South Asian Archives - Global Toronto Eats

Onam sadhya in Toronto

Partake in the largest celebratory feast in the Malayali (Kerala) calendar

This review is for 2021. Keep an eye out for the next onam sadhya on 2022-09-08.

Toronto’s burgeoning Kerala food scene explodes in one summer weekend of the year. That’s for onam sadhya, a feast celebrating the harvest festival. Restaurants shut down normal service and assemble the same onam sadhya set meals all day. Lines are long but most are in a jovial mood. It’s a fun activity to join in, even if you are not from Kerala.

Onam sadhya in Kerala

Kerala is a southern Indian state with a bountiful coastline. Its cuisine is not widespread in Toronto, so onam sadhya is a good occasion to sample them. I am not familiar with Keralan food. I was going to visit Kerala in 2020 but COVID happened. So, I can’t judge the authenticity of restaurants here.

Onam (ഓണം) is the harvest festival of the Malayali people in Kerala, falling between August and September. Sadhya (സദ്യ) means banquet. Put them together and you get the harvest feast. More than 20 items are splayed on a banana leaf. The meal is traditionally vegetarian.

Packed onam sadhya from Thanima Kerala Kitchen — Onam sadhya for takeout (Thanima Kerala Kitchen)

One of the first things you’ll notice is that the rice is not typical of the rest of India. It’s matta rice, a short-grained and plump variety. It has the texture of brown rice and is similarly coloured reddish-brown.

Rice from Thanima Kerala Kitchen — Red rice from Thanima Kerala Kitchen

Other food items in onam sadhya may include any of the following. I hope you like coconut.

Achaar (അച്ചാർ): Super sour pickle.
Avial (അവിയല്‍): Blanched, semi-dry vegetable mix with curd and grated coconut.
Eriserry (എരിശ്ശേരി): Pumpkin curry.
Olan (ഓലൻ): Ash gourd, black-eyed peas, coconut, and gigner.
Pachadi (പച്ചടി): Vegetables in yoghurt and coconut sauce.
Palada pradhaman (പാലട പ്രധമൻ): Dessert dish. Rice pudding with milk and dried fruits.
Pazham pradhaman (പഴം പ്രധമൻ): Dessert dish. Banana pudding with coconut milk and jaggery.
Pappadam: The familiar lentil cracker found throughout South Asia.
Payasam (പായസം): Dessert dish. Rice pudding with milk and jaggery.
Puli inji (പുളി ഇഞ്ചി): Thick sauce made from tamarind and ginger.
Pulisseri (പുളിശ്ശേരി): Sour yoghurt and coconut curry.
Rasam (രസം): Spicy tamarind soup. Also a Tamil mainstay.
Sambar (സാമ്പാർ): Spicy, thick lentil soup with vegetable chunks. Also shared with Tamil cuisine.
Sharkara upperi (ശർക്കര ഉപ്പേരി): Sweet banana chips in a jaggery batter, sliced in wedges.
Thoran (തോരൻ): Finely chopped vegetables with grated coconut and mustard seeds.
Upperi (ഉപ്പേരി): Banana chips, sliced crosswise.
Whole banana

This being Toronto, there aren’t exactly a lot of banana trees to pluck leaves from. And importing banana leaves is too expensive to feed the masses that slam Keralan restaurants for onam sadhya. So, restaurants here use a waxed, green-coloured paper instead. And in the era of COVID-19, it’s all takeout and DIY.

Onam sadhya is a big deal in Kerala, similar to a Christmas dinner. I recommend pre-ordering to avoid waiting in line for an hour or more. Nearly all Keralan restaurants here offer online ordering.

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Bhai Biryani

Classic Colombo-style biryani and short eats

There is no shortage of biryani restaurants in Toronto. The dominant style is Hyderabadi, cooked with a panoply of spices and sealed with dough to lock in flavours. Finding other regional styles is slightly more challenging. I haven’t come across a good Sri Lankan one until I stumbled upon Bhai Biryani.

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Minerva Tiffins

Minerva Tiffins is moving to 16 Lebovic Avenue.

Freshest South Indian snacks in Toronto

Nestled in an industrial plaza near the Golden Mile is a little stall called Minerva Tiffins. It used to be the only tenant in the desolate food court for a long time. Today, it’s joined by three or four others but make no mistake, Minerva Tiffins is single-handedly running the show here. On the occasions I’ve visited, all the diners went straight for Minerva.

Interior of Minerva Tiffins — Minerva Tiffins

Undoubtedly, word-of-mouth and some media coverage helped, but the reason for its sustained success is its incredibly fresh-tasting South Indian food. Specifically, Andhra snacks. It’s grown so much that it’s moving to a proper restaurant of its own.

