April 16, 2026 |
| I attended a very interesting event a couple weeks ago called “Mongolian Street Food” at the Louie Craft Coffee near the Liberty Village in Toronto. This event was organized by the Canada Mongolian Chamber of Commerce (CMCC) to celebrate their 1st Anniversary, and to promote Mongolian Culture through street foods. I was immediately drawn to both aspects of the rare opportunity to explore “Mongolian” and “Street Food” culture, so I decided to venture out on this otherwise humdrum Wednesday night. Upon arrival to a full house at the Louie Craft Coffee, I was greeted with a roomful of friendly faces of young men and women with full smile and sparkly eyes. We were offered a refreshing Seabuckthorn drink, which is a very concentrated berry juice mixed with your choice of flat or carbonated water. Then I was led to my seat and the dinner menu was presented and explained to me by the friendly staff. Menu Buuz – traditional Mongolian lamb + beef dumplings Ulaanbaatar (UB) Salad – potato salad with a choice of vegetarian or beef tongue Hailmag – Mongolian butter pastry (chocolate or peanut butter) Tsai – salted Mongolian milk tea Seabuckhorn Juice It was quite a treat to taste all these authentic Mongolian street foods, but I was even more touched by the opportunity to meet and talk to the Mongolian Canadians, whom I have never had a chance to meet before. I was shocked to learn that there are only about 200 Mongolians living in Toronto, it made the CMCC’s 1st Anniversary even more meaningful and precious, and I felt very special to be amongst this small community to celebrate with them. I hope to support the CMCC’s efforts in their future endeavour, and wish their community will grow in population and prosper. Congratulations CMCC on your first Birthday and many, many more! Thank you Art to Heart Studio! |  Mongolian Street Food event hostess and CMCC Mentor Program Coordinator Khulan ZalaaUul serving up the delicious Seabuckthorn berry drink.  Fascinated to read about all the goodness in this Seabuckthorn berry drink. |
Upcoming Event - One Day On Earth: Adventures Of A Mongolian Globetrotter
Something cool is happening in Toronto - Amai Mongol is visiting for a few days before his departure this Friday! He is a first Mongol to travel the world in this way, as a modern BADARACHIN – following this ancient Mongolian tradition, a kind of mission when a young man, who has certain skills and education, and is matured enough, takes a bag and two sticks and go for a long trip. His task would be to go by foot, to walk through various difficulties, experience pain and collect knowledge and experiences, and than, after some time, to get back to his people and tell them what he has learned.
Canada is the 86th country he is visited in 9 years. His plan was to visit at least 150 countries and 6 continents before he gets back to Mongolia, a journey he embarked on the 4th of November 2005 – a trip around the world.
“For many years we haven’t heard of badarchines, like this tradition has vanished. I wanted to renew this tradition and to investigate possibilities of travelling for Mongolian people, thus giving the opportunity to my people, specially our youth, to go to foreign countries. I write about all countries I see along the way, from Mongolian point of view – about the people who live there and about what a Mongolian traveller could expect there. I am trying to compare all those countries with Mongolia and their cultures with ours.” says Amai.
Mongolia is last nomad civilisation in the World. Soviet Union tried to erase that culture for 70 years, but such a long and rich history couldn’t be erased during two or three generations.
“People of other cultures come from cultures of cities. That is not in Mongolian tradition, but now, especially because of globalisation, Mongolia has to put together both those traditions.” says Amai.
You can read more about Amai around the world traveler here on FB or on his official blog, www.amai.mn
Something cool is happening in Toronto - Amai Mongol is visiting for a few days before his departure this Friday! He is a first Mongol to travel the world in this way, as a modern BADARACHIN – following this ancient Mongolian tradition, a kind of mission when a young man, who has certain skills and education, and is matured enough, takes a bag and two sticks and go for a long trip. His task would be to go by foot, to walk through various difficulties, experience pain and collect knowledge and experiences, and than, after some time, to get back to his people and tell them what he has learned.
Canada is the 86th country he is visited in 9 years. His plan was to visit at least 150 countries and 6 continents before he gets back to Mongolia, a journey he embarked on the 4th of November 2005 – a trip around the world.
“For many years we haven’t heard of badarchines, like this tradition has vanished. I wanted to renew this tradition and to investigate possibilities of travelling for Mongolian people, thus giving the opportunity to my people, specially our youth, to go to foreign countries. I write about all countries I see along the way, from Mongolian point of view – about the people who live there and about what a Mongolian traveller could expect there. I am trying to compare all those countries with Mongolia and their cultures with ours.” says Amai.
