bun – Page 2 – Michael Eats

A Tasty Cardamom Bun at French Corner Bakery Patisserie

Published on May 22, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1224 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/frenchcornerpatisserie/

French Corner Bakery Patisserie (the word “bakery” is a bit odd there, isn’t it? Patisserie is basically just a French word for bakery, so it’s the French Corner Bakery Bakery) has a whole bunch of very tasty looking pastries.

I was actually planning on ordering the almond croissant, but then I saw the cardamom bun and couldn’t resist. I have a hard time saying no to a good cardamom bun, especially since they’re not exactly super common in the GTA.

And yeah, it’s a good one. The bready pastry is dense without being overly tough, the cardamom flavour is unmistakable, and the level of sweetness is delightfully restrained. It’s has a decent amount of sticky syrup on its exterior (not to mention the pearl sugar on top, which adds a great crunch that contrasts nicely with the toothsome pastry), but is otherwise not particularly sweet.

Clearly, I’m going to have to go back to try the almond croissant (and more!) because they know what they’re doing.

Sweet Chili Junior Chicken at McDonald’s

Published on April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Sweet Chili Junior Chicken is probably the least interesting of the three sandwiches on McDonald’s new Remix Menu, but I’ve tried the other two, so sure — why not?

McDonald’s describes this thing by saying “your tastebuds will be singing a whole new tune with a remixed Sweet Chili Junior Chicken made with Canadian-raised crispy seasoned chicken, topped with crunchy shredded lettuce, tangy sweet chili sauce and mayo-style sauce, all on a toasty bun.”

Spoiler alert: this did not make my tastebuds sing.

The problem is the sweet chili sauce. I really wish it were more chili, less sweet. It’s sweet. Like, dessert sweet. A sauce that sweet basically works as a dip for McNuggets, because you can control how much (or how little) you get in each mouthful. Here, where it’s just globbed into the sandwich, it’s too much. It’s overpowering.

Unless you really love that sauce, there’s zero reason to get this over a standard Junior Chicken.

Unique Chinese Food at Tangritah Kabab House

Published on December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 900 Rathburn Road West, Mississauga
Website: None

One of the things I like about living in Toronto is that not only is pretty much every country’s cuisine available to try (which I explore in another blog, 196 Plates — I think it might be about time to bring that one back), you can actually get so much more specific than that.

This place — which specializes in Uyghur cuisine — is a great example of this. “Chinese food” tends to be put under one enormous umbrella, but China is a huge country, and its food is wildly different from region to region.

I tried a few things here, and it was all extremely delicious. First up: a dish the menu only refers to as “fried meat.” I think it was beef, though it might have been lamb (if it was, it didn’t have much of a lamby flavour). Either way, it was super tasty, with a bunch of tender meat, nicely cooked onions, and a very cumin-tinged flavour that was extremely addictive.

Next up was the Tangritah Special Langmen, which is an Uyghur dish in which hand-pulled noodles are topped with stir-fried veggies and meat. The flavour here was a bit less distinctive than the fried meat, but the noodles had a really satisfying chewiness, and the veggies and meat were perfectly cooked (again, I’m not sure what the meat was, but I’m gonna say beef).

Finally, I tried the samsa, a bun filled with a mix of lamb and onions. This looks like it might have initially been crispy on its exterior, which would have been nice, but it was either steamed or microwaved to reheat and was soft throughout. Regardless, it was quite tasty.

Tasty Buns at Bao Mama

Published on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga
Website: https://baomama.ca/

Bao Mama currently has a temporary pop-up in the Food District at Square One (until April 16th), but if you miss them there, you can check out their permanent location in Scarborough. And you might want to do that, because their Filipino-inspired buns are thoroughly tasty.

The first one I tried was the hip hipon crispy shrimp bao, which features crispy fried shrimp topped with a zingy sauce and “Asian house slaw.” The shrimp was a bit overcooked, but this was otherwise quite satisfying, with a nice contrast between the fluffy bao and the crispy fried shrimp, not to mention the tasty slaw and the slightly sweet sauce.

I also tried the triple B braised beef asado bao, which is stuffed with a generous amount of tender braised beef, and topped with the house slaw and crispy onions. This was easily my favourite of the two; that ultra-tender, very flavourful beef is something special.

They have a tangy, sweet chili sauce you can get on the side, and this stuff is a must — it complements both baos perfectly, and does a great job of amping up the flavours and adding a mild kick.

Tasty Sweet Buns at Akko Cake House

Published on October 20, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4040 Creditview Road #1, Mississauga
Website: None

Akko Cake House is a bit oddly named. They do have a handful of cakes at the front, but mostly, this is a fairly standard Chinese bakery with a whole bunch of sweet and savoury buns and tarts.

I tried a few sweet buns: coconut, custard, and walnut.

The pastry itself was quite good — it was fresh, a little bit sweet, and super fluffy.

I was intrigued about the walnut variety; I don’t recall ever seeing a walnut bun before, and I’ve certainly never tried one. It was fairly subtle, however, with a very thin layer of walnut paste and a few walnut chunks. It tasted more like a plain bun with a mild walnut flavour.

The custard was about what you’d expect. It was sweet, creamy, and tasty.

The coconut bun was where it was at. The generous filling was really tasty, with a nice coconut flavour. It also has a surprisingly strong hit of salt that does a great job of rounding out the sweetness. It’s really good. The bakery was packed (the line was to the door when I left), and with buns that good, it’s easy enough to see why.