The Handy Hausfrau

There's a guy in Parkdale that you've got to meet. His name is Bernard and he's 80 years old. He runs a Filipino specialty shop, Bernard's Pilipino Specialties, at 1534 Queen Street West, just west of Jameson.

Bernard (above) is a charming former health-care worker who hails originally from Ilo Ilo in the Central Philippines. He's been running this small Filipino specialty store with his wife Cecilia in this location since 1984.

They sell sauce mixes and canned goods from the Philippines. Many of the products are so old that the labels are falling off and their colour has faded. The shop also sells fresh baked good such as the yummy hopia baboy cookies, made with onion and a bright purple yam called ube. If you like natural beauty products, you can't get more earthy than gogo, a bark used in the Philippines instead of shampoo.

Bernard used to specialize in longaniza (sweet Filipino sausages) but now his claim to fame is barbecued pigs made to order. Filipinos call this type of pork lechon, and it has origins in the country's Spanish colonization. Bernard cooks the pigs in a giant, ancient-looking gas oven in the back of his shop. Be careful if he takes you back there--there is grease everywhere, on the floor and in buckets on the ground.

Members of the local Filipino community order barbecued pigs for family events and special occasions. On Christmas Eve, for example, Bernard cooked a whopping 60 pigs for the festivities. "When I moved to Canada in 1970, there were around 5,000 Filipinos in Toronto," muses Bernard. "Now there are almost 250,000." He uses a traditional recipe from his home island, stuffing the pig with lemon grass and garlic.

Bernard also makes chicharron, or pork rinds--one of the most extreme junk foods ever created, in my opinion. The skin of the pig is cut into squares (see below) and boiled. Spices and salt are added and the skins are deep fried, making a salt-and-fat packed punch guaranteed to take a few months off your life.

A whole pig costs $100 to $160. If that's too big of a commitment, just come by on Saturday or Sunday and ask for a pound of pork to go. They'll chop you up some meat for $5.50 a pound. It comes with Bernard's excellent lechon sauce, made with sugar, vinegar, black pepper and a bit of liver.

Bernard hopes to retire one day to the Philippines, but for now he keeps running the shop to get money for charity projects back home. Make sure you get down to say hello to Bernard before too long. None of his five kids have chosen to follow their father's footsteps, so the master of barbecued pigs won't last for another generation in Parkdale.

Thanks to Carly's Whey for the tip.

Bernard's Pilipino Specialities at 1534 Queen Street West just west of Jameson. Tel: 416 534 3640.

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Bloordale resident Quaison is such a fan of South Indian Dosa Mahal (located at 1262 Bloor Street West) that when his son was born a few months ago, he ordered 200 samosas from the restaurant for the baby shower.

"Before I started coming here, I didn't realize that South India has a different style of food than the rest of India," says Quaison (second photo below). "The food here is very reasonable in terms of price and the dosas are light, so they're not a burden on the digestive system."

Indeed, dosas—a type of crepe made with a batter of ground rice and lentils—are the specialty here. You tear off in pieces of the dosa and dip it into the assorted small dishes that come with the meal—samplers of zucchini curry, coconut chutney and eggplant.

The veggie dishes are decent but meat eaters should try the powerful goat curry, which was my favourite. The rasam soup—a flavourful mix of tomato, cumin, garlic and tamarind—is supposed have medicinal properties. The bill for three people, including appetizers, is just shy of $30.

The another notable thing about South Indian Dosa Mahal is the over-the-top pink decor, which is accented by ribbons and hearts on the walls and ceilings. "My daughter chose the colours—she loves pink," explains owner Naomi Logan (above), who founded the restaurant in a smaller location eight years ago. And the hearts? "This is a family restaurant, so people need love."

Thanks to Neeraj for the tip.

South Indian Dosa Mahal is located at 1262 Bloor Street West near Lansdowne. Its hours are 11am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays and holidays, tel: 416-516-7701.

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***As of Dec 2012 this place is not open. See the comments at the end of this post.

A former Coffee Time restaurant in Scarborough has recently been transformed into a defacto Haitian community centre. Not only is La Belle Jacmel, located at a 3537 St. Clair East at Kennedy, now the only Haitian restaurant in Toronto, it also doubles as a night club, grocery store, mail order service, bakery and charity depot for Toronto's 30,000 Haitians.

I visited La Belle Jacmel last year, when it went by the name St. Clair Bakery. The friendly Haitian trio of Lukas Cineus Jr and Sr and their friend Marie Claire had purchased a tiny Greek and Macedonian bakery in the same strip mall. They kept serving European baked goods and added Haitian take-out meals to the menu.

A few months ago they took over the much larger former Coffee Time space in the same strip mall. They added a DJ booth and dance floor to the restaurant, which is decked out with over-the-top Renaissance-style paintings and chandeliers put in by one of the previous tenants. At night, young Haitian DJs spin reggae, dancehall, souk and compa music. "We want to redecorate soon to add a more Caribbean style," says Junior (below, with Marie Claire).

You can get a hefty plate of Haitian food made up of tasty marinated beef, chicken or goat, plus green fried plantains and beet salad. If you've never tried Haitian food, come by for the Saturday afternoon buffet, where you can sample fish, goat and shellfish dishes and five kinds of rice for less than ten bucks. Be sure to try the AK-100 (pronounced "acassan"), a thick corn-based drink made with vanilla.

La Belle Jacmel still serves Greek-style baked goods, as well as flaky Haitian meat patties and sweets. Heck, chef Marie Claire will even serve you up bacon and eggs or chicken tikka masala, items listed on a giant menu board left by the previous restaurant tenant.

