Hopper Hut

Date: August 9, 2012
Location: 880 Ellesmere Road (west of Kennedy), Scarborough
Website: N/A
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
I came here because I had a really bad day at work and felt like consoling myself with some unhealthy comfort food (at least compared to home-cooked food). I was in the Kennedy and Ellesmere area and had heard that the area had a lot of good eats, especially shawarma, and decided to make a stop somewhere as it started to rain really hard. I stumbled upon this place nestled at the back of a strip plaza.

I had a chicken roti wrap and a rice dish that one of the employees called 'Panu.' (All the staff there did not speak much English, and when I pointed through the glass sheltering the food that was arranged in a buffet-style manner and asked what the name of the dish was, the employee helping me took a long pause before finally saying 'Panu.' I am doubtful that he knew the English name for the dish. I checked with one of my Sri Lankan co-workers the next day if there was such a dish in her culture, and sure enough, she said no.) 

Anyway, henceforth, I will call this mystery rice dish Panu. This is a take-out restaurant, and so the rice was packed in one of those large rectangular Styrofoam take-out containers - just to give you an idea of the portion size. I was told this was a rice dish, but the 'rice' actually tasted more like a medley of mashed potato and some form of starch. There was also an array of mixed vegetables. The dish also had a strong, fragrant onion flavour to it. It was delicious. The best part was that it was only $4.00!

The chicken roti was good, but quite frankly, there wasn't much chicken to this taste-wise and visually (I couldn't make out any discernible chicken pieces.) I wasn't a fan of this, but considering the reasonable price tag of a $1.50 and the large portion size, this was not a bad deal. I liked that it was quite spicy, which gave the wrap a nice kick and the numbing feeling feeling I felt on my tongue served to temporarily distract my mind from work (clearly, I can't handle a lot of spice.)