beef – Page 12 – Michael Eats

Hand-Pulled Noodles at Omni Palace Noodle House

Published on July 8, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 235 Consumers Road, Toronto
Website: https://www.omnipalace.ca/

I’ve mentioned many times before that a big bowl of chewy, hand-pulled noodles is pretty much the best. That’s just a fact. If you disagree? You’re wrong, and I hate to have to tell you this, but you’re living your life like an idiot.

Sorry, but someone was going to tell you eventually. It may as well be me.

The main thing to order at Omni Palace is the Traditional Lanzhou Beef Noodles, which is a pretty basic bowl of noodle soup topped with thinly sliced beef, cilantro, scallions, and sliced radish.

The broth is actually quite tasty — it’s very salty, but it also has a nice beefy richness, and a mild tingling numbness from sichuan peppercorns. Once you add a heaping spoonful or two (or three, or four) of the smoky, flavourful chili oil, you’ve got a pretty memorable bowl of soup.

The chili oil is surprisingly mild, so you have to add a decent amount if you want a nice kick. That works out quite well, however — it’s so tasty that the bowl seems to get more and more delicious with every additional spoonful.

Then, of course, there’s the noodles, which are available in nine levels of thickness. I went with what they call classic, which is quite spaghetti-like in size and shape. The noodles have all the satisfying chewiness that you’re hoping for, and they’re the perfect thickness for this particular dish.

The only thing here I wasn’t crazy about was the beef; it was a bit tough, and the flavour was middling. But everything else is tasty enough that it really doesn’t matter.

Guava BBQ Shortrib Medianoche at La Cubana

Published on June 28, 2019July 10, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 392 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://www.lacubana.ca/

I had a bit of an iffy meal on my last visit to La Cubana, but if the sandwich I just had was any indication, that was just a blip on the radar. La Cubana is still very, very good.

Specifically, I had the Guava BBQ Shortrib Medianoche, which Toronto Life recently called the 11th best sandwich in the city. I don’t always agree with Toronto Life’s opinions on food, but in this case they’re dead on. It’s outstanding.

The sandwich features a very generous amount of shortrib topped with “red cabbage slaw, chimichurri, pickled jalapeno, crispy onion.” It’s served on a soft bun they bake in-house.

The shortrib itself is absurdly good. It manages to be melt-in-your-mouth tender while still retaining its texture. It has a nice beefy flavour that’s complemented perfectly by the guava BBQ sauce — the sandwich is saucy as hell (there was a huge pool on the plate when I was done eating), but the sauce is so good that it feels just right. It’s sweet, but it has a tangy, zippy bite that balances it out.

Everything else complements it perfectly. The crispy onions are really tasty, and you get a good amount of crunch and acidity from the slaw and the jalapenos. It’s a great mix of flavours and textures.

And the bun is soft and fluffy, with just enough substance to hold up to the saucy, generously stuffed sandwich. It’s so good.

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.

Outstanding Noodles at Mei Nung Beef Noodle House

Published on December 7, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3255 Highway 7, Markham
Website: None

Though there are a ton of amazing restaurants in the First Markham plaza, you’re going to have a hard time topping Mei Nung Beef Noodle House, which specializes in Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

The beef and beef tendon noodle soup is where it’s at. You can choose from rice noodles, glass noodles, or homemade noodles, and the choice is clear — you’ve gotta get the homemade noodles. They’re thick and hearty, with an amazingly satisfying level of chewiness. They’re so good.

But then everything about this bowl is so good. The broth is ridiculous: it’s beefy, zippy, and immensely flavourful.

You think it can’t possibly get any better, and then you add a spoonful of their wonderfully smoky chili oil, and lo and behold — it gets better.

The chunks of beef are super tasty and enormously tender, though the tendons are the real star of the show. They’re so perfectly cooked that they’re essentially like meat butter. They’re soft and unctuous and amazing.

They’re also super tasty; they do an impressive job of absorbing all of the seasoning in the soup. They’re squishy, melt-in-your-mouth flavour bombs.

It all adds up to a bowl of noodle soup that’s easily one of the best in the GTA. I challenge you to find a substantially better bowl of beef noodle soup — even with a plane ticket to Taiwan.

Amazing Noodle Soup at I Love Pho 2

Published on November 16, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1248 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: None

I’ve always liked Vietnamese food, but I feel like I’ve spent the majority of my life seriously underrating it. I’ve recently discovered that Vietnamese cuisine can be downright magical, with a vibrancy and depth of flavour that’s irresistible.

And there’s so much more to it than the obvious choices like pho and banh mi (not that there’s anything wrong with either of those dishes).

Case in point: the bun rieu at I Love Pho 2, a zingy noodle soup made with a tomato- and crab-based broth that’s absolutely crammed with stuff: sliced beef, sliced pork, ground pork, tomato, blood cake, fried tofu, fried onions, fresh herbs, and a whole plate’s worth of crunchy veggies, not to mention the heaping portion of soft, chewy rice noodles.

It’s amazingly good. There’s a really delightful variety of flavours and textures — sometimes, the meat in a soup like this can taste off or be a little tough, but everything here was great.

It’s the broth, however, that makes this dish so special. It has a really rich seafood/crab flavour, with a nice zinginess from the tomato and a mild sweetness that rounds things out. It was incredibly satisfying.

It was also an amazing value — I got the medium size, which cost about ten bucks and came with an almost comically oversized bowl that was filled to the brim and absolutely crammed with noodles and various meats.