There used to be several other Haitian restaurants and variety stores in Scarborough, but as they are now closed, Junior decided to start selling hard-to-find grocery items at his restaurant, such as djon-djon, a type of mushroom cooked with rice that is only found in Haiti. However, he's more than happy to explain the Haitian dishes to people who have never tried them. "We want to let everyone know about Haitian food," he says proudly.

Photos by Dana Lacey. Thanks to David McMullan for the tip.

La Belle Jacmel is at 3537 St. Clair East at Kennedy. Open 8am to 10pm every day; Fridays and Saturday closing time is 3am. Tel: 647 477 1112.

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One of the best grocery stores in Toronto is Arz Fine Foods, a Middle Eastern superstore located at 1909 Lawrence Ave. East in Scarborough. For Torontonians originally from the Middle East, such as my Iraqi-born friend H., coming to Arz is a nostalgia-filled tour. "These are the counters of my childhood," H. says. "Today supermarkets in the Middle East look like Loblaws, but Arz is like they used to be 25 years ago."

The supermarket is known for its fresh, high quality fare from all over the Mediterranean, and also for its top notch line of Arz-branded products, which are made in the supermarket basement and its Scarborough factory. Arz is the Arab word for cedar, the national symbol of Lebanon. The shop was opened twenty-odd years ago by a Lebanese family of Armenian origin.

Our first stop was the produce department, where picture-perfect exotic fruits such as curly cucumbers and zereshk are on display. Then we headed to check out Arz's house brand of dips: muhammara, made of ground walnuts, pomegranate and peppers; tirokafteri, a spicy cheese dip; various kinds of hummus and labneh, a type of cream cheese. H. points out a jar of labneh balls marinated in mint. "You eat these while you're drinking ouzo," she explains.

The bakery section features a good selection of Middle Eastern breads: paper-thin Armenian levash, the puffy Persian flatbread barbari, the spongy, sour sangak, and simit, a Turkish round bread similar to a bagel.

The Middle East has excellent cheese, and Arz has a selection that is hard to beat in the GTA. Sample some wonderfully salty halloumi and its milder cousins akawi and baladi. If you're wanting something more intense, go for the Palestinian cheese nabulsi, or the braided twist—weaved strands of cheese studded with black seeds. If feta is your thing, you can pick up sheep and cow's milk versions in giant tubs.

People with a sweet tooth will find themselves gazing at the towering displays of pretty French-Lebanese pastries and mounds of Turkish delight flavoured with rose water, mint and lemon. Arz also sells large boxes of apricot paste. "This is the original Fruit Roll-Up," explains H. "Every kid back home had this in their lunch box."

The prepared foods are another thing that makes Arz special. They have ready-made items such as eggplant stuffed with walnut and red pepper. "This is home cooking that you can't normally find in a grocery store," says H. Arz also has a line of frozen foods—good quality meals such as stuffed grape leaves and seasoned meatballs. You can also get freshly ground Turkish coffee beans and have nuts and seeds roasted for you on the spot.

If all this isn't enough, Arz also has it's own bakery in the back. Stop by to sample the meat pies, soups and fresh salads.

Thanks to Anna for the tip. Arz Fine Foods is at 1909 Lawrence Street East, Scarborough. Tel: (416) 755 5084. Hours: Monday to Thursday, 8:30am to 9pm; Friday 8:30 am to 10pm; Saturday 8am to 9pm; Sunday 8am to 8pm.

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A steady stream of customers head into the narrow storefront of Absolute Bakery & Cafe at 589 Parliament Street, lured by the picture-perfect delicate pastries and breads in the window front. Not only does the bakery serve top notch sweets such as poppy seed rolls and cream cheese danishes, it also has wonderful spicy snacks from Sri Lanka. Tucked behind the counter are trays of curried rolls, known in Sri Lanka as 'short eats.'

Owner Nageswary Rajendran explains that her fish buns—large triangular baked rolls stuffed with curry—are very popular in her home country of Sri Lanka. Absolute's powdery fish and meat rolls are good, but the clear winner of the bunch is the rotti (below, under the pies), a long folded soft bread stuffed with beef, vegetable or chicken curry.

Each Sri Lankan item will set you back just $2 or $2.50 and two items makes a filling lunch. "People ask for samosas but this is not food from my country," says Nageswary. "I teach Canadians about rotti. They are crazy about rotti."

Nageswary and her husband start work each day at 3am or 4am, preparing dozens of varieties of pastries and breads. Every day, Nageswary roasts chickens in the oven, which she makes into curry by combining the meat with fresh eggplant, green beans and potatoes. She puts the curry onto the freshly prepared rotti bread and finishes them up on the grill.

In addition to the Sri Lankan food and pastries, Nageswary explained they also serve halal bread. But I realized I heard her wrong when she pulled out a loaf of braided Jewish challah bread. "My husband used to work at a Jewish bakery up on Lawrence many years ago," explained Negeswary.

In addition to the Parliament Street location, Absolute Bakery has another cafe at 2100 Queen Street East. In the next few weeks, a third location will be opening up at Yonge & St Clair, and it will also serve French food and subcontinental snacks.

Thanks to H. for the tip.

Absolute Bakery & Cafe is located at 589 Parliament Street just south of Wellesley; tel: 416 979 2700. Hours are 7am til 10pm every day.

