Peameal Bacon for the Win

St. Lawrence Market in Toronto

While in Toronto with Visit Baton Rouge a little while back I had a golden opportunity to go to the St. Lawrence Market, one of the largest and highest rated food and farmers markets in the world. I took a walk down construction-riddled Front Street until I arrived at my destination. Passing a Starbucks, Lonestar Grill, Quizno’s, and Chipotle, I felt right in the middle of Anywhere, USA. However, once I got to the St. Lawrence Market, I knew I had arrived somewhere at least a little different. The market is full of vendors slinging fresh seafood, meats, produce, cheeses, and much more. My sources told me to keep an eye out for the famous Peameal Bacon on a Bun, the real true Canadian bacon. I found what I had been looking for at the Carousel Bakery booth but noticed that they seemed to be operating under a cash-only policy. Not having exchanged my dollars for… dollars, I found an ATM and withdrew some Queens. I got my peameal bacon and a sense of Canadian pride overwhelmed me.

Carousel Bakery

This bacon was unlike anything I've ever eaten before. It is not the same bacon that we put on our pizza and call Canadian bacon. This bacon, the peameal bacon from Carousel Bakery at the St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto, is legit. Salty, fatty, and ever so porky, the layers of swine melted in my mouth as I devoured the sandwich on my way out the market with a fresh brew of fair trade coffee in my hand. The bread held the layers of bacon together until the entire sandwich filled my stomach and I licked my fingers to savor every morsel of flavor that I could.

Peameal Bacon Sandwich

Toronto's Skyline from the CN Tower