Michael Eats

Amazing Fresh Pasta at Famiglia Baldassare

Published on November 23, 2018November 23, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 122 Geary Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://famigliabaldassarre.com/

Famiglia Baldassare is a busy place. I knew this before I even went there, and yet I was still surprised at how busy it was.

It doesn’t help that the place is absolutely tiny, with maybe four or five small tables. It gets packed immediately, so your odds of snagging a table are slim.

My dining companion and I wound up eating on one of the handful of tables outside (that may or may not have belonged to the neighbouring coffee shop). It was cold and drizzly, and yet as soon as I started eating that amazing hand-made pasta, it all clicked into place. Totally worth it.

The “restaurant” is actually a side business for Famiglia Baldassare; mostly, they supply freshly-made pasta to various restaurants around the GTA. But if you come at lunch during the week (and are willing to brave the aforementioned crowds), you can choose between two delicious pasta dishes.

On this particular visit, it was cacio e pepe and carbonara. I went with the carbonara, which was indulgently rich without feeling overly heavy. It was cheesy and silky and amazing, with satisfying pops of meatiness from the guanciale. It was maybe a touch too salty, and I wish the guanciale had been crisped up a bit more (it wasn’t really crispy at all), but it was otherwise a superb bowl of carbonara.

And then of course there’s the pasta itself, which is the real star of the show. A really good fresh pasta is radically different from the dried stuff you can buy at the supermarket. It’s got that dense, chewy texture that’s fairly irresistible. It’s so good.

Also: don’t pass on the bread they have off to the side. It’s some of the best bread I’ve had in a while, so clearly, everything here is pretty great.

Bacon Maple Chicken Sandwich at Wendy’s

Published on November 22, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1569 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca/home

I actually quite like Wendy’s. I mean, it’s still a fast food chain, so it’s not great — but it’s one of the better ones.

Well, usually, at least.

The Bacon Maple Chicken Sandwich definitely isn’t their finest hour. It’s a fried chicken sandwich served on a croissant bun and topped with Swiss cheese, maple glaze, and bacon.

It’s super sweet and super dry, and I just did not enjoy eating it at all.

The “maple glaze” is basically just thick, sludgy maple syrup. It’s intensely sweet and far too overwhelming for a sandwich like this. The mildly spicy chicken patty (you can get spicy or original) helps to balance out the sweetness a little bit, but it’s not nearly enough to overcome the sugar overload.

Everything else is dry. The fried chicken patty is dry, the “croissant” bun is dry (and aside from the cosmetic, it has zero croissant-like properties), the completely unmelted cheese is dry — even the bacon is dry. I like crispy bacon as much as the next guy, but the glass-like strips in this sandwich were taking it a bit too far.

It really needed additional sauce to give it moisture, but adding more of the maple glaze would pretty much be instant diabetes. The whole thing is head-scratchingly misguided.

Climbing the Lobster Mountain at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse

Published on November 21, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4020 Finch Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://www.flctoronto.com/

Is it even possible to see the impressively enormous piles of lobster or crab at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse and not want to immediately go there? I don’t think it is!

I’ve been drooling over those piles on Instagram for some time now, not to mention on David Chang’s amazing Netflix show, Ugly Delicious. But you need a big group to really do the place justice, so I had to bide my time until a large enough group could be assembled.

I recently went with a group of ten, and yeah, we did the place justice.

We started with a few different dishes — soup, braised beef, greens, fried rice, noodles — and they were all tasty enough, but that’s not the reason you’re there.

We ordered a twenty pound pile of lobster, which consisted of two enormous beasts that they actually brought to the table before the meal started (a lot of people like to pose for pre-dinner photographs with their lobsters or crabs, which felt like a bit much to me).

Later, the mountain arrives. And it’s an awe-inspiring sight: a seemingly endless amount of deep-fried lobster chunks, a whole bunch of fries, and enough crispy fried garlic bits to launch a vampire genocide.

It’s so good. The lobster is cut up into easy-to-eat chunks; it’s still on the shell, but the meat is accessible without the need for any shell-crunching tools. Which is good, because there’s a lot of lobster there — there’s no time to mess around with cracking shells. There’s a whole bunch of lobster to eat.

It’s more lobster than I’ve ever had in a single meal, and it’s so tasty; the meat is tender, garlicky, a little bit sweet, and has some nice fried crispy bits. That’s not to mention the fried garlic, which is surprisingly addictive (you’re going to reek of garlic for about 24 hours after eating here; deal with it).

I ate an insane amount of lobster. I was so full. It was one of the most memorable meals I’ve had in a while.

Unique Pork Cheeseburgers at Harmony Lunch

Published on November 20, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 90 King Street North, Waterloo
Website: https://harmonylunch.ca/

Harmony Lunch makes me mad. Not because the food is bad — it’s actually quite good. That’s the problem.

I went to the University of Waterloo, so I lived in the area for four years, and I somehow managed to go that entire time without knowing that this place existed. To add insult to injury: it’s right around the corner from the Princess Cinema, an art house theatre that was a regular destination for me during my time in Waterloo. So it was right there, and I had no idea.

Harmony Lunch is a legit old-school diner (it’s been around since 1930) that’s mostly known for their pork-based hamburgers that are served with a generous amount of griddled onions (along with tomato, relish, mustard, and American cheese).

It’s basically a classic griddled hamburger, only with pork instead of beef. I missed the beef — in the context of a hamburger, the much milder flavour of pork feels like a downgrade when you’re expecting that nice beefy hit. But then I’m kinda burger-obsessed, so maybe I’m biased.

Certainly, it’s hard to complain too much when the final product is so tasty. The patty is otherwise just right, with a good texture, a nice amount of crust from the griddle, and a satisfying juiciness. And the combo of the pork patty, the soft griddled onions, and the gooey American cheese is hard to resist.

It’s all on a soft, fresh bun that’s been lightly toasted on both sides, and that suits the burger perfectly.

I got it with the house salad on the side, which was nicely prepared and featured a deliciously zingy dressing.

So… how did I manage to live in Waterloo for four years without knowing about this place?? Who should I be furious at? I need to direct this anger somewhere.

Delicious Roti at D Hot Shoppe

Published on November 19, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4155 Fairview Street, Burlington
Website: https://www.dhotshoppe.com/

I showed up at D Hot Shoppe at around 2:00 on a weekday, and it was absolutely packed. They also had a section of the wall dedicated to framed plaudits from various publications (which didn’t even include the article that brought me here in the first place).

Suffice it to say, I was fairly certain I was in for a tasty meal.

I ordered the small chicken roti, which costs seven bucks and is actually quite generous, so it’s a great deal.

They have six heat levels you can choose from, ranging from mild to suicide — I went with hot, which is right in the middle. It was a great level of heat. It’s noticeably spicy, but not unpleasantly so.

It’s very, very easy to see why the place is so popular. Everything was just right, from the richly flavourful curry sauce, to the big chunks of tender chicken and potato, to the satisfyingly chewy, spice-packed roti shell.

It’s a fantastic, affordable lunch. What’s better than that?