food – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Lamb Noodles at Three Sheep Gourmet Foods

Published on July 10, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1000 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: None

I was intrigued by Three Sheep Gourmet Foods when I saw that they had a dish on their menu called “Lamb Haggis Noodle Soup.” My initial assumption was that this was just a translation quirk — but then I saw that they also have a dish called “Scottish Noodles.”

Could it be… Chinese/Scottish fusion??

No; the answer to that is no. I ordered the Lamb Haggis Noodle Soup, and the only connection to haggis is that it features a bunch of innards. Otherwise, there’s nothing even remotely resembling that dish.

(Still kinda curious about those Scottish noodles, though.)

Aside from dashing my Chinese/Scottish fusion dreams, it’s a solid dish. The soup has a clean, meaty flavour (and is nicely kicked up by the optional chili oil on the counter), the various organs are nicely prepared, and it’s got a very generous amount of thick noodles (which were slightly overcooked, but still satisfying enough).

My only real complaint here is that one of the bits of offal (spleen, possibly?) was just too strong for me. It was like liver times a million. I actually like the metallic, minerally taste of liver, but this one kinda knocked me out. I quite liked everything else in the bowl, however.

A Tasty Breakfast at Ying Ji Chang Fen

Published on July 7, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4040 Creditview Road, Mississauga
Website: https://yinjicanada.com/

Ying Ji Chang Fen does well. I showed up at around 10:00 on a Saturday morning and it was already starting to fill up; by the time I left, it was basically packed. That’s not to mention the constant stream of take-out orders. Clearly, people know a good thing when they find it.

Their menu consists mostly of various congee dishes and rice noodle rolls, and I tried one of each.

First up: Marinated Beef & Shrimp with Chives Rice Noodle Roll. No, it’s not the most photogenic dish you’ll ever see (neither were), but it was thoroughly tasty, with a generous amount of perfectly cooked shrimp and tender beef, a perfectly chewy rice noodle wrapper, and a delicious sweetened soy sauce on top.

Bonus: the extremely tasty chili oil on the table, which enhances everything you put it on.

I also tried the Preserved Egg and Minced beef congee, and yeah, that was just as good. The congee itself was hearty and satisfying, and all the toppings — from the crunch of the peanuts to the chewiness of the preserved egg — worked really well together.

I got a side order of the dough stick, and that was quite good too — slightly oily, but nice and fresh, and a really great complement to the congee.

Quick Bites: Poke by Sushi Shop, Eataly Ristorante, Mizzica Gelateria & Cafe

Published on July 5, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Salmon & Tuna poke bowl from Poke by Sushi Shop

The salmon & sushi poke bowl (“Salmon, tuna, lettuce, red cabbage, wakame, radish, orange masago, ponzu, teriyaki and poke sauces, spicy light mayo, nori”) at Poke by Sushi Shop is solid. Did anything about it blow me away? Not particularly (I also found the presence of a whole bunch of iceberg lettuce to be a bit off-putting). But it featured some tasty toppings and sauces and a generous amount of fresh salmon and tuna. For something from a food court (particularly the Sherway Gardens food court, which kinda sucks), it’s a nice option.

Ragu pasta from Eataly Ristorante in Sherway Gardens

I haven’t been particularly crazy about anything I’ve had from the Eataly location in Sherway Gardens thus far, and yeah, that’s still the case. I got a ragu pasta (which isn’t on the menu on their website, so I’m not sure what it was called or what was in it — very helpful, I know), and it was fine. It had some surprisingly big chunks of pork, which were fork-tender and easily the highlight. Otherwise it was just kinda one-note salty. Certainly not unpleasant to eat, but I think anyone with even a moderate level of skill in the kitchen could whip up a tastier pasta dish with stuff in their pantry.

Black Sesame gelato from Mizzica Gelateria & Cafe

Mizzica is generally regarded as serving the best gelato in the city. They’ve also started to expand, with a second location around Yonge and Eglinton. So this is about the time you might expect the quality to start going downhill. Happily, that doesn’t seem to be the case — at least not yet. The black sesame gelato is just as rich and creamy as everything else I’ve had here, and has a very satsifying roasty sesame flavour. It kinda reminded me of a gelato version of Sesame Snaps, but with no crunchiness. I find most black sesame ice cream doesn’t quite have as much sesame flavour as I’d like, but this was pretty fantastic.

Tasty Buns at Blooming Garden Dessert House

Published on July 1, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Website: None

Look, I’m a simple man with simple pleasures. Put a red bean bun in front of me, and I’m going to eat and enjoy that bun. I’ve had a lot of red bean buns of varying levels of quality, but I’ve never had one I’ve outright disliked.

I also enjoy desserts that are on the less sweet side of things, so when I saw that Blooming Garden Dessert House serves something that they call a “less sugar red bean pineapple bun,” I was all over that.

I know that I just said that I’d enjoy literally any red bean bun that you put in front of me, so maybe that kills my credibility a bit, but this was a particularly good one. I really, really enjoyed it.

I thought it might be barely sweet at all, but while the sugar level is definitely on the more restrained side of things, it’s plenty sweet. The sweetness level is about on par with the better red bean buns that I’ve had, so advertising this as “less sugar” is probably overkill.

Everything here is just right, from the satisfying chunkiness of the filling, to the ultra fresh and chewy bread, to the perfectly crispy topping. It’s legitimately one of the better versions of this that I’ve had in a while.

Extremely Chewy Noodles at Miss Xu Potato Fans

Published on June 28, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/miss_xupotatofans/

As you might guess from the name, Miss Xu Potato Fans specializes in potatoes. Specifically: potato noodles, which are basically a much, much chewier version of normal noodles.

They actually have a pretty deep menu; I went with the Braised Pork Mashed Potato Mix Noodles, which comes with mashed potato, braised pork, veggies, and potato noodles. You have the choice of three different preparations for the mashed potato: hot pot, curry, or tomato. I went with hot pot.

It’s a really interesting dish. I’ve never even heard of eating noodles with mashed potatoes, which certainly seems like an odd combo. It works, however; the mashed potatoes do a great job of clinging to the noodles, and they have the vibrant flavour that you associate with Sichuan-style hot pot. But instead of hot pot, it’s… mashed potatoes. Again, odd but tasty.

About half of the noodles are covered with a very generous amount of mashed potatoes, and the other half is coated in a savoury, slightly sweet sauce that kinda reminded me of Korean black bean noodles. The dish also features a generous amount of braised pork belly, which was tasty, if not particularly mind-blowing.

As for the potato noodles, they are very, very chewy. To make another Korean comparison, they reminded me a lot of the noodles you’ll find in naengmyeon — but even chewier, somehow? I think it’s because they’re relatively thick, which makes the chewiness feel more pronounced. It’s a fun novelty, though ultimately, I would have rather just been eating normal noodles (which is also an option here).