Several specialty boutiques emerged in Toronto during the pandemic, promoting regional ingredients and catering to the rising demand for international snacks. The goal isn't to compete with one-stop mega-grocers but to narrow down the options for those who want to cook like their mothers or cooks who are uncomfortable with a new kitchen.
These culture centers are rapidly gaining popularity and may become a new trend in the Salty Snacks Market. This is because the companies provide people with regional cooking and cater to generational cooking.
Many of the store's supplies are used in the takeaway, which focuses on classic and modern Taiwanese cuisine. This way, owners can show off the ingredients they bring in and (customers) get the first taste of them.
Toronto witnessed a slew of new retail and takeaway hybrids open last year. Hanamaru Market, a Japanese and Korean restaurant on Pape Avenue, sells fresh sushi rolls and onigiri. A takeaway menu leans toward Asian-American cooking at Pepper's Food and Drink on Wallace Avenue, which also has a liquor and snack shop.
Mattachioni launched a second site on Gerrard Street East, providing Italian goods, bread, and made-to-order baked pizzas. Yuzuki, an upscale Japanese restaurant in Yorkville, has established the Yuzuki Fish Market on Spadina Avenue, a sushi bar, a grocery store, and refrigerators stocked with raw fish and wasabi root.
The racks of spices and snacks from food startups formed by young Asian Americans and Canadians who grew up with different taste profiles than their parents distinguish the Packs store from others in Chinatown. ​
Fly By Jing, a Chinese-American brand, has chilli oils and a hot pot soup base, and Droplet, a Philippine-American wellness firm, has cans of yuzu ginger soda. MaMa Joo's Korean-inspired hot sauce and Spice Girl Eats chai concentrate from Toronto.
These new companies springing up in places across America and Canada demonstrate how today's youth are leaning toward a hotter, Asian-mixed taste. Furthermore, these establishments are being viewed as a trend due to their readily available street food at feasible prices, which is likely to appeal to the American working youth.