cheese – Page 24 – Michael Eats

Super Deluxe Hot Dogs at Kung Fu Dawg

Published on July 23, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 19 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://kungfudawg.com/

Remember when street vendor hot dogs were everywhere in the city? There was a time when you couldn’t walk more than a block or two without running into one. I’m not sure exactly why they mostly went away, though I’m assuming it has something to do with the explosion of cheap eats around the city over the last decade or so, not to mention the general foodie-ification of the GTA.

But there are still a handful of old school vendors around the city — or if you’re looking for something made with a bit more care, there’s Kung Fu Dawg on Ossington.

They actually make their own hot dogs and put them in a natural casing, which gives you a snappier bite than a traditional dog. The pickles and many of the condiments are homemade as well, so clearly, this is something a bit more special than your typical street meat.

I ordered the namesake Kung Fu Dawg, which is piled high with fennel slaw, pickles, onions, jalapenos, corn relish, spicy mayo, crispy onions, chili, and cheese.

There’s no easy way to eat this. I tried to pick it up out of the cardboard box it’s served in, but it was so big and unwieldy I couldn’t get a grip on it. Eventually, I had to just embrace the mess and dive in.

It’s really good, and an absolute cornucopia of tastes and textures. It’s pretty much got all the flavours: it’s salty, savoury, sweet, vinegary, and a little bit spicy. It’s crispy, it’s crunchy, it’s meaty — it’s everything at once.

I liked it a lot, but I think there might have been a little bit too much going on. They make their own hot dogs, but there’s so much stuff piled on top of it that you can barely taste it. It may as well have been Oscar Mayer.

Of course, the whole thing is super delicious, so it’s hard to complain too much — but next time, I think I’ll order something a bit more plain so I can see what the actual hot dog tastes like.

Oh, and I also tried the fries; like the hot dog, they were way above average.

Aussie BBQ & Egg Burger at McDonald’s

Published on July 17, 2018 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 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.”

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.

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.

Italian Pesto Chicken Sandwich at McDonald’s

Published on July 4, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5310 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.ca

Next stop on the World Taste Tour: Italy, with the Italian Pesto Chicken Sandwich. This is a McChicken patty topped with a pesto aioli sauce, shaved parmesan, arugula, and tomato. It’s served on a “toasted focaccia bun sprinkled with rosemary.”

It’s actually not bad. It’s definitely a lot better than the Chinese Szechuan Burger, and probably about on the same level as the French Creme Brulee McFlurry.

Like with the Szechuan Burger, the biggest issue here is with the meat itself.

The chicken patty is what it is. It’s spongy, salty, ultra-processed, and has about as much resemblance to an actual piece of chicken as a Hyundai has to a Ferrari. They’re in the same general ballpark, but they’re really not the same thing.

It’s junk, but then anyone walking through the doors of a McDonald’s knows exactly what they’re going to get. Again: it is what it is. It’s fine.

And everything else was pretty good. The pesto aioli sauce has a surprisingly vibrant pesto flavour, and the shaved parmesan isn’t bad at all. Parmesan, pesto, and peppery arugula are a boffo combination, and McDonald’s doesn’t mess it up. The whole thing is aggressively salty, but other than that it tastes pretty good.

There wasn’t much rosemary flavour from the bun, but it was fresh, hearty, and a little bit chewy. It suited the sandwich nicely.

A Misguided Brunch at Ramona’s Kitchen

Published on April 28, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 7355 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
Website: http://www.ramonaskitchen.ca/

I should note a couple of things up front: Ramona’s Kitchen is popular. I showed up with a group of four at around 11:30 on a Saturday, and the place was absolutely packed, with a full restaurant and a bunch of people waiting around for tables. It took a solid half hour to sit down. So people obviously like the place.

And everyone I was with really liked the food. A lot.

That being said? I ordered the breakfast poutine, and it was kind of shocking how bad it was.

The dish consists of hash browns (which they call “tri-coloured potatoes” for the three types of potatoes they use), hollandaise sauce, cheese curds, and a poached egg.

The individual components were all decent — the potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the hollandaise was rich and creamy, and the poached egg had a perfectly runny yolk.

But the whole thing was just off.

It was served in a tall, narrow bucket, which I guess is a fun presentation, but really awkward to eat out of.

And while most of the components were good, the curds were a bit too salty and tasted stale (fresh curds should squeak when you bite into them; these did not). And though the potatoes were hot and fresh, the hollandaise was only warm, which didn’t provide enough heat to get the curds even vaguely melty.

Also (I sure have a lot of complaints about these cheese curds, don’t I?), the majority of the pieces were tiny little curd fragments, and since they were cold and unmelted, the whole thing was unappealingly cottage-cheese-esque.

The hollandaise was quite good, though, as were the potatoes, so you’d think that alone would be enough to make this delicious. I mean, crispy potatoes? Delicious. Hollandaise? Also delicious. But if there was ever a case of “too much of a good thing,” this is clearly it. The entire bucket was absolutely swimming in heavy, creamy hollandaise, and it’s just overkill. It’s like hollandaise pudding with potatoes. It’s off-putting.

That’s not to mention that, by the bottom of the bucket, the hollandaise had started to congeal, making it even thicker and richer, with a gluey, mayonnaise-like consistency.

But again: I think this is a good restaurant? Just don’t order the breakfast poutine unless you really, really like hollandaise (and I do! But not as much as I thought, apparently).

Cubano Disappointment at La Cubana

Published on April 3, 2018June 28, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 92 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://www.lacubana.ca/

I love the cubano sandwich at La Cubana. Or at least, I usually do.

I was going to order something else, but then I realized that I’ve never actually written about the cubano here, and I really don’t need much more of an excuse than that.

And here’s the thing: it was good. It certainly wasn’t bad, per se. That’s the problem with serving truly great food; there’s nowhere to go but down, and even something that’s quite good is going to seem like a letdown in comparison.

The cubano here is normally the perfect amalgam of gooey cheese, savoury meats, and zingy pickles. It’s astonishingly good. Usually.

This time? It was off. Though the cheese was nice and gooey, the pork had a mildly gamy, leftovery flavour, there were almost no pickles to cut the richness of the cheese and the meat, and the bread was dry and overly crunchy. I ate the sandwich as carefully as I could, and it still thoroughly mangled the roof of my mouth.

Has La Cubana gone downhill? Or was the kitchen just having a bad day? I’ll feel bad if it’s the latter — but they served me what they served me, so I don’t feel too bad about it.