In Parkdale, on the western edge of Toronto, on Queen Street West, there is a small establishment called Garleek Kitchen. In the mornings they serve a Tibetan breakfast: fried yosha bread, eggs, chickpeas, potatoes, salty butter tea and sweet tea with cardamom — all for 9,99 dollars. The dish looks simple, but behind it lies the story of a man who spent 15 years in a monastery.
The owner is Tsering Phuntsok, known as Karma. He grew up in Nepal, where he cooked for other monks, and then moved to Canada. In Parkdale, where a large Tibetan diaspora lives, he opened a restaurant that brought together Tibetan, Nepalese and Asian recipes. Breakfast here is not just food, but a reminder of the daily monastic meals: hearty, warming, made with a minimal set of ingredients.
Butter tea, or po, has a slightly salty taste with a light greasiness that lingers on the tongue. The fried bread is crisp on the outside and stays soft inside, while the chickpeas and potatoes absorb the spices so that every bite gives off warmth and pungency. These flavors cannot be reproduced without those hands that remember how to cook under conditions of limited resources and a strict daily routine.
Parkdale has long been called Little Tibet: several Tibetan cafes operate here, and on Queen Street West one can find momo, thukpa and other dishes. Karma adds fusion elements to the menu — Vietnamese and Sri Lankan accents — but preserves the foundation. The ten-dollar breakfast remains affordable for local residents and students, while the dish is prepared by hand every day.
Now the restaurant balances between tradition and the everyday life of a big city. Karma and his wife Jenna Iacutone run the business together: she helps in the dining room, he in the kitchen. They also sell homemade Tibetan products in order to preserve the recipes beyond the establishment. With rising rents and food prices, this format helps keep prices down and support the community.
The best time to try the breakfast is Monday through Friday before noon, when the flow of visitors is still small. The address is 1500 Queen St. W., not far from Lansdowne subway station. There you can not only eat, but also hear a former monk talk about his path from the monastery kitchen to a Toronto street.
In this breakfast one feels not just the taste of a distant country, but the personal story of a man who carried monastic discipline into a Canadian city and made it accessible to everyone.
