chicken – Page 18 – Michael Eats

A Decent Sandwich at Flock

Published on September 23, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 97 Harbord Street, Toronto
Website: https://flockonharbord.com/

The first time I had the pulled rotisserie chicken sandwich from Flock, I wasn’t a fan. It had obviously been assembled in advance and put in the fridge, and it was clammy, with a uniformly soft texture. None of the flavours popped. It wasn’t great.

But Toronto Life recently called it one of the 25 best sandwiches in the city, so I figured I’d give it another shot.

It’s still not the best sandwich ever, but it’s tasty enough. From their menu: “Ace Bakery Bun, Avocado Spread, Crisp Romaine & Horseradish/Beet/Apple Slaw & Crispy Onion”

This time the sandwich was clearly made to order, which helped a lot. The chicken was warm, fresh, and tasty, and there’s a pretty generous amount of it. The sweet slaw adds a welcoming hit of zinginess, and the avocado is nice and creamy.

I’m a little bit baffled that it wound up on a list of the best sandwiches in the city, but it certainly isn’t bad. It just doesn’t stand out in any particular way.

Jerk Chicken at Rasta Pasta

Published on August 22, 2019October 17, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 61 Kensington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://eatrastapasta.ca/

Rasta Pasta serves, as the name implies, a fusion of Caribbean and Italian cuisine. It’s a bizarre amalgamation of flavours, but they’ve been a Kensington Market hotspot for years, so they’re obviously doing something right.

Their pasta wasn’t available when I visited, so I kept it simple and ordered the jerk chicken sandwich, dubbed the Vatican.

The sandwich consists of saucy jerk chicken and coleslaw in a soft roll that’s nicely crispified thanks to a panini press. It’s quite good.

However, despite the presence of a functioning grill at the front of the restaurant, the chicken tastes more braised than grilled. It’s extremely tender, and the jerk sauce is flavour-packed and mildly spicy, but the crispy exterior and smoky flavour that you expect from jerk chicken is completely absent.

And yet it’s so tasty that it isn’t particularly an issue. The sweet coleslaw complements the savoury chicken really well, and the crispy roll is the perfect vehicle. It’s a very satisfying sandwich.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich at Chica’s Chicken

Published on August 12, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2853 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.chicaschicken.net/

Last summer, I tried just about everything on the menu at Chica’s Chicken, and decided that it was probably the best fried chicken in the city.

It’s still probably the best fried chicken in the city. The Buffalo fried chicken sandwich is a newer addition to the menu, and it was every bit as amazing as I was hoping it would be.

It’s normally served on a brioche bun, but since they were out of those, it came on sliced bread instead. I’m sure it would have been delicious on the bun, but the bread didn’t feel like a detriment. It was an outstanding sandwich.

The fried chicken was as crispy, flavourful, and juicy as ever, and the zingy Buffalo sauce just enhances it. It’s topped with coleslaw and blue cheese sauce, and it’s absolutely perfect. It’s the perfect Buffalo chicken sandwich. I can’t think of a single thing I’d change.

Actually, that’s a lie — it’s only mildly spicy, and I wish it were a little bit hotter. But the sandwich was so thoroughly satisfying that I only barely missed the spice.

Bacon Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich at Wendy’s

Published on July 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1520 Aimco Boulevard, Mississauga
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca/home

The Bacon Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s has pretty much everything I like in a fast food sandwich; it’s got gooey cheese (with both a melty cheese slice and cheese sauce), bacon, jalapenos, crispy fried onions, pickled jalapeno slices, and a smoky japaleno sauce.

So yeah, it’s good. They’d have to work pretty hard to mess it up.

The worst part about this chicken sandwich is, funnily enough, the chicken. The sandwich features their Spicy Chicken patty, and they keep it in one of those warming drawers (AKA the fast food ruiner).

So it’s dry, of course. It’s also a little bit too salty, and thoroughly infused with a vaguely unpleasant processed flavour.

The toppings are so abundant, however, that it’s barely even an issue. I only had one or two bites that weren’t crammed with stuff.

You’ve got the richness from the cheeses, crispiness from the fried onions, zestiness from the sauce, a nice meaty bite from the bacon, and a good amount of acidity from the jalapenos to help cut through the sandwich’s richness. It’s quite tasty.

It also has a decent kick to it — it’s nothing too aggressive, but for something from a fast food joint, it’s not bad.

On Hiatus (and a few quick reviews)

Published on January 11, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

I’m traveling, so this site is going into hibernation for a while. Feel free to follow my travels at Up in the Nusair (or don’t, I can’t force you… or can I?? No, I can’t… yet).

But first, here’s a few very quick reviews of places I didn’t get a chance to write full posts for before I left.

Cafe Landwer

I actually visited this place a couple of times recently. The first time I had the shakshuka, which was quite tasty and comes with an almost absurd amount of food. It’s a little bit bland, but it comes with an ample amount of fresh bread for dipping, and the tahini sauce helps amp things up.

The second time I had the Sinia Kebab, which features beef kebabs and some grilled veggies on top of freshly baked flatbread, topped with a tahini sauce. This was quite tasty, though it really needs something acidic to cut through the richness. I eventually wound up spooning in some of the salad that comes on the side. I’m not sure if that’s the intent, but it helped.

Jelly Roll from Tim Hortons

It’s a jelly roll from Tim Hortons; it tastes exactly how you think it’s going to taste. It’s basically a very minor upgrade over Little Debbie. It’s pretty junky, but I enjoyed it.

Pho from I Love Pho 2

I already wrote about the surprisingly great I Love Pho 2, and the pho confirms it: this is a place that knows their stuff. The broth has a really great flavour, and the variety of meats they mix in are all perfectly cooked and tasty.

SoSo Food Club

I tried a handful of dishes at SoSo Food Club. Everything was tasty, but the highlight was the addictively cumin-tinged lamb biang biang noodles. The strong cumin flavour, the tender lamb, and the extra-broad noodles all work very well together. The mapo tofu, with its numbing heat and silky tofu, was another highlight.

The Drake Commissary

The bread here is amazing. Like at Terroni, you have to pay for it, but unlike at that place, it wasn’t infuriating. It was well worth paying for. I came here at brunch and had the trapper beans, which had a lot going on, but everything worked perfectly together. In particular, the beans had a savoury richness (and a complete lack of sweetness) that made them quite unlike any baked beans I’ve had before.

Mango Pancakes from HK Sweets

This was fine, I guess. I actually had mango pancakes in Hong Kong, and they were ridiculously good. I was hoping these would recapture that, even slightly, but no such luck. Aside from the fact that they’re not actually pancakes (they’re crepes), the mango was underripe and crunchy, and I think the cream was actually Cool Whip or something similar. Still, it was decent enough for what it was.

Chicken Shawarma from Ghadir Meat & Restaurant

Oh man, this shawarma. I actually visited this place based on a tweet from Suresh Doss — he called it the best shawarma in the GTA, which should really tell you all you need to know. The man knows his food, and he’s certainly not wrong about Ghadir. It’s amazing. It’s got the perfect blend of tender meat with lots of crispy bits, tasty sauces, and fresh veggies. If it’s not the best shawarma in the GTA, it’s certainly a very strong contender for that crown.