Chinese – Page 3 – Michael Eats

Quick Bites: Sun’s Kitchen, Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House, Perkins

Published on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Noodles with Spicy Pork from Sun’s Kitchen

Sun’s Kitchen is (was?) my favourite restaurant in the Pacific Mall food court, but sadly, it seems that they’ve gone downhill. I pretty much always order the same thing here (noodles with spicy pork), and mostly, it was just as tasty as ever. But the real attraction of this place are the delightfully chewy noodles that they hand-pull on site, and on this particular visit they were shockingly mushy. My dining companion said he had the same experience a few months ago, so I’m not even sure if this was a one-time mistake. They’ve also stopped serving the soup and soy milk that used to come on the side (and the bowl now comes with an egg), so I wonder if there was a change of ownership. Either way, I can’t imagine I’ll be back anytime soon, sadly.

Crispy shrimp and pork dumplings from Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House

Speaking of the Pacific Mall, I also tried these fried dumplings from Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House, and they were quite satisfying. The filling could have been a bit more generous (there was a marble-sized ball of meat in the centre of each dumpling, which was otherwise all wrapper), but the exterior had a nice balance of chewiness and crispiness, and the whole thing was very tasty.

Southern Fried Chicken Biscuit Breakfast from Perkins

I was actually pretty excited to try Perkins, an American chain with a menu that reminds me of places like Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel (both of which have zero locations in Canada, sadly). I ordered the Southern Fried Chicken Biscuit Breakfast, and while the whole thing wasn’t unpleasant to eat, I think I could have had roughly the same experience (at a fraction of the price) by going to the supermarket and buying a Hungry Man dinner.

Chinese Fast Food at Bingz Crispy Burger

Published on June 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3401 Dufferin Street, North York (inside Yorkdale Mall)
Website: https://www.bingzcanada.com/

Bingz is a Chinese chain that sells a variety of sandwiches made with a crispy, flaky bun, along with a handful of side dishes.

I went with the signature pork, and it’s delightfully simple — it’s just braised pork shoulder on a bun. That’s it. Want any condiments? Go somewhere else!

It’s quite good. It’s very no-frills, but the pork is meaty, flavourful, and super tender. The crispy bun is a good mix of flaky/crispy and chewy, and suits the pork perfectly.

(Also, this probably goes without saying, but this thing is absolutely not a burger in any appreciable way, making the name a bit of a head-scratcher.)

And it’s only six bucks, which is actually a pretty great deal; they manage to cram a decent amount of meat into that thing. For something from a food court in a mall, it’s way better than it needs to be.

Great Pastries at Fragrant Bakery

Published on May 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3833 Midland Avenue, Scarborough
Website: None

I recently watched this video about a Chinese pastry called a wife cake; I’d never even heard of this before, but figured it was a safe bet that it was available somewhere in the GTA.

And indeed, Fragrant Bakery — a tiny hole-the-wall bakery in Scarborough — serves the stuff.

A wife cake (which is probably closer to a pie than a cake) features a filling made of winter melon, sesame seeds, and coconut that’s wrapped in a flaky dough. It’s really unique, with a mildly chewy texture, a restrained sweetness, and a slight savouriness that sets it apart from your average sweet pastry.

I’d also heard good things about the egg tart here, so I tried one; I’m generally not crazy about Hong Kong egg tarts (true to their name, I find them to be a bit too eggy), but if you like them, this is a really good one. The crust is super flaky and fresh, and the filling is luxuriously silky.

This place does well (there was a line to get in when I showed up), and it’s easy enough to see why.

Unique Chinese Food at Tangritah Kabab House

Published on December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 900 Rathburn Road West, Mississauga
Website: None

One of the things I like about living in Toronto is that not only is pretty much every country’s cuisine available to try (which I explore in another blog, 196 Plates — I think it might be about time to bring that one back), you can actually get so much more specific than that.

This place — which specializes in Uyghur cuisine — is a great example of this. “Chinese food” tends to be put under one enormous umbrella, but China is a huge country, and its food is wildly different from region to region.

I tried a few things here, and it was all extremely delicious. First up: a dish the menu only refers to as “fried meat.” I think it was beef, though it might have been lamb (if it was, it didn’t have much of a lamby flavour). Either way, it was super tasty, with a bunch of tender meat, nicely cooked onions, and a very cumin-tinged flavour that was extremely addictive.

Next up was the Tangritah Special Langmen, which is an Uyghur dish in which hand-pulled noodles are topped with stir-fried veggies and meat. The flavour here was a bit less distinctive than the fried meat, but the noodles had a really satisfying chewiness, and the veggies and meat were perfectly cooked (again, I’m not sure what the meat was, but I’m gonna say beef).

Finally, I tried the samsa, a bun filled with a mix of lamb and onions. This looks like it might have initially been crispy on its exterior, which would have been nice, but it was either steamed or microwaved to reheat and was soft throughout. Regardless, it was quite tasty.

Quick Bites: Eataly Sherway Gardens, The Daily Dumpling Wonton Co., Roywoods

Published on November 15, 2023November 15, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Tuna sandwich and almond pastry cream croissant from Eataly in Sherway Gardens

I really hope that Eataly in Sherway gardens is still working out the kinks from their recent opening, because while my first visit was generally okay, I just tried a couple of things, and neither was even remotely worth what they’re charging. The tuna sandwich was basically fine, even if it tasted like something I could make at home and featured bread that didn’t exactly taste fresh. But the croissant (girella crema e mandrla) was so aggressively stale that I actually asked for my money back after a couple of bites. I’ve literally never even considered returning a pastry up to this point — and I’ve had a lot of bad pastries in my life — so make of that what you will.

Dumplings from The Daily Dumpling Wonton Co.

I tried a couple of varieties of dumpling from this place (Classic Shanghai, which is pork and mustard greens, along with shrimp, pork, and chive), and both were quite tasty. Neither variety particularly knocked my socks off, but they both featured perfectly cooked wrappers and satisfying fillings. The highlight might have actually been the very tasty chili oil, which is smoky, mildly spicy, and features a nice balance of flavours; they sell this in jars you can bring home, and yeah, I bought one.

Jerk chicken from Roywoods in Yorkdale

The time I tried the jerk chicken from Roywoods, I had it in a sandwich, so I figured I’d get the plate with rice this time. The boneless dark meat was a bit on the salty side, as was the rice, but it was otherwise quite tasty (and unlike last time, it actually had a pretty good kick). It’s nothing too mind-blowing, but for something from a food court, you could certainly do worse.