Tag: grilled chicken

Tasty Filipino Food at Bella’s Inasal

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Bella's Inasal
Location: 848 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.bellaslechon.ca/

I don’t go to Filipino restaurants all that often, but whenever I do, I’m like, why is this not a regular thing in my life?  Bella’s Inasal definitely gave me those thoughts.

Bella's Inasal

They have a pretty huge menu, but considering they serve a dish called “chicken inasal,” I figured that was probably the thing to order.

Bella's Inasal

The first thing that comes is a small bowl of a garlicky shrimp soup, and wow this was good — it’s got a really great shrimpy flavour, and the toasted garlic complements it perfectly.

Bella's Inasal

As for the chicken inasal, it consists of a perfectly grilled piece of chicken, a generous amount of garlic rice, and a small dish of a zippy papaya slaw called atsara.  It’s very, very good; the chicken is super flavourful and perfectly cooked, with a good amount of char from the grill.  The rice is nice and garlicky, and the atsara helps cut through the richness.  It’s a great dish.

Bella's Inasal

I also tried the pork sisig (“Crispy Pork with Onion, Chili and Calamansi”), which I think I might have liked even better than the chicken?  It comes on a sizzling hot plate, and it is absolutely crammed with porky flavour and crispy bits from the hot plate.  It’s enormously satisfying.

Quick Bites: Kumain Kitchen, Kezy Doner, Salad King

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Chicken Inasal at Kumain Kitchen
Chicken Inasal at Kumain Kitchen

Kumain Kitchen is a “Filipino inspired pop-up” that was in the pop-up space in the Food District at Square One last year (yeah, I have a bit of a backlog).  I tried the chicken inasal (“grilled lemongrass chicken served with garlic rice and cucumber salad”) and mostly, it was quite tasty.  The chicken was slightly on the dry side, but it was so well seasoned and absolutely crammed with vibrant flavours that this wasn’t a big deal.  I really enjoyed it.  But I guess they ran out of garlic rice, because it came with plain old rice instead, which was a shame.  As for the cucumber salad, it was actually just undressed cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes, along with pickled onion.  I actually Googled this to see if that’s just a Filipino thing, but nope — Filipino cucumber and tomato salad is called ensaladang pipino, and it’s definitely supposed to be dressed.  Still, that chicken was delicious enough to make up for everything else.

Chicken Wrap at Kezy Doner
Chicken Wrap at Kezy Doner

The chicken wrap from Kezy Doner was thoroughly okay.  Did anything about it stand out?  No, not even remotely.  But it came up to exactly ten bucks with tax, came crammed with a healthy amount of relatively juicy chicken, and was satisfying enough for what it was.  It’s not something you should go out of your way for, but if you’re in the area and you don’t feel like spending too much money, sure, why not?  This place is in a food court right near the OCAD campus, and I can definitely see it being popular with broke students.

Lime Leaf Chicken at Salad King
Lime Leaf Chicken at Salad King

Speaking of restaurants with (relatively) cheap eats that are popular with students… Salad King.  This is a Toronto institution (it’s been around since 1981) that I’ve somehow never tried.  I got the lime leaf chicken (“Chicken breast slices, snap peas, red pepper, lime leaf, & carrot in a spicy chili sauce with Thai herbs”) and it was perfectly fine.  The chicken was a bit dry, but otherwise it was flavourful and satisfying.  I’m not exactly going to be dreaming about the place, but I can see why it’s so popular.  They are also, famously, not kidding around with the spice here, and yeah.  I chose 10 out of 20 on their spice-scale, and it was thoroughly fiery.