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Bombay Bakers

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.

Exterior of Bombay Bakers — 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.

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Rasovara

North Indian thali fit for royalty

Rasovara is my favourite vegetarian restaurant in the Greater Toronto Area. Heck, it’s one of my favourite restaurants of any type. Vegetarian cuisine usually conjures images of organic salads and mock meats. But don’t forget that South Asians have been perfecting it for centuries. Vegetarian dishes can rival any meat dish, given the right ingredients and technique.

Rasovara is a specialist in premium thalis. That’s a pretty bold move considering that thalis are associated with cheap daily specials. Even better, their dishes hail from Rajasthan and Gujarat, which are under-represented in Toronto. They also have a smattering of Punjabi ones. I rank Rasovara highly because they manage to make every dish taste different from one another and of course, sumptuous. No mean feat considering there are 8 different curries in their thali. Each ingredient had a different cooking time and they were able to achieve perfection.

Thali—the original Indian buffet

Thalis are multi-course meals served at once on the same platter. The arrangement is invariably rice and breads in the middle and small bowls around the perimeter for the various curries. They may be vegetarian or not. Traditionally, refills are unlimited, so they are the original all-you-can-eat meal.

Thalis are an affordable way to sample a bit of everything. Items in a thali change often, on the whims of the chef. Kind of like a tasting menu for the masses. But cafeteria quality. I have eaten dozens of thalis across India and none of them were memorable. It’s difficult to find a premium version of something that is associated with a lunch special. Rasovara bucks the trend.

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Fusion Sri Lankan food in Scarborough

Surprising Sri Lankan creations in the Tamil heart of Toronto

Along Markham Road near the northeastern border of Toronto lies one of the Little Indias of the city. The section between McNicoll and Steeles Avenue is the geographical centre of the largest Tamil population in Canada. It may not seem like it because of the industrial location but it sprawls out north into the residential areas of Markham and south to the more populated areas of Scarborough.

Markham Road and Steeles Avenue East, the centre of the Tamil community in Toronto — Markham Road and Steeles Avenue East, the centre of the largest Tamil community in Toronto

Markham sign at Markham Road and Steeles Avenue East — Markham sign at northwest corner of Markham Road and Steeles Avenue East

Tamils are an ethnic group from Tamil Nadu state in India and northern Sri Lanka. Large numbers migrated from Sri Lanka to Toronto during the civil war period from the 1980s to the early 21st century. As a result, Sri Lankan cuisine in Toronto has become synonymous with Tamil cuisine, even though Tamils are a minority group in Sri Lanka. The majority group, the Sinhalese, use slightly different spices in their cooking. By the way, it is surprisingly difficult to find a Sinhalese restaurant in Toronto. Check out Banana Leaf Catering and Take Out if you are interested.

On the other hand, Tamil restaurants are thriving in Toronto. For the most part, they have remained traditional and cheap takeout businesses. But enough time has passed since the 1980s to allow for deviations with classic recipes. Toronto is one of the few cities in the world that have the right conditions for fusion cuisine to emerge: a large Tamil population, a multicultural food landscape, and a sophisticated audience eager for new things and not adverse to paying more. The scene is still burgeoning, but here are some of the places I’ve come across in Scarborough.

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Hyderabad Biryani Hut

Solid, good value biryanis

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.

Exterior of Hyderabad Biryani Hut — 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.

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Chakula Hut

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.

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.

Coconut mogo with beef from Chakula Hut — Coconut mogo with beef

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Kabob Guys

Afghan fast food with soul

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.

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.

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Godavari

This restaurant closed in Autumn 2020. Thanks for the memories!

Affordable Andhra cuisine in a lavish setting

The evolution of South Indian restaurants in non-Asian cities usually starts with pan-Indian eateries serving stereotypical food (think butter chicken and biryani). Then, it branches out to general South Indian restaurants serving dosas and idlis. The first regional specialization to emerge is Tamil cuisine. The majority of cities never get past this stage. If there is enough diner demand and sophistication, Keralan restaurants will appear next. Andhra and Telugu restaurants are rare, with the exception of Hyderabadi biryani shops. Only a few cities outside of India and the Middle East get specialists in the least-known South Indian cuisine, Karnataka.

That’s why I was excited to try Godavari, one of only two Andhra restaurants in the Toronto region. Although they don’t have the full gamut of Andhra dishes (like avakaya, a mango pickle), they offer some regional specialties that can’t be found elsewhere in Canada. Andhra cuisine is one of the spiciest in India. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the spice levels at Godavari because I did not order any spicy dishes for this visit.

Reception hall at Godavari — Reception hall. A complete change in atmosphere from the outside.

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