and aesthetic disgust.
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