Michael Eats

Seed to Sausage Meatery at the Food District in Square One

Published on June 20, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (inside Square One)
Website: https://www.seedtosausage.ca/

The Food District in Square One is the latest in the recent trend of upmarket food courts that have been popping up throughout the city. This is one of the more delightful food trends of late. All the convenience of a food court, but with above average food? Yes please.

Or is it above average? Maybe not. Enter: Seed to Sausage Meatery, which has an “award-winning” Montreal smoked meat sandwich on their menu (though the menu isn’t forthcoming on what this mysterious award might actually be).

Award-winning or not, I can’t say no to a smoked meat sandwich.

Alas, it’s not great. The meat is very thinly machine-sliced; normally I prefer the more satisfying thickness of hand-cut meat, but in this case, that just isn’t possible. If you sliced this meat too thickly, it’d be like trying to eat your belt. It would be completely inedible.

It’s tough. The fat is just barely rendered, and the meat is dry and sinewy and difficult to bite through. And yet somehow, it’s absolutely dripping with grease. It might be the greasiest smoked meat sandwich I’ve ever had. The grease soaked through the bread and turned it into mush in parts.

It’s too bad, because the flavour is actually pretty good. It’s a touch too salty, but it’s nicely spiced and has a mild but satisfying smokiness. And the fresh, tasty bread was way above average — it was the best part of the sandwich by far. So there’s definitely potential there.

I got a salad on the side instead of fries, which was clearly a mistake. I went with the field greens salad, which comes with a vinaigrette that’s so intensely sweet you could put it on ice cream. Remember Tahiti Treat? I hadn’t thought about that soda in years, but as soon as I tried the dressing here, I flashed right back. That’s how sweet it was.

It’s technically food court fare, so at least if the meal had been cheap, it might be possible to overlook some of its issues. It isn’t; it’s $15.95 for the sandwich and one side, which makes it more expensive than unambiguously superior restaurants like Centre Street Deli and SumiLicious.

Carrot Cake Doughnut at Dipped Donuts

Published on June 19, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 161 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.dippeddonuts.ca/

Dipped Donuts: still great. I tried the blueberry basil doughnut from this place last year, and it was seriously tasty.

The one I just had — the carrot cake — might have been even better. It’s outstanding.

It’s a raised doughnut topped with cream cheese frosting, carrot cake chunks, candied walnuts and ginger, and a caramel drizzle.

It’s definitely sweeter than the last doughnut I tried, but it was just right. The frosting was gooey and satisfying, and the chunks of cake were seriously tasty. The nuts and the ginger amps up the flavour, and the caramel? Come on. It’s indulgent and amazing.

And of course, the doughnut itself was just as good as I remembered, with a nicely substantial texture and a great flavour. It’s a top-shelf doughnut.

Tasty Fried Veal at San Francesco

Published on June 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5101 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: http://sanfrancescos.com/

There’s nothing quite like a veal sandwich. It’s just a whole bunch of fried veal and rich tomato sauce in a hearty bun. It’s probably not something you want to be eating on a regular basis (unless you’re keen on getting a massive heart attack), but every now and then it has to happen. It’s pure, unadulterated comfort food.

My go-to is California Sandwiches, but a location of San Francesco recently opened near me, so I figured I’d give them a shot.

You can choose from all kinds of toppings for an additional fee, but I went with the basic sandwich and ordered it spicy, which meant it came with a generous amount of blazing-hot jalapenos.

The thing that stands out the most about the sandwich is how incredibly tender the veal is; it might just be the most tender veal I’ve ever had in a sandwich like this. Your teeth glide right through it like butter. It’s amazing.

The exterior is moderately crispy, but not quite enough to hold up to the sauce — it sogs up almost instantly. It’s not quite as good as California Sandwiches in that regard.

Speaking of California Sandwiches, I think their sauce is marginally better; the sauce here is quite tasty, but it feels like the flavour could (and should) be amped up by a notch or two.

I think California has the overall superior sandwich, but it’s very, very close.

The sizes are a bit funny. They have two sizes: baby and regular. I ordered the regular, and my dining companion ordered the baby. As it turns out, I (and anyone with a normal-sized appetite) would be perfectly happy with the baby. Regular is enormous. Baby should really be called regular, and regular should be called jumbo.

Delicious Butter Tarts at Abbey’s Bakehouse

Published on June 17, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (inside Square One)
Website: http://www.sircorp.com/abbeys-bakehouse/

I love butter tarts, but they’re one of those things that I’m sometimes wary to order; when they’re tasty they’re very tasty, but they can easily be throat-burningly sweet.

But I had specifically heard that the tarts at Abbey’s are quite good, so it seemed like a safe enough bet.

They’re not just good. They’re great. I’m not sure if they’re quite on the level of the Maids’ Cottage in Newmarket, which serves my favourite butter tarts in the GTA, but they’re clearly way above average.

The filling is sweet but not too sweet, with a rich caramelized flavour and a nice gooey consistency. The crust is great too — it’s buttery and shortbready, and compliments the sweet filling perfectly.

The crust-to-filling ratio is also on point. This can easily trip up a lesser butter tart, but here the balance is just right — there’s enough crust to offset the sweet filling, but not so much that it dominates. It’s delicious.

Fish and Chips at McDonald’s

Published on June 14, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I just posted about the Nanaimo Bar McFlurry, which is part of McDonald’s soon-to-end (on the 17th) Great Canadian Tastes promotion. And now I’ve tried the other item in that menu, Fish and Chips. Because of course I did. What did you think, that McDonald’s was going to introduce fish and chips and I wasn’t going to try it?? Get out of here.

It’s fine, I guess. When I first heard about it, I assumed they were just going to throw a Filet-O-Fish patty on some fries and call it a day, but this isn’t that.

The meal comes with two pieces of fried haddock that basically taste like any number of middle-of-the-road frozen fish filets you can get at the supermarket (it’s not reconstituted fish pieces, so it’s got that going for it).

They’re nice and crispy, and when I had them at least, they were freshly fried — but they definitely have that distinctive processed flavour that lets you know they were made in a big factory many miles away and then frozen.

The fish itself was dry, but it could have been worse. Like I said, it was fine. Not great, but perfectly edible.

The meal comes with a little tub of tartar sauce, which is zippy and surprisingly oniony. I wasn’t crazy about that (raw onions are the worst; why everyone thinks they’re acceptable to eat is a complete mystery to me), but it was definitely a bit more interesting than you’d expect.