Michael Eats

Delicious Dessert at Soul Chocolate

Published on September 8, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 20 Wagstaff Drive, Toronto
Website: https://www.soulchocolate.com/

Soul Chocolate is a delightful chocolate shop and cafe where they make their own chocolate, not to mention a bunch of tasty desserts. They used to have a much smaller location on Gerrard, but have since moved to an industrial area nearby.

I tried a small chocolate bar and one of the desserts, and both were stellar.

They have a variety of dark chocolate bars made with cocoa from different countries; I went with the Dominican 70%, and it was actually pretty amazing. It’s about five bucks for a 25 gram bar, which is not cheap, but you know what? You get what you pay for. If you compare this to better mass-produced dark chocolate like Lindt, the difference is night and day. The chocolate here has so much more going on.

I also tried a slice of the chocolate pie, which might have the most intense chocolate flavour of any dessert I’ve ever had; it’s great. It’s ultra rich and fudgy, with an in-your-face dark chocolate / coffee flavour that’s really satisfying. The crust is made with sourdough, and it’s got a mild tang that works nicely with the deep chocolatiness. It’s a delicious dessert.

A Meaty Bowl of Noodles at Szechuan Noodle Bowl

Published on September 2, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 526 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://szechuannoodlebowl.ca/

Szechuan Noodle Bowl is definitely about more than just noodles, with an impressively deep, multi-page menu that has a whole bunch of tasty-looking Chinese dishes. Still, it’s called “Szechuan Noodle Bowl,” so clearly, I had to order the first dish on the menu: Noodles, Sichuan style.

You can choose from either chicken or pork (I went with pork), and spicy or non-spicy (I went with spicy, of course).

It’s a solid bowl of noodles. The flavour was a bit more muted than I’d like (this is particularly true of the spice level, which was almost nonexistent — and sadly, the jar of chili oil that you’ll often find on the table at a place like this was absent, so there was no way of amping things up), but otherwise this was a really satisfying bowl of noodles.

The thick noodles were nice and chewy, the garlicky pork was quite tasty, and the peanuts added a good amount of texture. It didn’t exactly rock my world, but I enjoyed it (the affordable $11.99 price tag for a very substantial serving of both noodles and pork definitely helps).

Tasty Buns at Saint Germain Bakery

Published on September 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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

Saint Germain Bakery is an Asian bakery chain that started in Vancouver, and that’s been expanding around the GTA for the last few years. Their most recent location is in Square One in Mississauga, and it features a tempting assortment of sweet and savoury pastries (mostly cakes, croissants, and Asian-style buns).

It’s set up in a typical Asian bakery style, with everything (outside of the cakes) in self-serve displays, and trays for you to load up and take to the register.

My go-to at a bakery like this is typically something with red bean in it (I have a very hard time saying no to a red bean dessert), but I noticed they had something called a “Germain bun.” I had no idea what to expect with this, but I feel like it’s always a safe bet to order whatever pastry has the name of the bakery in it.

It’s not the most photogenic dessert in the world, but it’s very tasty. It basically tastes like a custard bun, but with the custard interspersed throughout — like a cinnamon roll, but with custard instead of cinnamon. It also has a crispy, sugary topping that does a great job of adding some texture to the soft, chewy bun. The topping might have amped up the sweetness level a bit too much, but the rest of the bun is more restrained, so it’s just right.

I liked it quite a lot, though I will say that it’s a deceptively hefty bun, so it’s probably a good idea to either share it, or eat half and save the rest for later. I ate it after having a heavy meal, and let me tell you: my stomach did not appreciate it. I think the term “food coma” applies.

Also: I came back another day and tried the red bean bun, and yeah, that’s good stuff. The red bean is maybe slightly too sweet and not quite as chunky as I’d like, but it’s still quite tasty and the bun is fluffy and fresh.

Amazing Mexican Food at Puerto Bravo

Published on August 29, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1425 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: https://puertobravo.ca/

When you’re eating a place that’s been featured in the Michelin Guide, it kinda elevates your expectations a bit. Not that Michelin is an infallible arbiter of taste, but generally speaking, the restaurants they highlight are above average.

Well, Puerto Brave has a “Bib Gourmand” designation from Michelin, my expectations were quite high, and even still, I was pretty blown away by how good everything was.

I tried a few things. I started with the guacamole (“Avocado, Lime, Cilantro, Jalapeño, Chips,”) and it was fantastic. A lot of guacamole tends to be a bit too oniony for me, with their harshness overwhelming the relatively delicate flavour of the avocado. Here, instead of mixing onions right in, they add zippy pickled onions on top, which is a huge improvement that lets the flavour of the creamy avocado shine through. And the tortilla chips on the side are way above average, with a hearty crunch and a nice toasty corn flavour.

Up next was the carne asada taco (“Grilled Beef, Asadero Cheese, Onions, Cabbage, Radish, Avocado Salsa, Red Salsa”). Every element here just works, with a nice balance of flavours and some seriously tasty grilled beef (a lot of the time with a taco like this, the flavour of the beef is buried by other stuff, but here it’s clearly the star of the show (and extremely delicious)).

Last and definitely not least was the Wera tostada (“Octopus, Shrimp, Macha Mayonnaise, Pico de Gallo, Avocado, Salsa Macha”). Wow this was good. The contrast between the crunchy tortilla, creamy avocado and meaty octopus and shrimp was so satisfying (the octopus, in particular, was almost improbably tender). I think this was my favourite of the three, and that’s saying something because everything was extremely delicious.

Tasty Cake Doughnuts at Maverick’s Donut Company

Published on August 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1618 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://mavericksdonuts.com/

Maverick’s is an Ottawa-based doughnut chain that opened their first location in Toronto last year. You might be thinking that we have enough doughnut joints in the city, but you’re wrong and here’s why: Maverick’s specializes in cake-based doughnuts. Most doughnut places will have a cake doughnut or two on the menu, but here it’s pretty much all of them.

I tried six: cherry glazed, pecan pie, maple bacon, double chocolate, lemon ricotta, and chocolate coconut.

They were all quite delightful. The cake is dense but not too dense, they’re not overly sweet (aside from maybe the maple bacon, which I still quite enjoyed), and they have a light crispiness on their exterior. They’re top quality doughnuts.

And the flavours were all great, though if I had to pick a favourite, it might be the nutty pecan pie. Or the double chocolate, which had a really satisfying chocolate flavour. Or the cherry glazed, which tasted like a doughnut and a maraschino cherry had a baby. Or the lemon ricotta, which had a nice tartness and a satisfying creaminess. Or the maple bacon, which had satisfying pops of saltiness from the bacon to offset the sweetness of the maple. Or the chocolate coconut, which is always a tasty combo.

Oh, I just named all the doughnuts, didn’t I. Well you know what? I liked all of them. They’re all my favourite. Deal with it.