Excellence that goes much more beyond roti and doubles
Toronto has a thriving Trinidadian food scene, so it’s hard to pick favourites. Leela’s Roti & Doubles should be in the top 3, given its breadth and quality of its offerings. There are few places where one can reliably get specialties such as saheena or bake and shark.
Leela’s Roti & Doubles
The original location is in Mississauga, close to Square One. They’ve opened up a second branch in Scarborough in 2020. Being a foodie, of course I visited the flagship location for this review.
Guatemalan cuisine isn’t well-known. It’s vaguely Mexican and doesn’t have many distinctive dishes compared to its neighbouring countries. It doesn’t help that there aren’t many Guatemalan restaurants outside of Guatemala. In Toronto, there’s just one: El Quetzal Panaderia y Restaurante.
El Quetzal Bakery
Also known as El Quetzal Bakery in English, this tiny establishment sells snacks and imported goods from Guatemala and the region.
Joummar is probably the only restaurant of its kind for hundreds of kilometers: an upper-tier Iraqi restaurant. The setting is elegant and more importantly, the food is bountiful and tasty.
Vegan street food as good as (or better) than Bombay
Mumbai is known for its street foods. Until recent years, good renditions of them were hard to come by in Toronto. It was difficult to find a Bombay restaurant in the first place. Today, there are more choices available and Bombay Bakers is the best I know of for quality and cost. I’m frankly amazed at how they can keep prices competitive with India.
Bombay Bakers
The foods of Mumbai (Bombay)
For less worldly readers, Bombay is the old colonial name for Mumbai, the financial and movie capital of India. Other than its snacks, it doesn’t have a distinctive cuisine, taking its cue from neighbouring regions like inland Maharashtra, the Konkan coast, and Gujarat state. Endemic to the area is the endangered Parsi cuisine, brought over by Persian immigrants a thousand years ago and adapted to local tastes.
While Parsi food is rare in Toronto, these Mumbai street snacks are easy to find. Nearly all are vegan.
Bhel puri: Savoury mix of rice puffs, fried bits, boiled potato cubes, and chutneys.
Falooda: Rose syrup drink that is found from Iran to Indonesia. The one in Mumbai comes with layers of vermicelli jelly, basil seeds, and a scoop of ice cream.
Pani puri: Crisp shells filled with chickpeas and doused in sauces.
Papdi chaat: Savoury mix of round crackers, fried bits, yoghurt, and chutneys.
Pav bhaji: Bread rolls with a dip of mashed curry vegetables.
Vada pav: Deep-fried potato patty sandwiched in a bread roll and smeared with chutneys.
These street foods are harder to find.
Bombay Sandwich: Grilled sandwich with chutney spread. Found at Bombay Bakers.
Frankie: Round flatbread that is fried, rolled into a tube, and stuffed with various fillings. Bombay Snack Bar and sibling Bombay Frankie have them. So does Bharuchi’s.
Keema Pav: Bread rolls with a dip of curried minced meat. Bombay Snack Bar is the closest place to downtown Toronto that has this.
Havana is not the first place one would think of for good food. Still, it’s the best culinary destination in the whole of Cuba and the best opportunity to sample traditional cooking. Spoilers: it’s mostly pork, beans, plantains, and yucca.
Standards are comparable to mid-range restaurants in Western Europe…provided one sticks to the tourist restaurants and eschews resort food. Normally, I avoid tourist restaurants but I haven’t come across a locally-oriented restaurant in Havana that’s worth recommending. Choice ingredients and skillful technique are unfortunately priced out of range for the vast majority of Cubans.
Havana. Modern, brutalist, and art deco mingle.
I assume that you’re not planning to go to Cuba to eat French, Italian, Spanish, or American food, so I’ve focused on the unique Havana experiences in this article.
The vicissitudes of eating out in Cuba
Havana’s culinary scene has gone through ups and downs. It was mostly forgotten by the world after the Cuban revolution in 1959. Restaurants became state-run. It became a challenge to find somewhere that would accept foreigners, let alone with good food.
When Cuba opened up for tourism in the 1990s during the “special period” (período especial; tough economic times), the government allowed private enterprise in the form of paladares: family-run restaurants out of their own homes. That marked the renaissance of Cuban dining. Today, the range, quality, and ambience of paladares exceeds that of government-run food establishments. They are indistinguishable from regular restaurants elsewhere in the world, other than the discreet home residence beyond the kitchen.
