The flavourful fish tea soup at this Scarborough restaurant is perfect for a chilly fall day

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 marked his 200th episode by featuring a Scarborough spot known for it's bold Jamaican cuisine. 

Ismaila Alfa: What has it been like doing this 200 times now?

Suresh Doss: It's been wonderful to come on the air and share these incredible places around the GTA. I think its important to talk about how the culinary makeup of the GTA continues to evolve at a very rapid pace. We see the culinary blueprint of neighbourhoods and street scapes changing. And it;'s rewarding to see people react to the show and go out and try these places, in many cases, on the very same day, they'll ride up for lunch. 

Ismaila Alfa: So where are you taking us today? 

Suresh Doss: We're going up to Scarborough, to Cliffcrest. We're going to one of the most beloved Scarborough restaurants, Times, which used to be on Eglinton Avenue. This is a place that was open for 15 years, known for really bold, Jamaican dishes. It closed abruptly in 2020, just before the lockdowns and then reopened a year later in this really odd automotive plaza that is also a gas station on Kingston Road near McCowan Road. The family is back. Its mom and dad Imey and Times Atkins in the kitchen and their daughter Nicole at the front.

Ismaila Alfa: We're in a city that is blessed with so many Jamaican restaurants. What sets Times apart?

Suresh Doss: Ismaila, the cooking here is very bold, as I said. The spices and heat is very pronounced, they're not holding back. For example, there is a different soup on the menu every day. My favourite is the Fish Tea soup which is available on Tuesdays.

Ismaila Alfa: What is the 'fish tea soup'?

Suresh Doss: It has chunks of snapper that is cooked with some potato and dumplings. The starch slightly thickens it, but there is this really fragrant quality to the broth, which is why its referred to as tea. And it has these delicate pieces of fish, that get a kick from the scotch bonnet peppers in the soup.

It feels good going down; these are soul affirming flavours here. On Wednesdays, they do chicken-foot soup with potato and dumplings, and again it has this really comforting quality. On Saturdays, there is a goat soup with bone-in goat.

Ismaila Alfa: So we have the daily soups, what about the mains?

Suresh Doss: The menu also rotates throughout the week. There are some staples; you will always find fried or jerk chicken, which you can order with rice and peas. Oxtail is also available. I can't get over how good the curry goat is here. I like it because the meat here is wonderfully tender, its not chewy, its not tough. 

This comes from a long marinade and then the right heat when cooked low and slow. The spices you will find here are bold and bright. The curry powder, the cloves, ginger, thyme are all very pronounced. I think you will really like the stewed chicken, again really tender chunks of brown meat that is spiced just perfectly. If you want to venture past these dishes, there are also some other notable highlights that some could consider to be "adventurous."

Ismaila: That's what I want to hear about.

Suresh Doss: So we talked about the chicken foot soup, trust me its wonderful. There's also cow foot on the menu. It's quintessential Jamaican home cooking. It's cooked with a lot of spices in a pressure cooker to break down the gelatin and meat until its really tender, with a pleasing amount of fat and chew. 

It's served with beans, carrot and dumplings. Its a very hearty meal. During the weekends, there's stewed liver and kidney on the menu. These are crowd favourites, and both are exceptional dishes.

Ismaila: Lots of dishes to check out. You mentioned they're settling into a new spot. How's that going?

Suresh Doss: It's been a bit challenging. They're hidden in plain sight on Kingston Road and they also closed and reopened during these pandemic times. But slowly people have been finding them again.