chicken – Page 19 – Michael Eats

Amazing Khao Soi at Khao San Road

Published on November 6, 2018November 6, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 11 Charlotte Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.khaosanroad.ca/

The Khao Soi at Khao San Road is improbably good. It’s the type of dish where you have your first mouthful and think “wait… is this as delicious as I think it is?” Then you take another mouthful, and yeah: it really is that good.

Khao soi is a Thai noodle soup that features a super rich curry broth topped with crispy fried noodles for texture.

The version at Khao San Road is outstanding. That restaurant is one of those places with a perpetual line out the door; once you try the food, it’s easy enough to see why.

The curry-infused soup — made indulgently rich thanks to creamy coconut milk — is so damn satisfying.

There’s nothing subtle about it; it’s an absolute flavour bomb, but with a complexity that ensures it never feels one-note or overwhelming, despite how assertive the flavours are.

I had it with chicken, which complimented it quite well; you can also get tofu, beef, or shrimp.

The combination of the crispy noodles on top, the chewy noodles in the bowl, and the ultra-creamy soup is seriously addictive. It’s ridiculously good.

Quality Salads at Flock

Published on October 31, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 330 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.eatflock.com/

If you’re downtown and you’re looking for something quick and relatively healthy, you could probably do worse than Flock. Though I’m not crazy about their much-ballyhooed chicken sandwich (its texture is one-note soft, and it generally doesn’t taste much better than something I could throw together at home from leftovers), I just tried one of their salads and found it quite satisfying.

I got the Frenchy Flock (“Mixed Greens & Arugula, Vine Beans, Crispy Onions, Roasted Cauliflower, French Lentils, Sweet Peppers, Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes, Hard Boiled Egg, Yellow Zucchini with Roasted Tomato/Olive/Caper Vinaigrette”) and had it topped with pulled chicken.

Yes, it’s a lot of stuff. And it’s a quality salad; the veggies are all nice and fresh, and the zippy vinaigrette suited it well. The pulled chicken was above average, and did a good job of making the salad feel like a full meal.

But the roasted cauliflower was overcooked and mushy, and the egg was chalky and dry, which was unfortunate. Also unfortunate: with the chicken add-on, it came up to about $17.50. That’s almost hilariously expensive for a salad that, though tasty, isn’t substantially better than the pre-packed salads you can get at a nicer supermarket (which cost about half as much).

Fried Chicken Perfection at Heirloom

Published on October 30, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: It’s a truck, so check Twitter or their website
Website: https://www.heirloomtoronto.com/

Either my memory is wrong or the food at the Heirloom food truck has seriously improved, because I have a vague recollection of trying their fried chicken sandwich a few years ago and not being particularly impressed.

I just had the Szechuan fried chicken sandwich, and holy guacamole, it was so good.

Heirloom’s menu describes this as “brined chicken thigh, homemade Szechuan sauce, pickled cucumber, bean sprout, organic peanut, scallion aioli, brioche bun.”

My only real complaint is that the chicken was a bit dry; though the menu claims they’re using thigh meat, I’m fairly certain it was actually breast. Either way, it was slightly overcooked and a bit less juicy than it should have been.

Other than that? Crazy good.

The exterior crisp-factor was perfect, with a profound level of crunchiness that’s never overbearing.

And let’s face it: there are very few things in life more satisfying than biting into a perfectly crispy piece of fried chicken.

The sandwich is saucy as hell (it’s impossible to eat without getting sauce all over your hands and face), but it absolutely works.

The Szechuan sauce is sweet, savoury, garlicky, and a little bit spicy (this is a minor complaint, but I wish it were a bit spicier. It’s basically a mild tingle). It’s absolutely fantastic, and the big peanut chunks give it a nice nutty crunchiness.

The richness of the aioli works great with the flavour-packed sauce, and the pickled veggies help to cut through the overall heaviness of the sandwich.

The whole thing is an absolute assault of assertive flavours and textures, but it’s so well balanced. It’s easily one of the best fried chicken sandwiches I’ve had in a while.

Passable Noodle Soup at Pho Vistro

Published on October 29, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 259 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.phovistro.com/

The pho at Pho Vistro was fine. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, and I didn’t dislike eating it.

But it made no real impression on me; my biggest takeaway is that it was food and I ate it. It wasn’t memorable in any particular way.

They have a few different varieties of pho on the menu; I ordered the restaurant’s namesake dish, which features beef and chicken.

The broth had a nice, clean chicken flavour, but almost none of the distinctive spicing you expect from a good bowl of pho. They have a couple of bottles of sauce on the table that add a nice dose of spice and zestiness; these are absolutely essential. On its own, the soup is seriously bland.

The slices of chicken and beef are okay, but they all had a vaguely leftovery flavour, and they’re all a bit tough.

The broad rice noodles are what you’d expect. They’re good.

It all adds up to a very inoffensive meal that I can’t imagine anyone getting too excited over.

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.