SpiceCityTo

Exploring strip malls and hole-in-the-wall restaurants in search of the city's best international food

Friday, August 26, 2011

Jamaican patties by the dozen at the Patty King factory outlet

Want to stock up on Jamaican patties? A visit to the Patty King factory outlet might be in order. 

Located at 321 Progress Ave. in Scarborough, this restaurant and factory store sees a steady stream of customers coming in for their favourites. The exuberant cashier Judy, who hails from Montego Bay, Jamaica, knows every one of them. 

"Are you getting a patty for your mom?" she asks a teenage customer picking up a dozen patties in her slightly faded Jamaican lilt. "Don't eat and drive—it's hazardous," she sternly warns a workman dressed in coveralls. 


Despite having the same name as the popular Patty King take-out restaurant in Kensington Market, the factory and outlet are not affiliated with it: the factory sold them the name and supplies some of its patties. The factory's main business is wholesaling to coffee trucks, schools and to Gateway newsstands in subway stations. It's a family business run by a group of brothers and sisters from Kingston, Jamaica.

From Monday to Friday, the outlet serves full meals such as jerk chicken, jerk pork and oxtail. Small portions are around $4.50 while large ones are around $7.50. The main clients are industrial workers employed in the nearby factories. There's no seating here, but there are a few tables where you can eat standing up. "For $2.30 you can get a patty on coco bread and a pop. That's gonna gold you 'til dinner," says Judy.

You can get a warm beef, chicken or veg Jamaican patty for a $1. It's not the best patty in town but it hits the spot. The value proposition gets better when you buy in bulk. A dozen beef or veggie patties is $7.50. If you don't mind slight imperfections, such as the seams of dough not meeting perfectly together, go for the "bagged and frozen seconds"—just $5 for a dozen. 

Thanks to AutoShare for providing transportation for this food mission.
Patty King is located at 321 Progress Ave., in Scarborough; hours are 8-6 Monday to Thursday, 8-5 Friday, 9-3 Saturday, closed Sunday. Full meals are only served Monday to Friday. Parking is around the back. 

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The cookie factory outlet gets a new home

One of the most fun food destinations in Toronto has new digs. The Peek Freans Cookie Outlet has moved a block away from its former location on O'Connor Drive, and is now at 5 Bermondsey Road.  


Spice City Toronto visited the old location earlier this year, and we were amazed at the colossal bags of cut-rate cookies. The new store is more spacious than the old one, and it carries all the same goodies.

Young families as well as seniors stream in to stock up on the cookies, crackers and candies that are manufactured at the Kraft plant across the street. They're sold at this factory outlet because they are misshaped, broken, or missing packaging, but in most cases, the flaws are unnoticeable.

So what do the cookies cost? Hefty four-kilo bags of creme cookies, Ritz fudge, Chips Ahoy!, graham crackers and biscuits sell for around $5. A one kilo box of Oreos goes for $5.50 and a regular sized box of Ritz crackers is $1.50. You can also pick up freshly hatched Cadbury creme eggs for just 40 cents each.

Part of the shopping experience here seems to be pulling out your cell phone and calling your spouse to get approval before committing the family to many months of eating Lifestyle Berry Green Tea Peek Freans or football-shaped Oreos.

The selection at any given day varies depending on the latest defects at the plant. If they don't have your favourite cookie here, you could also try the Dad's Cookies Outlet Store at 370 Progress Avenue in Scarborough. It's a much smaller store but also carries a similar selection of Kraft products.

Thanks to AutoShare for providing transportion for this mission. 

Peek Freans Cookie Outlet: 5 Bermondsey Road; hours are Monday to Wednesday 7am to 5pm, Thursday and Friday, 7am to 7pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday closed.  

Dad's Cookies Outlet Store: 370 Progress Ave., Scarborough; hours are 8:30am to 6:00 pm Monday to Friday, Saturday 8:30 to 4:30, Sunday closed. 

  • Share your own thoughts on the Peek Freans Cookie Outlet in the comments field below.
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Monday, August 15, 2011

Great street eats from Malaysia served up cheap in Scarborough

***UPDATE: Gourmet Garden is now called Gourmet Malaysia and it is now located across the street at 4466 Sheppard Ave. East.

Behind a nondescript plaza filled with shady massage joints in Scarborough, there's a small building housing a food court. If you like spicy Asian street food, it's worth the trek to check out Gourmet Garden Malaysian and Singaporean Cuisine at 4465 Sheppard Ave. East.



This place has a big menu of Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian rice and noodle dishes and curries selling from $5 to $8. If you come on a weekend before the dinner hour, you'll see people picking up giant batches of food for family gatherings at home. Customers tend to be immigrants from South East or South Asia.



The restaurant is run by the husband and wife team of Tan "Yummy" Hok Kien (above), who hails from Java, Indonesia, and Amy Lam, from Ipoh, Malaysia. Amy and the team of cooks handle the day to day orders while Yummy fields calls at his job as a computer support tech while moonlighting at the restaurant. 

