Why this Egyptian roasted yogurt duck is worth the 72-hour wait

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

This week, he's bringing us to Aragoz Restaurant in Scarborough Village.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of Doss's conversation with guest host Farrah Merali.

Farrah Merali: Can you remind people of what to expect from Scarborough Village?

Suresh Doss: So this is a small neighbourhood in the southeast part of Scarborough, just as you are leaving the city on Kingston Road and heading toward Pickering. It's a very vibrant part of Scarborough — especially Markham Road, which is filled with so many amazing places to eat. It's also probably the densest place in the city for halal foodstuffs because there's a thriving Muslim community there. There are lots of new restaurants, like the one we are going to today: Aragoz. 

Merali: So this is a new Egyptian restaurant?

Doss: It opened during the pandemic, about two years ago. The kitchen is led by the sole cook and owner Adam Soliman. It's no exaggeration to say Adam has been cooking since he was nine years old. He says he always knew that's what he wanted to do. He moved to Canada in the '90s and began his career by working as a bus boy during his teen years. He says this is because he was too short to do anything else in the professional kitchens.

From there, he worked his ways up and he has worked at a number of high profile restaurants in the city — name a place and there's likely a connection. He's a part of this bridge of Egyptian cooks that have started to open restaurants in the GTA over the last five years.

Merali: Tell us about the Egyptian rice pilaf. 

Doss: It's this wonderful dish of rice served with toasted vermicelli noodles and cooked in a good amount of ghee. Adam uses ghee in a lot of his dishes, and it's actually a mixture of two different ghees, which really manages to enhance the nutty forward note. I would recommend you get the rice with a traditional Egyptian dish called molokay.

Merali: What's that dish?

Doss: This is a type of leaf that is crushed with a double-handed knife until the leaf  starts to develop this viscosity. It's then cooked with stock to the right consistency and when it's served, it's topped with tasha or taklia. This is the process of tempering the molokay with a hot mixture of fried coriander and garlic in hot ghee and then crowning the bowl. To eat this dish, you want to spoon some of the soup onto the rice and enjoy it that way. 

Merali: Sounds delicious. What else should we be trying? 

Doss: There are a number of sandwiches you can get that feature grilled kebabs and marinated meats served on a soft bun. I really encourage you to try the fried liver sandwich — it's my favourite there. This is a fantastic spiced lamb mixture that is cooked to get a nice char. There are also many vegetarian and vegan dishes on the menu. Two, I will say, I love are grapevine leaves that are stuffed with a mixture of rice, tomatoes and punchy herbs. There's also the ditilini tagine pasta served with a tomato and hot pepper sauce. 

But the main attraction, if you are going with a group, is the roast duck. And be warned, you must order in advance. This is such a rare and unique way of presenting duck. I've never seen it anywhere else. You have to book it at least 72 hours ahead. Call and tell Adam you want the yogurt duck, which features a yogurt mixture, which is rubbed all over whole duck and left to sit overnight. It is then slowly cooked for nearly two hours.