Delicious Wheel Cakes at Mister Wheel

Mister Wheel
Location
: 5317 Yonge Street, North York
Website: https://www.instagram.com/misterwheel_toronto/

Mister Wheel is a Taiwanese wheel cake chain that recently opened in Toronto to a decent amount of hype, and having just tried it: yeah, I get it.  They serve some top-notch wheel cakes.

Mister Wheel

The nice thing about this place is that all the cakes are made to order — there’s a note on the counter saying that all cakes are a 15 minute wait — so you know they’re going to be fresh.

Mister Wheel

I tried two of the classics, red bean and custard, and both were absolutely stellar, with a lightly crispy exterior, and perfectly cooked pancakey pastry within.

Mister Wheel

As for the fillings, both were above average.  The red bean had a pleasantly chunky texture and a restrained level of sweetness that I really enjoyed.  And the custard might have been even better — I normally prefer red bean, but the custard here was just so good, with a rich, creamy texture and a thoroughly satisfying flavour.

Zinger Drip Sandwich from KFC

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC
Location
4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Websitehttps://www.kfc.ca/

KFC recently came out with a “Zinger Drip” menu, which seems to have nothing to do with the Zinger Sandwich that they currently serve, aside from the presence of spiciness.  But sure, I like spice — I’ll check that out.

There are three items to choose from: a sandwich, popcorn chicken, and hot wings, all coated in a spicy sauce.

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC

I went with the sandwich: “The Zinger Drip Sandwich brings bold, saucy heat to a fan-favourite classic. Our Famous Chicken sandwich fillet fully coated in KFC’s rich Zinger Drip sauce, then layered with cheddar cheese and fresh lettuce – all served on a soft potato bun. It’s a spicy, satisfying bite from top to bottom.​”

It’s tasty.  The Zinger Drip sauce has a vinegary, Frank’s-esque base, but with some mild sweetness and a bit of a garlicky punch to round things out.  It’s not particularly spicy, but there’s enough heat to give your mouth a tingle.  It’s pretty satisfying, which is good because the chicken is absolutely drenched in the stuff.

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC

The word “drip” in the name of this sandwich is extremely appropriate — this was one of the drippiest, messiest sandwiches I’ve eaten in quite a while.  After I was done, I had to lather up my hands like a doctor preparing for surgery just to get the stickiness off them.

As for the rest of the sandwich, it’s all pretty standard KFC stuff.  I will say that the cheese feels entirely superfluous — the Zinger Drip sauce is not subtle, and its flavour completely wipes out the cheese, which may as well not be there.

Delicious Noodle Soup at 555 Boat Noodles

555 Boat Noodles
Location
: 5308 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://555noodles.com/

I recently wrote about the boat noodles at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles, which were pretty great.  Well, the version at 555 Boat Noodles are equally delicious, so clearly, boat noodles deserve to be way, way more popular (I think these might be the only two restaurants in the GTA that serve the dish, or at least the only two that specialize in it).

555 Boat Noodles

The boat noodles here (“Chinese Broccoli, Garlic, Coriander, Bean Sprouts, and Onion”) come with your choice of beef, braised beef, or pork, and wonton noodles, rice noodles, or vermicelli.  The waiter suggested braised beef and rice noodles, so that’s what I went with.

555 Boat Noodles

The braised beef probably could have been braised a bit longer (it was slightly tough), but otherwise this was a fantastic bowl of noodle soup.  The broth is savoury and flavourful, with a decent amount of heat, a nice toasty garlic flavour, and a really satisfying tanginess that rounds things out.

555 Boat Noodles

And everything else in the bowl (aside from the aforementioned beef) was great, with a really generous amount of noodles, and a nice contrasting freshness and crunch from the veggies.

Tasty Fish and Chips at Sunnyside Provisions

Sunnyside Provisions
Location
: 287 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://sunnysideprovisions.ca/

Sunnyside Provisions is a delightful little market on Roncesvalles that sells some fancy grocery items and prepared meals, along with a handful of sandwiches and other stuff you can take out (they have a few patio tables out front, but mostly, it’s a grab-and-go joint only).

I’d heard good things about the fish and chips (“Nova Scotian beer-battered haddock, fries, tartar sauce”), so that’s what I went with.

Sunnyside Provisions

Yeah, it’s a solid dish.  In particular, the batter is great; the fish in this dish often features an overly thick, substantial exterior that overwhelms the delicate meat within, but that’s not the case here.  It’s nice and thin, but still has a good level of crispiness.  It’s very satisfying.

The fish itself was a touch on the overcooked side and a bit dry, but not enough to particularly rain on my parade.  I quite enjoyed this.

Sunnyside Provisions

The zippy tartar sauce was also quite tasty, if a bit too oniony for me, a certified raw onion hater.

As for the fries, they’re a bit thinner than you typically expect from fish and chips, but they’re crispy and tasty enough that I’m not complaining.

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone at Dairy Queen

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard at Dairy Queen
Location
: 5369 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-ca/

Dairy Queen recently came out with a “Breakfast Collection,” which includes a Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, a Fruity Pebbles Shake, and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone.

Is a doughnut breakfast?  I mean, I guess anything can be breakfast if want it to be, but if you’re regularly waking up and housing a doughnut or two, I’m not sure how many more years of eating breakfast (or just existing) you’ve got left.

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard at Dairy Queen

But sure, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say a doughnut is breakfast, because that’s the one I tried.  The Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, as per Dairy Queen’s website: “Chocolate frosted donut pieces and DQ Signature Sprinkles are blended with our world-famous soft serve to Blizzard perfection.”

I actually liked this way more than I thought I would.  I’m not sure if putting chopped up doughnuts into ice cream would even work (I feel like they’d get too hard and/or their flavour would be lost), but that’s not quite what they do here — instead, there are chewy, cookie-dough-like pieces that actually do a pretty great job of tasting doughnut-like enough that you know exactly what you’re eating.

The sprinkles don’t add much, but there are enough of those tasty doughnut bits to make this a thoroughly enjoyable Blizzard.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone

UPDATE: I went back and tried the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone (“First, we take our world-famous vanilla soft serve and dip it into a warm, rich cinnamon cereal-flavoured cone coating with crunchy cereal bits. To top it off, we add a generous dusting of sweet Cinnadust”).  As usual with a dipped cone, the first bite was the best, but I enjoyed this.  It has a pronounced cinnamon/sugar flavour, and does a respectable job of replicating the flavour of the classic cereal.