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Delicious Sandwiches at Mattachioni

Published on May 23, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1617 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.mattachioni.com/mattachioni-west

I previously tried the mortadella sandwich at Mattachioni and found it to be thoroughly delicious. Well, clearly this place knows their way around a tasty sandwich, because I just tried a couple more and they were both extremely tasty.

First up is the porchetta, which is as simple as it gets — it’s just a whole bunch of sliced porchetta on toasted sourdough. If the porchetta itself weren’t so good, this might have been too simple, but the tender, herby, and intensely flavourful pork shines brightly enough to not need any accompaniments.

The bread is great too, though it might have been a bit too aggressively toasted; I don’t think bread that good needs that level of crunchifying, not to mention the fact that it was so toasty that it was difficult to eat without wrecking the inside of your mouth.

I also tried the S. Marcobruno: “Tuna in olive oil, Egg, Tomato, Arugula, Radicchio,
Pickled red onion, Lemon.” I liked both sandwiches, but I think this one was the superior of the two, with a great balance between the meatiness from the tuna and richness from the egg, punched up with some delightfully zippy flavours. The bread was untoasted, and the quality level of the sourdough here is so high that I think that’s the way to go.

Surf ‘N Turf Burger at McDonald’s

Published on April 5, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

McDonald’s recently introduced a “Remix Menu,” featuring a few fun combinations of regular menu items. Yes, this is all technically stuff you could have been ordering all along, but that would require either:

Ordering two separate items and then winding up with a bunch of extra bread, or
Trying to explain an unnecessarily complicated custom order to an overworked cashier who has no time for — or interest in — your nonsense.

I didn’t particularly want to do either of those things, so this promo is actually kind of exciting to me.

The new menu consists of a burger/chicken combo, a Junior Chicken with a sweet chili sauce, an apple pie McFlurry, and the one I tried: the Surf ‘N Turf burger, which features all the stuff you’d normally find on a McDonald’s cheeseburger (cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and little onions) with a Filet-O-Fish patty crammed in.

It’s… fine? It’s not offensive to eat, but it turns out there’s a reason the cheeseburger / fried fish combo isn’t a thing. The two items don’t particularly complement each other.

McDonald’s beef isn’t super flavourful, so most of the taste here comes from the Filet-O-Fish patty. But the texture of the burger is much more prominent. So you’re basically eating a sandwich with a beef texture and a fish flavour. It’s weird. And again, it’s not gross, but I can’t see a scenario in which I’d ever want to order this again.

Solid Poke Bowls at Pokeworks

Published on December 5, 2023December 7, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 197 North Queen Street, Etobicoke
Website: https://pokeworks.ca/

Pokeworks is an American poke chain that’s just starting their Canadian expansion (with 50 locations to come, apparently).

If you’ve been to a poke place before, then you know the deal: they’ve got the usual assortment of raw tuna and salmon (along with cooked chicken and tofu) that you can get with various toppings and sauces, served on rice, noodles, or salad (or some combination of the two).

You can either create your own bowl or go with one of their “Signature Works.” I went with the latter, and got the Umami Ahi (“Ahi tuna, cucumber, sweet onion, shredded nori, edamame, umami shoyu sauce, surimi salad, pickled ginger, green onion, sesame seeds, garlic crisps”).

It didn’t exactly blow me away, but it’s a solid bowl of poke. In particular, the chunks of tuna are fresh, sizable, and generous. The flavours are a bit too muted and the rice was overcooked (it was mushy in spots), but everything else was quite tasty.

I don’t think it’s going to rock anyone’s world, but if you’re in the area and you’re looking for a tasty, relatively healthy meal, you could definitely do worse.

Delicious Thai Food at Thammada Thai Cuisine

Published on October 25, 2023October 31, 2023 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 2888 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://thammada.meemup.com/

I visited Thammada Thai Cuisine on a recent Sunday for lunch; the place was completely deserted for the entire time I was there, which is a damn shame because all of the food was very, very good.

I had read about this place in the Toronto Star, so of course I had to try the main dish they recommended, which is a whole fried fish that you can either order with fried garlic or nam chim sauce. I went with the latter, which is a delightfully zesty, zippy sauce that complements the crispy fried fish perfectly.

The fish looks like it’s going to be one of those dishes you have to eat very carefully, with a minefield of tiny little bones, but it’s actually completely deboned aside from the tail and the head. It’s all edible and it’s all delicious, with a perfectly crisp exterior and flaky meat within.

I also sampled the tried-and-true pad thai, which was just as good as the fish. I sometimes find this dish to be a bit cloying, but the version here had a really great balance of flavours, perfectly chewy noodles, and a mild smokiness from the blazing hot wok. It was probably one of the better versions of pad thai that I’ve ever had.

Enjoyable Health Food at iQ

Published on December 29, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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

Though I hadn’t heard of iQ until very recently, they actually have nine locations as I write this, mostly downtown. The whole place kind of comes off as a parody of a trendy health food joint, with various bowls and avocado toasts on the menu, but based on the bowl I tried, it’s actually pretty tasty.

I got the Steelhead + Veg bowl: “roasted steelhead trout, avocado, roasted sweet potato, steamed broccoli, cucumber, pickled onion, jalapeno, brown rice, chopped romaine, lime wedge, carrot ginger dressing.”

It’s not bad at all. It’s got a good variety of tastes and textures, the dressing was nice and zippy, and the quality of the fish (which is served cold, like the rest of the ingredients here) is quite good. I don’t think it’s going to blow anyone’s mind, but for something that’s so blatantly healthy, it’s pretty satisfying.