Chinese food – Page 7

Cheap Eats at Tsui Xiang Tsuen

Published on October 6, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 888 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: None

The Mississauga Chinese Centre is a definite hidden gem if you’re looking for cheap eats in Mississauga. You wouldn’t know it from the outside (it basically just looks like a strip mall) but it has a small food court with several vendors serving up a whole bunch of dishes.

There’s a sushi place, a Filipino place, and a few Chinese restaurants with typically enormous food court menus. Tsui Xiang Tsuen falls into the enormous menu category; I was craving wonton noodle soup, so that’s what I ordered.

Was it the best wonton noodle soup I’ve ever had? No, absolutely not. In particular, the wontons were basically complete mush, and the filling wasn’t quite what you’re expecting. Instead of the usual pork/shrimp combo, I think it was all pork, and it had a mildly gamy flavour that I wasn’t crazy about. They were easily the weak point of the dish.

On the other hand, the generous amount of noodles were perfectly cooked with a good amount of texture, and the broth had a nice clean flavour.

Plus, I think I’m burying the lede here, because this thing was a pretty hearty lunch, and the price? Six bucks. You can’t go wrong there.

Quick Bites: Aquarela Restaurant, Hey Noodles, Good Taste Casserole Rice

Published on September 27, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Mofongo at Aquarela Restaurant

After realizing that I had never tried mofongo — a Puerto Rican dish in which plantain is mashed with garlic and crispy pork skin — I quickly discovered that Aquarela is pretty much the only game in town. Thankfully, they seem to be doing a pretty great job of carrying the torch for the dish in the GTA; I have nothing to compare it to, but it’s tasty, that’s for sure. It’s rich, creamy, garlicky and abundantly delicious. It’s kinda like mashed potatoes on steroids. It also comes with your choice of meat; I went with the crispy pork belly, and yeah, that’s a great combo. Something to cut through the plate’s overwhelming fatty richness would have been nice, but that’s a minor complaint for a very tasty dish.

Noodle Soup at Hey Noodles

The noodles at Hey Noodles are great (as you’d hope for from a place with “noodles” right in the name of the restaurant), but what really blew my mind was the price. I ordered the Chongqing Street Noodles, which is a very large bowl of soup that’s absolutely crammed with noodles, and that somehow only costs $6.99. The egg was an extra dollar, but even still, that’s a fantastic deal, especially considering how tasty it is. The noodles are nice and chewy, and the soup is delightfully zingy, with that addictive combo of spiciness and numbing heat that you get in this style of Chinese cuisine.

Clay pot rice at Good Taste Casserole Rice

Clay pot rice is an extremely simple dish — it’s basically just plain white rice that’s topped with meat and cooked in the eponymous pot, which makes the bottom layer of rice nice and crispy. It’s simple, but immensely satisfying when done well. The one I ordered was topped with eel and various meats and sausages, and yeah, it’s super satisfying. The fluffy/crispy rice, the tasty meats, and the sauce they have on the side (which was in a soy sauce container, but I’m fairly certain was more than just soy sauce) was a great combo.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Szechuan Noodle Bowl

Published on September 13, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 400 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://szechuannoodlebowl.com/

Look, I’m a simple man. If you slap a bowl of freshly-made noodles in front of me, my level of happiness is going to go up by like a hundred percent. Szechuan Noodle Bowl — which, as the name implies, specializes in bowls of freshly-made noodles — makes me a happy man.

I ordered the Hand-Made Noodles, which comes spicy or non-spicy with your choice of topping (beef, ground pork, pork intestines, Chinese pickle, or chicken). I went spicy with ground pork, and yeah, it’s good.

Those noodles are great — they’re thick, chewy, and satisfying. The soup is mildly spicy and has a nice zippy flavour, and the generous amount of tasty ground pork complements it perfectly.

I wish there had been some chili oil on the table — the soup was spicy, but could have been kicked up a bit — but aside from that it was a top-notch bowl of noodles.

Quality Noodles at Wuhan Noodle 1950

Published on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3621 Highway 7, Markham
Website: https://www.wuhan-noodle-1950.com/

I actually visited Wuhan Noodle and wrote this post back in December, well before all the coronavirus shenanigans and racism that put this place in the news. To be clear: no, you won’t get the coronavirus by visiting this restaurant. I wish I were a bit more positive about it now, but here’s what I originally wrote back in December:

I think I’ve become spoiled by the abundant availability of hand-pulled noodles in the GTA. Case in point: Wuhan Noodle 1950. They serve a very tasty bowl of noodles — but it’s hard not to compare them to the places that make their own in-house.

It probably doesn’t help that the dish I ordered — the Wuhan Dry Noodles — is basically all noodles and sauce, which means that the noodles themselves are front-and-centre.

And the noodles here are perfectly cooked, with a nice firm bite — but they lack that addictive chewiness that you only get when you make them fresh.

Still, the creamy sesame- and peanut-infused sauce is very tasty; the included spoonful of chili oil gives it a mild kick, and the herbs and pickled veg bring some nice pops of flavour that compliment the creamy sauce.

It’s probably not reasonable to expect every place like this to make their own noodles, and yet… here we are.

Tasty Noodle Soup at House of Gourmet

Published on February 6, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 484 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: http://houseofgourmet.blogspot.com/

Wonton noodle soup is one of those dishes that’s basically always delicious. I’ve certainly had bowls that are better than others, but I think it’s just fundamentally appealing. It’s kinda like pizza; it’s hard to mess up, and even when it’s bad, it’s good.

And the bowl at House of Gourmet is quite good. It’s not the best I’ve ever had, but it’s a solid bowl of noodle soup.

I was clued into this place thanks to this article, which specifically called out the wonton brisket noodle soup as being the thing to order here. The addition of fatty, tender, flavourful beef suits the bowl quite well.

Everything else is just as it should be; the soup has a savoury punch, the noodles are nice and firm, and the chunky wontons are quite satisfying.

And of course, you’ve gotta add some chili oil to the bowl. Unlike the stuff I recently had at Ming’s Noodle Cafe, which was crammed with flavour but surprisingly low on spice, a heaping spoonful is all you need to give the bowl a nice kick.