food – Page 30 – Michael Eats

Cheesy Noodles at Garden Hong Kong Cafe

Published on December 8, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 28 South Unionville Avenue, Markham
Website: None

I’ve mentioned before that I make it a general policy on this blog to not compare dishes to the real deal in whatever country they’re from. I just don’t think it’s particularly useful or fair, for a number of reasons.

But sometimes I’ve gotta do it. In this case, I pretty much fell in love with the cheese noodles I had in Hong Kong, and was very excited when I saw that they had them on the menu at Garden Hong Kong Cafe in Markham.

It’s a really simple dish; it’s basically just instant noodles with cheese sauce. In Hong Kong, it was served with braised pork cheek on the side; here, it was chicken wings.

I will say that the version at Garden Hong Kong Cafe was tasty enough, especially when you top it with a generous spoonful (or two, or three) of the garlicky, sweet chili oil they have on the table. That chili oil is doing about 95 percent of the heavy lifting in making this as good as it is, but hey — tasty is tasty. I’m not complaining.

Sadly, the cheese sauce here is pretty bland, and is applied very sparingly to the noodles (as opposed to Hong Kong, where the sauce completely smothered the dish and had a delightfully sharp cheesy flavour).

Still, that aforementioned chili oil is delicious enough to smooth over any of the dish’s faults, and at $8.50 (!) — which includes a mug of delicious milk tea — it’s hard to deny that it’s an absolute steal.

I should note that this place is very small and very busy (it was already packed and had a waiting list when I showed up a few minutes after they opened on a recent Saturday), so keep that in mind.

A Cheap, Tasty Lunch at Brandt European Food Market

Published on December 2, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1878 Mattawa Avenue, Mississauga
Website: https://brandtmeats.com/brandt-food-market/

I’ve written about hidden gems on this blog before, but it doesn’t get much more hidden than this place. It’s located along a dead-end industrial road, and unless you happen to work in the area, there is zero chance that you’d drive by the place.

(And even if you did, it’s so nondescript that you likely wouldn’t even realize that a delightful little Eastern European supermarket and restaurant can be found within.)

It’s actually a factory outlet for Brand meats, a Mississauga-based manufacturer of various Eastern European sausages and meats, and it features the aforementioned supermarket, along with a hot table with a nice spread of stuff like schnitzel and cabbage rolls.

I went with the BBQ pork chops, which features tender braised pork and mushrooms in a zippy sauce. The meal comes with two chops piled on top of a mountain of sides (you can pick two, and they are generous). I had the potatoes, which are basically like hash browns, and the sauerkraut, which is well above average.

Nothing about it particularly blew my mind, but the plate cost ten bucks and was piled high with food, so it’s a fantastic deal.

Tasty Wraps at I Am Doner

Published on December 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 433 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.iamdoner.ca/

I Am Doner is an oddly-named doner chain from the UK that serves beef doner and chicken shawarma (along with various vegetarian options like falafel and halloumi) that you can either get as a wrap or a bowl.

I ordered the house special, which comes crammed with chicken shawarma, beef doner, falafel, and halloumi. Because why get one thing when you can get everything?? That’s just science. I ordered it as a wrap, which, by default, comes with chili sauce, mayo, and a whole bunch of veggies.

Between the meat, the cheese, the falafel, the various veggies, and the generous amount of sauce, it’s a bit of a mess. It’s ridiculously crammed with stuff. They’re not kidding around, that’s for sure.

It’s very tasty, but there’s so much going on here that it’s hard to even gauge the quality of the individual components. It’s just one meaty, saucy mass of food. I liked it a lot, but I’d probably just pick one of the meats next time so I can have a better idea of what I’m eating.

The bread they wrap it in definitely has a big job to do, because this thing is so overstuffed that it really needs something with heft to hold up to it all. And yeah, it does its job. It’s nice and chewy, and holds together nicely. It’s a very good wrap.

Tasty Fried Chicken Sandwiches at Knuckle Sandwich

Published on November 29, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 969 Coxwell Avenue, East York
Website: https://knucklesandwich.ca/

Though Knuckle Sandwich has a variety of sandwiches on the menu, their specialty seems to be fried chicken — it comes first on the menu, and they offer three different varieties (classic, Buffalo, and Korean).

(You’d think there would be a titular “Knuckle Sandwich,” but there is not, which strikes me as a bit odd. You’re really going to name your restaurant Knuckle Sandwich and not have a knuckle sandwich on the menu? Come on.)

I went with the Korean fried chicken (“Gochujang Glaze, Miso Kimchi Slaw, House Pickles”), and I enjoyed it. The sauce was nice and zippy, though the level of crunch wasn’t quite where it should be, the spice level was basically nonexistent, and the chicken itself was a bit dry.

Still, those aren’t huge complaints; the fact that I’m even nitpicking this sandwich is more indicative of how spoiled we are for great fried chicken sandwiches in the GTA than of the actual quality level of this particular one. A few years ago, I would have been blown away by this sandwich, but the current bar for fried chicken sandwiches is impossibly high.

A Delicious Korean Pancake at Hodo Kwaja

Published on November 27, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 656 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://hodokwaja.ca/

I previously tried the walnut cakes at Hodo Kwaja, which is their specialty. Those things are thoroughly delicious, and it was tempting to just order them again. But they also serve a few other desserts here, including hotteok — Korean pancakes with a sweet filling.

You can order these filled with either brown sugar or red bean; brown sugar is the more traditional choice, so that’s what I went with.

It’s extremely delicious. I figured this wouldn’t be on the level of the walnut cakes, but I actually think it might be even better? It’s just as good, that’s for sure.

The pancake itself is delightfully chewy, and the sweet brown sugar syrup complements it perfectly. It’s a very sweet dessert, but there’s a good balance between the pastry and the syrup; it’s not the throat-burner you might suspect.