Toronto hosts largest Filipino food festival in North America

SCREEN CAPTURE /TFC

The Taste of Manila stretched out for 12 blocks in Toronto.

The numbers are in for the Taste of Manila food festival in Toronto and they're impressive. Held last weekend, the two-day celebration of Filipino cuisine brought 400,000 to the North York neighborhood known as Little Manila, making it the largest Filipino food festival in North America.

“I’ve been here so many years. Every year keeps getting bigger and better and as a Member of Parliament for York Southwestern who has a large Filipino-Canadian community, it gives me a special honour to join the community here to celebrate the Taste of Manila!,” said Minister of Immigration, Ahmed Hussen.

In the short 6-year history of the festival, even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has visited the event.

Visitors feasted on traditional cuisine freshly roasted lechon, different styles of pancit and adobo, lumpia, sisig fries and stews, favorite street food including grilled anything on a stick and balut, the boiled duck egg containing a 18-da fetus.

Impromptu dancing broke out amonth the crowd as they listened to the music of local performers. The festival-goers were entertained by performances of TFC's Kapamilya stars Randy Santiago, Sheryn Regis, Jugs and Teddy, Inigo Pascual and Billy Crawford.

With a population of over 300,000 Filipinos, Toronto is home to largest community of Filipinos in Canada.

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