Mongolia is last nomad civilisation in the World. Soviet Union tried to erase that culture for 70 years, but such a long and rich history couldn’t be erased during two or three generations.
“People of other cultures come from cultures of cities. That is not in Mongolian tradition, but now, especially because of globalisation, Mongolia has to put together both those traditions.” says Amai.
You can read more about Amai around the world traveler here on FB or on his official blog, www.amai.mn
Identifying Flags from nevruz Countries in Toronto, 2015 - torontomulticulturalcalendar.com
4/8/2015
CMCC and Friends participated in the Nevruz Spring festival in Toronto on April 5th and were revisited by Ruth Lor Malloy, who is a devoted enthusiast of all things multicultural. She attended our Art Exhibition in September as well and had much things to say.
Ruth writes: I especially wanted to go to one of my favourites, the Nevruz Spring Festival at the Nile Academy. This festival is great because it has representatives from many different countries, all in one place. It was a chance to add to my collection of photos of the different cultures that we have in Toronto. I expected them all to be Turkic speaking.
I had challenged my Blog readers to identify the 17 flags in the Nevruz poster. (See Blog 450 at torontomulticulturalcalendar.com.) This was mainly because I couldn’t identify them myself. I decided to concentrate on the flags at this fair. The set-up at the different tables was ideal. Each of the cultures or countries had a flag on the wall behind its collection of symbols, arts and crafts. Some had sample food, either free or for sale.
Ruth writes: I especially wanted to go to one of my favourites, the Nevruz Spring Festival at the Nile Academy. This festival is great because it has representatives from many different countries, all in one place. It was a chance to add to my collection of photos of the different cultures that we have in Toronto. I expected them all to be Turkic speaking.
I had challenged my Blog readers to identify the 17 flags in the Nevruz poster. (See Blog 450 at torontomulticulturalcalendar.com.) This was mainly because I couldn’t identify them myself. I decided to concentrate on the flags at this fair. The set-up at the different tables was ideal. Each of the cultures or countries had a flag on the wall behind its collection of symbols, arts and crafts. Some had sample food, either free or for sale.
Copyright ©2015 Ruth Lor Malloy
The first country table visited was Mongolia. A student and a representative of the Canada-Mongolia Chamber of Commerce were there. I remembered Mongolia as a Buddhist country. What was it doing at a primarily Muslim festival? Uighurs live in the far west of Mongolia, they said. Uighurs are Muslim and Turkic speaking. I should have remembered them and the Kazaks. The Mongolians were showing a Mongolian flag, not a Uighur or Kazak flag. And Genghis Khan was there.
About Ruth Lor Malloy
She is behind TorontoMulticulturalCalendar.com. She is a travel writer and photographer, born in Canada with an obsession to experience the whole world. She was brought up in a Chinese restaurant family in eastern Ontario, and has lived for extended periods in the U.S., the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, Taiwan, and Thailand. She has also lived in Japan, Mexico and Brasil. From 1975 to 2002, she published a series of 14 guide books on China. She has also published guide books on Beijing and Hong Kong, and helped with one on Almaty. Her self-guided, downloadable photo tours on the Calgary Stampede, the Quebec Winter Carnival, The World in Toronto, and Toronto’s Many Chinatowns are available from VisualTravelTours.com. This company has also published her tours on Botswana, Mongolia and Helsinki.
Ruth’s travel articles have appeared in publications like the Asian Wall St. Journal, Copley News Service, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, and Globe and Mail. Her aim is to bring people of different backgrounds together as friends with an appreciation of each others’ cultures. She believes one of the ways this can be done in Toronto is to encourage visits to each other’s festivals. Her calendar lists free or nearly free events that provide such opportunities.
She is behind TorontoMulticulturalCalendar.com. She is a travel writer and photographer, born in Canada with an obsession to experience the whole world. She was brought up in a Chinese restaurant family in eastern Ontario, and has lived for extended periods in the U.S., the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, Taiwan, and Thailand. She has also lived in Japan, Mexico and Brasil. From 1975 to 2002, she published a series of 14 guide books on China. She has also published guide books on Beijing and Hong Kong, and helped with one on Almaty. Her self-guided, downloadable photo tours on the Calgary Stampede, the Quebec Winter Carnival, The World in Toronto, and Toronto’s Many Chinatowns are available from VisualTravelTours.com. This company has also published her tours on Botswana, Mongolia and Helsinki.
Ruth’s travel articles have appeared in publications like the Asian Wall St. Journal, Copley News Service, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, and Globe and Mail. Her aim is to bring people of different backgrounds together as friends with an appreciation of each others’ cultures. She believes one of the ways this can be done in Toronto is to encourage visits to each other’s festivals. Her calendar lists free or nearly free events that provide such opportunities.
