This Scarborough Hakka restaurant serves up incredible dishes from a family wok

Metro Morning's food guide Suresh Doss joins us every week to discuss one of the many great GTA eateries he's discovered.

This week, he talked about Wong's Asian Cuisine.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of Doss's conversation withMetro Morninghost Ismaila Alfa.

Doss: It's been sometime since we talked about the cuisine of the Hakka people. It's one of the most diasporicChinese community groups, with a very long history of migration. From Northern China's Yellow river, and then moving several times over generations heading south and out of the country to parts of Southeast Asia.A large population migrated to Kolkata in India over the past 200years. And in the past few decades, we have seen families from Kolkata migrate to Toronto.So in this context when we're referring to Hakka cuisine and this restaurant,I'm referring to this iterative cuisine that has evolved and mixed with Indian influences.

I would say that one of the central pillars of Hakka cuisine is texture whether a dish is braised, roasted or stewed.There is a lot of care that goes into the texture of a vegetable or the protein, and contrasting textures outside and in.With the majority of Hakka restaurants in the GTA, we see this marriage ofthis idea of cooking ingredients quickly but mixed with the spices that are somewhat familiar toIndian cooking.So there might be more roasted spices on the nose; cumin often shows up.

Alfa: So we're going to Wong's Asian Cuisine in Scarborough.

Doss: Yes, it's on Lawrence Avenue east, at the edge of where Shawarma row ends.

Christopher Wong runs this spot with his wife, Yufeng Lin. Christopher identifies as Hakka, he was born in Kolkata, and his parents as well.He's been a cook for over 30 years, and it would be impossible to list all the various places in the world he's cooked.But always his interpretation of Hakka Chinese cuisine is by way of Kolkata. He really is what I would consider a master of the wok.

He finally settled at this dining space on Lawrence, taking over a former Hakka spot that I had been visiting since I was a teenager. Some of the best dishes at Wong's are from this generations-old wok that he uses in the kitchen to seemingly turn out incredible dishes within seconds. I think when people think about Hakka Chinese-Indian food they immediately think of chili chicken.

This is basically a dish where fried chunks of boneless chicken aretossed into a flaming hot wok. Coated with aromatics, a few different sauces shaoshing wine, a housemade sauce that Christopher makes.

He aggressively will toss the wok.Every drop of oil and every inch of every ingredient gets kissed by the flame. And it all happens within 30 seconds.You have this thick sauce on the chicken, followed by a pleasing crunch and then the most tender meat inside. Iwould get that with a rice dish.

Alfa:Any rice dishes in particular?

Doss: There are a few fried rice dishes on the menu,I would suggest the mixed fried rice.So we're back at the wok, Christopher will quickly cook rice with pieces of chicken and shrimp and coat it lightly with some dressing. You can ask to order it without meat of course, there are a number of vegetarian dishes. If you don't want the chili chicken I would say get the chili paneer, which is equally wonderful and the chunks of paneer really pop with the spice and the lick of the flame.

If I can recommend one more dish, a personal favourite of mine:the cumin beef. I don't think it's on the menu but Christopher will make it for you.A wonderfully aromatic and spicy beef dish really thin strips of tenderloin that are flash fried in the wok. So they are very tender with a nice char. I would have that alongside a plate of tofu cooked in black bean sauce.

There's a good list of things to try, and I have to say that Wong's is still not open for dine-in so be prepared to get these for takeout.

Alfa: There's no dine-in?

Doss:Christopher says that he is in a precarious position right now with Wong's. They haven't opened the dining room since the pandemic hit. It was really a wonderful space before. He's had staffing issues, so it's really only him cooking in the kitchen, with his wife managing the front. Which is sad to see, this is one of my favourite restaurants.

And there's a third factor. This part of Scarborough is ripe with development. There are condos popping up everywhere. And there is talk about a condo replacing the plaza that Wong's is in. His lease takes him to 2024.

So I would say go soon, and go hungry.