Scarfing down roti and hot doubles is the quintessential Scarborough experience
Mona's Roti is at 4810 Sheppard Ave E., in Scarborough
If you ask a fan of West Indian-style rotis who serves their favourite, be prepared for a lengthy conversation.
People love their rotis in this town — an overstuffed packet that carries more weight than its curried contents, like nostalgia and memories of home.
In the grand spectrum of immigrant foods here, few dishes evolve past their classical variations. The Trinidadian roti is no exception. When people want one, they want it to taste exactly like it did 30 years ago in Claxton Bay or Port of Spain.
My favourite Trini roti can be found at Mona's Roti in Scarborough, run by Trinidadian native Mona Khan.
When she moved to Canada in the early 80s, she longed to open a food establishment. Her daughter, Reesa, who now manages the front of house operations, tells me that her mom broke into the business by supplying homemade rotis to families and restaurants in the GTA.
Her family soon convinced her to open a restaurant here.
"She knows more than just making roti, Mona is known for her family recipes, lots of curries. We wanted her to showcase that."
Customers come from Ottawa
Khan's takeout spot is in a nondescript industrial plaza off Sheppard Avenue. Its facade blends in to its surrounding industrial drags. Because of this, the shop remained a well-kept secret among the local community at first.
Word soon got out about her curry and roti and then the lines started to form. "We have customers coming in from Ajax, and Ottawa," said Reesa Khan.
I discovered Mona's Roti by chance.
There's a pool hall not far from the restaurant where I spent a considerable amount of time. One summer day, a friend suggested we go for food after playing pool. We ended up at Mona's and I'll never forget the first experience walking through those doors.
The shop is a spectacle. There's exactly one table and two chairs. The majority of the space is dedicated to the open kitchen where a cadre of women work in impressive unison to prepare the daily goods.
A dozen women prepare dough, then stuff, roll and cook the rotis on large tawas to the rhythm of Trini soca music — the kind of place that whisks you away from Scarborough into the bustling roti temples of Trinidad.
Scarfing down doubles
There's barely any room to move once you are in line for food and you might feel pressure from the people behind you to keep the line moving.
After a few visits, we quickly established a ritual: pick a style roti and order doubles — two palm sized pieces of bara (flat bread) flash fried and then sandwiched with a stew of chick peas followed by a shower of tamarind and hot sauce.
I will find any excuse to stop by Mona's when I'm in Scarborough. I've lost count of the number of times I quickly ingested a few doubles in the parking lot before heading back out on the road.
There are two types of rotis, both classic Trinidadian fare.
Mona's signature roti is one that is stuffed with a savoury spiced channa dhal mixture before getting rolled out and cooked on a hot tawa. The dhalpuri roti is best enjoyed as a wrap roti, stuffed with a choice of vegetable or meat curry. The dhal mixture serves as a buffer to prevent the roti from getting soggy too quickly, and allows you to pick it up with your hands.
You can try it with jerk chicken, one of Khan's specialities, where de-boned Jamaican-style jerk chicken is stuffed in the roti along with some potato curry.
The second style is my personal favourite. Plain roti with no stuffing, rolled out and cooked on the tawa. Before it's finished, two long wooden slats are used to repeatedly wack the sides of the roti to help form a crispy, phyllo-like texture.
Picture a crisp roti that somewhat resembles a crumpled, busted-up shirt and you'll understand the Trini expression "buss up shut" to describe the paratha roti. The "buss up shut" paratha with chicken curry is my dish of choice.
Standing in a parking lot, tearing off some crispy roti and dipping it into a thick curry is a knee-weakening experience. My quintessential Scarborough experience.
Mona's Roti is at 4810 Sheppard Ave E., in Scarborough.
Suresh Doss's weekly food segment airs every Thursday on Metro Morning. Watch for video of his jaunts across the city on CBC Toronto's Facebook page.
Do you know a GTA restaurant that Doss should visit? Tweet us @metromorning or send us a message on Facebook. And if you try any of the places he features, we want to see photos!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