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Toronto is chock full of restaurants that serve food from all corners of the world, but have you sampled Canada's own traditional recipes? A brand new Eastside restaurant, Tea-n-Bannock, offers up meals that are popular in Canadian aboriginal communities. Unlike the aboriginal-French hybrid restaurant Keriwa Cafe in Parkdale, or the trendy Oliver & Bonacini's Bannock, this food is intended primarily for First Nations customers seeking a taste of home.

Tea-N-Bannock opened just three weeks ago at 1294 Gerrard Street East (see map below), just a few blocks west of Little India. Stepping in from the street, it feels like you've walked into a tranquil oasis—the room is decorated with birch tree branches and snowshoes, and a recording of birds cooing in the wilderness is playing.

The menu, posted up on a stretched out animal hide, consists of classic staples of aboriginal communities. Health food it ain't, but it'll keep you going if you're trekking around in the bush. "You can't get any more Canadian than this," explains staffer Timothy Peltier (below), an aboriginal from Manitoulin Island.

The restaurant sells fried bannock—a traditional native bread with Scottish roots—as well as a baked version, which is more common in northern Ontario. The bannock forms the base for dishes such as the blanket dog (a fried hot dog in bannock) and Indian tacos (fried bannock served with ground beef, chili spice, lettuce, cheese and tomato).

The corn soup ($4, above left) is a heavy, tasty meal, with gravy-like broth full of hominy (dried, processed maize kernels), beans, tender flakes of pork and chunky potatoes. The trapper's snack ($3.50, above right) is two airy, fresh pieces of baked bannock topped with slices of Klik, a spam-like processed meat that tastes like a super-salty hot dog.

Around three quarters of Tea-n-Bannock's patrons are aboriginal, and the restaurant also serves as a gathering space for native events on the weekends. The restaurant is only open until 7pm right now, but there are plans to create a full dinner menu and add new items such as smoked deer wild rice soup.

Tea-n-Bannock is located at 1294 Gerrard Street East. Telephone: 416 220 2915. Hours are Tuesday to Friday 11 to 7; Saturday 12 to 7.

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In the mood to celebrate? Check out Bò 7 món, a Vietnamese party dish made up of seven courses of beef. Bò 7 món is a meat fest served at Vietnamese events. It denotes wealth, as beef can be pricy in Vietnam. Don't bother inviting your vegetarian friends out for this one.

Kimbo, a Vietnamese restaurant across from Toronto Western Hospital at 358 Bathurst at Dundas, looks like a dodgy stripclub that hasn't been redecorated since the 1960s. Their bò 7 món costs $25 for two people, and adding a portion for a third person brings the bill to $35.

Course #1 is the beef fondue (below). The staff bring out a boiling vinegar hot pot to the table on a grill that has been reconstructed with an old coat hanger. "Is this your first time?" the waiter innocently asks, before graciously showing us how to cook the meat and soak the rice paper. The result is a fresh tasting wrap stuffed with mint leaves, basil, vermicelli, daikon and carrot.

I feel a bit cheated when the waitress brings a small tray of rolls out and explained that is dish #2, #3 and #4. The tropical leaf roll is wrapped tight with a leaf like a cigar and covered in crushed peanuts. It tastes like a Middle Eastern kebab. The barbecue beef rolls, made of chopped up fat, beef and vermicelli, were on the sweet side. The grilled satay beef roll is a slice of meat tying together many slices of potent onion.

Next up was dish #5, the steamed meat jumbo beef ball. This had a rather strange texture because of the tough noodles inside of it. It was followed by #6, a plate of sauteed cube beef. This was a simple but tasty dish of chewy beef pieces with carrot, onion and celery.

And finally, we got the 7th dish, beef congee. This salty porridge was a bit better than average, with a salty kick and generous about of ground beef. I topped off the meal with a silky avocado milkshake.

Bò 7 món is a fun way to sample a wide range of Vietnamese cuisine in one setting. While not every dish succeeds, you will have a newfound appreciation for the elastic properties of beef. It's a reasonable but not overwhelming portion of food for a decent price.

Kimbo Restaurant is located at 358 Bathurst Street at Dundas. Tel: 416 603 7817. It's open seven days a week, 11am to 10pm.

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A restaurant that served unusually good Asian meals in a food court behind a derelict Scarborough plaza has been reborn. Gourmet Garden made a huge variety of Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian street eats its tiny kitchen. It was run by the husband and wife team of Tan "Yummy" Hok Kien (originally from Indonesia) and Amy Lam (from Malaysia).

Earlier this year, the restaurant moved into new digs across the street at 4466 Sheppard Ave. East near Brimley Rd. The newly renamed Gourmet Malaysia is in a sprawling 6,000 square foot complex that includes banquet space and private karaoke rooms. The new kitchen is set up with work stations for making roti, noodle soups, desserts and wok-based dishes, says employee Jenny Wong.

The food is incredibly good—in fact, it seems to be even better than it was at Gourmet Garden. The Singapore laksa (above), a large coconut-based soup filled with thin noodles, warms the throat with its perfect blend of spices. The tender chicken is covered with golden, yellow curry sauce and comes with an order of light, flaky roti bread. Mee goreng, a classic Malaysian fried noodle dish, is jam packed with bits of fish cake, shrimp and squid. Prices are very reasonable, with many dishes cashing in at $7 or $8.

There are also many exotic drinks and desserts to try. The winter melon longan drink comes with a crust of ice and potent but sweet melon balls at the bottom. The ice tea is a rich, creamy drink reminiscent of a frappuccino.

