Khokha Eatery
605 Longfields Dr., Unit 13, Barrhaven, 613-440-3999,
khokhaeatery.com
, instagram.com/khokhaeatery
Open
: Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, noon to 8:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices
: Street food items $3 to $12, mains $10 to $15
Zermina Siddiqi, owner-operator of Khokha Eatery in Barrhaven, admits that when she opened a little more than four months ago, she toned down the spiciness of her food.
“I started on the mild side. I was keeping my Canadian customers in mind,” says Siddiqi. Her business is one of Ottawa’s few purveyors of Pakistani cuisine and especially of the street foods of Siddiqi’s homeland.
But then Pakistani expats who began frequenting the tiny takeout restaurant “started demanding more spice,” Siddiqi says. “We took the spice level a notch up.”
Still, the ranks of what she calls “Canadian” customers coming to the restaurant grew, even as dishes became more vibrantly spiced to Pakistani tastes, Siddiqi says. While she asks first-time customers if they want their food mild, Siddiqi finds repeat customers, Pakistani or otherwise, crave boldly seasoned dishes.
I get that. Last weekend, I tried most of Khokha’s dishes, and I want more of Siddiqi’s freshly made, thrillingly flavoured and eminently affordable food, even if it sets my taste buds pulsating.
Newcomers to Pakistani cuisine will see familiar-sounding items on Khokha’s tightly curated menu. Butter chicken and chicken biryani are mainstays on Indian menus. Ground-meat patties called chapli kebabs also appear on the menus of Ottawa’s Afghan kebab houses.
But Siddiqi says Pakistani cuisine’s distinctiveness is clear, especially to experienced palates. A crucial difference between Pakistani food and neighbouring North Indian fare is that Pakistani food is halal, consisting of meats that are processed and prepared according to Islamic dietary laws.
A few spices prominent in Indian cuisine such as asafetida appear not at all in Pakistani cooking, Siddiqi says. She adds that Pakistanis and Indians can tell the difference between Khokha’s Pakistani chicken biryani and its Indian counterpart.
I can only say that Khokha’s noble chicken and rice dish ($12) is exceptionally good. With its beautifully fluffy rice, complex, mouth-filling flavours and finishing touch of caramelized onions, this biryani impressed me as much as the knockout Hyderabadi dum biryani made at the Preston Street Indian fine-dining restaurant Vivaan.
I’ve also tried three of Khokha’s four other mains. Saag gosht ($15), made with braised beef and an earthy, spinach-flecked gravy, was my favourite. When I told Siddiqi a previous saag gosht I ate elsewhere seemed much more simple and thrown-together, she replied: “ You can tell when people cut corners, when people skip ingredients. It really shows.”
Khokha’s chicken karahi ($15) swaddled bone-in chicken in an intensely tomato-based sauce with cumin, coriander, chilies and ginger singing harmoniously. While butter chicken isn’t part of Pakistani cuisine, Khokha’s pleasing rendition ($15) of the ubiquitous Indian dish was not only creamy and tangy but also blessed with a rewarding undertone of spiciness.
I didn’t try Khokha’s Hakka noodles ($10) because that Indo-Chinese dish hasn’t wowed me elsewhere. But Siddiqi says her Indian chef, Aman Singh, makes a version that is to die for.
Khokha’s street food choices include many snacks in buns, some kebabs in house-made flatbreads and fusion fare involving french fries.
I wondered if a samosa in a bun ($5) would be good, despite qualifying, in Siddiqi’s words, as “ carb overload.” I instantly liked everything about “bun samosa,” which contrasted crispy samosa pastry and pillowy brioche bun, while its vegetable filling and tangy chutney cut through. “Growing up, that was a snack sold in our cafeterias and schools, a very quick thing to grab,” Siddiqi says.
Available in a bun or with naan are Khokha’s chapli kebabs ($11 for two with naan). They elicited wows and sighs of appreciation from everyone who sampled them with me thanks to their eye-widening flavours.
Siddiqi is especially proud of these humble-looking meat patties, which she says are native to the region she comes from.
“A lot of people have commented they have not had chapli kebabs like this even in Toronto,” she says. “I will n ot compromise on them. Chapli kebab requires a lot of onions. We get tired chopping those onions.” She says she refuses to freeze kebabs in bulk, preferring to make them every second day.
Shami kebabs ($6 for two) were a milder, more comforting kind of patty, made with a combination of lentils and ground beef.
Khokha chaat ($7) mixed many good things, including chickpeas, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, mint and tamarind chutneys, spiced yogurt and chunks of crisp fried dough. Khokha’s meaty chicken wings ($12 for 10) were more sweet, salty and tasty than fiery.
The only dish I would not re-order is the butter chicken poutine ($6), as I rarely enjoy poutine-like dishes (an exception is Torta Boyz’s asada fries) and because I’d much rather have a full order of butter chicken.
Khokha’s kheer ($5), a rice pudding made with thickened milk, cardamom and nuts, was simple but satisfying in a primal way. Gulab jamun ($5) were better than dough balls in syrup had a right to be.
Khokha serves mango milkshakes ($4) rather than yogurt-based mango lassis. Nimbu pani ($3) is fresh lemonade tweaked with the addition of black salt, which adds saltiness and pungency.
While Khokha is Siddiqi’s first culinary venture, it gets other things right besides its food. She and her husband, Zubair, are friendly, likeable presences. The eatery’s attractive space features eye-catching decorations alluding to Pakistan’s multi-coloured “jingle trucks” and the Siddiqis hope to add a few tables indoors as well as a patio.
These days, the mix of Khokha’s customers is roughly 70 per cent expats from the Indian subcontinent and 30 per cent others, compared to 90 per cent Pakistani and 10 per cent others earlier. Who knows what the breakdown will be if the mix eventually stabilizes?
I can say that overall, the hard numbers deserve to rise steeply, given the allure of Khokha’s food, concept and hospitality.