By: Sherina Harris & Jacklyn Gilmor
Multicultural “fusion” restaurants are becoming more popular in Toronto. Many restaurants are now offering a unique menu, based on food from different cultures, such as sushi burritos or Chinese-Jamaican food.
Of these, there is Patois- a restaurant offering Chinese-Caribbean cuisine. “It’s very important, especially in Toronto, to have many cultures represented in our restaurant scene,” said general manager Natalie Paré.
The owner and chef, Craig Wong, is Chinese-Jamaican himself, so the food is based on his heritage and what he grew up eating. Paré said he calls it “Caribbean meets Asian soul food”.
Paré said that because they have great access to a variety of international foods, they are “able to play with traditional items to create something uniquely ‘Toronto’.”
Many guests are not familiar with the traditional Chinese-Jamaican blend when they try the food. The menu offers items like ‘Juicy Jerk Chicken’ and ‘Kimchi Potstickers’, which are like pierogies.
“As Torontonians, we live in a place that is so diverse, and proud to be. It only makes sense that we are excited to enjoy diverse foods,” said Paré.
Su&Bu is another cultural fusion restaurant, which opened last year in downtown Toronto. It features a unique blend of Japanese and Mexican food.
The founder, Sam Serruya, stumbled upon the concept by chance on a trip with his cousin.
“We went out to California and tried a bunch of different foods and stumbled upon Sushi Burritos. After our first bite into it, we went ‘We have to bring this back.’ It just so happened we got into Japanese and Mexican,” he said.
Upon returning to Toronto, the pair hired a chef and started creating their tasty pairings. Within four or five months, Su&Bu was born.
Two of their specialties are sushi burgers and poke nachos. “The burger is basically two deep-fried rice patties with goodies inside,” Serruya explained. The nachos are “use wonton chips and we deep fry them with unagi sauce, guacamole, spicy mayonnaise, salmon, tuna, a bunch of goodies. It’s very tasty.”
“It’s good to have different cultures in your food, because you can open your menu up. Some of our items on the menu right now have a Mexican feel to it. Like our O.G. Poke Bowl It’s a classic raw fish Poke bowl but with Mexican flavours to it,” Surreya said. “It’s good to be open to more instead of being stuck to one culture.”
Su&Bu is now a franchise, and they are hoping to expand to at least 10 stores in Toronto.
(Header photo courtesy of Dailoto via Instagram)
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