Gourmet Malaysian also sells Asian groceries, such as jars of sambal chili sauce, jack fruit chips, tamarind candy and fresh pineapple tarts.

Gourmet Malaysia is located at 4465 Sheppard Ave. East in Scarborough, Tel: 416-291-1883 or 647-764-1188. Hours are 11am to 9pm Sunday to Thursday, 11am to 11:30 pm.

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When the Live Local Marketplace opened up at Scadding Court at Dundas and Bathurst about a year ago, I loved the idea but I worried about the market's future. The market was a project of the adjacent community centre, and it aimed to revitalize this stark intersection by converting old shipping containers to storefronts. An eclectic group of merchants took advantage of the monthly $325 rent, peddling everything from cell phones to Indian street food.

In the past year I've periodically gone back to check on the developments at the market, which never seemed to be very busy. It seemed to be getting into a loop where low customer traffic led to merchants closing up their shops for days on end. I wondered how the market would survive the winter.

But with spring, the market seemed to fill out again, and it adopted a new moniker, Market 707. The merchants who survived were still as keen as ever, and they were joined by newcomers excited about their chance to start on a business on the cheap. The new merchants are almost all restaurant vendors, which gives the market a consistant feel it lacked before.

Survivors from the original crew include Original One Bubble Tea, which added dim sum to their menu, Monteforte Dairy, and Magic Oven, an Indian street food stall that has greatly expanded its menu. It now offers classics such as butter chicken and samosas, as well as its signature "sloppy bunjo," a tamarind and yellow pea sandwich.

One of my favourites of the new merchants is the Tunisian stall, Casbah. The chatty owner Dali Chehimi loves to serve up North African dishes, such as merguez, tangine, lamb burgers, and for the adventurous—camel burgers.

Kims a la Carte has sporadic hours, but killer Korean food. You can't go wrong with these dumplings and rice cakes that sell for just a couple bucks a pop. The stall also has an outlet in the amazing Latin food court in Kensington.

Last but not least is Kanto, a Filipino restaurant run by Diona Joyce. Diona succeeds in elevating Filipino food—typically the restaurants serving one of our biggest immigrant groups tend to serve overcooked cubes of meat and sauce, served lukewarm from sweaty steamtables.

Instead, Diona serves fresh ingredients prepared with care: try the palabok, cornstarch noodles peppered with intense shots of pork cracklings and shrimp. The restaurant also has addictive sweet plantain pastries and garlic peanuts made by Diona's mother, Catalina Libunao. "I've been making these peanuts since the '80s when my daughter was in kindergarten," Catalina recalls.

One nice surprise addition to the market is a bike repair shop Spin Can, run by impossibly young looking Satchel Dille-Boyd and Chase Brokenshire. The cheap rent allowed them to set up shop and offer low prices for tuneups and bike tubes. I look forward to seeing how the market will evolve in the springs to come.

The hours for each business vary, but they are generally are open Tuesday to Saturday 11am—7pm.

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I'll be back soon. In the meantime, send me your Toronto restaurant tips to spicecityto@gmail.com! Thanks.

A wonderful little restaurant has opened up in Kensington Market to introduce Torontonians to a brand new type of food: the cuisine of the French Caribbean. Le Ti Colibri at 291 Augusta serves up recipes from the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, making it the first restaurant in town (aside from the Haitian La Belle Jacmel) to serve the flavours of the West Indies en français.

Opening up in the space of the lacklustre Spicy Grill Indo Pak Cusine, the couple behind Le Ti Colibri (which means the little hummingbird) have transformed the unused back patio into a slice of beach-inspired island bliss. The romantic slow dance rhythms of the zouk music will quickly have you daydreaming about your next southern vacation.

The food is the type of fare that co-owner Kristel Procida, a former marketing manager, used to buy from food trucks in her home island of Guadeloupe. "We like spicy food and our recipes are influenced by other islands, by South America and France," she explains. For example, the chayote is a French-style au gratin dish made from a Caribbean gourd ($5.99). Tarte créole is another hybrid creation, a quiche filled with tuna and cooked with coconut milk ($4.99). On the weekends, the restaurant serves coconut sorbet, made with a hand-crank like they do on the island beaches.

Appetizers include the saltfish fritters (above), a made-to-order greasy treat with a subtle salty fish flavour ($4.25). The hefty creole sandwiches (bokit) are made with oversized fried bread which Kristel says dates back from the time of slavery, when people didn't have ovens. You can get the sandwich stuffed with various fillings, including a pureed blend of avocado, saltfish and cassava. However, don't expect to see meat on the menu—co-owner Matthias Laurin, a Martinique native—is a pescatarian who used to be a chef at the meat-free restaurants Urban Herbivore and Fressen.

The couple feels their Kensington Market location is the right place to introduce a new type of food to the city. "It's a magic neighbourhood where people come to discover things, so it's perfect place for us," says Kristel.

Le Ti Colibri is at 291 Augusta Ave. Tel: 416 925 2223. Hours are Tuesday and Wednesday 12pm to 8pm; Thursday-Saturday 12pm to 10pm; Sunday 12pm to 8pm.

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A quaint semi-detached house at Dupont and Spadina is home to Roti Cuisine of India, a restaurant that specializes in Indian-style roti that rivals the legendary Gandhi Indian Cuisine.

Owner Vijayan Venkitaraman, a former cruise ship chef from Chennai in South India, opened up the restaurant with his brother two years ago. The original plan was to open a conventional Indian restaurant, but Venkitaraman felt a simpler, more casual concept would work better in the small space. Inspired by Gandhi Indian Cuisine, he decided to wrap classic Indian curries inside a Caribbean-style roti shell.

