This restaurant closed on 13 June 2021. Thanks for the memories!
Finally, a truly spicy Southern barbecue
American barbecue is slowly gaining ground in Toronto. Just 10 years ago, one would be hard-pressed to find a good barbecue, let alone regional styles like Texas, Memphis, Alabama, and others. The first big regional style to emerge was Central Texas (Beach Hill Smokehouse, Adamson Barbecue). Then, Kansas City style came rolling in (Hank Daddy’s, Kansas King). Not forgetting about homegrown Toronto style (Big Crow), the BBQ scene is indeed burgeoning here. It is only a matter of time before Carolina barbecue appears. Until then, you can get a small taste of it at Uncle Ray’s Food & Liquor.
Uncle Ray’s looks like a typical hipster Southern bar on the surface but goes for a different flavour profile than its competitors. It packs more heat. Its calling card is actually fried chicken, not barbecue. And both are good examples of soulful, lip-smacking Southern cuisine.
Uncle Ray’s Food & Liquor
As its name suggests, Uncle Ray’s Food & Liquor is also a drinking hole. However, I did not partake in libations due to COVID-19 restrictions. The liquor counter looks inviting and takes centre stage in the restaurant. Various bottles of bourbon line the counter.
Egyptian food isn’t typically my first choice of Middle Eastern cuisine. There are not many unique dishes and flavours are muted. Vegetarians will have an easy time as the dominant street food in Egypt is the trinity of koshari (كشري; rice, lentils, macaroni, spicy tomato sauce), ful medames (فول مدمس; mashed fava beans), and taameya (الطعمية; falafel). In fact, these three dishes are usually found together at street stands.
I remember surviving for weeks in Egypt on these fast foods. Ful doesn’t appeal to me because it’s heavy and an unappetizing shade of grey. Taameya is all right as all deep-fried foods are. But the Egyptian food highlight has got to be koshari. The tomato sauce gives a much-needed tangy kick to an otherwise bland cuisine. The different starches also add textural complexity.
There are only a handful of restaurants in Toronto that have koshari. Papyrus is the best of them. It also excels in taameya and the humble baladi (بلدي; Egyptian flatbread). Their key to success is having a simple menu and executing each component well.
Poke Guys was one of the first to jump on the poke fad when it hit Toronto in 2015. While other establishments have went bust, Poke Guys is still going strong because of two reasons: ingredients and location. Situated between the Financial District and the shopping zone around Yonge-Dundas Square, it gets a steady stream of customers all week. Of course, the food has to be good to get repeat business.
Poke Guys
The poke bowl fad
Traditional Hawaiian poke is very simple. It is just marinated raw fish. The flavours aren’t too crazy. The usual suspects are shoyu (soy sauce), sesame, and seaweed. Poke morphed into a rice bowl on mainland USA and exploded in popularity in 2014. Since it really is a salad bowl, anything goes. There is a dizzying variety of toppings and proteins to choose from. Japanese ingredients are popular, like tobiko (fish roe) and gari (pickled ginger). Kimchi, avocado, and jalapeños are also ubiquitous.
Some people view poke as deconstructed sushi or a less skilled version of chirashi don (raw fish on rice). I view it as a food in its own right. I agree it doesn’t take a lot of training to put together a poke bowl. What it lacks in refinement more than makes up for it in creativity. The keys to a good poke bowl are
Freshness
Harmony
Proportion
Ideally, the fish should be fresh and not from frozen. Vegetables should be crisp. All components should complement one another. A common mistake is to have too many strong flavours like kimchi and onions. It overwhelms the delicate taste of raw fish. Another pet peeve of mine is having too much filler materials and not enough protein.
Braai is the South African term for barbecue. Like all barbecues around the world, there isn’t a standard recipe. Just a bunch of people grilling meats and enjoying the outdoors. The difference in South Africa is that boerewors is more likely to make an appearance. Boerewors literally means farmer’s sausage in Afrikaans and Dutch. It consists of beef and mild spices and is almost always a long, thin coil. It does not have a distinctive taste.
