Toronto: a good place to veg

Along with such crunchy continental metropolises as Seattle and Portland, Toronto has emerged as a friend to the barnyard.

According to a recently unveiled list of North America’s most vegetarian-friendly cities, our fair town is a vegetarian’s mecca, as it turns out, catching the tail end of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals’ top 10. The list reels off eight American cities and one other Canadian (Vancouver) where a foodie with a decided distaste for blood can find joy. For Toronto, it swoons over our bounty in this camp, reserving special mention for Rawlicious, and its raw vegan pasta Bolognese, Commensal’s eggplant in ginger sauce and Fressen’s beer-battered deep-fried tofu with cornmeal.

Given that a full 10% of Canadians call themselves vegetarian today (citing moral, philosophical and health-related reasons), according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, a nod to those restaurants that cater to them is a good thing.

More than that, according to AgCanada’s 2005 report, some 40% of Canadians seek out a meatless meal at least some of the time. No wonder the mock meat industry is booming, with the flesh avoiders among us spending a billion dollars a year on creatively contrived versions of the real stuff.

Snap!