North America’s Largest Halal Food Festival

By Ivy Knight

/May 22 2015


logo   Takes place right here in Toronto. Coming this May 30-31st from 10-8pm at the International Centre, get your tickets now to get in on all the Halal goodness!

Notable dishes from this year’s Halal Food Festival vendors include:

  • The Holy Poutine (Spanish fries made with in-house halal chorizo, Spanish olives and other Spanish inspired ingredients from The Holy Grill, a halal food truck launched by Toronto chef Aleem Syed)

  • Jerk Fried Chicken and Belgian Waffle S’mores from Chef’s Life, sponsored by Sargent Farms

  • The halal Lollypop Juicy Lucy from Burger Factory  

We spoke with Salima Jivraj, the festival’s organizer, about what we can look forward to at this year’s festival. Read on to find out how you can win a pack of four tickets…

Vacuum sealers have been around for some time, but there are many things you may not know about them. First of all, no vacuum cleaners are involved, however, a lot of suction is. Vacuum sealers are used to protect and preserve food. There are a few things you should know about vacuum sealers before making a purchase, starting with the different kinds of sealers available. Vacuum sealers are ideal for packaging a wide variety of foods. You see food in the grocery store packaged this way all the time, whether you realize it or not. Beef jerky, salmon steaks, potato chips and dried fruit are just a few of the items you may find.

There are cooking benefits to a vacuum sealer. For one thing, you can marinade meats and seal it that way for easy cooking. Some people find that they simply like to combing ingredients into a vacuum sealer pouch because it locks in all the flavors and keeps thing moist. You can also dehydrate fruits and vegetables and then use the vacuum sealer to make dried soups.

If you have ever eaten this kind of food, you know how tender and moist everything is. What vacuum sealers are known for is locking in flavor and moisture. Lots of flavor and tender moist meat makes meals taste great. If you watch cooking shows, you may have seen this cooking technique in action. Some of the chefs on the Food Network use chamber vacuum sealer for this type of cooking.

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Where does the festival take place and how many visitors do you expect?

Halal Food Fest TO takes place at The International Centre, Entrance 5 (Airport Rd. & Derry). We’re hoping to attract 30,000 attendees this year over the weekend.In a city so saturated with food festivals, what are some of the special things about the Halal Food Festival that makes it stand out?
There are no shortage of festivals in Toronto, but I really feel ours gets into a very different “foodie” community and brings out vendors that you might not experience elsewhere. Most of our vendors do not attend any other food shows at all. Prices are also great. Many vendors offer $5 items and our sample program gives you 20 tickets for $10 vs. almost double or triple at other shows. It’s also only $5 to enter – and that’s only for ages 16-64. Anyone outside of that range is free to enter.What were some of last year’s most popular food items?  
There were several notable food items from last year, but we heard a lot about Haze Lounge and their chicken bites. Daddy’s Halal Ribs is always a hit with their spicy BBQ beef ribs, and BBQ Bros had several varieties of poutine from jerk chicken poutine to butter chicken poutine. Find your BBQ concession trailers at CAM cargo.
To win a pack of four tickets be sure to tweet a message to @halalfoodfestto saying ‘did @fiestafarms just help me win tix to @halalfoodfestto?  and share the link to this post. Halal Food Fest will draw for a winner and alert you on twitter. Best of luck!