It's Alive
Teresa Chang used to think of kefir as that despised stuff her mom made her eat.
“We hated it,” says the 38-year-old Chang. “My mom would open the jar and my sister and I ran in the opposite direction. We were convinced it was her way of making us do homework.”
Today, however, she’s learned to love the taste and health benefits of the tangy yogurt-like fermented milk made for centuries in the Caucasus Mountains region in Eastern Europe.
She’d better. As co-owner of deKEFIR takeout and retailer in the Bay Adelaide Centre’s PATH system, kefir is Chang’s bread and butter.
Valerie Choy-Remark, 35, whose background is in food science, came up with the idea to open a spot serving healthy kefir-based grab-and-go items.
Few people knew what kefir was when Chang and Choy-Remark opened deKEFIR, a small counter and kitchen with a handful of seats in 2010. And those who did, didn't think the less effervescent, thicker variety the pair sold was actually kefir at all.
Some said: “You don’t look like you’re from Russia. And you don't look like you know what you’re talking about,” she says with a laugh.
It turned out they do. Skeptics admitted it was a taste of home. Office workers looking for a healthy breakfast or lunch amid the PATH’s fast-food outlets found an alternative.
“At the core of everything is kefir and eating food that’s alive,” Choy-Remark says.
For both women, who have been friends since they were teenagers kefir was part of their lives, growing up in Mississauga.
“Our group of Asian moms were passing along the little kefir grains,” Choy–Remark says. “It started with one of my best friend’s moms, who had kefir grains coming out of her ears. It sprouts and sprouts — and she didn’t know what to do with it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.”
Choy-Remark says kefir was popular among her friends’ families because Asians can have a hard time digesting lactose and their traditional diets tend not to include dairy. They find it easier to tolerate probiotic-rich kefir.
Chang says when she started eating kefir, she lost weight and her tummy troubles with lactose disappeared. Both women have gorgeous skin, for which they credit kefir home facials.
“They’re not silver bullet cures or anything like that,” Choy- Remark says, “but they’ve been around for a long time for a reason.”
Sour or fermented milk is popular in a variety of cultures. Kefir is loaded with gut-friendly bacteria thanks to the fluffy-looking starter “grains” called SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). Slightly fizzy due to the fermentation, kefir is often a thick-yet-liquid consistency.
Choy-Remark settled on a Polish-style kefir, one that was slightly thicker and less tangy. It’s made off-site, without stabilizers, gums or emulsifiers and delivered to the store each morning.
The sourness of kefir and slight effervescence can take some getting used to, especially for consumers used to pots of sweet, stirred yogurt. “But we see people re-adjusting their palates,” Choy-Remark says.
Their menu includes popular kefir parfait bowls with a variety of fruit and other toppings. Smoothies and silky frozen soft-serve kefir are lightly sweetened with pure cane sugar.
Those who want a bit of sweetness in their kefir parfaits get a swirl of unfiltered, raw honey from Choy–Remark’s sister-inlaw’s father, who keeps bees on his Blackstock, Ont., farm. They sell the honey as well, with part of the proceeds going to a Down syndrome foundation in the Kawarthas.
They also make and sell protein power bars, granola, sesame seed clusters and muesli topping for the kefir, as well as creamy kefirbased peanut Thai salad dressing for a variety of lunch bowls. They recently added vegetarian kimchi made from fermented veggies and also sell kombucha teas.
“We wanted to be a gateway for people who want to change their eating habits and make better choices,” Choy-Remark says, adding that many of their customers are regulars.
Are she and Chang responsible for the gut health of Bay Street?
“I feel like we’re responsible for the education of the gut health of Bay Street,” Choy–Remark says.
“We try to make sure you’re walking out with a bowl of food that is alive in some way and that you’re making a better choice.”
deKEFIR
333 Bay St., Toronto, Ont.
dekefir.ca | 647.352.2220