Spice lovers won't be disappointed, as these rotis pack a serious punch. While the butter chicken roti ($10.99) lacks the tomato content of the standard dish, it doesn't disappoint. The boneless white meat chunks and tender potatoes make a tasty and filling meal.

The lamb curry roti ($8.99) has small, lean cubes of lamb mixed with potato, nestled into a slightly crispy shell. The curry is cooked for six or seven hours to maximize tenderness, while the roti is toasted on a flat grill.

Not only is the food on par with Gandhi, but Roti Cuisine of India also offers some new variations on the Toronto-style Indian-Caribbean roti hybrid. Baingan bhurtha roti is made with oven-roasted eggplant, sauteed herbs and green peas. Chicken and lamb saag rotis include pureed spinach, and shahi shrimp roti is cooked with coconut milk and ground cashew nut sauce. The restaurant also features a wide selection of biryani (rice dishes), and you can order Indian beer, such as Kingfisher.

Although you can dine in the restaurant, the majority of customers order take-out. You can see the complete menu on the Roti Cuisine of India's website, which is worth visiting just to read the baffling Google-Translate-gone-wrong text, which promises dishes with "the perfect poise" and "high calorific value."

Photos by Dana Lacey. Thanks to Zoe S. for the tip.

Roti Cuisine of India is located at 308 Dupont Street at Spadina. Tel: 416 968 9366. Hours: Open Monday to Friday 11:30am to 10pm; Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm to 10pm. Debit and cash only.

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Some of the best international food Toronto has to offer is served at city's flea markets. The cheap rents on stalls and weekend-only hours make them a great place for aspiring chefs to test out their home cooked favourites on a diverse crowd.

After discovering an unmatched selection of Latin American and Caribbean food stalls last year at Downsview Park Merchants Market, I decided to hunt for cheap ethnic eats at the Toronto Weston Flea Market at 404 Old Weston Road just north of St. Clair Ave.

Outside the market, fruit and veg vendors holler to try to attract customers. "ONE-DOLLAR-PINEAPPLE-ONE-DOLLAR-PINEAPPLE!" repeats one strong lunged vendor. Another chants, "HONEY-HONEY-HONEY DEW! HONEY-HONEY-HONEY DEW!"

There's no charge to enter the bleak-looking concrete building. Head past the stalls hawking dollar store surplus and low-rent antique junk and go to the food court in the back. The Chinese place looked like your standard mall outlet and the Caribbean joint was serving dried up chunks of mystery meat, but a Guyanese food stall caught my eye.

Nadira & Family Halal Cuisine is run by Nadira Khan (below left). Her daughter Nafeeza (below right) drums up business by handing out flyers to the flea market shoppers. "I love to be in the kitchen," says Nadira, who is paying $500 a month to rent the stall each Saturday and Sunday. "I want to open up a restaurant that would be open every day, so I'm here to build up my clientele."

The menu reflects the diversity of the South American country of Guyana. Vegetable fried rice and chow mein dishes are variations on Chinese recipes, while the channa curry and roti have Indian roots. The prices are super cheap: A curry and roti is just five bucks.

The potato balls ($1) are a Guyanese snack that sound like a novelty item you'd get at the CNE. It's basically a deep fried and battered ball of mashed potatoes. Similarly, the egg ball ($3) is a hefty lump of dough with a whole hard boiled egg inside of it. They were served with a tangy chutney.

Nadira also sells traditional Guyanese sweets: The round 'chinee' cake probably also has a Chinese origin, as its black eyed pea filling tastes like the sweet bean paste you get in Asian desserts. Red cake (salara) has layers of shredded coconut in it. My favourite of the bunch is the pine tart: It's triangular shape reminds me of the Jewish hamentashen, but it's filled with tangy, stringy pineapple.

Check back with Spice City Toronto next week for more discoveries from the Toronto Weston Flea Market.

Photos by Molly Crealock.

Toronto Weston Flea Market is located at 404 Old Weston Road, just north of St. Clair Ave West. Admission is free. It's open Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 6pm. Tel: 416 654 6455.

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Toronto Weston Flea Market vendor Tenny Ramkissoon has a personal mission: to make roti and doubles—a Trinidadian roti-like snack—as popular as pizza and hamburgers. "Roti is a food a lot of people love, but it's not internationally known," says Tenny. "My intention is to put doubles and roti on the international map."

Tenny and his wife Chandra, who both hail originally from Trinidad, opened up Kavita's Hot & Spicy Foods inside the Toronto Weston Flea Market last year. Despite the fact the duo each has a full time job—Tenny works the night shift at a car parts factory and Chandra packages coffee—they were excited to bring the Trinidadian food they served at weddings and parties to a wider clientele by opening a weekend stall at the market. (See part one of Spice City's post about the flea market here.)

This flea market vendor thinks big. "I contacted Galen Weston's people at President's Choice to talk about doubles and roti," says Tenny. "Someone in the office is not communicating with him, because he's not calling back, and it's been a month now."

Several years ago, Tenny attempted to break the world record for the largest roti with Etobicoke's Roti Roti restaurant. He says the Guinness Book acknowledges they broke the record, but hasn't updated their site to confirm the feat.

At his flea market stall, named after his youngest daughter Kavita, Tenny sells a giant "wedding size buss-up-shut roti." During a wedding in Trinidad, instead of making individual rotis, chefs make huge ones that are divided up, stuffed with curry and eaten by 10 or 15 people. It's a paratha roti, made of thin layers of dough dusted with crushed yellow split peas.

