Tag: beet

Great Sandwiches at Leslie’s Sandwich Room

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Leslie's Sandwich Room
Location: 969 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://www.lesliessandwichrooms.com/

Leslie’s Sandwich Room is a great little sandwich shop on the east end.  Pretty much every sandwich on their menu is something I want to try immediately, but I did manage to narrow it down to a couple.

Leslie's Sandwich Room

Up first: The Cure (“focaccia, salmon, beets, horseradish dill mayo, rye croutons”).  This was basically like an upscale tuna salad sandwich, with a really great flavour and texture on the salmon (and zero fishiness), and with some nice pops of flavour from the beets, not to mention the creaminess from the horseradish mayo.  And the focaccia its served on works perfectly, with enough substance to hold up to the overstuffed sandwich, but not so much that it overwhelms.

Leslie's Sandwich Room

The highlight here might have been the rye croutons, however.  It never would have occurred to me to put croutons in a sandwich, but their satisfying crunchiness perfectly balances out the softness of the other components here.

Leslie's Sandwich Room

I also tried La Bomba (“focaccia, roasted chicken, white American cheese, sriracha mayo, sweet pickles, spicy garlic bomba”).  This was a really satisfying sandwich: meaty, cheesy, spicy, and profoundly rich.  I kinda wished there was something here to cut the heaviness a bit (the pickles are presumably supposed to do that job, but they’re more sweet than zippy, and get a bit lost among the other flavours), but it was still a top-notch sandwich.

Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger at McDonald’s

Published on by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger at McDonald'sLocation: 5310 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.ca

Well, here it is — Australia, the last stop on McDonald’s World Taste Tour (though there’s also the Mexican breakfast wrap, which I guess I should try at some point).

McDonald’s describes the Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger as coming topped with “a fresh cracked egg, crispy beet chips, processed cheese, leaf lettuce and a smoky BBQ sauce on a brioche-style bun.”

Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger at McDonald's

I’m not even going to bother complaining about the burger patty itself.  It’s not good — but then it’s McDonald’s, so no one should be surprised by this.  I will say that I really wish they’d use the thinner patties from the regular hamburger and the Big Mac on all of their burgers.  When it comes to the beef at McDonald’s, less is more.

But then no beef patty could have saved this burger — it’s easily the worst of the World Taste Tour.  It’s mostly pretty good: an egg is always welcome on a burger, the beet chips and the lettuce add a satisfying crunch, and the gooey cheese helps bring it all together.  But the smoky BBQ sauce (which is mayo-based, unlike a standard BBQ sauce) completely ruins it.  It’s the absolute worst.  It’s cloyingly, aggressively sweet, with no smokiness at all.  It’s just awful.

Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger at McDonald's

BBQ sauce tends to be quite sweet, but with a vinegary bite to help balance things out.  No such balance here; just in-your-face sweetness.

The burger kind of reminded me of the trifle Rachel made on Friends, but in reverse.  It’s got a bunch of tasty burger ingredients… and a sugary-sweet sauce that would be more at home on a slice of cake or a scoop of ice cream.  It’s one of those things that’s so bad, you have to wonder if anyone even tasted it before they added it to the menu.