chocolate – Page 15 – Michael Eats

Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies at Craig’s Cookies

Published on September 28, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1537 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.craigscookies.com/

Though there are a handful of places to get delicious, freshly-baked cookies in the GTA, there are very few dedicated cookie shops. It’s actually kind of baffling; everybody loves cookies, don’t they?

There’s Felix & Norton in Markham, and apparently there’s a place called Robyn’s Cookies that I literally just discovered on Google moments ago, and… that’s about it. There used to be Moo Milk Bar near the Beaches; they had amazing cookies, but alas, they went under.

Thankfully, there’s a new contender in Toronto’s very un-crowded cookie shop field: Craig’s Cookies.

They sell nothing but cookies and ice cream cookie sandwiches. I have a lot of respect for a place that does one thing, and does it well.

And man, does Craig’s Cookies ever do it well. They have a whole bunch of really delicious-looking cookies; I went with Nutella, which is a standard chocolate chip cookie with a whole bunch of Nutella in the middle.

Pretty much anything with that much Nutella is going to be delicious, but I was actually shocked at how good the cookie itself was. It had a perfect flavour, a great crispy/chewy contrast, and enough chocolate chips to give it that chocolatey hit, but not so many that it’s all you taste.

It also had a great balance of salt, which I think is the secret with a cookie like this. You need a little bit of salt to help balance out the cookie’s sweetness, and Craig’s nails this. There’s just enough salt for it to do its job, but not so much that it stands out. Perfection.

Middling Gelato at Ed’s Real Scoop

Published on September 26, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 189 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.edsrealscoop.com/

I’ve mentioned before that I quite like Ed’s Real Scoop, but that really, their sweet cream is where it’s at. It’s outstanding. Their other flavours are disappointingly hit-and-miss.

But in all my dozens of visits to the place over the years, I’ve never bothered to try their gelato. This is going to be a short post — more of a PSA than anything else — because it’s not very good. I’d advise that you stick to the ice cream. Specifically, stick to the sweet cream.

I tried the pistachio and the bacio (chocolate hazelnut), and both of the flavours were pretty weak. There just wasn’t much there, other than a generic sweetness. This tends to be an issue with their ice cream, too, but at least in that case they’re starting with a great quality base.

Alas, the gelato itself was thin and underwhelming, with barely any creaminess at all. It’s a waste of time when the ice cream is right there.

Unique Scoops at Wong’s Ice Cream

Published on August 21, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 617 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: http://www.wongsicecream.com/

Ice cream is the best (obviously), but if you ever find yourself getting bored with the same old flavours, there’s an easy solution: head to Wong’s, an Asian-inspired ice cream shop with some seriously interesting scoops.

I don’t think you’re going to find taste combinations like pineapple cilantro, wasabi honey, or toasted ramen miso anywhere else in the city (though Wong’s is far from the only Asian ice cream joint in town; Kekou Gelato is another stand-out).

I got the rosewater white chocolate jasmine, and it was seriously delicious. The texture was ever-so-slightly grainy (from the white chocolate, perhaps?), but it was otherwise excellent, with a very rich, creamy consistency.

White chocolate tends to be intensely sweet, so I was worried this would be a bit much, but the sweetness was admirably restrained. Rosewater has a very distinct, very strong flavour (it’s a bit of an acquired taste), but again, the flavours here are really subtle and well-balanced. There’s a mild floral sweetness, but it isn’t in-your-face. If you’re on the fence about rosewater, this might just be the dessert to get you on board.

Mediocre Ice Cream at Cows

Published on August 14, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 44 Queen Street, Niagara on the Lake
Website: https://cows.ca/

Cows has been a Niagara on the Lake institution since 1983, so they’re obviously doing something right. Though in this case, I think the thing they did right was picking a location that’s right in the middle of the main road in a very touristy town. Because the actual ice cream isn’t that great.

It’s relatively rich and creamy, so it’s certainly very, very far from the worst ice cream I’ve ever had. But the flavour was a pretty big shrug.

I got the Wowie Cowie, which is “vanilla ice cream, English toffee marble, chocolate flakes & moo crunch.”

The vanilla ice cream doesn’t taste like anything but generic sweetness. There’s nothing there. Plain ice cream can be amazing — the sweet cream at Ed’s, which doesn’t even have vanilla bean to fall back on, manages to pack in an impressive amount of flavour and depth. Meanwhile, this tasted like sweet nothing.

The “English toffee marble” was even worse, and there’s a lot of it rippled in there. It didn’t have any of the rich caramel flavour you’d expect from English toffee; it was just thick and sweet, like plain corn syrup.

As for the other elements, the chocolate was fine, and the moo crunch didn’t even seem to be there (I’m not sure what it was supposed to be, but I didn’t notice anything but the caramel and the chocolate).

Terrible Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins

Published on August 6, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 855 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.baskinrobbins.ca/

This probably won’t come as much of a surprise: it turns out that the ice cream at Baskin Robbins isn’t very good. I haven’t been there in several years, but I remember it being decent enough.

Either I’ve become pickier in the meantime, or it’s become worse. Probably a bit of both.

I tried the current flavour of the month, Cookies ‘n Cake: “Cake flavored ice cream, cookie pieces, and a chocolate cake batter flavored ribbon.”

The quality of the ice cream itself was pretty bad; it was slightly better than really bottom-of-the-barrel stuff like Chapman’s, but that’s really not saying much. The texture was thin and unsatisfying.

The flavour was even worse. I’ve eaten a lot of cake in my lifetime, and none of it even remotely tasted like the ice cream here. I’m normally fine with artificial, cake-flavoured junk food, but this stuff was just vile. I’m having a hard time even figuring out how to describe the flavour — it was acrid and unpleasant and weird.

The cookie chunks were good, at least — they were Oreo pieces, so no surprise there. But the “chocolate cake batter flavored ribbon” basically just tasted like a sweeter, less chocolatey version of Nesquik chocoalte syrup. It wasn’t offensive like the ice cream, but it wasn’t particularly good, either.