PD M.
Yelp
After reading the web site ad for Yummy Market's Holiday Menu, I was determined to go there before Christmas and take home a sampling of their offerings for our Christmas feast. The only thing that has kept me away from this glorious Russian supermarket is the distance. Got here at last and for the past few days we've all been eating like czars and czarinas!
First thing you need to know about Yummy Market is the rye bread. The beautiful awesome set of shelves that is devoted to every possible variety of very fresh mouth watering rye bread. Healthy artisan breads with seeds, with nuts (you simply MUST try their brown walnut bread), chia bread, sunflower seed bread, the list goes on. All day long the diligent ladies of Yummy Market are stacking newly baked bread with plastic gloved hands. All day I said. Stacking, stacking, stacking. It puts your average Canadian bakery, let alone supermarket, to shame. You need not take my word for it though. There are free samples of bread available next to every loaf. It was one such sample that my husband brought to me when I was choosing tiles for the replacement bathroom at nearby Keramin that got me hooked on this place three years ago. No foodie in her right mind would turn down such bread. I could completely understand the sentiments of the young Russian lady slicing my three loaves when she said she could not bear the selection of breads at Walmart after what she was used to at home and she got badly homesick. Homesick for good bread! Yes, you will get that way too, my fellow Yelpers! Or rather, you will come home for the first time to bread as it SHOULD be.
I have only touched on that one thing. That's just a hint of what's in store. There is the glorious smoked salmon, rainbow trout, sturgeon, the vast selection of salamis, gourmet prosciutto, Westphalian ham, at the digital deli counter, the imported cheeses from France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the entire aisle devoted to perogies, another aisle devoted to jams and jellies, yet another aisle devoted to teas, and oh yeah, there's the chocolate. No, not just Lindt though that's certainly there. There's quite a selection of chocolates from Vienna and Russia too. The chocolate section made ME homesick for the wonderful Polish delicatessens of my childhood in Parkdale. I grew up with all those delicatessens up and down Roncesvalles and I've been a spoiled princess about food ever since. Nothing could match the experience of those tastes. How I love those gorgeous imported chocolates wrapped in colourful glittering foil in the shape of Santa Claus, decorated eggs and Christmas ornaments. Anyway, I have gushed and rhapsodized enough. Go ahead, don't believe me. Go and check it out for yourself, Yelpers.