The Current - Canada's food scene a story of immigration and community

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

CBC host of Locals Welcome Suresh Doss talks about the new show -- and why visiting diaspora establishment restaurants paint a vibrant picture of families' journeys to make Canada their home.

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing.

Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. As a teenager, I started to taste and learn about different food cultures other than my own. Haka cuisine is that perfect intersection. It's like a gateway. I've spent my career writing about the local favorites that make Canada's food scene truly unique. I bit into a chili.

Woo! Yeah, don't get you. From vibrant street food, samosa chat is just leveling up the chart game. To comforting traditional digital. dishes. Most important ingredients in geloff rice, love. To innovative, personal twists on classics. Butter chicken lasagna. Butter chicken lasagna. That's what made it all happen.

I believe every bite tells a story. It's transporting me to like childhood. Every bite tells a story. The tagline sums up Suresh Doss's new CBC program. It is called Locals Welcome, highlights the food and people that make up Canada's restaurant scene. Suresh Doss is a local food connoisseur based in Toronto. he's an explorer of food has long known the hidden gems of the greater Toronto area from strip malls of Mississauga to the food courts of Scarborough but his new program takes him further afield to British Columbia and Quebec

Suresh Das joins us now Suresh good morning good morning man so nice to see you again it's so nice to see you I have spent a lot of time talking to you about food and eating food with you yeah tell me congratulations on this show oh thank you why did you want to do this this is different and just we should say full disclosure you and I used to talk about food on the Toronto local morning show, Metro Morning, and make people in the city really hungry when you would come on and talk about that. Why did you want to do this? This is different. Well, I think that was the impetus for it. I mean, like, you know, you and I have spent so many mornings talking about all these different intersections and places

in the city, beyond the city. You allowed me to go beyond Scarborough, beyond North York, Richmond Hill, Ajax, Whitby, Niagara to talk about these micro communities. And the fact that we are such a diverse eating country and we eat so uniquely and we eat so diversely. And this show is an encapsulation of the fact that like within these micro communities, there are these quote unquote hidden gems, which I hate that term, but there are these quote unquote places that really cater to the people that are surrounding the area. Why do you hate the phrase hidden gems? Well, because I think it's never hidden. I mean, like, if you know, you know.

If you know, you know. And it's there for people, right? I mean, is it hidden for you? Is it hidden for me? Or is it hidden for the community? People are visiting these places anyway. I mean, you and I have talked about this before where it's like, for me, the compass of a neighborhood is when you find a bakery or a butcher shop or a grocery store. store. And if there's a theme, if it's a Vietnamese bakery, a Vietnamese grocery store,

then look around. And maybe, yeah, those hidden gems are going to be there. But they're not hidden necessarily because of how you and I define it. They're hidden because they serve as a community. They're not designed to win a star. What do you love about that, about that process? It's interesting. People might have read about this program and the fact that you work with some of the folks who worked on Anthony Bourdain's parts unknown. I often think about the way that you both look at food as kind of a door like that. Do you know what I mean? That it is a portal into something else.

What do you love about that? That comparison, I'm still getting used to that comparison. I'm still trying to absorb that comparison. I think for me it's like it allows me a conduit to seeing how people, people's journey has been processed or has been traversed in this country, where it's like everyone has a story and everyone is coming from somewhere. And that door allows me to loosen my shoulders to get a perspective that you may not necessarily have.

And, you know, we have talked about this multiple times. Sometimes it's like going to the roti shop or going to your favorite jerk chicken shop and loosening your shoulder just enough so that someone will tell you get the gravy on the rice. And you can't do that by reading something online. You have to walk through that door. Are you comfortable with that comparison with him?

With Bourdain? No. Oh, I mean, listen, I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the most incredible food writers that have been my predecessors. Jonathan Gold, Anthony Bourdain, travel with both of them. I think what I'm trying to do is, obviously, like, you know, pass the torch and do something that they were trying to do

in terms of highlighting communities. But I want to kind of do my own thing at the same time. Fair enough, yeah. I mean, it's interesting. One of the images that comes along with this program to promote it is of you sitting on the hood of a car with a bunch of food. Yeah.

What is, why is eating off the hood of a car the best place to eat some of this food, whether it's, you know, it's coming out of a biryani shop or the back end of a gas station or something like that? Why is the hood of the car matter?

