Taste of Syria owner says regulars have an 'addiction for the chicken'

Wafaa Al Soua says Taste of Syria has become a home of sorts for her family.

"If you came before school started, you can find all of them here," she said, referring to her four children. "It's the second house for us."

Al Soua and her husband, Badie Al Souad, opened the brick-and-mortar location of Taste of Syria in 2021 at 2605 Broadway Ave. They offer a menu full of family recipes that have been perfected over the years: falafel, beef donair, and their number one seller: chicken shawarma. 

Al Soua said their regular customers – some who come in daily – ask: "What do you put on the chicken? We have [an] addiction for the chicken!'" 

She tells them it's "just the spices — nothing special. But you can recognize the cardamon, and some paprika, especially when you smell it."

Finding a home in Saskatoon

Before moving to Canada, the family lived in Syria, where Al Soua worked as a math teacher and helped run their family's book and grocery store. In 2014 — three years after the start of the Syrian civil war — the couple decided to leave the country and move to neighbouring Lebanon.

While living there, they received an invitation from the Canadian government to apply for permanent residency. Al Soua said she was "very excited about that," and in February of 2016, the six-person family arrived in Saskatoon.

Al Soua, whose first language is Arabic, quickly began learning English through the Saskatoon Open Door Society. She also began working as an interpreter and volunteering at local schools.

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Then she was introduced to the Women's Business Hub, a program through the Saskatoon Open Door Society. It offers education, training and support to immigrant women with the goal of helping them start their own business. 

After completing the program, Al Soua launched Taste of Syria in 2019 as a pop-up eatery at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

"It was successful. People like it — love it," she recalled. 

Encouraged by the reception to their pop-up, the family decided to turn Taste of Syria into a permanent restaurant in Avalon, where it has become a neighbourhood favourite.

Experimenting with spices for the 'perfect recipe'

Al Soua said that complex spice blends are what makes Syrian cuisine unique. They import their spices, like cardamom, cumin and coriander, from the Middle East. They then mix them in-house to create their own recipes. 

"That's what makes our food special," Al Soua said. "My husband starts to develop something, add something, remove something, until we reach the perfect recipe."

The chicken shawarma recipe, for example, contains more than 12 spices and is marinated overnight. In the morning, it's layered on a vertical spit, where it rotates as it cooks for several hours, making the meat tender.

Customers typically order the chicken shawarma one of two ways: either as a wrap stuffed with vegetables, pickles, garlic sauce and tahini sauce; or Arabic-style, which means the wrap is assembled, cut into pieces and served with garlic sauce for dipping. 

Other popular dishes include grape leaves, which are stuffed with rice and meat; falafel, which is made with Saskatchewan chickpeas; and baklava, which is a layered dessert made of filo pastry. Al Soua's version is stuffed with almonds and pistachios, and topped with a sugary syrup.

Although she enjoys cooking, Al Soua said her favourite thing about running Taste of Syria is connecting with customers. She said they've supported her family a lot.

"I'm very happy here with my family, with my business, with my work. Everything [has] become better than before; everything is stable," Al Soua said. "I have my own house now. I have my own business. Everything is good."