This East York spot is a snacking paradise with a hot meal counter

Suresh Doss: I'm seeing more and more specialized convenience stores and food markets opening up across the city, centered around young people opening these businesses bringing a new wave of grocery shopping. 

Ismaila Alfa: So describe these new convenience-like stores for me. 

Suresh Doss: So think of a traditional convenience store, aisles of goods, shelf-stable products and frozen products. Then there is usually a section for prepared foods. And each of these stores have their own specialities focusing on cultural foodstuffs.  

Ismaila Alfa: Can you give me a few examples?

Suresh Doss: We have some great new Mexican markets. There's Tienda Movil on Woodbine Avenue, El Mercadito on Victoria Park, and a third opening up in North York. At these markets, you can find some great regional Mexican ingredients, and there's lots of candies and sodas.

Mattachioni, the Italian bakery, pizzeria in the Junction, just opened this spectacular bodega and market in Little India. There are nearly a dozen of these examples; Mexican, Italian, Taiwanese. 

One of the newest in this group and one of my favourites is Hanamaru Market and Bento on Pape Avenue. I love this place. It's run by the wife and husband team; Susan Lee and Teddy Park. They were both born in Korea and moved to Canada to pursue culinary careers. And they've managed to open their version of the quintessential Japanese and Korean conbini.

Ismaila Alfa: Okay tell me about the conbini. 

Suresh Doss: These are the 24/7 convenient stores you find everywhere in cities in South Korea and Japan. You can find these at almost every intersection. You can go and pay bills and use the photocopier or buy tickets to concerts or get a SIM card if you're travelling. But it's also a snacking paradise. And a place where you can get prepared foods.

Ismaila Alfa: What kind of food are we talking about?

Suresh Doss: Depending on the conbini, it can be sushi or gimbap, it can be cold sandwiches and salads, or it can even be elaborate presentations of plates of fried chicken or bento boxes.

Ismaila Alfa: So tell us about Hanamaru, what draws you to it?

Suresh Doss: So Hanamaru is unique because of where it is in the city. Usually, if you want to find a place like this you have to go uptown. 

And you can walk in here and get a variety of specialty snacks and candies that you couldn't find say five years ago. There are these honey butter chips, almonds coated in wasabi which are outstanding. You can find frozen mandu - Korean dumplings — in the freezer along with about a half a dozen flavours of mochi — glutinous rice cake desserts. It's a mix of Korean and Japanese foodstuffs, and that's intentional. Because while they are both Korean, Susan and Teddy both worked in Japanese restaurants after moving to Canada at a number of notable sushi restaurants. So once they found the space on Pape, they decided that Teddy would manage the market, and Susan would do some cooking in the tiny kitchen in the back.

Ismaila Alfa: What kind of food does she prepare?

Suresh Doss: On any given day, you'll see an assortment of onigiri. It's a rice ball that has been stuffed with various fillings, then formed into a triangle and wrapped in seaweed. It is the perfect snack or meal. Susan does a version with bulgogi beef in the middle, again there's the Japanese-Korean dance. There's also one with karaage, fried chicken that has been sauced, and stuffed into the rice ball.

Ismaila Alfa: I'll take one of each please. That sounds like a great sandwich.

Suresh Doss: They're quite filling. I think you would really like karaage. Susan also packages it in what she calls her favourite lunchbox. Its pieces of karaage, along with yam rolls called gimbap, and a tempura shrimp roll. 

There's also a rotating menu of bento boxes. There's a glazed, grilled salmon that is served with lotus root and spinach. Susan uses her mother's ban chan recipes to make the vegetable sides — banchan being the assorted side dishes in Korean culture. There is also a vegetarian one that is fantastic with fried tofu and vegetables. 

Ismaila Alfa:  Is there something sweet you'd recommend to finish the meal?

Suresh Doss: For me, it would be going to the mochi fridge. There's this one special one called the daifuku shiro goma. It's basically mochi stuffed with sweet bean paste and covered in toasted white sesame seeds. I don't know about you but my weekend is going to be onigiri on one hand and mochi on the other, that's how I'll be walking down the street this weekend.

This interview  was edited for length and clarity.