Michael Eats

Hogtown Smoke

Published on June 14, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: All over the place (check their Twitter account)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/hogtownsmoke

Over the last few years, Toronto’s food truck scene has gone from a handful of trucks selling stuff like hot dogs and fries to something much, much more interesting (there are enough to necessitate a website like this one to keep track of them). It’s certainly been a welcome phenomenon, and has made events like the recent Woofstock much more interesting, food-wise.

On this particular day, Hogtown Smoke had a few interesting looking items on their menu, though I decided to go with the Brisket Po Boy. The sandwich featured a fairly substantial amount of brisket dipped in au jus sauce, cheese, onions (which I honestly couldn’t even taste), and horseradish aioli.

It was a perfectly tasty sandwich, though I kinda wish I had just gone with the plain brisket. Good brisket is hard to prepare; it has the tendency to be a bit dry and tough, but this was moist, with just the right amount of fattiness and a nicely subtle smokey flavour. It was good enough that the other stuff felt more like a distraction than anything else; with brisket this good, all you really need is meat and bread, with maybe a little bit of barbecue sauce for flavour. There were a lot of flavours going on in this sandwich, and ultimately they just took away from the brisket.

The bread was perfect po boy bread — lightly crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. The whole thing was pretty good, but I’ll definitely be going for the plain brisket if I ever find myself back in the vicinity of this truck.

Dynasty B.B.Q. Restaurant

Published on June 9, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1550 South Gateway Road, Mississauga
Website: None

Driving by, you wouldn’t be blamed for completely missing the food court in Dixie Park. Housed in a nondescript building in a somewhat industrial stretch of road along Dixie, it doesn’t look like much. The seemingly perpetual construction right outside certainly doesn’t help matters.

Those who venture inside will find a pretty good Asian food court. It’s generally nothing you’d want to go too far out of your way for, but most of the vendors here serve decent quality Chinese food (they’re mostly Chinese, with one Vietnamese place and one Japanese), with cheap prices and voluminous portions.

The best one is easily Dynasty B.B.Q. (Well, there was a Korean place that I used to really like — their pork bone soup was particularly delicious. Sadly, it closed down and was replaced by the aforementioned Vietnamese place. R.I.P., Korean place. You are missed). They have a typically comprehensive menu, though the real gem is the dish that comes with a combo of roast pork and BBQ pork.

Featuring a heaping portion of both types of pork served on top of rice (it also comes with a cup of mediocre soup that you should probably skip altogether), it’s a steal at $5.50. Though the less showy BBQ pork is certainly tasty and absolutely worth eating, it’s the roast pork that is the real reason to come here. I can’t claim to be an expert on this particular dish, though I have had it at a few different places. This is the best version of it that I’ve had. Perfectly cooked and yieldingly tender, with a satisfying layer of unctuous, melt-in-your-mouth fat, not to mention the salty, addictively amazing crispy, crunchy skin, it’s pretty outstanding.

Chodang Soon Tofu

Published on May 30, 2013May 29, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5130 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: None

Ah, Chowhound. As a resource for discovering hidden gems, it is second-to-none. Case in point: Chodang Soon Tofu.

The place specializes in fiery red soups that come to the table in a piping hot stone bowl; it’s a roiling inferno of a soup that is pretty much guaranteed to burn your tongue. As I’ve had the soup here a couple of times (and it is quite tasty, despite the pain), I decided to get something different. I went with the Tofu Kimchi, which is a bit more expensive than the other items on the menu at $12.98 (all the soups are eight bucks).

Korean food is traditionally served with a variety of side dishes — banchan, in Korean — and they definitely don’t skimp on that here. Before the main course, we received soft, fresh tofu with a soy-sauce based dipping sauce, two different types of kimchi, bean sprouts, and a breaded, fried fish. All tasty stuff, and all free with the meal, so it’s a pretty great value.

