garlic – Page 3 – Michael Eats

Garlic Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on November 20, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

Wendy’s is on a roll — the last burger I tried here, the French Onion Cheeseburger, was easily a top-tier fast food hamburger. This one? Not on that level, but still quite tasty!

The Garlic Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger, as per their website: “A quarter pound of fresh, never-frozen Canadian beef, roasted mushrooms, 3 strips of Applewood smoked bacon, muenster cheese, and Renée’s Gourmet Creamy Garlic Spread. Literally oozing with umami.”

Muenster cheese! On a fast food cheeseburger! Ooh la la.

Also, normally I’d mock the line “literally oozing with umami,” but you know what? It kinda is. It’s savoury AF, and is definitely more umami-packed than your typical fast food fare.

Maybe too umami-packed? On top of being incredibly savoury, it’s a bit of a salt bomb. Something with a little sweetness and/or acidity to cut through the salty richness would be nice.

Still, I can’t deny that it’s tasty. The very rich, garlicky sauce pairs nicely with the mushrooms and the bacon, and the slice of muenster cheese definitely sets it apart from its American-cheese-topped fast food brethren.

Seriously though, throw some pickles on there or something? It’s a lot.

Thin Crust Pizza at Burattino Brick Oven Pizza

Published on April 9, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3109 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.burattinopizza.ca/

Burattino is an LA pizza chain specializing in thin-crust pizzas that opened their first location in Toronto a couple of years ago.

They have a handful of fairly unique pizzas on their menu, though the black garlic 120 pepperoni caught my eye — it comes topped with black-garlic-infused marinara, along with a whole bunch of pepperoni (120 refers to the amount of pepperoni slices on the large version of pizza).

For the unfamiliar, black garlic is made by roasting garlic at a very low temperature over the course of several days, giving it a unique jet-black colour and a mild, sweet flavour.

It’s a solid pizza. The black garlic sauce gives the pie a tasty roasted garlic flavour, which contrasts nicely with the salty pepperoni. The thin crust is a bit boring (it’s comparable to chains like Pizza Nova or Dominos rather than the better pizza joints in the GTA), but it gets the job done.

A Delicious Sandwich at Falafel Plus

Published on December 7, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1065 Canadian Place, Mississauga
Website: https://falafelplus.ca/

I’ve had the falafel at Falafel Plus a few times now, and it’s consistently delicious — some of the best falafel in the GTA. I figured it was probably about time to try something different; despite the name, this place actually serves a whole bunch of Middle Eastern standbys.

I went with the magaly, which is a fried eggplant and cauliflower sandwich. You can get this topped as you’d like, but by default it comes with creamy garlic sauce, zingy cucumber salad, hot pepper, and (I think) a different garlicky sauce.

It’s really good. The eggplant has a great flavour and is luxuriously creamy, and the cauliflower adds a meaty bite. Combined with the tasty toppings, it’s a top-notch sandwich.

Given how good the falafel is, I was expecting this to be tasty, but I was actually pretty blown away by how much I enjoyed it.

Great Filipino Brunch at BB’s

Published on October 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 Brock Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/

BB’s is a delightful Filipino joint that’s mostly known for their brunch, though they are open in the evenings on the weekend, serving… not brunch? I don’t know, they don’t have a website. Maybe it’s all day brunch? Who knows; go and find out!

What a useful blog post this is. Not a waste of your time at all.

What I can say with some level of certainty is that if you show up between 11:00am and 4:00pm between Friday and Sunday, you can brunch it up. Even more of a certainty: the food is delicious.

I ordered the BB’s Silog, which the menu describes as “breakfast plate w/ garlic rice, two fried eggs, atsara, & your choice of house made longanisa, corned beef hash, fried milkfish.”

It’s a seriously, seriously tasty breakfast. I went with the corned beef hash, which is exactly what you want it to be: it’s super tender, the flavour is great, and it’s got a bunch of delightfully crispy bits from the griddle. It also has a perfect ratio of perfectly-cooked potato cubes to meat, which is to say that it’s mostly meat, with a few little potatoes interspersed throughout.

I also tried the longanisa, which is basically a Filipino take on chorizo. This was great, with an interesting sweetness and a great meaty texture. I’m a big fan of sausages with a more rustic grind, and that was definitely the case here.

As for everything else on the plate, the garlic rice was, as advertised, extremely garlicky, with an intense browned-garlic flavour and an interesting texture (it’s reminiscent of Vietnamese broken rice). The eggs were perfectly cooked, and the atsara (pickled papaya) was a perfect zingy counterpoint to everything else on the plate.

The only odd note was the big dollop of ketchup, which could not have been more unnecessary or unwelcome here. I tried a bit on its own, and as far as I could tell it was just plain old Heinz. I’m not a ketchup hater, but there was absolutely nothing on this delicious plate that even remotely needed it.

Tasty (and Cheap!) Eats at Shanghai Dim Sum

Published on October 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 330 Highway 7, Richmond Hill
Website: http://www.shanghaidimsum.ca/

If you’re looking for a delicious and delightfully affordable meal, you could absolutely do worse than Shanghai Dim Sum. If you show up before 11:00 AM (and you should definitely do this) you can order off a special early morning menu that includes an order of four soup dumplings for 99 cents.

99 cents! Are they they best soup dumplings you’ll ever have? No, but they’re quite tasty, and for the price, they’re outstanding.

Everything else was quite good as well. We managed to try a generous amount of stuff (I was quite full by the end of the meal) — the total bill? About 30 bucks for three people. You can’t argue with that price.

The restaurant also has the distinction of serving what might be the garlickiest dish I’ve ever had. The boiled pork with garlic paste features tender slices of pork belly doused in a sauce that’s effectively pure, uncooked garlic. It was actually quite tasty, but that garlic taste lingered on my palate for a solid 24 hours.