Help me fill my shopping list as this forsaken town has nothing even close.

September 12, 2006 6:29 PM

I am looking for some specific items to purchase in or around Toronto .I will be wandering the Kensington market area this week looking for the following: Reasonably priced Salvia (5 or10 x), silver Absinthe spoons, Kopi Luwak coffee, Costa Rican (or other) coffee sock, “Day of the Dead” theme imported pottery/tiles,Tibetan rope incense , hand operated conical burr grinders for press and Turkish coffees and a herb called "rum rau" aka Vietnamese coriander. I am also trying to locate a food bar called "Toast". Can anyone recommend some stores/areas to check?
posted by plumberonkarst to shopping (7 comments total)

Gotta say that's going to be one hell of a party.

I've passed on this request to a non-Mefite Torontonian. I'll come back with a response, hopefully.
posted by Kickstart70 at 6:32 PM on September 12, 2006

The only Toast I know of (other than the sandwich place you find in Canadian airports) is Toast on Queen which you can find at 993 Queen St. E. There is a Kopi Luwak Bean Company wordpress site which purports to be based in Toronto, but I couldn't find any email address or other contact information. You might find it best to ask someone who works at Moonbean Cafe (30 St Andrew St, between Kensington Ave. and Spadina) or IDeal Coffee (84 Nassau St, between Augusta and Lippincott) -- while I don't think either place carries Kopi Luwak coffee, they may know of a supplier. Salvia I've bought from Karma Co-op, but there are a number of health food stores/organic shops in Kensington which likely carry it.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 7:35 PM on September 12, 2006

If the Toast on Queen East is the one you're looking for, then you'll be close to Merchants of Green Coffee who have a coffee sock listed on the web site.
posted by winston at 8:42 PM on September 12, 2006

Oh, and MOGC probably has some of the other coffee stuff too. After all, the advocate buying unroasted beans and roasting them yourself -- which means they have to sell you all sorts of equipment :-)
posted by winston at 8:43 PM on September 12, 2006

The Queen East Toast is the only one I know as well.

I don't know shit about Coffee but you should check into Sasmart, House of Spice, and Tutti Frutti, which are all in Kensington. Sasmart sells kitchen stuff and might have your grinders. The other places may have coffee stuff and the rum rau.

Sasmart is at 6 Denison, which is around the corner from House of Spice, which is on Augusta. Tutti Frutti is on Kensington near Baldwin.

If you're absolutely desperate for the Vietnamese Coriander, maybe call Cafe 668, which is a Vietnamese restaurant on Dundas, east of Bathurst (not far from Kensington). They might be able to help you.

Lastly, if you're doing any quantity of grinding, get yourself a Sumeet. I grind everything with mine and you can't beat it. (Everything but coffee. That shit's poison.)
posted by dobbs at 10:00 PM on September 12, 2006

This sounds like an interesting Scavenger Hunt list...
posted by niteHawk at 6:48 AM on September 14, 2006 [1 favorite]

Thank you so much everyone! This site is indeed the "Best of the web". I thank many dieteis for the collective cooperation and intelligence housed here!
posted by plumberonkarst at 5:41 PM on September 14, 2006