June 28, 2025

A Taste Of Asia is held on a temporarily closed section of Kennedy Road between Steeles Avenue and Clayton Drive. This is right beside Pacific Mall so we went there first to look in the various shops. Pacific Mall was opened in 1997 and is the largest Asian Mall in Canada. There are over 450 individual stalls with vendors selling anything from clothes to eye glasses and cell phones. We walked around the mall and looked at all the products that are being offered. Some are familiar brands with Chinese versions while other shops offer more traditional Chinese products including herbs cooking ingredients. People come to Pacific Mall as a tourist attraction and we sometimes see busses of them arriving for an outing. One could spend several hours looking in all the little stalls.

Heritage Town is a food court that specializes in many traditional Chinese dishes and attracts people from great distances to sample foods that can’t be found in their home locations.

The Emperor’s Chair is designed to replicate the throne of Quin Shi Huang who was the first Emperor of China. He lived between 259 and 210 B.C. This replica is available for people to sit on and take pictures and is part of the decor that was designed to turn the mall into a tourist attraction and increase business.

Several replicas of the Terra Cotta Army can be found in Heritage Town. The Terra Cotta Warriors were created by Emperor Quin Shi Huang and buried near Xi’an China. This is where his mausoleum was built and although not fully excavated, it is the largest royal burial site in the world. The soldiers and horse statues were designed to create an army to help the Emperor in the afterlife. They were found in 1974 when drilling was underway for a well. As of 2007 there are three pits with over 8,000 warriors, 130 chariots with 520 horses plus an additional 150 calvary horses.

A Taste Of Asia in Markham was created in 2003 in the wake of SARS to try and put some spark back into the local economy. It is managed by the Federation Of Chinese Canadians. It is the largest Asian festival in Canada and is claimed to be the largest in the western hemisphere. The average attendance is 180,000 people over a three day period on the last weekend of June each year.

There are many food stalls to examine and delicacies such as grilled squid can be bought for the price of 2 for $20.

The grilled squid is meaty and very tasty.

Some of the food is presented in attractive ways like these mangos. There are many vendors of grilled foods but also some information booths and oddly enough, a Scientology booth. We didn’t see Tom Cruise or John Travolta there to expound the virtues of this program.

Stinky tofu is a Chinese form of tofu which is fermented in a way that gives it a very strong odour. Traditionally, it would be fermented in brine with vegetables and meat and could be left there for months. Modern, mass produced, stinky tofu is only marinated in brine for one or two days. They say that it is very good and is considered a delicacy in Chinese street foods. I’ll take their word for it.

There’s also some food that is not Asian. These potato chips are made by thinly slicing the potato into a continuous ring and putting it on a skewer to be deep fried. They come out very crispy and at $10.00 for one potato, it seems like there is a pretty big profit margin.

Admission is free and this is a great place to spend a few hours, especially if you are into Asian food, or just feeling adventurous.

Google Maps Link: Pacific Mall

Like us at http://www.facebook.com/hikingthegta

Follow us at http://www.hikingthegta.com