guacamole – Michael Eats

Amazing Mexican Food at Puerto Bravo

Published on August 29, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1425 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: https://puertobravo.ca/

When you’re eating a place that’s been featured in the Michelin Guide, it kinda elevates your expectations a bit. Not that Michelin is an infallible arbiter of taste, but generally speaking, the restaurants they highlight are above average.

Well, Puerto Brave has a “Bib Gourmand” designation from Michelin, my expectations were quite high, and even still, I was pretty blown away by how good everything was.

I tried a few things. I started with the guacamole (“Avocado, Lime, Cilantro, Jalapeño, Chips,”) and it was fantastic. A lot of guacamole tends to be a bit too oniony for me, with their harshness overwhelming the relatively delicate flavour of the avocado. Here, instead of mixing onions right in, they add zippy pickled onions on top, which is a huge improvement that lets the flavour of the creamy avocado shine through. And the tortilla chips on the side are way above average, with a hearty crunch and a nice toasty corn flavour.

Up next was the carne asada taco (“Grilled Beef, Asadero Cheese, Onions, Cabbage, Radish, Avocado Salsa, Red Salsa”). Every element here just works, with a nice balance of flavours and some seriously tasty grilled beef (a lot of the time with a taco like this, the flavour of the beef is buried by other stuff, but here it’s clearly the star of the show (and extremely delicious)).

Last and definitely not least was the Wera tostada (“Octopus, Shrimp, Macha Mayonnaise, Pico de Gallo, Avocado, Salsa Macha”). Wow this was good. The contrast between the crunchy tortilla, creamy avocado and meaty octopus and shrimp was so satisfying (the octopus, in particular, was almost improbably tender). I think this was my favourite of the three, and that’s saying something because everything was extremely delicious.

Decent Mexican Food at Tacos 101

Published on August 12, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 178 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/tacos101toronto/

After a long hiatus (their original location on Dundas East shut down three years ago), Tacos 101 is back, this time in Kensington Market.

I don’t think I ever visited the original location (or if I did, it wasn’t memorable enough to stick in my brain) so I can’t comment on how it compares to the Dundas location, but it’s a decent enough addition to the area.

Their specialty is al pastor, a style of taco that’s filled with pork cooked over a rotating spit, shawarma-style.

Mostly, it’s pretty good — the various sauces are zingy and tasty, the pork is nicely seasoned, the pineapple adds a brightness that contrasts nicely with the savoury pork, and the two corn tortillas are fresh and hold up very nicely to the overstuffed taco. But the pork is almost entirely lacking in the crispy bits that makes this style of cooking so delightful, and it’s crazy dry. They’re supposedly using pork shoulder, but the meat has the texture of the driest piece of pork loin that you’ve ever had.

Everything else about the taco is tasty enough that this isn’t a huge issue, but it’s a shame nonetheless.

I also tried the tortilla chips with refried beans and guacamole — both dips were quite tasty, though the refried beans were a bit underseasoned, as were the chips themselves.

In the case of the chips, apparently the lack of seasoning is on purpose to highlight the flavour of the dips, and, uh, I don’t think that’s the way food works? All of the elements of a dish need to be seasoned or the whole thing will lack flavour (this is why, for example, you have to aggressively salt your pasta water, even if you’re going to toss the pasta in a flavourful sauce).

A Towering Pile of Nachos at Sneaky Dee’s

Published on November 4, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 431 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://sneaky-dees.com/

The nachos at Sneaky Dee’s are frequently called the best in the city, and yeah, I can see why.

I ordered the King’s Crown (“crisp corn tortilla chips covered with salsa roja, piled high with frijoles, ground beef, tomatoes, onions, mixed peppers, jalapenos, melted cheese, topped with guacamole & sour cream”). At 26 bucks, it seems like it might be overpriced until it comes to the table and you realize it’s enough to feed three or four hungry people.

It’s super tasty. All of the components work really well together, and it’s so loaded with stuff that you’re never going to get a dry chip.

If anything there’s too much stuff — the tortilla chips can’t really hold up to the insane deluge of cheese and toppings. It’s fine at first, but after a few minutes all of the chips in the middle are complete mush.

It’s also a bit one-note rich, though the bottle of vinegary hot sauce they bring with the plate helps out a lot in this regard.

I feel like it’s probably a bit too haphazard to be the best nachos in the city, but it’s certainly delicious.