THE GREAT SCARBOROUGH SHAWARMA CRAWL
Lawrence Ave. E. is home to some of the best Middle Eastern dining in the GTA
Stretch of Lawrence Ave. E. is a prime destination for Middle Eastern dining,
There is a strip of Lawrence Ave. E. in Scarborough that is lined with shawarma shops that reflect the various culinary regions of the Middle East, food writer Suresh Doss told me the other day. “(It’s) a unicorn of sorts,” he said. “Nowhere else can you find so many different cuisines of the Levant represented on one walkable strip.”
His words made my mouth water. Shawarma, the thinly shaved meat slow-cooked on a spit, topped with garlic and hot sauce and served with bread or rice, is one of my favourite foods. I knew I had to ask him to take me on a shawarma crawl.
An influx of immigrants, from Middle Eastern nations in the late ’80s and early ’90s and more recently Syria, has turned the Wexfold neighbourhood of Scarborough into a prime destination for Middle Eastern dining.
Shawarma originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, or the Levantine, which encompasses Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Israel, and each region does it a bit differently.
On the strip between Pharmacy and Warden Aves., there is Lebanese-style shawarma rolled in a crispy flatbread called markook, juicy chicken shawarma piled into a fluffy Iraqi bun known as samoon and a slightly unorthodox version at an unassuming burger joint that uses curry seasoning in its shawarma.
Doss, who has a weekly food segment on CBC Metro Morning, and I spent a better part of a chilly January afternoon tasting the different ways shawarma is prepared. Here’s what we found. Ghadir Meat & Restaurant’s chicken shawarma plate Butcher shop Ghadir has been the go-to source for halal meat and groceries since opening in 1991. In the last year, owner Ali Dbouk moved the business across the street to the north side of Lawrence Ave. E. to a larger location. He has added a restaurant that serves charcoal-grilled kebabs, piping hot lahm ajeen (Lebanese pizzas) and shawarmas. The shawarmas at Ghadir are wrapped in markook (also called saj), an ultrathin, slightly crispy unleavened flatbread cooked on a hot, domed griddle that’s popular throughout Lebananon and other Levantine countries including Syria. The juicy and thinly sliced chicken shawarma is seasoned with a secret blend of eight to nine spices sourced in Lebanon.
“We bring in whole animals and take it apart ourselves, so we know where the meat is coming from and how it’s prepared,” Dbouk says.
On weekends, cooks stack piles of meat on a spit to form gigantic shawarma logs weighing between 165 to 220 pounds. The restaurant, which is open till midnight most days and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, will go through two of them on a Saturday.
The restaurant gets its bread from a local bakery, but in the coming months Ghadir is expanding to include a bakery and a fish counter. The new saj griddles have already arrived from Lebanon. Shawarma platter ($10 to $16) 1846-1848 Lawrence Ave. E.; 416-7507404, ghadirmeatmarket.com Shawarma Empire’s beef shawarma and falafel Beef shawarma can make or break a restaurant, owner Ahed Darwish says. Unlike chicken, beef shawarma isn’t typically marinated, so the quality of the meat can’t hide behind a tornado of seasoning.
At the cash-only Shawarma Empire, AAA inside round roast (a lean cut from the cow’s hind leg ideal for slow-roasting and thin-slicing) is lightly seasoned with olive oil, salt and a secret blend of spices that doesn’t overshadow the beef. The tasty house-made hot sauce offers a hint of acidity that brightens the taste of the beef cooked to medium doneness on the spit. The meat is served in a pita rather than a wrap, which is how they do it back home in Tulkarm, a city in the West Bank, Darwish says.
Don’t leave without trying the falafel, which are made-to-order and fried to a hot, crispy crust with a creamy centre of mashed chickpeas, parsley and a hint of cilantro. Shawarma sandwich ($5.55) Falafel plate ($7.99) 1823 Lawrence Ave. E; 416-285-1337 Nasib’s chicken and beef shawarma plates You will always find a small crowd at this little shawarma shop run by Emad Bhaloul and his wife for the past 17 years. It’s a toss-up between ordering the beef or chicken shawarma. The superjuicy chicken is hard to resist: ultra moist with strong notes of lemon that complements the smoky, lightly charred meat. While Bhaloul is proud of his shawarma the most, the tender shish tawook (meat skewers) is also worth trying on a platter with salad, pickles, hummus and a sprinkling of sumac with a mountain of rice. The couple previously lived in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, so you’ll also find whole fish on the menu. Shish tawook plate ($10.99) Side of extra shawarma meat ($3.99) 1867 Lawrence Ave. E, 416-285-7223, nasibsshawarma.com Al Tanoor’s chicken shawarma with samoon or biryani This is one of the few places in the city to put shawarma in a freshly baked samoon, a fluffy Iraqi bread garnished with toasted sesame seeds that the Adel family bakes in a stone oven throughout the day.
“Back home, samoon is like the sandwich bun. We eat it with everything and every morning someone in the family would go to the corner bakery to get it,” says Roze Adel, who makes about 150 to 200 samoons with her mom on an average day. It’s atricky bread to master, as it requires four proofing stages and just the right amount of pressure when kneading the dough to get the bread at its fluffiest. The chicken shawarma is seasoned with bay leaves, cloves, orange, plus a slew of secret spices to give it a distinct warm citrus spice flavour unlike anywhere else.
Be sure to also get a side of the family’s aromatic biryani (the 11spice blend is another family secret) and a dollop of the incredibly hot chili sauce made by Adel’s father. Shawarma plate ($12.40) Shawarma sandwich ($6.20) 1993 Lawrence Ave. E; 647-341-6000 Yummi’s Burger and Shawarma’s curry-spiced chicken shawarma A hint of curry seasoning is what gives Yummi’s chicken shawarma a distinct yellow tinge, says owner Mohammad Golazade, who took cues from the Indian and Sri-Lankan residents in the neighbourhood to give his shawarma a touch of South Asian flair.
“Shawarma is usually Lebanese or Turkish but this is our own style,” Golazade says.
The added spice results in a deliciously slow burn after biting into the shawarma, which is topped with garlic sauce; a drizzle of house-made hot sauce akin to buffalo hot sauce but spicier and more flavourful.
It also has a lot of finely chopped parsley that gives it a burst of colour and fresh flavour to contrast the slow-cooked meat. Chicken shawarma combo ($11.50) Chicken shawarma sandwich ($7) 2018 Lawrence Ave. E; 647-349-2222 karonliu@thestar.ca