The moniker "buss-up-shut" comes from the fact the hefty pile of dough looks like a busted up or torn shirt. "I'm the only Canadian chef who can cook it and I've been doing it since I was small," boasts Tenny. "I cook it at home with my wife. We throw it on a hot plate and use wooden pallets to turn it." In the photo below, Chandra holds a ball of dough from a half-size buss-up-shut roti.

Tenny's pride in his cooking isn't misplaced: the goat roti he serves at his stall ($7) features fresh, delicate sheets of paratha roti stuffed with flavourful tender chunks of goat meat and potato. The doubles—two fried pieces of dough slathered with chick pea curry—have a rich, smooth flavour.

Also worth trying is the mauby, a homemade beverage created with bark from a tropical tree. It tastes similar to root beer, but has a slightly bitter, earthy flavour.

Click here to read part of Spice City Toronto's post the Toronto Weston Flea Market.

Photos by Molly Crealock.

Toronto Weston Flea Market is located at 404 Old Weston Road, just north of St. Clair Ave West. Admission is free. It's open Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 6pm. Tel: 416 654 6455.

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The Jewish festival of Sukkot is currently taking place, and it's a great time to sample some excellent food and get a glimpse into ancient traditions. Every year, religious Jews build a sukkah—an outdoor structure that resembles a hut or a booth—to remember the ancient Israelis' fragile shelter when they wandered through the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt.

During the festival, Jews are supposed to eat their meals inside the sukkah, and many families build the structures in their yards or on their balconies. Several North York restaurants catering to the Jewish community also build their own sukkahs.

Located in the middle of a desolate industrial park near Steeles and Dufferin, Dr. Laffa Restaurant (401 Magnetic Drive) is brimming with life. A crowd is lined up to buy the restaurant's Iraqi Jewish food, and out in the parking lot, the plywood sukkah is packed with diners. "We live in a condo, and we have a sukkah there, but it's not very convenient to carry food up and down," explains Hadassah Bernstein (above). "We prefer to come here."

The mostly Orthodox diners are happy to explain the traditions of the holiday: one shows us how to do the traditional blessing, using the etrog— a type of citrus fruit — and luvav— a palm frond blended with willow and myrtle (below).

It would be impossible to remain hungry for long inside this sukkah. Dr. Laffa is named after an Iraqi pita bread laffa. It's baked in a similar way to Indian naan, by sticking it on the inside wall of a clay oven. Dr. Laffa's co-owner Sasi Haba was born in Jerusalem, and he learned to make the bread from his father, a baker originally from Iraq.

The chewy, dense bread is is the basis for Dr. Laffa's falafel sandwich. The result is a gargantuan wrap that skillfully blends the fresh, cool taste of the vegetables and humus with the warmth of the crisp falafel balls. Even better is the sabich, another popular street food in Israel. This sandwich is filled with smoky, fried eggplant and "latke balls" made of potato, celery, eggs, parsley and green onion. These sandwiches are hefty meals and cost just $5.99 each.

Tov-Li, a classic North York kosher pizza restaurant, also has a sukkah at its "south" location at 3519 Bathurst between Lawrence & Wilson. The original north location doesn't have room for a sukkah, but here it's very popular. "People have sukkahs at their homes, but having it here is a plus," explains Tov-Li's Miriam Epstein. The restaurant serves a light, fresh version of the falafel, topped with a generous serving of carrots and beets.

If you want to check out the sukkahs, you better act fast. These restaurants are closed Saturday for the Jewish sabbath, although Tov-Li opens up again after sundown. Sukkot ends Sunday (October 6, 2012), so that will be your last chance to dine in the sukkah this year.

Photos by Ronit Novak.

Dr. Laffa is located at 401 Magnetic Drive in North York. It's open Sunday to Thursday 11am to 10pm; Friday 11 am to 3pm; closed Saturday. Tel: 416 739 7134.

Tov-Li's South location is at 3519 Bathurst Street. It's open Sunday to Thursday 9am to 11pm; Friday 9am to 3pm; Saturday 1 hour after sundown to 12:30am. Tel: 416 784 9900.

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Posters recently appeared along Dundas Street West, the centre of Toronto's Portuguese-speaking community, advertising the "Festival do Pastel." Starting a few weeks ago, the local restaurant Brazilian Star (1242 Dundas St. W. just east of Dovercourt) began serving pastels, a street food akin to an empanada, every Thursday.

The restaurant previously had only a Portuguese version of the pastel, and the predominately Brazilian clientele often asked for their own country's version of the fried snack. Brazilian Star hired someone to make the pastels on Thursdays, and according to server Bruna Lima (below left) it's one of the only places in town that sells them. The flat, doughy snacks are available with different fillings: meat, cheese, pizza, chicken, and guava/cheese.

The carne pastel ($3.98) is filled with tasty spiced beef, while the cheese one is stuffed with an oozing, mild white cheese. The shell is a dimpled, oily dough reminiscent of Chinese egg roll pastry or a deep fried wonton. Bruna says the pastel may have an Asian origin, as they are frequently sold by Chinese vendors in Brazilian markets. It's one of the many examples of cultural fusion on this intensely diverse South American country.

The guava and cheese pastel is a surprise: sweet rather than savoury, the mild cheese fuses with the rich, carmel flavour of the guava. Be sure to wash it down Brazil's national cocktail, the caipirinha, the perfect blend of lime, ice and sugar cane rum.