So I think this goes back to my childhood. Going back to being a child of Sri Lanka and coming as a bi-part of a civil war where you didn't always have the opportunity to eat in restaurants. You always ate outside. And street food was like a way of life. whether it wasn't like the back of a motorcycle with my uncle or whether it was like on the hood of a car.

So that translates to coming to Toronto where it's like doing food tours for many, many years now, over a thousand food tours. There is this, there is such a sentimental romance sort of like intimacy about eating on the hood of the car because you get to be close enough to someone. you can brush elbows and you can pass over hands and grab something it's more

to me now after doing this for 25 years it feels more intimate now than eating across the table from someone and I mean you hinted at that as somebody who came to this country as you mentioned you grew up in Sri Lanka

you come here the people talk about the immigrant experience as being sent to a Canadian narrative in many ways, but it's really at the heart of how we tell our story through food, right? Tell me a little bit more about that and why you wanted to kind of open the door

to what immigrants have brought here to our food culture. Because people will struggle to say, what is the food culture of Canada? Well, it's a lot of different cultures coming together. You nailed it. I know you're not going to argue with me on this. We have, I'm going to just, go on the record and say, maybe a hot take, this is the most multicultural country in the

world because of this layer cake of 200 years of immigration from various, various parts of the country, right? So we go back to the Chinese immigration in Richmond, BC, to most recently the Arab Spring. Most recently, I would see the Turkish immigration. Every wave of that immigration as broad stories and super dense culture and food to this country from the prairies to PEC like the best Syrian food is in Prince over County in in in Ontario in on yeah in Ontario right I mean like in Winnipeg like the some of the best Indian food in is in Winnipeg in the Yukon some of the best Vietnamese food is in the Yukon how does that happen what are we talking about here?

It's interesting. I mean, that you're highlighting that as well at a time when these are really polarizing moments that we're living through. And you have communities that can be pitted against each other, perhaps more so elsewhere, but that's happening here as well. How do you think about that in terms of embracing a Canadian identity?

Here's my thing. So, like, you know, like I eat regularly every, you know, every day of the week. And when I go to my favorite Jamaican bee, beef patty shop, when I go to my favorite jerk chicken shop, there are multiple different, there are people from different walks of life in that same space, regardless of like how they feel politically, how they feel in terms of like socioeconomic values or whatever, they're all in the same space.

You have your construction workers, you have your Sri Lankan people, you have your Indian people, you have your 11th people. That says something about this country, right? That's a good story. Yeah. I think so. What did you learn about food from your mom? Well, so I think in my early upbringings, when I was a kid, Matt, I was like basically

in terms of babysitting, it was always in the kitchen. I remember when I was like four or five years old, I would be in this really long kitchen, high ceilings, slats, four or five women. milling something, making dose of batter, and then clay pots cooking, you know, curry or rice or whatever it was. And that was my upbringing. So like I was attuned and in my DNA, it was the smells and the senses that really perfumed my, like, my upbringing.

And it's kind of how I raise my kid now. It's like, I mean, you know, when you, when you are a new parent, everyone gives you advice and everyone hates the advice. but the number one advice that I always give people is if you are if you are a new parent and you want to introduce your child to food leave them in the kitchen don't say anything just leave them on the tabletop or you know high chair or whatever it is and just by osmosis you will introduce food to that kid and that's what happened to you that's what happened to me and that's what I'm doing to my my son Nolan yeah this ascent isn't for everyone you need grit to

climb this high this often you've got to be an underdog that always over delivers you've got to be six thousand five hundred hospital staff one thousand doctors all doing so much with so little you've got to be scarborough defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights Help us keep climbing. Donate at Lovescarborough.cairot. Norval Morso is one of the most famous indigenous artists ever. Looking at his paintings, it's easy to see why. Colors are intense. Color is medicine.

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You have, and I want to talk about some of the places that you spotlight in this series. You have authority and you have weight and power. Oh, that's very sweet of you. No, in you saying this is a good place, you can change the fortunes of a restaurant. I mean, restaurants operate kind of on this knife edge, right? How do you see that responsibility? I mean, I, I, I, I'm greeted with it every week whenever I walk into a restaurant that I have profiled before with you on Metro Morning and people always come and say, you've changed my life,

