dessert – Page 19 – Michael Eats

A Tasty Dessert at Old Mill Pastry & Deli

Published on December 8, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 385 The West Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://oldmillpastry.ca/

Old Mill Pastry & Deli is an unassuming little place that sells a bunch of European groceries, along with pastries like burek and the thing I tried, a delightful Turkish dessert called tulumba.

I wasn’t familiar with this particular dessert until I tried it here, and clearly I’ve been missing out because it’s delicious.

The closest thing I can compare it to is a churro; they’re both fried tube-like pastries with ridges along the outside.

But the tulumba is thicker and soaked in syrup — I guess it’s kind of like if a churro and a Greek doughnut (a.k.a. loukoumades) had a baby. It’s syrupy but not overly sweet, with an interior that’s heartier than a traditional doughnut with an almost custardy flavour, and an exterior that has a satisfying crunch that’s amped up by those ridges. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed this.

Tasty Australian Pastries at The Sydney Grind

Published on November 29, 2022November 29, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2883 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.thesydneygrind.com/

The Sydney Grind is a delightful Australian-themed coffee shop that serves a bunch of tasty-looking pastries. One of those pastries: the lamington, an Australian specialty that features yellow cake coated in chocolate and coconut.

It’s quite tasty. I mean, how could it not be? It’s just plain cake with chocolate and coconut — all tasty stuff.

Well, I guess you could mess it up by making a bad quality cake or using shoddy chocolate, but that’s clearly not the case here. The cake is tasty and moist, and the chocolate/coconut combo is expectedly delicious.

Quick Bites: Pizzeria Via Napoli, Ikkoi Japanese Family Cuisine, Nani’s Gelato

Published on November 17, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Margherita pizza from Pizzeria Via Napoli

I suppose you could order something from a Neapolitan pizza joint that isn’t a margherita pizza, but why would you? As I’ve mentioned before, it’s the perfect food. It’s also a great test of a restaurant’s chops, because it’s so simple that if your technique isn’t on point, and if the ingredients you’re working with aren’t great, it’s going to show. Pizzeria Via Napoli’s version absolutely hits it out of the park; the crust is flavourful, perfectly chewy, and has a good amount of char on its exterior (including the bottom of the slice). And the other ingredients are just right. Margherita test: passed!

Ramen from Ikkoi Japanese Family Cuisine

Speaking of food that’s perfect: ramen. It’s the best. I ordered the tonkotsu ramen from Ikkoi (they serve several other styles of ramen, along with sushi and other Japanese standbys), and it’s pretty decent. Is it the best bowl of ramen that I’ve ever had? No; their menu is so broad that they’re probably spreading themselves a bit thin. But there’s also absolutely nothing wrong with it. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but if you’re in the area and you’re craving a bowl of ramen, it’s worth a shot.

Dark Chocolate Oreo at Nani’s Gelato

Nani’s continues to be great. I don’t particularly feel the need to write about Nani’s every time I eat there, because I think it’s fairly clear by this point that I think Nani’s serves some truly stellar gelato. But I would like to note that, even though it’s not technically on the menu, Nani’s does have a kids size cup that’s pretty much the perfect amount if you’re not super hungry. It’s the same size cup as the small, but the gelato pretty much only goes to the brim instead of being mounded way up. I’m not sure why they don’t advertise this size, but I’m definitely glad I know it exists. And now you do too!

Enjoyable Ice Cream at Scoops in Port Credit

Published on November 15, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 82 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/scoopsicecreamshop/

Scoops is a fun little ice cream shop in Port Credit that serves scoops, sundaes, and milkshakes, and that makes all their own ice cream in-house.

It actually reminds me a lot of Ed’s Real Scoop, particularly the layout, with gelato up front and the various ice cream flavours behind it.

They have a whole bunch of interesting flavours (I didn’t count, but it’s gotta be over twenty); I went with Nutella banana.

It’s pretty decent. It’s probably not worth going out of your way for if you’re not already in Port Credit, but it’s a solid scoop of ice cream. My flavour was a bit icy, but was otherwise quite rich and creamy.

The yellow colour made me worried that banana extract might be involved, but if it was, I couldn’t tell (the ice cream actually had a slightly underripe banana flavour). And of course, I don’t have to tell you that banana and Nutella are great together.

Also: I’m just happy whenever an ice cream shop is still using plastic spoons. Sorry, the environment — wooden spoons are horrible. I’m pretty sure that if they eat ice cream in hell (fart flavoured, I guess?), they use wooden spoons.

A Mind-blowing Chocolate Babka from Boulangerie Cheskie

Published on November 1, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 359 Rue Bernard Ouest, Montreal, Quebec
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheskies/133884676726138

Every time I’ve had a babka or a babka-like dessert, it’s been okay at best (or much, much worse — the chocolate buffalo from Bagel Nash comes to mind). So I didn’t have particularly high hopes for the chocolate babka at Boulangerie Cheskie, but after seeing it on a few lists of the best bakeries in Montreal, I figured I’d give it a shot.

I guess I’m going to have to start figuring out where the best babka in Toronto can be procured, because who knew a babka could be this good??

It’s outstanding. I wish I had taken a picture of its glorious, glorious innards, because you really don’t get a sense of how incredible this thing is just by looking at the outside. It’s chewy, fresh, and amazingly fudgy– Eater referred to it as “the love child of a brownie and brioche roll,” and yeah, that’s about right. It’s gooey and chocolatey and addictive.

I guess I’m glad that this bakery is several hundred kilometres away, because I could eat about a million of these. As soon as I finished it I was extremely tempted to head back inside and buy another one, but there was other food to eat, so I restrained myself.