Brampton – Around the World in 196 Plates

Country 102 – Benin (Kejjis)

Published on February 9, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 McMurchy Avenue North, Brampton
Website: https://kejjis.com/

I think the meat pie is one those dishes that’s served in basically every part of the world. From Jamaican patties to Argentinian empanadas to Cornish pasties (and beyond), it’s safe to say that wrapping meat in pastry is a universally beloved concept.

What’s not to love? You’ve got tasty pastry and savoury ground meat, all delivered in a convenient hand-held package. It’s great.

I recently tried African pepper soup and found it to be an acquired taste that I clearly haven’t acquired. Well, the meat pies they serve at Kejjis are the complete opposite. I could eat about a million of them.

The pastry shell is closer to an empanada than a Jamaican patty, with a slightly denser texture (perhaps a bit overly dense) and a lightly crispy exterior. It’s decent enough, but it’s clearly just there as a vehicle for the meat; the meat-to-pastry ratio is something like like 10:1.

And that meat is absolutely fantastic — it’s tender and moist with no greasiness, and the flavour, oddly enough, reminded me a lot of an enhanced version of an American breakfast sausage (think: Jimmy Dean, Bob Evans, etc.). It’s definitely not what I was expecting, but it was absolutely delicious.

Country 101 – Liberia (T&T Restaurant)

Published on January 27, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 83 Kennedy Road South, Brampton
Website: http://www.tandtnigeriandishes.com/

It wasn’t until I pulled up at the plaza that I realized that T&T (not to be confused with the supermarket) is in the exact same spot as Muchomo Grill House, another African restaurant I tried a couple of years ago. Many of the places I check out for this blog are completely deserted when I visit them, and it makes me wonder how they survive. The obvious (and sad) answer: not all do.

T&T is a Nigerian restaurant that serves pepper soup, a West African specialty that’s found in several countries in that part of the world.

It’s an interesting dish. I didn’t dislike eating it, but it has an incredibly vibrant and assertive flavour, and it’s safe to say that it’s an acquired taste.

It’s basically an atom bomb of flavours — it punches you in the face. T&T serves it either with fish or goat (apparently it’s traditionally served with any number of meats); I went with fish. The soup itself is intensely fishy, with a zingy, spicy flavour that I found to be exhausting.

It’s an absolute face-punch of ginger and spices and fishiness, with a puckery level of acidity that’s a bit overwhelming. Something to mellow out the flavour a bit would have been nice. Rice, maybe? Potatoes? I’m sure this is sacrilege to people who grew up with the dish.

The fish was freshly cooked, with a nice clean flavour and flaky, moist meat. Which is a good thing, because the soup is literally just fish and broth. It’s not bad, but I don’t think it’s for me.

Country 067 – Uganda (Muchomo Grill House)

Published on April 22, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 83 Kennedy Road South (Unit 8), Brampton
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Muchomo-GRILL-HOUSE-1369240303139681

Going to Muchomo Grill House was a bit of a strange experience. When I visited on a recent weekday afternoon, the restaurant appeared to be in an unfinished state, with unconnected TVs, bare walls, and wires hanging all over the place.

You can sort of see what I’m talking about from the one photo I took from my table (I felt a bit awkward standing up to take more photos, as I was literally the only person inside the restaurant aside from the two people who worked there).

I figured the place must have just opened, but if their Facebook page is anything to go by, they’ve been around for well over a year.

I guess they must be in the middle of renovations? It was quite odd.

Even odder: the complete lack of a menu. There was nothing posted on the wall, no take-out menu, nothing online, and no laminated menus to look at in the restaurant. Nothing. At this point, I asked the person behind the counter if they were actually open, because are you even a restaurant if you don’t have a menu? Isn’t that the first thing a functional restaurant should have??

She gave me a broad overview of what they serve, and the first thing she mentioned was spicy rice and grilled meat, so I figured, sure, why not? Unfortunately, I have no idea what this was called, because again, there was no menu.

It was quite good, though! So at least after all that strangeness, there is a happy ending. It was very similar to a dish I had at Village Suya — only much, much better.

The spicy rice was as advertised: it had a good kick, and was nicely spiced and quite flavourful. It looks fairly plain, but the flavour was rich and satisfying, with just enough greasiness to keep things interesting, but without feeling overly oily.

The meat was even better, with an intense pop of flavour and an even more pronounced kick than the rice. This might have been my imagination, but it almost had that hot/numbing effect that you get from dishes with sichuan peppercorns. Whatever it was, it was tasty, and it was just as tender as you’d hope it would be.

It comes topped with uncooked onions and peppers, which work better than you’d expect — in particular, the sweet, crunchy peppers contrast very nicely with the tender, flavourful beef.