Maninder Kaur and Balbir Singh opened their restaurant at 75 Macdonell St. in December of 2009 after years of renown at the Guelph & District Multicultural Festival. People were eager to get their food beyond the weekend of the festival, so they saw opening Tangy & Tasty as the ideal opportunity to setup one of the first shawarma places in the city and support themselves in their adopted land.
Maninder likes her adopted city of Guelph. She moved here with Balbir in 2001 from Uganda, East Africa. Guelph is a secure, supportive city where people are concerned for each other. Maninder notes that among her key clientele at Tangy &Tasty are the wonderful youth of Guelph who appreciate the healthy foods they serve. So much so that business has been steadily growing, primarily through word of mouth. “Good food speaks for itself,” notes Maninder.
Maninder and Balbir, not unlike many new to Canada, continue to face many challenges. Both have advanced degrees and both have struggled to integrate into the workforce in their fields of expertise despite years of education and experience. Both Maninder and Balbir put in many hours each day to make the restaurant successful. Maninder, ever the optimist, notes that “we are looking at a full glass with so many opportunities in how we can support ourselves in our adopted land.”