caramel – Michael Eats

Tasty Frozen Custard at The Loop Creamery

Published on October 13, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3795 Lakeshore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.loopcreamery.com/

I (sort of) tried this place back in 2018, when they had frozen custard on the menu at Woodfire Sandwich Co, an offshoot of Woody’s Burgers. Alas, the sandwich place is no more, but the ice cream has been bumped up to its own thing (though it’s now inside Woody’s Burgers).

As I mentioned in my previous post, frozen custard (which is basically just standard ice cream with an added richness and flavour from egg yolks) is weirdly hard to find in the city. So the fact that The Loop Creamery exists at all makes me happy.

And it’s quite tasty. I think it’s actually improved since 2018; the ice cream is rich and creamy, with a mild but satisfying custard flavour. It’s quite good.

I went with the Old School, which is just peanuts and caramel in a vanilla base. The peanuts had gotten a bit soft in the ice cream, but it was otherwise quite tasty, with the rich custard base working very well with the ribbons of sweet caramel.

Quick Bites: Tom’s Dairy Freeze, Bang Bang, Rudy

Published on October 31, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Caramel Sundae at Tom’s Dairy Freeze

Hey, gotta take advantage of Tom’s while they’re around (they’re closed all winter). On this particular visit I got a twist with hot caramel sauce, and yeah it’s as tasty as ever.

Cherry Milkjam at Bang Bang

I’ve found Bang Bang to be a bit hit-or-miss lately, but when they’re good, they’re still really good. This particular flavour is actually a “twist” of sorts — it combines cherry ice cream with dulce de leche, and yeah that’s a great combo. The cherry is a bit sour on its own, but mixing it with the sweet richness of the dulce de leche tempers its tartness and is thoroughly delicious.

Fried Chicken Sandwich at Rudy

I’ve already written about the fried chicken sandwich at Rudy (A.K.A. the Valentino), so I’m not going to beat a dead horse, but it’s still nothing particularly special. It wasn’t overcooked this time, so it had that going for it, but it was almost aggressively middling. If I you had told me it was a fried chicken sandwich from a fast food chain like Wendy’s or A&W, I would have believed you. And Rudy’s is expanding quite a bit; I guess they’re becoming a fast food chain themselves, so… it is what it is. [shrug]

Amazing Sticky Buns at Ambrosia Corner Bakery

Published on January 14, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 324 Frederick Street, Kitchener
Website: https://ambrosiacornerbakery.com/

Though I was really hoping to try the kouign-amann at Ambrosia Corner Bakery, it turns out I visited on the wrong day — they’re only served from Thursday to Saturday. My disappointment was short-lived, however. As soon as I saw their Pecan Cinnamon Sticky Buns, I knew that I needed to put one in my belly ASAP.

Step aside, kouign-amann; that sticky bun has an urgent appointment with my face.

Yes. It’s as good as it looks. It’s sticky, sweet, and incredible. It looks like it might be too sweet, but it’s actually remarkably well balanced. The caramel on top has a very rich, deep flavour, and the buttery, amazing pastry is substantial enough to hold up to the generous amount of sauce. That’s not to mention the underlying cinnamon flavour, which is delightful.

But then do I even need to be writing this? You have eyeballs. Again: it’s as good as it looks.

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.

Apple Crumble Sundae at McDonald’s

Published on November 26, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 165 North Queen Street, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I’ll admit it: I was quite impressed by the Apple Crumble Sundae from McDonald’s. I really enjoyed it.

It’s quite simple: vanilla soft serve layered with spiced apple topping, and sprinkled with with cinnamon oat crumble.

The spiced apple topping is essentially apple pie filling, with a decent amount of small apple chunks. It’s a little bit tart, which works well with the very sweet crumble and ice cream.

The crumble is a little bit too hard and crunchy, but it has a satisfying brown sugar flavour that compliments the apple topping and the ice cream nicely.

The ice cream is the ice cream. If you need me to describe McDonald’s soft serve for you, I really don’t know what you’re doing here.

There’s not much more to say about it than that. It tastes like an apple crumble in sundae form. It’s exactly what you want it to be.