The North York Mirror

But this summer, Toronto Health Board chair and street-food reformer John Filion is bringing a broader boulevard pallet to Mel Lastman Square, for a four-Friday celebration of street food starting this Friday night.

"It's a way to introduce this concept that's been delayed at the city level, so this is at least a small taste of what we can hope to see next summer," said Filion of the International Street Food Festival. "It runs four Fridays starting this Friday, and it's a great opportunity for all the residents in the area to come out and mix and mingle in the public square."

The event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m., with private vendors coming from across the city. They'll serve Korean barbecue, fresh fruit shakes, mango salad, grilled vegetable wraps and Manto dumplings.

The food is the sort of fare that Filion had been promoting through the Board of Health as an alternative to the fatty, generally unhealthy sausages, hotdogs and french fries that are the more typical fare on Toronto street corners.

The plan has taken some time to get off the ground, with skeptical councillors nixing a budget request to actually provide carts to vendors who might provide the more interesting fare.

Now, it's unlikely that the plan will come forward before the summer of 2009.

The festival in North York is not just about the food, however. Filion said it's time Mel Lastman Square became better-utilized by the growing community in the area, and he said the festival, which will include live music, is a good way to kick-start that.

"We want to animate a large public space that always has some people in it, but unless there's a special event it's not particularly well used," he said. "Considering we have tens of thousands of people living a short walking distance away, hopefully they'll start using it, incorporating it, making it more like a Dufferin Grove."