Festival do Pastel takes place Thursdays at Brazilian Star, 1242 Dundas St. W.; tel: 416-588-2967.

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Former U.S. presidential candidate Herman Cain lampooned his lack of familiarity with the central Asian country of Uzbekistan. "If someone asks me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm going to say I don't know," he quipped during his short-lived run for office.

However, if Cain makes it to Toronto, he'll have a chance to educate himself on the culture and food of Uzbekistan by visiting North York's Tashkent restaurant near Keele and Steeles. Tashkent, named after the Uzbek capital city, is tucked into a strip mall in an industrial area between an adult video store and a licensed massage parlour.

The restaurant is a central meeting place for Toronto's Uzbek community, which is based in Thornhill. Interesting fact: Uzbekistan is a rare doubly landlocked country, meaning that it doesn't have access to the ocean, and neither do any of its neighbours.

I started out with an order of manti, the classic Uzbek steamed lamb dumplings (below). They're big and stretchy, and a patron implores me to abandon my clumsy attempt to eat them with a knife and fork in favour of my hands. "This type of food you eat with your fingers," she tells me.

Next up is samsa (above), a steaming baked pastry filled with lamb meat. The crust is delicate and flakey, but it's the tangy tomato herb sauce makes this memorable.

Dgiz-biz (below) is a meat-heavy entree of lamb and beef meat, fat and bone, slow cooked until wonderfully tender in its own juices. It's served inside a bowl made of crisp Uzbek bread, which somehow resembles a taco salad bowl. Eating the dill-infused hot chunks of flesh is very satisfying.

It's not uncommon to have many lamb dishes in one sitting. "A typical meal might be eight courses of lamb," explains the server Vlada. "There will even be lamb in the salad. There's a lot of fried food and everything's made from scratch."

Vlada (below) is originally from Kazakhstan (which borders on Uzbekistan) and she was delighted to discover Tashkent when she recently moved to Toronto from Hamilton. "I was so happy to find the taste of home."

Tashkent Restaurant, 800 Petrolia Road, Toronto. Tel: 416 667 0737. Hours are Monday noon to 10pm; Tuesday closed; Wed & Thurs, noon to 10pm; Friday & Saturday, noon to midnight; Sunday noon til 11pm.

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Malaysian food is one of the world's great cuisines, so I was excited to check out Restoran Malaysia, in Richmond Hill (815 Major Mackenzie Drive East at Bayview). The bustling, sprawling restaurant is one of only a handful of places in the GTA that serve Malaysian food. But when the first dish arrived at my table, I was disappointed.

The mutton and beef skewers were tough and chewy. They were coated with an overly sweet marinade, and the accompanying satay sauce was sugary, like a dessert.

The nasi goreng was also a let down. Normally this is a wonderful Southeast Asian fried rice dish is packed with all kinds of great meat and veggies, held together with a syrupy version of soy sauce. But Restoran Malaysia's version tasted like your standard take-out Chinese fried rice with flavourless pieces of chicken, shrimp and frozen vegetables. But soon some items appeared at the table that more than made up for the meal's mediocre beginnings.

It was the roti. Oh, the roti. This exquisite flat bread is called roti canai or roti prata in Malaysia, and it has roots in Indian cuisine. The thin chewy bread is slightly crisp and toasty on the outside. Served with a bowl of intense, rich curry sauce, I could eat endless amounts of the stuff.

"People come here from Malaysia and say the roti here is better here than at home," boasts chef and owner Howard Chew. "We made 35,000 pieces of roti here in the last six months."

It's made in the restaurant kitchen on a griddle, and consists of just flour, milk, sugar, salt and ghee (clarified butter). "You have to it eat right away," says Howard. "It's crisp on the outside, but if you take home, it becomes all soft."

While Indian curries are flavoured mainly with ground spices, Malaysian ones get their flavour from fresh ingredients such as ginger, shallots, chili pepper and garlic. "Malaysian food uses fresh ingredients like Thai food, but the cooking style is similar to Indian food," explains Howard.

The Singapore Laksa (below) is also excellent. It's a bowl of chewy noodles, fried tofu, chicken and saucers of fish cake, doused in an intensely flavourful bright orange liquid. "It's made with galangal, dry shrimp, chili, shallots, coconut milk and lemongrass," explains Howard.

While the menu certainly has some misses, the roti and laksa make a meal at Restoran Malaysia well worth the trip.

Restoran Malaysia is at 815 Major Mackenzie Drive East, Richmond Hill, Ont. Tel 905 508 1432. Its hours are Monday closed; Tuesday 11:30 am to 10pm;

Wednesday & Thursday 11am to 10pm; Friday & Saturday 11am to 11pm;
Sunday noon to 10pm. The food is halal.

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Many of Toronto's Jamaican restaurants are in a sorry state. All too often you get a bland mountain of rice obscuring some fossilized bits of jerk chicken. But North York/West Scarborough locals know that for the juiciest, freshest jerk chicken, you need to head over to Allwyn's.

This is one of the more obscure locations I've come across in my Toronto food travels. Allwyn's is behind Parkwoods Village Centre, an aging strip mall located at 1277 York Mills Road, between the Don Valley Parkway and Victoria Park Ave. Go behind the strip mall and walk through a dark, covered alley and you'll find the place.

A tiny room really, this bare-bones restaurant has been serving take-out food from this location for 19 years. Allwyn's is not listed on the mall's sign, and don't bother phoning ahead either—the owner hasn't kept up with the phone bills, so the number is out of service. There used to be a website, but it doesn't seem to be up any more.