Also like all barbecues, braai is a hit or miss affair. It can be exquisitely smokey or raw in the middle, overdone and dried out. I’ve had my fair share of bad braais in South Africa. Imagine my surprise when I came across this little eatery in Toronto that does a better braai than the ones I’ve tried in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Plan B
Plan B is the only South African restaurant in Toronto and its menu is summarized by its signboard: burgers and braai. Everything is made in house. There is no pork—it is halal. On the occasions I visited, I saw South African customers driving from far outside Toronto to get their fix. A testament to Plan B’s quality and also the scarcity of South African food in the region.
Deli classics with a French flair (belated Winterlicious edition)
Summerlicious and Winterlicious can be a great time to try new restaurants. The trick is finding a restaurant that offers superior value or limited time dishes that interest you. For most restaurants, these events are equivalent to a free dessert. If you are not a fan of desserts, you might want to give them a pass.
Grand Cru Deli is a new entrant to Winterlicious, having opened in March 2019. Billing itself as a wine bar, you might be forgiven for thinking the food is an afterthought. I went in not knowing what to expect and came out impressed.
Hyderabad Biryani Hut is one the better biryani specialists in Toronto. By specialists, I mean they have at least 8 types of biryani. It’s even in the name of the restaurant. I was hoping they would stick to that but alas, their menu includes other cookie-cutter North Indian dishes that far outnumber biryanis.
Hyderabad Biryani Hut
Dum, dum, dum, DUM biryani
Biryani is a distinctly Indian rice dish that has its roots in Iranian polo (probably). Both are prepared by cooking rice halfway, then finished in stock. Meat is layered below the rice and cooked together. Alternatively, meat can be cooked separately and added when the rice is done. Unlike the Iranian version that is fruity and more restrained, the Indian biryani is fiery, more elaborate, and a meal on its own. There are dozens of variations throughout India, Pakistan, and the diaspora in East Africa, South Africa, and Southeast Asia. But the most revered variant is Hyderabadi dum biryani (హైదరాబాదీ దమ్ బిర్యానీ), from Hyderabad, India.
Dum (దమ్) refers to cooking over low heat with a flat-bottomed vessel. The vessel is sealed to keep steam in and impart a bit of pressure cooking. Traditionally, dough is used for sealing. These days, one can wrap a moist towel around the rim of the vessel and put a heavy weight on the lid for the same effect. This method is less tedious and messy.
For authenticity, I look for restaurants that use dough to seal the vessel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if this was the case with Hyderabadi Biryani Hut. The biryani was cooked and transferred to a different bowl for serving. To be fair, that’s how it is done in restaurants in Hyderabad. Some Toronto restaurants cook and serve biryani in the same vessel. They leave the dough on so you can slice it open and uncover the mouthwatering biryani within. Khau Gully is one such restaurant.
This restaurant closed on 29 November 2020. Thanks for the memories!
Satisfying East African Indian meals and a wide range of deep-fried snacks
Outside of Ethiopia and Zanzibar, East Africa doesn’t have great food. It’s a good thing Indian migrants arrived and diversified the food landscape away from overdone boiled and grilled meats. They settled along the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, adopted local produce and created a variant of Indian cuisine. You can sample this sub-cuisine at Chakula Hut on the outskirts of East York.
Chakula Hut
Although the focus is on East African Indian food, they also offer some traditional Tanzanian and Kenyan treats like mandazi (doughnuts). Also look out for their weekend specials.
The food
One such weekend treat was naryal vaaro mogo (coconut cassava) with beef. Mogo is the Swahili term for cassava/yuca. The mogo was boiled and mashed with coconut milk and spices. Chunks of beef were added, resulting in a hearty lunch stew that is unlike anything in other cultures. It’s a cross between khichdi and coconut curry.
This restaurant closed in April 2022. Thanks for the memories!
Nova Scotian chain has finally arrived in Toronto
For some reason, donairs have had a hard time surviving in Toronto. Places that had good donairs, like Fuzz Box and Hopgood’s Foodliner, only lasted for a few years. Here’s hoping that Jessy’s Pizza will have a more successful run.
Jessy’s Pizza is a chain from Nova Scotia that opened 2 years ago here, marking its first outlet outside Atlantic Canada. Sure, it sells pizzas but its main draw are donairs. They are the most authentic I have tried here.