I'm able to take my kids to, on a vacation, or I'm able to put them through school. That's a big deal. That's, that is huge. I mean, it happened, you know, at the red carpet like a, a week ago. It's, it's, it is this fundamental understanding of transfer. of power. If you have the ability to tell a story, if you have the ability to wield a power, you have to transfer it. You have to give it to people. So like I mean, with Metro Morning, we profiled 274 restaurants and they will all come to me whenever I see them and say,

you've changed our lives. And that's, that's a great responsibility. Sometimes it's hard to bear that because you want to kind of just bury your head in the sand. But also the ability to be able to transfer that power is important. Is it important in part because just of how precarious that industry is? Yeah, totally. How would you describe it? We talk about that and we talk about that in the cost of a living crisis, the fact that maybe people aren't going out and eating as much as they used to

because they're saving money and eating at home. How precarious is that industry right now? I mean, restaurants are closing every, like every day. I would say, I mean, my Instagram feed, my DMs, my message, my inbox is constantly flooded with people that are begging to ask for some sort of attention. Hey, can we go back on Metro Morning? Can you feature me again? Restaurants are closing all the time because people also are, you know, like you said, they're trying to make sure that they choose how they spend their money. but also everyone is evaluating how much a dish should cost.

Should that shawarma now be more than $20 a plate? Should I pay more than $10 for three dumplings? So we're going to see more closures until we embrace the fact that we should support as local as we possibly can. So let's talk about one of the restaurants that you support in this program. In the first episode, you focus on Nigerian food. You open with the story of a Nigerian refugee, Beauty Obasui. Obasui, yeah.

You met her years ago. She was selling Jolaf Rice out of a food court stall. Have a listen to this. My target is not actually just Nigerians. There are so many other people that love to try our food. And for Nigerians, they come to Nigeri Jalov. And any food you get makes you feel like home. Any food.

that's a lot of comforts. I came to Canada 2009. My son was two years and I was pregnant and no family, no friends. I had the equivalent of not even 10 cents. I went to one shelter, to another shelter. But I'm very strong because I believe this is my home.

This is where I'm going to make all of my dreams come through. Why did you want to start the series with her? I wanted to start with this place because this brings me back to my childhood. When I was born in Sri Lanka, my dad got an opportunity to go teach in Nigeria, in Lagos. So I was maybe four or five years old. And I remember, like, sitting in, like, this outdoor patio having jolof rice

and not knowing what it was. It's briani, but it's not briani. It looks like briani. It's red-colored, but it's not. What does it taste like? tomatoy, peppery, and like just a lot of umami. And I remember like my mom was feeding me this and she was like, just try this. You would like this.

I'm like, oh, this is briani? She's like, no, it's not briani. So one of the reasons why I wanted to do an episode of Nigerian cuisine, not to mention the fact that we have an incredible Nigerian population and culture in the city, but that cuisine is just so underrated, and I'm saying this honestly, and it needs to be considered and really people need to spend time with it. You have spent much of your career, as we mentioned, focusing on food in and around the greater Toronto area, but this series takes you further a field. Tell me a little bit about Richmond, BC, and what you learned about Richmond.

Well, can I move to Richmond? What is it about the food scene there that surprised you? Well, I mean, it's the way I eat. I mean, I grew up in a country where we have such an incredible Chinese Sri Lankan sort of amalgamation of cuisine in the country in Colombo. So noodles and rice were always a part of my DNA. Going to Richmond, I mean, the noodles are incredible. Eat Street alone is probably one of the best streets to eat through in the western part of the country. What is Eat Street for people who've never been? It's Alexander Street.

It's 8th Street is basically a street made up of dim some shops, noodle shops, and a couple of regional Chinese restaurants. And it's called Eat Street, colloquially. So it's how I like to eat. But dim sum, I love dim sum. I mean, I do dim sum with my friends, like, multiple times a year. Because of the 200 years of immigration in Richmond, BC, and this real. interesting influence of the Fraser River and the ocean and how people are using ingredients from both those areas and the farms nearby, it has created a whole new category of cuisine

that does not exist in Toronto and could not exist in Toronto. I mean, there is something to be said about the freshness of having an oyster that was just picked a couple of hours ago, or a gooey duck, or like, sea urchin or fish, translated into dim sum. You just can't get that here. So Richmond, BC, Matt, honestly, has ruined dimsum for me in Toronto. My kid is ruined. Yeah.