CMCC was pleased to meet Ruth Lor Malloy at our Art Exhibition this month and she wrote this wonderful blog post about the event.
Ruth writes: It isn’t often that we hear about a Mongolian event in Toronto. An art exhibition was included in the recent Culture Days weekend. Of course I couldn’t miss it. I love Mongolia. I’ve been there three times — attracted by its big skies, its horses, its music, boots. I could go on and on about it.
Ruth writes: It isn’t often that we hear about a Mongolian event in Toronto. An art exhibition was included in the recent Culture Days weekend. Of course I couldn’t miss it. I love Mongolia. I’ve been there three times — attracted by its big skies, its horses, its music, boots. I could go on and on about it.
Amai on Skype. Copyright ©2014 Ruth Lor Malloy
The Mongolian art exhibit was in the East Asian Library at the University of Toronto on September 26. The highlight for me was an example of khoomei – Amai, the singer, refused to call it “throat singing”. That of the world-traveling adventurist-author was more profound and spiritual than any of the throat singing I heard in Mongolia. It was short and wonderful, more like what I’ve heard in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries than in tourist shows in Ulan Bator.
Amai sang to us from New York City via Skype. He had been unable to get a visa in time to come to Toronto. Links to a video and to Amai’s interesting website are below.
Amai sang to us from New York City via Skype. He had been unable to get a visa in time to come to Toronto. Links to a video and to Amai’s interesting website are below.
Lkhagva Amarsanaa. Copyright ©2014 Ruth Lor Malloy
I saw two of the three artists present from Mongolia. Lkhagva Amarsanaa was demonstrating Mongolian calligraphy. He was the most popular as he translated the names of attenders into beautiful ancient Mongolian script. The country currently uses Cyrillic.
Copyright ©2014 Ruth Lor Malloy
These pieces were simple compared to some of his other works. I wasn’t able to get artist Ochirbat Enkhtaivan to stand beside his horse paintings. He was too busy helping Amarsanaa sell the calligraphy to members of the eager audience. But Bolor Sambuu of the Canada Mongolia Chamber of Commerce agreed to pose with one. The Chamber sponsored the event.
Bolor Sambuu, Canada Mongolia Chamber of Commerce with painting by Ochirbat Enktaivan. Copyright ©2014 Ruth Lor Malloy
About Ruth Lor Malloy
She is behind TorontoMulticulturalCalendar.com. She is a travel writer and photographer, born in Canada with an obsession to experience the whole world. She was brought up in a Chinese restaurant family in eastern Ontario, and has lived for extended periods in the U.S., the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, Taiwan, and Thailand. She has also lived in Japan, Mexico and Brasil. From 1975 to 2002, she published a series of 14 guide books on China. She has also published guide books on Beijing and Hong Kong, and helped with one on Almaty. Her self-guided, downloadable photo tours on the Calgary Stampede, the Quebec Winter Carnival, The World in Toronto, and Toronto’s Many Chinatowns are available from VisualTravelTours.com. This company has also published her tours on Botswana, Mongolia and Helsinki.
Ruth’s travel articles have appeared in publications like the Asian Wall St. Journal, Copley News Service, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, and Globe and Mail. Her aim is to bring people of different backgrounds together as friends with an appreciation of each others’ cultures. She believes one of the ways this can be done in Toronto is to encourage visits to each other’s festivals. Her calendar lists free or nearly free events that provide such opportunities.
She is behind TorontoMulticulturalCalendar.com. She is a travel writer and photographer, born in Canada with an obsession to experience the whole world. She was brought up in a Chinese restaurant family in eastern Ontario, and has lived for extended periods in the U.S., the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, Taiwan, and Thailand. She has also lived in Japan, Mexico and Brasil. From 1975 to 2002, she published a series of 14 guide books on China. She has also published guide books on Beijing and Hong Kong, and helped with one on Almaty. Her self-guided, downloadable photo tours on the Calgary Stampede, the Quebec Winter Carnival, The World in Toronto, and Toronto’s Many Chinatowns are available from VisualTravelTours.com. This company has also published her tours on Botswana, Mongolia and Helsinki.
Ruth’s travel articles have appeared in publications like the Asian Wall St. Journal, Copley News Service, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, and Globe and Mail. Her aim is to bring people of different backgrounds together as friends with an appreciation of each others’ cultures. She believes one of the ways this can be done in Toronto is to encourage visits to each other’s festivals. Her calendar lists free or nearly free events that provide such opportunities.
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