food – Page 74 – Michael Eats

Solid Ice Cream at 00 Gelato

Published on September 16, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 370 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/00gelato/

Not everything needs to be (or can be) a home run. Sometimes it’s fine for a dish to be solid — perfectly tasty, but nothing too mind-blowing.

That’s 00 Gelato in a nutshell. I don’t think anyone’s going to call it the best gelato in the city, but it’s quite satisfying.

The place is a bit odd. It’s in a closet-sized spot on King, and it’s basically just a gelato counter in a doorway. It seems super makeshift, but it’s been popping up for the last few summers, so it’s permanent enough.

I had a scoop of the Ferrero Rocher, and it’s good. The gelato itself is rich and creamy, and the flavour is quite nice. It’s a bit too sweet, but it otherwise does a great job of capturing the Ferrero Rocher flavour, right down to the crispy wafer bits.

Disappointment at General Assembly Pizza

Published on September 6, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 331 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.gapizza.com/

The last time I checked out General Assembly Pizza, I noted that the crust didn’t quite have the level of chew that you’re looking for; sadly, that issue has not gotten any better. If anything, it’s worse.

Their current special is a TIFF-inspired pizza called the Pink Panther: “rose sauce, shrimp, lemon, red jalapeno, garlic, scallion, mozzarella.”

It’s not bad. The flavours all work together relatively well, and the shrimp is perfectly cooked. But it’s an off-kilter pizza, and unlike the off-kilter pies at a place like Descendant, I kinda wished I was eating something a bit more traditional. Nothing about it particularly pops.

Still, it’s tasty enough — aside from the crust. As you can see from the photo, it’s perfectly cooked, with a delightful amount of char from the hot oven. But it lacks substance, and it’s kinda bland. It almost dissolves in your mouth; you barely even have to chew it.

I also tried the General Bread from the Snacks portion of the menu, which is described as “aged mozzarella, grana, garlic, aleppo pepper, wild oregano.” It had the same issues with the dough, but it’s loaded with enough cheese and garlic (not to mention the tomato dipping sauce) to overcome the crust’s deficiencies. It’s quite good.

Tasty Cookies and Amazing Soft Serve at Soul Chocolate

Published on September 5, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 583 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: https://www.soulroasters.com/

Soul Chocolate is a delightful chocolate/coffee shop on the east end that has some seriously satisfying chocolate soft serve. Like, ridiculously satisfying.

I also tried the chocolate chunk cookie, and that’s very good too — it has a nice chewy texture, a sweet buttery flavour, and a whole bunch of great quality chocolate chunks. It’s lightly sprinkled with just the right amount of salt to offset its sweetness.

As delicious as the cookie is (and it’s extremely delicious), it’s overshadowed by the phenomenal soft serve.

Seriously: this stuff is pure magic. It’s perfectly rich and creamy, though it’s the intense chocolatey flavour that really makes it stand out. It’s got that bold flavour that you only get from great quality dark chocolate, and it’s amazing.

It actually reminds me of the thick, rich drinking chocolate that they serve at Soma — only it’s ice cream. If you’re thinking that sounds delightful, you are correct. It is delightful. Extremely delightful.

The Truth About Milkshakes

Published on September 3, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke (inside Sherway Gardens)
Website: https://www.sweetjesusicecream.com/

I’m just gonna say it: milkshakes are for jerks.

Well, okay, maybe that’s not true. Milkshakes are perfectly delicious, but generally speaking, if I’m going to eat ice cream, I want to eat ice cream. I don’t need to drink it.

Still, I don’t mind a milkshake every now and then, and since I’ve tried all the cones at Sweet Jesus, I figured sure, why not?

I got the Peanut Butter, Pretzel & Chocolate Hazelnut shake, which features “vanilla soft serve, peanut butter sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, hazelnut-chocolate sauce, salted pretzel crumble.”

Yeah, it’s a lot of stuff. And it’s quite tasty — it tastes pretty much exactly what you think it’s going to taste like based on that description.

I find a lot of milkshakes to be unpleasantly thick; if I have to struggle to suck it up through a straw, then what’s the point? Just let me just eat it with a spoon. This, on the other hand, was easily drinkable. It was the perfect consistency, though I suspect milkshake aficionados might find it too thin.

Passable Taiwanese Food at Chi Chop!!

Published on September 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2352 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: http://chichop.ca/

You wouldn’t particularly know it from what they’re serving at Chi Chop (sorry — Chi Chop!!), but Taiwanese food is pretty great. It has a lot in common with Chinese cuisine, but it’s also got its own thing going on in some very delightful ways.

Chi Chop (!!) serves Taiwanese-style fried chicken, and it’s fine. I got the Ninja crispy chicken bento box, which comes with a generous piece of boneless fried chicken, rice, a salad, three small spring rolls, and miso soup.

Nothing particularly stands out. The fried chicken isn’t bad, but it’s made from white meat, and it’s predictably dry. It’s also a bit too aggressively battered, with an overly thick exterior.

Still, I didn’t dislike eating it. It’s nicely seasoned, and there’s nothing blatantly wrong with it. It’s missing the sauce from the photo on their menu (which would have been nice), but… I don’t know. It didn’t offend me. It’s a shrug. An edible shrug.

It probably doesn’t help that the set is a bit muddled; the chicken is Taiwanese, the soup is Japanese, and the spring rolls taste Filipino (they have a separate section of the menu dedicated to Filipino cuisine). It definitely feels like a “Jack of all trades, master of none” situation.