Canada – Page 112 – Michael Eats

A Decent Sandwich at Gold Standard

Published on July 19, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1574 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://breakfastsandwich.ca/

There’s basically nowhere to go but down from Gold Standard’s breakfast sandwich. It’s bordering on sandwich perfection.

I just tried the Sabich from Gold Standard’s new location on Queen, and yep: it’s not as good as the breakfast sandwich. It’s not even close.

The sabich, per their menu: “egg salad, fried eggplant, cucumber, pickles, parsley.”

It’s fine. It’s decent enough, but the breakfast sandwich is clearly the thing to order here.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with it; the egg salad is nice and creamy, as is the meaty eggplant. The cucumber adds a bit of crunch, though some additional texture would be nice.

The biggest problem is that all of the components are basically on the same wavelength; the flavour is one-note. It’s boring. It needs some acidity to round things out. The pickled onions add a slight vinegary bite, but there isn’t enough of them to make much of an impact.

Beyond Burger at Tim Hortons

Published on July 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4100 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php

The Beyond Burger at Tim Hortons is way better than it has any right to be. Is it particularly good? No, not really. Would I order it again? Absolutely not. But it’s perfectly acceptable. It’s not gross.

Maybe that’s a low bar. But Tim Hortons isn’t exactly known for having an appetizing lunch selection. And their last foray into the fake meat game — the Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich — featured an impressive emulation of actual meat, but was otherwise pretty lousy.

Beyond Meat has clearly been evolving their product since I tried the Beyond burger at A&W last summer. I found that one to be off-puttingly mushy. The texture of the burger I just had at Tim’s was much, much better.

If you compare it to a good quality burger, it’s pretty much garbage. But! It actually compares quite favourably to the frozen burgers that are served all over the city. If I had eaten it blind, that’s what I would have assumed it was. It’s impressive.

In fact, I think I might have liked this a bit better than that type of frozen burger; those ones sometimes have a gamy, off meat flavour that’s a bit off-putting. This one, on the other hand, has a generic meaty flavour that’s not unpleasant. Again, it’s not particularly good, but it’s not bad either. It’s fine.

They top it with cheese (which isn’t melted, of course), lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mustard, which successfully covers up the patty’s lack of a beefy flavour. Between the assertive condiments and the impressively accurate cheap burger texture, you’d never know that you’re not eating a lousy (but real!) hamburger. I know that’s not exactly high praise, but I’m actually really impressed.

Danish Cinnamon Rolls at Brod

Published on July 17, 2019July 17, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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

If the only cinnamon rolls you’re familiar with are the doughy and diabetes-inducing ones they serve at Cinnabon, Danish-style cinnamon rolls (a.k.a. kanelsnegl) are going to come as something of a shock. It’s like comparing “Macho Man” Randy Savage to Daniel Day Lewis. They’re both entertainers, but that’s about where the similarities end.

The kanelsnegl at Brod is solid. The pastry is quite nice — it’s flaky and a bit buttery, with crispy outer ring that eventually gives way to a softer, sweeter interior.

It’s a little bit bland, however; the pastry itself doesn’t have a ton of flavour, and the cinnamon/sugar level is probably a notch or two more restrained than it needs to be.

I know it’s not fair, but I couldn’t help but compare it to the kanelsnegls I had on a recent trip to Copenhagen, and there’s no contest. Those ones featured a much better balance of sweetness, with the pastry itself being downright magical.

Still, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with what they’re serving at Brod. It’s not amazing, but it’s very good.

Great Tex-Mex Tacos at Hotmess Tex Mex

Published on July 16, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 615 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.hotmesstexmex.com/

Hotmess was selling tacos at the recent Taste of Little Italy festival; having heard nothing but good things about their Tex-Mex grub, tying it out was a no-brainer.

They were doing beef, chicken, and corn tacos; I went with beef. It was quite good.

It’s very simple: spiced beef, diced tomato, shredded lettuce, and cheddar cheese served in a hard shell tortilla.

It’s basically Taco Bell if Taco Bell were really, really good.

The beef was nicely spiced, and unlike Taco Bell, it actually has the taste and texture of beef. How about that! The lettuce and tomato are fresh and crunchy, and the cheese adds a nice salty bite.

The shell is probably the highlight, oddly enough. It’s obviously freshly fried, and it’s glorious — the level of crunch is profound. It’s ridiculously satisfying.

More Tasty Ice Cream at Nadege

Published on July 15, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 780 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.nadege-patisserie.com/

The last time I tried the ice cream at Nadege, I found it to be quite tasty, but not quite on par with the best ice cream in the city, like Bang Bang or Greg’s.

On a recent visit, I tried the Baked Caramel Crunch, with features vanilla ice cream swirled with caramel sauce and chocolate chip cookie dough (the menu just says chocolate chip cookies, but the chunks were chewy and tasted like cookie dough to me). I normally go with a cup over a cone, but having heard so many good things about the cone, I figured I needed to try it.

The cone is as advertised. It’s amazing. It’s crispy but not overly crunchy, with a rich buttery flavour. It’s easily one of the better cones I’ve ever had.

The ice cream is as I remembered. They’re incredibly generous with the sauce and the chunks. That sounds good, right? And it is, but there’s a limit. It’s like that episode of the Twilight Zone where the guy in the afterlife has everything go his way until he finally realizes that he’s actually in hell, not heaven.

The scoop was so saucy and chunky that I could barely even taste the ice cream. It was overkill. From what I could taste of the vanilla, it seemed like it was above average, but I honestly couldn’t particularly tell. It was basically like eating a tub of caramel sauce with cookie dough mixed in.

I had better luck on another recent visit with the strawberry pistachio. This one features pistachio ice cream with a light and frothy strawberry sauce mixed in. Strawberry and pistachio sounds like an odd combo, but it works; the sweet fruitiness of the sauce compliments the rich, nutty ice cream very well.

And since there weren’t any chunks, I was able to taste the ice cream itself, which is quite good. I really wish they wouldn’t work so hard to obscure it.