Fire up the grill with mishkaki skewers
Listening to Noureen Feerasta, Rickshaw Bar owner and chef, talk about her upbringing, you can see her life story written out on her menu, which incorporates South Asian, Southeast Asian and East African cuisine.
Born in Pakistan to an Ismaili Muslim household, Feerasta grew up eating and cooking Pakistani and Indian dishes with East African flavours.
“Ismailis are very diverse and the majority of them started off in India and Pakistan and then moved to East Africa, so a lot of our cuisine has those influences,” she says. “You’ll find a lot of coconut in East African cooking and we marry them with north Indian flavours.”
The result is a menu of dishes that includes chicken and beef paratha tacos (parathas are a staple flatbread common in India, Pakistan and Burma), khao soi, a Burmese coconut-lime noodle soup, and shrimp makai curry, a Tanzanian cornbased curry specialty.
Growing up Feerasta ate a lot of mishkaki, the Swahili word for kebab, which is found all along the East African coast.
“A lot of my family is from Nairobi and my mom would make it for us all the time,” she says.
“It wasn’t until 2010 when I went to Nairobi that I had my first taste of it on the street.
“It’s not supposed to be a very complex dish. It can be chicken, lamb or beef. It’s street meat, but it’s so good.”
Feerasta landed in Toronto after studying marketing in Montreal, and culinary arts in Dubai. She cooked at Momofuku Noodle Bar and the now-closed Origin before she opened Rickshaw Bar at 685 Queen St. W. and Bathurst Ave. almost two years ago.
Her use of rich, bold flavours, contrasting textures and mouthwatering presentation has garnered critical praise.
Feerasta’s lamb mishkaki, meat skewers seasoned with cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger and tamarind, encapsulate the flavours of her youth.
Hot off the grill, they are served with a simple salad or warm flatbread.