Food Adventure from Finch to Union!

This summer, my sister and  I decided to finally check this item off our bucket list

                  ✔Walk from Finch Station to Union Station

But why stop there? We both love to eat so why not make this into a foodie adventure? So we laced up our trainers and decided to embark on our biggest food adventure and hit restaurants, cafes, diners and from Finch to Union Station. We were completely confident that we could walk from Finch to Union in about 2.5 hour - 3 hours since we both go hiking but this trip took 5.5 hours with the multiple food stops we made. 

Originally, we had a list of 17 restaurants we wanted to hit up but unfortunately, it was taking too long as we had to finish by the early afternoon. So, 3 hours and 3 restaurants in, with a heavy heart we cut out almost 12 restaurants :( Oh well, more incentive to do this trip again!

On to all the places we went that day!! 

Stop #1: Butter Avenue
Address: 3467 Yonge Street
TTC Station: Lawrence
Kilometers from Finch: 5.3km

First stop was to Butter Avenue, my ultimate favourite macaron place. Didn't get too much however, just two macarons to give us a little sugar start :). Earl grey for my sister and passion fruit cream cheese for me.

Stop #2: Touhenboku Ramen
Address: 2459 Yonge Street
TTC Station: Eglinton
Kilometers from Finch: 7.9 km

Stopped by Touhenboku for lunch and ordered a steaming bowl of ramen. At Touhenboku, you choose a soup base (we chose the black soup base which had black garlic oil), your protein (pork belly) and the type of noodle you want (thin or thick, we went with the latter). We also split a chicken kaarage (super tender, crispy and with a generous side of  Japanese mayo) and a mille crepe cake which is basically many layers of crepe with whipping cream and a delicious fruit galze. It's such a light cake and is literally a bite of heaven - sweet, chewy and highly satisfying.

The noodles were chewy and thick, the pork belly was deliciously fatty, the soup was creamy and well seasoned, it was so satisfying! The garlic in our soup was a nice hint and not a huge slap in the face like the Kinton ramen which comes with a huge pile of garlic. Would come here again to try their other soup bases!

Macarons :D

Stop #3: Nadege
Address: 5 Macpherson Ave
TTC Station: Summerhill
Kilometers from Finch: 11.6km

Lovely pastries! They even had the petit choux - delicate, bite sized cream puffs topped with icings and garnishes of various flavours such as green tea, lemon, cassis, etc.

Nadege has an entire alphabet of speciality chocolates where each letter represents a unique ingredient added into the chocolate. For example, the "C" chocolate is a Coffee dark chocolate while the "J" chocolate was infused with jasmine. Quite a cute treat if you want to give to someone.

We ended up getting the salted caramel and matcha green tea - good but not as great as Butter Avenue . 

Check them out - you can also order online!!

Stop #4: Greenhouse Juice Co.
Address: 5 Macpherson Ave
TTC Station: Summerhill
Kilometers from Finch: 11.6km

My sister requested a stop at Greenhouse Juice Co. because we have recently gotten into green juices and smoothies. We got three juices - The Good ($8.50 - romaine, spinach, cucumber, celery, lemon, Himalayan salt) , Rabbit, Run ($7.50 - carrot, apple, ginger) and East of Eden ($8.50 -romaine, kale, celery, apple, lemon).

The juices are quite pricey but worth every penny? You bet. A few minutes after drinking this you can err.. definitely feel it working. Was running to the bathroom in a second!

We're hoping to try their juice cleanse very soon :)

Stop #5: Banh Mi Boys
Address: 399 Yonge Street
TTC Station: College
Kilometers from Finch: 13.9km

No room in our stomach for kim chi fries, but I've had them before so I wasn't too disappointed. The kalbi bun was, of course, delicious. They are extremely generous with the toppings and you can choose the spicy level.

The best part of these baos is the soft bun and the kalbi had a sweetness to it that tied the whole banh mi together very well.

Stop #6: Momofuku Milkbar
Address: 190 University
TTC Station: Osgoode
Kilometers from Finch: 15.4km

Our last stop was Momofuku Milkbar and of course we had to pick up the cereal milk soft serve, the double double soft serve and a piece of crack pie! I wouldn't call the soft serves phenomenal but the crack pie definitely lived up to its name and all the hype. I couldn't stop eating it!

15.6 km later, we were finally done! One of the most satisfying walks of my life. In total we burned an estimated 1422 calories but ate much more. Great exercise and I highly encourage anyone who's looking for something out of the ordinary to do this walk. My sister and I are hoping to do this walk again soon and hit the restaurants we missed on our list!

If you're planning to do this walk, there are quite a few themes you could do:

• Hit all the ramen places on or around Yonge Street from Finch - Union
• Hit all the bakeries on or around Yonge Stree from Finch - Union
• Fastest time to get from Finch to Union

I urge you to strap on your shoes and go for a walk and be a tourist in your own city :) It's tons of fun and great exercises. Enjoy!