Michael Eats

An Amazing Croissant at La La Bakeshop

Published on August 6, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3272 Midland Avenue, Scarborough
Website: https://www.lalabakeshop.ca/

La La Bakeshop is a thoroughly delightful bakery that melds French and Vietnamese flavours, mostly through its assortment of Asian-inspired croissants (though they do have several other cakes and desserts, and everything looked great).

I went with the condensed milk croissant, which certainly isn’t a taste combo that I would have thought of. But oh man. It was insanely delicious.

Mostly, it’s the croissant. There are roughly a billion bakeries in the GTA where you can find a croissant, but most of them aren’t much better than okay. Frequently, the texture isn’t quite right, or they’re not buttery enough, or they’re not fresh enough, or they’re just… not good.

The croissant here was remarkable. Perfect texture — it’s super flaky and crispy, with just the right level of tenderness and heft on its interior. Great buttery flavour. Legitimately one of the best croissants I’ve had in the GTA.

It’s filled with a pretty generous amount of gooey, oozy condensed milk, and you’d think it would be too sweet, but somehow, it isn’t. The croissant and the condensed milk work so well together that I’m shocked I’ve never seen this combination before. It would be a tasty combo with even a lesser croissant, but with a croissant of this quality? It’s a contender for the best pastry in the GTA.

Delicious Pizza (and Coconut Cream Pie) at The Fourth Man in the Fire

Published on August 5, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 832 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://thefourthmaninthefirepizzeria.com/

The last time I tried the Fourth Man in the Fire, I thought it was very good, but probably just short of greatness. I may have been wrong about that; I just had another slice, and I don’t think there was anything holding it back from greatness. It’s there.

I had a slice of the margherita, and it was seriously good. It’s cheesier than you might expect, but the balance of rich cheese and zippy sauce was just right. They also chop the basil and sprinkle it all over the slice instead of using whole leaves, and I actually think that’s the way to go. You get the flavour of the basil throughout, instead of just in a few mouthfuls.

On my last visit I found the crust to be slightly lacking in substance, but that wasn’t an issue this time. It’s got a good chew to it, a nice flavour, it’s perfectly charred, and it has a great balance of crispy interior and fluffy interior. The pizza is quite generously topped, but the crust has a enough substance to it to hold up perfectly.

I had to try the coconut cream pie after reading this article, and yeah, it’s delicious, too. It’s super rich and creamy, and has a really nice toasted coconut flavour. It’s one of the better slices of coconut cream pie I’ve had in quite a while, though it’s also extremely pricey at 13 bucks. They say it’s meant to be shared, and it is indeed very heavy, but it’s also a pretty standard size for slice of pie. It’s very, very delicious, so it’s hard to complain too much, but yowza that’s a lot for a slice of pie.

French Onion Grilled Cheese at Phancy’s Bodega

Published on August 4, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2473 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.phancybodega.com/

French onion soup? Yeah, that’s delicious. Grilled cheese? Obviously great. So if you’re going to cram the two together, clearly I need to try that.

They have a bunch of tasty looking hoagies and grilled cheese sandwiches at Phancy’s (I’ve heard the Buffalo chicken is particularly good), but once I saw the French onion soup sandwich, it had to happen.

The French onion grilled cheese, per Phancy’s menu: “Truffle french onion mayo, provolone, caramelized french onions on butter toasted pullman loaf.”

It’s a quality sandwich. How could it not be? It’s got a whole bunch of caramelized onions and gooey cheese, so of course it tastes good.

The fluffy, slightly sweet brioche-like bread isn’t a perfect match for the sandwich, however. It has a hard time holding together under the deluge of greasy toppings, and its sweetness is probably overkill.

Something like sourdough would bring bit more heft, not to mention a zingy counterpoint to the very sweet caramelized onions (the sandwich is really crying out for something acidic to cut through the extreme richness, though I suppose that would muddle the French onion soup theme).

Still, it’s a very tasty sandwich, though I should note that this was maybe the greasiest, heaviest grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever eaten. It was like taking a wrecking ball to my guts.

Don’t make any big plans after eating this thing, is what I’m saying.

Tasty Pork Bone Soup at Sunrise House

Published on August 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 661 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.sunrisehousetoronto.com/

No, Sunrise House isn’t the breakfast joint you might assume based on the name — it’s actually a Korean restaurant with a delightfully affordable menu. It’s a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, but in all the best ways.

Their specialty seems to be their gamjatang, or pork bone soup (the menu refers to it as “famous,” and most of the people around me were ordering it). It costs 12 bucks for an absolutely massive portion, not to mention the requisite Korean sides, so if nothing else, it’s a great deal (and you can save even more by paying cash and availing yourself of their five percent cash discount).

It also tastes great, however, with a nice zippy flavour and a pronounced spicy kick. That’s not to mention the bones, which are crammed with a generous amount of ultra-tender meat (it’s hard to see them with that impressive pile of flavourful bean shoots on top, but they’re there and they’re quite generous).

The sides, too, are all quite tasty. Nothing here is going to blow your mind or make you reconsider what this dish can be — it’s just a really solid version of a classic dish, served for a great price. It’s hard to go wrong there.

Great Baked Goods at Brodflour

Published on July 29, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 8 Pardee Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://brodflour.com/

Brodflour is a delightful little bakery in Liberty Village that sells sandwiches, pastries, and outstanding loaves of sourdough bread. They might actually sell my favourite loaf of bread in the city — it’s thoroughly delicious, and unlike a lot of other bakeries that sell higher-end sourdough loaves, they actually offer to slice it.

(Yes, surprisingly enough, there are an unnerving number of fancy bakeries in the city that sell $10+ loaves of bread and refuse to slice them for you.)

I tried the smoked salmon sandwich (“Jerusalem bagel, house-made labneh, capers, pickled onions, salt and pepper, tomatoes”), which is tasty. The bagel is maybe slightly too dense, but they’re clearly using good smoked salmon, and all of the ingredients work really well together (I’m normally not a fan of onion with smoked salmon, but pickling them takes away most of that raw onion harshness). It’s not a mind-blowing sandwich, but it’s quite good.

What was mind-blowing was the cardamom knot. Oh man this thing was tasty. It’s sweet but not too sweet, the pastry has a really great chewy texture that’s not too dense, and the sugar on the outside gives it a nice texture that contrasts with the chewy interior. That’s not to mention the cardamom flavour, which is delightfully intense. It’s a great, great pastry.