And as it turns out, the Tofu Kimchi was more expensive because it is clearly meant to be shared. I’m not sure if the picture adequately conveys the scale of this dish, but it was massive. I got about halfway through and had to throw in the towel.

It’s a fairly simple dish; stir-fried kimchi with thin strips of pork belly and green onions, surrounded by soft, creamy tofu. It seemed a bit simple when I first started eating it, but the spicy kimchi and pork mixed with the creamy tofu turned out to be a suprisingly addictive combo.

Burger King – Fire-Grilled Rib Sandwich

Published on May 28, 2013May 29, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4141 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: http://www.burgerking.ca/

Burger King is the worst. Seriously. The absolute worst. I remember at a certain point, several years back, thinking that it was one of the better fast food joints. But then the quality started going downhill, and at first I thought “oh, I must be at a badly run Burger King,” but no. They’re all bad now.

I’m not a fast food snob. I enjoy it, for the most part. You have to adjust your expectations, obviously, but a Big Mac can be quite satisfying when the craving hits.

My personal ranking of the big fast food burger chains would probably look something like this:

A&W
Wendy’s
McDonald’s
Harvey’s
Garbage from a dumpster
Burger King

So when I found out that Burger King was serving a McRib-esque sandwich, my better judgment told me to stay away, but hey, you only live once, right?

I should note that I actually do like the McRib. Maybe it’s because I have fond childhood memories of the thing, but every time McDonald’s brings it back I feel obligated to eat it at least once.

Burger King’s version has all of the same components (barbeque sauce, mystery-meat-pork patty, and pickles), save for the onion. But it is — surprise, surprise — not good. The salty patty is a lot chewier and more rubbery than the McRib, and the cloyingly sweet barbeque sauce is one-note and vaguely unappealing. The bun and pickles are fine, but the whole thing was kind of gross and nothing I’d ever want to eat again.

I tried the new doughnut holes, too, which were also pretty gross. Can we just use the words Burger King as a replacement verb for gross? I think so. The doughnut holes were pretty Burger Kingy. Doughy, soggy, and downright mushy, the only highlight was when I remembered that I am a human being with free will, and can choose to never eat another one of these for as long as I live. I wish I could make that choice for Burger King in general, but I know curiosity will drive me back here when they introduce something else new to their menu. Oh well.

Grand Electric

Published on May 26, 2013May 26, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1330 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.grandelectricbar.com/

I don’t need to tell you about Grand Electric. It opened in 2011, and since then, everyone in the GTA with even a vague interest in food has been there and has raved about the place. Everyone.

I was afraid that it had been over-hyped to a level that no restaurant could reasonably reach. I was wrong. It is crazy delicious.

The small, no-frills restaurant is laid out with the menu written on a blackboard on the back wall. And yes, as you have heard, it is very loud. They like their hip-hop here, and they like to crank it up. I could converse with my dining companion without having to raise my voice too much, so it wasn’t too bad (though I went for lunch and I suspect it gets louder in the evening).

The menu is very reasonably priced, with all the tacos being sold individually for $3.60. I went with Pork Tinga, Beef Cheek, and Scrapple. I also got an order of the Pig Head Fries, because how can I resist a menu item entitled Pig Head Fries? (the answer: I cannot.)

Did I mention that it was crazy delicious? Because it was. All three tacos were pretty great, though the highlight was the scrapple. Featuring a rectangular, crispy-on-the-outside-and-deliciously-porky-on-the-inside patty of pure deliciousness, which is topped with avocados and green onions and features a perfectly complimentary sweet sauce, it is one of the best things I’ve eaten in a while. If you told me this was all I could eat for the rest of my life, I’d be cool with that.

The other two tacos were more traditional and were perfectly delicious, though they never quite reached the levels of transcendent awesomeness of the scrapple.

As for the Pig Head Fries, they were crispy and salty, with a creamy interior and a delicious dipping sauce that tasted vaguely like the Big Mac sauce from McDonald’s. They were quite tasty.