Food trucks and hockey pucks

Nothing quite screams love of country for me as much as these 2 things: homegrown cooking and local sports nuts.

I find the food truck culture in North America quite fascinating: Greek, Italian, Canadian, American, Mexican, an n-combination of fusion — whatever you can imagine, it’s there. Apparently, there were a lot of perks from having a foodie blogger in the family — lots and lots of food, of course! My sister let my friend Mace and I tag along when she got an invite from the lovely Yvonne of Bonfire Catering for a FoodTruckEats shebang. We arrived quite early at Dundas Square, as the food trucks were still busy prepping for the melee of foodie fans that never fail to turn up. Yvonne even gave us a behind-the-scenes tour inside her food truck (what did I tell you? awesome perks!).

It was Mace’s first time in Toronto as well, so we shook off the calories by exploring the rest of downtown on foot. After a quick trip to the art gallery and a look-see at the CN Tower, we paid homage to another Canadian great — we were off to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I know nothing about hockey, but I was really looking forward to seeing all the memorabilia, knowing how close Canada holds the sport to its heart. Display after display held odes to the hockey heroes, which would be appreciated by both fans and strangers to the game.

Think you’re ready to go pro? Get ready for an awesome interactive experience in the hall of fame’s shoot-out playzones. Mace and I got took turns donning our weapon of choice (either the hockey stick or the goalie’s glove) and went head-to-head with computer-simulated athletes to take our moment of Canadian glory.

For the real deal, my sister and I planned to catch one of the Toronto Maple Leaf’s game in the Air Canada Centre. However, we had to reshuffle our plans and ended up watching a match across the border — rooting for the New York Rangers all the way down in Madison Square Garden.

I’ll admit, I was crying a bit inside that it wasn’t an NBA game that I was watching in that arena, but thanks to the funny commentary from the die-hards surrounding our seats, it didn’t take long for me to warm up to the NHL.

I’m still a bit shocked, though, that the referees won’t break up two players slugging it out on the ice, but I soon learned that it’s actually a bit of a tradition and is actually the draw for a lot of spectators. There I was, a beer in hand while watching a good bout with my sister dearest — yup, sometimes you just can’t help but say, life is good.

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Photo overload:
Picasa album: Downtown Toronto with Mace (FoodTruckEats and Hockey Hall of Fame)
Picasa album: New York Rangers vs. Anaheim Ducks in the Madison Square Garden