Winter can suck, I know. Darkness at just 4 p.m. Sub-zero temperatures so cold that you bundle up until you’re drowning in your scarf. Hands too cold to text or tweet. But the way to survive the blahs of winter is to enjoy things that you can only get in the cold months of the year. Snowmen. Hot chocolate. Wool hats with pom poms (in Canada, we call these tuques [PRON: TEWKS]).
Here’s me wearing one!
What am I holding in my hand? Well, a sweet, sticky treat goes a long way to boost your spirits. One example the maple taffy from Bloor-Yorkville Ice Fest in Toronto. Yorkville is an upscale neighborhood, where all the big Chanel and Dolce and Gabbana boutiques are. But if you look around the nooks and crannies you can find some fab, fab restaurants.
During the ice festival, this place was all about glistening ice sculptures, but you know food has a special place in my heart, so I’ll start off with a tasty (and snowy) Canadian dessert of the day: Maple Taffy.
How it’s made
This sweet treat is made with the simplest ingredients: Canada’s liquid gold — Maple Syrup — mixed with pure snow.
You boil maple syrup for about half an hour to get rid of water, to make the syrup extra thick and sticky.
Then you pour the molten syrup into strips over clean snow. Make sure it’s CLEAN because you’re going to eat this stuff. While the hot syrup is still steaming, take a popsicle stick and dip it into the end of one of the strips.
The syrup has probably cooled down into a semi-solid state by now. Now roll the syrup around around the popsicle stick. Top it off with a bit of snow to harden the outer layer, and stop it from leaving a sticky trail down your hand as it melts.
Enjoy! The ooey gooey treat may not look the best (kinda like gum twisted around a stick), but it has that distinct maple flavor that is oh-so-coveted around the world that people are willing to commit grand larceny for. But the flavor isn’t overwhelming. It’s the texture that’s a lot of fun. When you bite into it, you feel the cold snow granules on your tongue, but then as you pull the outside away, you reach a warm, gooey centre so you get the best of both worlds.
I am so glad they brought this stuff to the big city. You usually have to drive for several hours to get a hold of this stuff in conservation centres or provincial parks in the country.
Ice sculpting
Congrats to the sculptors, who made magic using 35,000 lbs of ice! They have the patience of saints. It took this guy a couple of hours to sculpt a beaver waving a flag out of an ice brick and he was still cracking jokes by the end.
We all got some nice faces full of snow from the chainsaw shredding away at those ice blocks. Once the excess pieces are chopped off, artists go in with chisels and sanders to fix up the finer details.
These sculptors are mega talented. They can make anything out of ice, seriously.
Like this ice furniture:
And this giant wedding ring. You’ll see the name Diana carved into it. A guy had this specially made so he could propose to his girlfriend. We weren’t there when it happened, but the DJ told us that she said yes.
It’s really fun to talk a walk through the ‘hood and see the sculptures glisten in the sun. It’s even more fun to see them lit up at night! This event has really grown over the years, from just a couple of sculptures on display, to a contest of grandeur with 35 works of art that stick around until the temperatures rise. Thanks for taking a stroll through Yorkville with me!
Twice a Year Travels 