Michael Nusair

Tasty Peanut Sauce at Nimman Thai

Published on December 18, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1060 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto
Website: https://nimman.ca/

I think a really good peanut sauce is one of those things that can make pretty much anything taste delicious. It really doesn’t matter what it is; slather enough peanut sauce on it, and hey, what do you know, it’s delicious now. How about that.

Case in point: the Nimman long song at Nimman Thai, which features some kind of saucy chicken on top of rice, with a side of Chinese broccoli and, of course, the aforementioned delicious peanut sauce.

The chicken was tough and its sauce was pretty bland, but once you dip it into the intensely flavourful peanut sauce, you’re off to the races. That peanut sauce! I would have dipped anything into that.

I got the dish as part of their lunch special, which is actually a really great deal — for twelve bucks, you also get a bowl of soup, a salad, and a spring roll. The soup was pleasantly zingy, and the salad had a really interesting dressing that tasted strongly of fish sauce.

The spring roll, on the other hand, had a funky flavour and an overly thick wrapper. It wasn’t great, and since the peanut sauce wasn’t on the table yet, I couldn’t even dip it into that to save it.

A Mediocre Croissant at Gouter

Published on December 17, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3507 Bathurst Street, North York
Website: http://www.gouter.ca/

I assumed I was in good hands when the woman behind the counter at Gouter spoke with a heavy French accent. Not that every French person can automatically make delicious pastries, but it made me think that the place was probably legit.

Yeah, about that.

I had the raspberry croissant, and it was fine. I certainly didn’t dislike eating it. But there wasn’t a single element that was better than okay.

The first sign that something was amiss was the paper bag it came in. The croissant was in there for about twenty minutes before I ate it. A good croissant should be buttery enough to immediately leave grease stains on a paper bag, but that bag was pristine.

The second sign that something was amiss came when I tore it in half and saw that it was filled with about a jar’s worth of raspberry jam. That’s too much jam. And I mean, it wasn’t unpleasant to eat, but there’s no balance there.

And as suspected, the croissant — though mildly buttery — wasn’t nearly buttery enough. It also had zero exterior crispiness other than at the very ends, and was generally lacking in flavour.

The overall experience was basically like eating a slice of Wonder Bread slathered with raspberry jam. There just wasn’t much to it — the lack of textural contrast and the one-note flavour was a bit of a bummer.

A Very Memorable Meal at Cava

Published on December 14, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1560 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.cavarestaurant.ca/

I tend to focus mostly on places that offer prices on the cheaper end of the spectrum; aside from the obvious (they’re cheap!), I generally find them more satisfying. There aren’t many things in the world that I love more than a really great bowl of noodles from a hole in the wall.

Still, it’s nice to venture out to pricier restaurants every now and then. There’s a level of craft and a quality of ingredients that you just can’t get without shelling out some cash.

Cava is a great example of this. It certainly isn’t cheap, but holy moly the food was good.

They focus on Spanish-inspired tapas, so I got to try a handful of things.

The chicken liver and foie gras mousse was deeply flavourful and luxuriously creamy. It’s served with a little bowl of grainy mustard on the side, which does a great job of cutting the richness of the mineraly pate.

The “Supergilda” features a deliciously fishy sardine on tomato-spread toast, speared with olives and anchovy. It’s simple, but immensely satisfying.

Next up was the jamon croquetta, which was a crunchy fried tube of creamy goodness. It was a bit light on the jamon, but was otherwise really tasty.

The beef salpicon was one of my favourites of the evening. It had a seriously intense beefy flavour, a tasty combo of high quality olive oil and acidity, and a fantastic contrast between the tender beef and the crispy bits on top.

My absolute favourite dish of the night was the eggplant with queso fresco, bonito, and tomatillo sauce. Holy crap, this dish. The contrast in textures here was insane — the deep fried exterior was shatteringly crisp, and the eggplant within was absurdly creamy. The combo of those two textures was bonkers, and the gooey cheese, smoky/funky bonito flakes, and zingy tomatillo sauce complimented it perfectly. So damn good.

The last savoury dish was the roasted pork belly and morcilla in a kidney bean stew. This was basically an upscale version of pork and beans. It was almost absurdly rich, with the blood sausage really amping up the luxurious flavour of the beans.

We had the churros for dessert, which was probably the only real disappointment of the night. The cinnamon- and sugar-dusted churros were certainly tasty, but nothing about them stood out from the churros you can get at any number of places throughout the GTA.

It did, however, come with a small cup of drinking chocolate that had an amazingly intense flavour. Just give me a big mug of that and I’ll be a happy man.

Quality Korean Shaved Ice at The Cups

Published on December 13, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3235 Highway 7, Markham
Website: None

The Cups is a little dessert shop in the First Markham plaza that specializes in bingsu, a tasty Korean shaved ice dessert.

I generally liked shaved ice, though sometimes, it’s a bit watery. The Cups has a fairly ingenious solution for this issue: they use milk instead of water for their ice, which gives the dessert a much richer, creamier consistency.

I ordered the mango bingsu, which features mango chunks, cheesecake chunks, condensed milk, mango sauce, and whipped cream.

It’s quite good. The mango pieces are ripe and sweet, and the ice-to-stuff ratio is pretty much right on point. Plus, the aforementioned milk ice ensures that the whole thing has a satisfyingly creamy consistency.

On another visit, I tried the red bean, which features soybean powder, mochi cubes, almond flakes, red bean, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I think I might have liked it even better than the mango, though the ice-to-stuff ratio was a bit off. It needed a bit more red bean (I don’t think there was any in the middle).

Stellar Dim Sum at Dragon Boat Fusion Cuisine

Published on December 11, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 160 East Beaver Creek Road, Markham
Website: http://www.dragonboatfusioncuisine.com/

Dragon Boat Fusion Cuisine is a dim sum joint that does well. We showed up at around 10:40 on a Saturday, and the place was seriously crowded. By the time we left, it was even more packed, with a crowd waiting for tables almost going out the door.

Eating the food, it’s easy enough to see why. Some highlights:

The char siu was sweet and incredibly tender.

These fried seafood-filled tubes were nice and crispy on the outside, with a fishy (but not overbearing) flavour.

The fried dough noodle rolls were probably the best version of that dish that I’ve ever had, with a surprisingly complex flavour and a very satisfying contrast of textures between the chewy noodle, the crispy fried exterior, and the soft interior.

I really should have taken a picture of the interior of these salted egg buns, because they were absolutely crammed with an oozy, sweet custardy filling.

There were only a couple of weak dishes — surprisingly, they were the dim sum standbys that you’d think they’d work especially hard to get right. The har gow featured an overly thick, almost gummy wrapper encasing overcooked shrimp.

And the pork buns featured a filling that tasted a bit too leftovery.

Still, they were only two mild weak points in a meal that was otherwise quite stellar.