Yummy says Gourmet Garden's set up and recipes are modelled after street vendors, called hawkers, that run food stalls in Asia. "Hawking is like calling out, it's like the sound a bird makes," says Yummy. "Here people pay and sit down and we call out their order, like hawkers do in Asian when your food is ready." 



We ordered soto ayam (above), a giant tasty Indonesian soup made with chicken, vermicelli and tumeric. The chicken satay skewers didn't have the best quality meat, but the satay sauce was delicious. My favourite was mee goreng, a giant plate of fried spicy noodles with bean sprouts, green onion, fish cake and squid. 

Another good dish was the nasi lemak (below), coconut rice served with curry chicken and sambal prawn curry. The prawn curry is sweet when you first taste it, but it's followed by a powerful spicy kick. This version is a deal for just $6.50, but you might be better off getting the smaller snack version of the dish, which sells for around two bucks—according to Yummy, its served wrapped on a banana leaf and features a spicier, more authentic recipe. 



If you're feeling adventurous, top the meal off with an "ais kacang." This is a dessert made of crushed ice and topped off with everything but the kitchen sink. The ice is sweetened with syrup and comes with strings of jelly, salted peanuts, creamed corn (!), red beans and sweet basil seeds that taste like tapioca. Yes, it is just as disgusting as it sounds, but worth trying just once for an unforgettable culinary experience. 


Thanks to Anthony and Anna for the tip. Autoshare provided transportation for this Spice City Toronto mission. 

Gourmet Garden is located at 4465 Sheppard Ave. East, Tel: 416-322-8765 or 647-764-1188. Hours are 11am to 9pm Sunday to Thursday, 11am to 10 pm Friday and Saturday, CLOSED on Tuesday. 

  • Share your own thoughts on Gourmet Garden in the comments field below.
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  • Recommend a place for Spice City to visit at SpiceCityTO @ gmail.com 
  • Taste the food of the world without leaving Toronto with the Spice City Toronto World Food Map.


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Monday, August 8, 2011

A visit to Toronto's only Burmese restaurant

****Dec 2012 Update***This restaurant is now closed. Karelia Kitchen, a Scandinavian restaurant, is now at this address. 

Did you know that Toronto has a Burmese neighbourhood? On Bloor Street between Landsdowne and Dufferin, there is a small but growing population of people from Burma (Myanmar). 

The strip consists of a few variety stores selling imported Burmese food, but as there are sanctions preventing imports from the isolated country, the merchandise comes from neighbouring countries such as Thailand. In one of the stores, a sketchy looking outlet cluttered with piles of dusty merchandise, the clerk will tell you tales of his time fighting the Burmese army in the jungles that straddle the Burmese/Thai border.

His story is a common one on this strip. Many of the local Burmese are refugees from the Karen ethnic group. After suffering under the Burmese military regime and spending years in Thai refugee camps, they came to Canada to start their lives again. 



Thida Khine (above), a former computer teacher in Rangoon, came to Canada in 1993 as part of an earlier wave of Burmese migration. For years, she ran her restaurant, Motherhome Myanmar Cuisine, at Front Street and Blue Jays Way, but moved the business to 1194 Bloor Street West a year ago to take advantage of cheaper rents and to be closer to the Burmese community. "Lots of people from our country live around here," she says. 

Burmese food is a tasty blend of flavours that you also find in other Asian cuisines. "Our cooking is similar to India, China and Thailand, but the spices are different," says Thida. "In our country we use fresh herbs like lemon grass, curry leaves, basil, and lots of different kinds of coriander."



I'd recommend trying the daily special. For just $5 for take out ($5.99 for eat-in), you can get an excellent curry from the steam tray, served with veggies and rice or noodles. They also serve street snacks like Baja-gjo ("gold coin," something similar to a pakora), golden triangles (samosas) and mutton rolls. 

If you're more adventurous, you can order dishes off the menu that are more distinctly Burmese. I tried the tea leaf salad (below left), a classic Burmese dish that is a staple of social gatherings, as the caffeine gives you a bit of a buzz. I've got to say that this dish, made of fermented tea leaves, is incredibly bitter and might not be the best choice for your first visit. The moke hin nga (below right) is a safer bet: it's a dense soup made of minced fish, noodles, lemon grass, coriander.


One of the charms of Motherhome is that it serves as a de facto student cafeteria for Burmese university students studying in Toronto. Students such as this York University business student (below) pay in advance for a meal plan of 15 to 60 meals. This provides a much welcome taste of home for students on their own in a far away land. 


Motherhome Myanmar Cuisine, 1194 Bloor Street West. Tel: 416 792-2593. Open Monday to Friday 10:30 am to 10pm; Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 10pm.

****Dec 2012 Update***This restaurant is now closed. Karelia Kitchen, a Scandinavian restaurant, is now at this address. 

  • Share your own thoughts on Motherhome Myanmar Cuisine in the comments field below.
  • Follow Spice City Toronto on Twitter and like it on Facebook.
  • Recommend a place for Spice City to visit at SpiceCityTO @ gmail.com 
  • Taste the food of the world without leaving Toronto with the Spice City Toronto World Food Map.


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