What about the city of Montreal? Again, a great food scene, different than many other parts of the country. What do you love about Montreal? I mean, the eye-opening aspects of Montreal, there were two a huge, huge, like, mind-blowing aspects. The North Mugrabi cuisine, so the Algerian, Libyan, Tunisian, Mauritanian cuisine, which we don't have here, the idea of really taking the time to put your phone away, eat with your hands, slow things down, eat in these lavish presentations of restaurants,

slow-cooked meats. There is this one dish that I had, beef and date. and a platter of rice beef and date you would say like that doesn't make any sense so like the Tunisian the Mauritanian cuisine

in Montreal was incredible but also the Haitian cuisine I mean we have a couple of Haitian restaurants in Toronto but in Montreal there are these incredible Haitian pockets places where you can go like north of the city

west of the city you not have this ticket to turn people on to food coast to coast to coast. Where else do you want to go? I really want to spend time telling the stories of First Nations and indigenous people in this country. And that means that I want to go to Hydergoy. I really want to go to Hydergoy. I've been there before. I know places that I want to visit. I want to go to the Yukon. I want to go to Winnipeg. I want to go to P.E.I. I want to go to Nova Scotia and explore parts of... It's like pins on a

map. Pins on a map. You know this. I've got a map. I've got a map. You know this. Wolfill. I want to explore. Basically what I want to do, and I hope this series inspires people to do this, is to land in a city and then just go and walk or drive. So how do you convince people that they can do this themselves?

You lead food tours. This is what you do. You eat like a champion. For people who go into a new community, maybe they feel a little intimidated, maybe they're not sure where to go. what's what's the the advice that you can give somebody, the tools that you can give somebody so they can do what you do?

Because they're going to want to go to these places that you're mentioning. They want to go to eat street and they're going to, yeah. I think the simplest advice I can give is go to a city, walk somewhere, walk to a neighborhood, go into a place where there's no menu, where maybe the menu is not in the language that you speak, but spend a few minutes and relax your shoulders. because the person that's coming behind you

or the person that's in front of you will guide you. And that has been my training mechanism for the last 25 years. And do you go with a gang of people or do you go by yourself? Usually by myself. And what do you get eating by yourself

that you wouldn't get otherwise? I learn. You learn. Yeah. Because the best experiences are when you're in a place where there is no menu. And you see chafing dishes

and you see a table of something. And you point and you say, I would like with some of this, can I have a bit of that? Yeah. And then you say to them, like, what should I have? What do you recommend that I should have today? What's the best thing to have today? And that conversation, Matt, is honestly the best conduit. It's not food that brings people together.

It's the conversation. You rarely arrive in a studio to talk about food without food. And as we were talking, you slid this thing across the table. What is this? Well, I mean, I haven't seen you in quite a bit. So you haven't had this before This is something Like my mom is the best cook

In my in my world My dad makes one dish Every year for my birthday And he made this for you today It's called a vatlapa Just try it and tell me what it reminds you What is it? I have a thing where I don't eat on the radio

Because I think it's nobody wants to hear me eat But this But you're not going to be chewing that You've brought this for me Yeah What is this? What is this? It should remind you of something similar to like a creme caramel or a letcher flan.

But what is it made of? Palm sugar, by way of Sri Lanka with cardamom and spices. Your father made this? My father made this for you. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It's the only thing that he makes. He makes it once a year.

And he made it for me. I'm going to eat all of it. Sorry. What have you learned in doing this? You've done this for a long time. What have you learned about what food can do? do the power of food i think like i mean there's there's so much happening in the world today but it feels like regardless of like any anti-immigration rallies that are happening in london what really bugs me is

after people go to those rallies they go and eat at their favorite trauma place or they go for a curry they go for a curry right so it's like this i hate to say that food is a uniter but it's one of those things we're like we all need to eat and if there is a way where we can come together slowly that our hands are touching each other just enough to have a conversation, I feel like that is a starting place. And in this country right now, I feel like we are quite united. We're coming back together in a sense of like, okay, we want to be able to like buy our local hot sauces. We want to be able to like go to our local Jamaican patty shop. Food is one of those things that can be some sort of magnetic force, a compass that can bring us slightly towards each other.

You're very good at taking people to those places and giving them the compass to steer them to the best places to eat. It's great to see you. Congratulations on this program. And thanks to your dad for this. I'm going to go back and continue eating this. Suresh, thank you very much. He's going to be flattered. Thank you very much. Thank you, Matt.

Suresh Doss, his co-creator, host, and executive producer of Lerner, locals welcome. It airs on CBC television at 9 p.m. on Sundays is available anytime on CBC Gem. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.