My late goong-goong (maternal grandfather, in Cantonese) was called the “Candyman” in the local newspaper when he retired from running the family convenience store. Whenever I visited my grandparents’ house as a child, the first thing goong-goong would do was offer me hard candy from a silver metal dish. Needless to say, in his later years, he had no more teeth.
I’m only too happy to carry on this family tradition, eagerly awaiting toothlessness.
I’ve never turned down a maamoul — whether date, walnut or pistachio — or a melt-in-the-mouth ghraybeh cookie. But recently, I became obsessed with kunafa, the gooey, cheesy dessert topped with soft semolina dough or crispy kataifi (phyllo strands), all soaked in aromatic syrup. So, naturally, I went searching for kunafa and other Palestinian desserts in the glorious food destination that is Mississauga.
I travelled to one of two locations of Nablus Creamery in Mississauga (2395 Cawthra Rd., and 4700 Ridgeway Dr.). I love the stretchiness of booza, Arabic ice cream made with resin from the mastic tree, and here you can get a scoop or a whole roll covered in crushed pistachios to take home. But on this trip, I opted instead for a fragrant and floral blueberry ice cream studded with chunks of cheesecake, while my friend got a very generous scoop of fresh mango sorbet. The shop also sells yoghurt, samneh (ghee) and various cheeses such as nabulsi, akkawi, and feta.
Never one to resist a whole plaza of treats, we ducked into the SNMB Roasted Nut Factory (2399 Cawthra Rd. #42) — marked by a white Cadillac emblazoned with nut puns (“We will NUT let you down!”) parked outside. A whole new world of nuts and dried fruits opened up before me: double-roasted cashews, jumbo cashews with skins still intact, saffron pistachios, tart lemon juice-glazed almonds and bars of Dubai chocolate.
To close out this pre-dinner dessert tasting, I proceeded to Kunafa’s in Mississauga (3058 Hurontario St.) for its namesake sweet. Tucked into a small plaza, the tiny store explodes with warm trays of soft or crispy kunafa, bain narain (a pastry filled with thick cream and nabulsi cheese, like a kunafa “sandwich”) and baklava of all kinds. Customers lined up for off-menu treats: TikTok-worthy Dubai chocolate-dressed softserve sundaes and strawberry cups. A friend grabbed an intensely green pistachio roll baklava wrapped in a shatteringly translucent phyllo. I decided to stay the course and went with a crispy kunafa kishna, a variety that sees the soft cheese topped with kataifi coloured a vibrant red-orange. It was the perfect pairing of salt and syrup that had me delivering the highest Chinese compliment of all: not too sweet!
This article appeared in the 2025 Summer issue.