The second challenge to deal with is the availability of ingredients. Especially imported ones that upscale restaurants advertise like olive oil and squid ink. The US trade embargo has made it difficult to secure a consistent and affordable supply chain. Tourists complain of how often most items on the menu are not available. I say Cuban chefs have to improvise like nowhere else in the world in the face of unstable supply issues. They have to be creative about substitutions and figuring out how to maximize the ingredients they have on hand.
A more recent challenge affects tourists as much as Cubans: currency. Since 2021, Cuba’s inflation rate has run amok at 70%. Before 2021, Cuba had two currencies: peso (CUP) and convertible peso (CUC). 1 CUC is exactly 1 US dollar and it was what (most) tourists used and restaurant menus were priced with. Now, there is just CUP, whose value continues to plummet against global currencies each day. Virtually all prices are quoted in CUP now and tourists have to use them for everyday purchases (with some exceptions). Until the currency stabilizes, you’re better off exchanging for pesos in the black market than at the bank or ATM. Otherwise, you’ll be wondering why you just paid 8.00 € for a slice of mediocre pizza. The street rate is two to three times better than the official one.
The defining characteristic of Kansas City BBQ is its sauce: sweet and thick. Other than that, it isn’t very distinctive. The cooking technique and favoured meats are shared with other styles in Southern USA.
Kansas King is one of two Kansas City BBQ restaurants in the Toronto region (the other is Hank Daddy’s Barbecue). It stands out from other BBQ restaurants with its fast-food concept. Don’t underestimate it though; its food is a definite step up from regular fast-food restaurants.
There’s more to Turkish food than kebabs, pide, and baklava. Unfortunately that’s the limit of most Turkish restaurants in Toronto. A La Turk is no different but at least they put some creativity into their preparation and presentation. Prices are on the high side but the portion size and quality makes up for it.
This restaurant closed on 30 April 2022 and will be moving to a new location. Thanks for the memories!
21-days aged sushi in Toronto, edomae style
Sushi Nishinokaze is the latest darling in the omakase space. It opened in late 2021 and is one of three restaurants specializing in edomae sushi. If you’re wondering, the other two are Shoushin and Sushi Masaki Saito. Nishinokaze is also the cheapest at $169.50, compared to $316.40 and $680.00 respectively. Lots of Japanese air-flown imports and the intricacies of fish curing push up the price.
Sushi Nishinokaze
The 19th-century ancestor of contemporary sushi
Edomae (江戸前) literally means “in front of Edo”. Edo is understood to refer to the castle in Edo, now modern-day Tokyo. Edo is also the name of the imperial period from 1603 to 1867 before Japan opened up to the world and brought about industrialization, political reform, and World War II, among other things.
The sushi from the Edo period was quite different from that of today. Because of the lack of refrigeration, fresh fish sushi was rare. Chefs had to think of ways to preserve fish like curing in soy sauce, salt, or vinegar. To put it in a nice way, fish could be “aged” anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. There’s less moisture and the protein gets more mushy from enzymatic action.
Chef prepping fish slices. Box of aged fish on the right.
Edomae sushi is slowly gaining awareness in North America. Mainly in top-end omakase restaurants going for hundreds of dollars. Such an irony considering that edomae sushi was originally fast-food for peasants. I guess it can be justified because there’s more chef work compared to regular sushi.
Prepared fish
For example, one defining characteristic of edomae sushi is the red vinegar (赤酢; akasu) used to prepare the rice (酢飯; shari). It gives the rice a brown hue. This vinegar is more expensive to procure and the taste is more complex than the white rice vinegar used in regular sushi. If you arrive early like I did, you can watch the chef make the finishing touches to the giant tub of rice.
Aux Anciens Canadiens is one of the few restaurants in Quebec City where one can try traditional cuisine. The reason for this paucity is that it’s peasant food. Old Quebec food is heavy and doesn’t have broad appeal. Like fèves au lard (baked beans with maple syrup) or tourtière (minced meat pie). Enterprising restaurateurs who can re-invent the cuisine will surely be fêted.
But it’s not going to happen at Aux Anciens Canadiens. They value authenticity and it’s the reason people tourists visit. To add to their street cred, they claim to occupy the oldest house in Quebec City.
In a sea of pierogies and diner food, Deer + Almond is a clear standout in Winnipeg. It’s one of a handful in the province that does Modern Canadian food: innovative creations with regional produce. It’s not held back by culinary traditions but still respects them. There’s a high chance that each dish will be a unique experience for diners.
Deer + Almond
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, Deer + Almond has switched from à la carte to a tasting menu format. It’s a stupendous deal at $72.80 for 6 courses. Diners still have some choice: they can pick the heaviest course. There are also additional dishes that can be tacked on (priced separately).
