Sunbake Pita Bakery
10728 - 134 Avenue NW, Edmonton AB
Northbound 97 Street gently crests the Yellowhead overpass then dips beneath the CN line before emerging in Rosslyn, a hub of Islamic culture in Edmonton. It is a flat landscape of post-war bungalows, but to the south the sharp geometry of Al Rashid Mosque reaches above the soccer fields and rowhouses. The strip-malls along 134 Avenue include halal butchers, a hookah supplier, the El Safadi super market, and one of Edmonton’s great lunch counters: Sunbake Pita Bakery. The quality, consistency, and variety at Sunbake can reward not just multiple visits, but years of patronage.
Sunbake makes two styles of flatbread. Tannour is the common, thin-but-sturdy pita, about 8” across, puffed in a deck oven to create the signature pocket. Sunbake produces this version on an industrial scale to be bagged, racked, loaded into vans, and zipped to every corner of the city. Saj pita is made from dough that is stretched thin, nearly to transparency, then cooked on a special griddle. Saj is much more difficult to produce en masse, so it doesn’t enjoy the same distribution as tannour, but is available in small quantities at Sunbake.
For a quick lunch, Sunbake shawarma are a reliable choice. Whether made with tannour or saj pita, they are slathered with garlicky toum and filled with shredded chicken and pickles. As far as shawarma go the chicken at Sunbake is on the dry side, but it’s a textural fantasy as the charred flecks of crispy meat mingle with the cool, crunchy pickles.
The savoury pies called manakeesh are pitas baked with toppings that run the gamut from simple oil-and-spice garnishes to the stuff you might find on a deluxe pizza. They are served as open rounds, but folded in half to be eaten. The dough is soft and tender, with patches of cracker-like crispiness.
For its sheer simplicity and unique flavour, my favourite is the cheese and zaatar pie, with gooey cheese mottled orange and white and a heavy dose of zaatar spice mix. The oil that comes out of the melted cheese is stained by the spices and carries their flavour beautifully; the combination of sour sumac, nutty sesame seeds, and dried herbs is magic.
The manakeesh variations are vast and worth exploring. There’s a potato pie with fluffy mounds of barely-cooked grated potato dusted with sumac; the hot chicken has a spicy-sour profile similar to Tabasco; the creamy spinach and cheese pie has a surprisingly intense, searing lemon flavour.
There are other gems to discover quite apart from the pitas. The little turnovers called fatayer are stuffed with meat or cheese and folded into shapes that have always reminded me of fancy hats. On one side of Sunbake there is an entire counter devoted to bulk roasted nuts, and on the other a large cooler with bottles of pop, juice, and tangy fermented kefir. There are also trays of delicate, leafy pastries, made at Paradiso down the street.