Staffer Donald Simpson, a native of Jamaica, has worked here off and on since the beginning. He also works at the legendary Fahmee bakery, which supplies Allwyn's baked goods. "A lot of people come here through word of mouth and say it's one of the best places," explains Donald. "It's the way we season the chicken."

Customers of all ages and backgrounds stand in line, waiting for their favourites. Some have been coming for decades, after being lured in during their grade school days by the super cheap prices: a jerk chicken sandwich served on a cocobun topped with crisp coleslaw is just $3.70. If you're not going to eat the sandwich right away, Donald carefully packs the components separately so the coleslaw doesn't make the sandwich soggy.

"The pricing is reasonable and the food is good quality," says Crystal, who drove here with two coworkers on their lunch break. "We always debate what we're going to get but at the end we always get the jerk sandwich."

The boneless jerk chicken doesn't disappoint: it's moist and glistening, coated with a warm blend of spices. The curry goat is also excellent—the potent, spicy flavour is balanced by the meat's tenderness. The Jamaican patties are also top notch. Thick and bready, with a flaky yellow skin, they are filled with a moist, punchy meat paste.

Overall, you're sure to be impressed: not only is this one of the truly excellent places for Caribbean food in Toronto, it's also one of the great food secrets of the city.

Photos courtesy of H. Thanks to Ken from In Your Mouth Toronto for the tip.

Allwyn's is located behind the Parkwoods Village Centre at 1277 York Mills Road, between the Don Valley Parkway and Victoria Park Ave. No telephone. Cash only.

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The legendary Gandhi's Indian Cuisine has a new sibling restaurant: Maurya East Indian Roti Cuisine just opened up at 2481 Lakeshore Blvd West in Mimico (map below). This means there are now five restaurants in the Toronto area serving Gandhi's spicy Indian curries inside a roti. Indeed, these Indian-style rotis may be on their way to becoming a classic feature of homegrown cuisine in our city.

Maurya, named after an ancient Indian kingdom, opened up in November on the site of a former burger joint. The co-owner is Urmila Vayalpati, the sister of Gandhi's Avtar Singh. Urmila also owns another Gandhi spin-off, Parkdale's Mother India, as well as New York Subway on Queen West.

Also in the Gandhi empire is Roti Time, originally owned by Singh but subsequently sold, and Roti Cuisine of India, run by a former Mother India employee. The chefs at each restaurant bring slight variations to the food, but the basic recipes remain the same as Singh's original creations at Gandhi.

Urmila, originally from South India, spent five years working at the counter of Gandhi before taking over Mother India. Two years ago she moved to Etobicoke and started thinking about opening a restaurant in the area. Selling the concept hasn't been difficult, as "most of our customers here know Gandhi and Mother India," she says.

In India, fire-baked roti bread is served as an accompaniment to a meal. Wrapping a curry in roti is a hallmark of the southern Caribbean, something that evolved out of cuisine brought to the region by Indian labourers. However, at Gandhi and its related restaurants, the curries served are the original Indian spice blends. "Caribbean curries use powder and we use paste," explains Urmila (pictured below with co-owner Benjamin Nanneti). "We use ginger, garlic and onion."

The curries at Maurya are spiced with chili powder, tumeric, and other spices, and slow cooked for eight or nine hours. When you order one, the chefs take a ball of dough and feed it into the roti machine, which flattens it into a thin sheet. The chef throws it onto the grill until the skin bubbles and chars ever so slightly, while another chef heats up the curry on the stove. He adds spice in to get to the customer's requested level of heat. Maurya uses a more reasonable scale than Gandhi's, which is known for its scorching levels of spiciness. Even Urmila says she can only stomach a Gandhi 'mild'.

The two rotis I sampled were delicious. While milder than Gandhi's, they had the same telltale dimpled roti skin. Each hefty package weighs as much as a brick and when you cut into them, searing steam escapes.

In the butter chicken roti ($11.95), a creamy, bright orange sauce flecked with fenugreek leaves blankets the tender meat cubes and firm potato chunks. The saag paneer roti ($9.95) is filled with a dense stew of mushy, green spinach and slightly chewy cubes of Indian cheese (paneer).

The banana lassi makes a great accompaniment. The sour yogurt is counterbalanced by the sweetness of the banana, creating a thick mixture that resists your attempts to inhale it through the straw. All in all, Maurya is a great addition to a classic Toronto tradition.

Maurya East Indian Roti Cuisine is located at 2481 Lakeshore Blvd West, Toronto, 647 748 6001. Hours are Monday to Friday 11:30 am to 10 pm; Saturday and Sunday 12pm to 10pm. It takes around 10 minutes to prepare a roti, and you can phone your order in.

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Meet Parkdale's master of the barbecued pig

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This former Coffee Time is now the hub for Toronto's Haitian community

A feast from the Middle East

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Eat seven courses of beef with this Vietnamese party meal

One of Toronto's best Asian restaurants gets new digs

Summer brings new life to Scadding Court market

Spice City Toronto is on holidays

A new French Caribbean restaurant heats up Kensington Market

Indian-style roti that rivals Gandhi's

Great Caribbean eats at the Weston Flea Market

Are you ready to try the wedding-size buss-up-shut roti?

Tasty Jewish meals served inside the sukkah

Try the pastel, Brazil's answer to the empanada

Sizzling dishes from Central Asia

Roti perfection, Malaysian-style

Hidden behind a derelict North York strip mall, you'll find some of the best jerk chicken in Toronto

A made-in-Toronto roti empire expands westward