Canada’s own shawarma
Sorry Ottawa, Halifax deserves the title of shawarma king even though it doesn’t have as many shawarma restaurants. While Ottawa’s version is mostly Lebanese, Halifax’s variation is a weird Canadian invention. The donair looks like a Greek gyro pita sandwich. The twist is in the sweet donair sauce made from condensed milk. Also, a classic donair is topped with diced tomatoes and onions. Nothing more. The meat used for grilling is finely minced and packed into thin strips. This results in a mystery meat texture—great if you like Spam.
Only a few regions outside of the Middle East have their own take on rotating meat slices on a spit. Mexico has al pastor, Greece has gyros, Turkey has döner kebabs, and the Middle East has shawarmas. Canada’s very own donair is celebrated on a dedicated website where you can find out where to get it in the country. It hasn’t been updated in a while though.
Blowtorched Canadian-Japanese sushi for a treat (COVID-19 update)
JaBistro is one of two famous aburi oshizushi restaurants in Toronto. The other is Vancouver transplant Miku. While Miku has the edge over variety and is slightly better executed across the board, JaBistro has better prices and the single best aburi sushi dish in Toronto: the JaBistroll. Both offer more than aburi sushi and have traditional nigirizushi as well. They also have entrees and lunch specials but Miku has more variety and offers desserts too.
Before we go on a detour about what aburi oshizushi is, I want to complain. Why do so many high-end restaurants try to look invisible? JaBistro looks like an abandoned steel workshop from the outside. If you are not looking for it, you are likely to miss it. Whether it is to keep the riff-raff out or to maintain an air of secrecy and prestige, it clearly doesn’t work in the world of Yelp and Tripadvisor. When a restaurant is outstanding, people will come.
JaBistro with an industrial exterior
Canada’s own sushi: aburi oshizushi
Most people associate sushi with two forms. Nigirizushi (握り寿司) is a rice mound shaped by hand and has a slice of seafood pressed on top of it. Makizushi (巻き寿司), also known as maki roll, is encased with seaweed and rolled with a bamboo mat. The fillings are in the centre of the maki roll.
A lesser-known sushi type is oshizushi (押し寿司). It is formed with a rectangular mold and requires the least amount of skill. But if you are into geometrical shapes, this looks the prettiest because everything is angular and precise. This form of sushi has really taken off in Canada in the past decade, starting in Vancouver and spreading to Toronto.
To be precise, it is aburi oshizushi that is a Canadian specialty. Aburi (炙る) means scorched. Aburi sushi is blowtorched on top to give extra colour and flavour. This is not new. Aburi nigirizushi has been around in Japan for a while but remains a novelty there. The Canadian twist is to apply this technique to oshizushi and use non-traditional ingredients like jalapeños.
Some people say that aburi sushi is a way to mask poor quality seafood and shoddy knife work. I say aburi has a more tangible impact on flavour and a better test of cooking skills. Knife skills can make something pretty and mold texture but it won’t help a lot with taste. If aburi sushi allows chefs to use lower grade seafood and reduce prices accordingly, I am all for it.
Oh, and if you are wondering why sushi is sometimes spelled as zushi, that’s because the Japanese s sound changes to z when it appears before certain words.
Toronto has a couple of Afghan fast food chains. To name a few, Naan & Kabob, Kandahar Kabab, and the reigning champion Bamiyan Kabob. Kabob Guys is the newest entrant to the fray and poses some serious competition.
Kabob Guys
Afghan cuisine is at the intersection of Iran and Central Asia. From Iran comes polow: rice dishes cooked in meat broth, dried fruits, and nuts. From Central Asia, kebabs and mantu (dumplings). It’s the perfect setup for fast food. Grilled meats on flatbreads works in any culture, whether it is Greek souvlaki, Turkish döner, Mexican al pastor, or Hawaiian plate lunch.
You say kabob, I say kebab
Kabobs and kebabs are different spellings of the same thing. There is no standard transliteration for كباب (same word in Arabic, Farsi, and Pashto). Kabob is used more in USA and kebab is used more in Commonwealth countries. I use kebab here because Canada is part of the Commonwealth and has stronger ties with British English.
Afghan kebabs are almost the same as Pakistani ones. The difference is that Afghan kebabs can be served with rice instead of naans. Not just plain rice, but rice seasoned with broth and spices, like in Central Asia. It doesn’t quite reach the level of complexity as Iranian rice dishes, but is still more interesting than white rice. As for kebabs, a unique variant to try is chaplee kebab, made from ground meat and flattened into a disc.
