honey – Michael Eats

Outstanding Pizza at Superpoint

Published on March 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 184 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.superpoint.ca/

I’ve had slices from Superpoint a few times, but this was my first full pizza, and oh man it was good. I liked Superpoint before, but this bumped them up to a whole new level.

I had the Burrata & Honey: “marinara, local burrata, basil, honey.”

Pizza perfection. Everything just works.

It’s that crust. It’s got a great flavour, and it’s super crispy without ever coming off as too crispy; the balance of chewiness and crispiness is just right, and the contrast between the two is absolutely delightful.

The garlicky zip of the marina is super tasty, and the richness of the creamy burrata — which is torn off in chunks onto the pizza post-bake — balances it perfectly. That’s not to mention the honey, whose sweetness does a great job of rounding out the pizza’s other flavours.

The menu doesn’t mention it, but it’s also seasoned with a herb blend and grated parmesan, and yes. Yes to all of it. It’s so good.

Greek Doughnuts at Mr. Puffs

Published on January 15, 2023January 15, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1425 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://mrpuffs.com/

Mr. Puffs is a chain that specializes in fried doughnut holes — they’re basically Greek-style loukoumades, though the menu and website never uses that word, referring to them only as puffs.

The puffs come topped with various sauces and flavours; the woman behind the counter said that honey cinnamon and sugar cinnamon are the two most popular, so I got six of each (an order of 12, which comes out to about eight bucks, is the smallest you can get).

This location has just opened, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re still working out the kinks. This style of doughnut is generally soaked in syrup, but the syrup was just drizzled on here, resulting in a final product that was just barely sweet (and the sugar cinnamon variety had the same issue). The doughnuts mostly tasted of the oil they were fried in.

I also think that the oil might have been a bit too hot, because the exterior was aggressively crispy (I could barely put a fork through it) and the interior was soft and gummy.

Still, despite the issues, it’s a fun concept — assuming they work out the kinks, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Delicious Italian Sandwiches at Flora’s Deli

Published on September 6, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1276 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.florasto.com/

Flora’s Deli is a delightful little shop that offers a takeout menu (they also have a couple of small tables outside) of Italian sandwiches. It doesn’t have the most exciting menu ever, with the usual veal and eggplant sandwiches, various cold cut assortments, etc.

The sandwiches are so well executed, however, that this never feels like an issue. The Norma Gina is generally what people talk about when they talk about this place, and yeah, I can see why. Served on a fresh sesame seed roll and featuring a generous amount of fried eggplant topped with hot honey, creamy whipped ricotta, and fresh arugula, it’s a great sandwich.

The eggplant is perfectly cooked, the ricotta adds a delightful richness, the arugula is nice and peppery, and the honey adds a subtle sweetness that contrasts nicely with the savoury sandwich.

I also tried the Sofia, which the menu describes as “prosciutto, coppa, sopressata, fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, arugula, 6yr balsamico.” This one’s a pretty standard cold cut sandwich, but when you’ve got top-notch ingredients that all complement each other so well, there’s absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. I sort of figured the eggplant sandwich would be the more interesting of the two, but I’d honestly have a hard time picking a favourite; they’re both so good.

(I should also note that since I wrote this, the restaurant’s pop-up location is no more, but supposedly a permanent spot is in the works.)

Delicious Asian-Style Ice Cream at Koishi

Published on August 27, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 160 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: http://little-pebbles.com/koishi-ice-cream

Koishi is a collaboration between Little Pebbles (which is great) and Arthur Pezzelli, the co-founder of Bang Bang (which is beyond great).

Bang Bang serves, bar none, the best ice cream in Toronto. It’s not even close; they blow everyone else out of the water. This makes Koishi a must-visit. A new place started by one of Bang Bang’s founders? Uh, yeah, I’m all over that.

Asian-style ice cream has very much become a thing in Toronto, and as you might infer from the name, that’s what Koishi is all about. They have a variety of Japanese-influenced flavours that you can get in a cone, a cup, or a sweet bun.

I’m all about the ice cream at places like this (as much as I love Bang Bang, the cookies are a complete waste of time), so I just went with a plain scoop in a cup.

I tried the honey soba: “toasted buckwheat & caramelized honey.”

It was pretty great — the crunchy bits of soba gave it a nice toasty flavour, and the honey was pleasantly floral, with a subtle sweetness that was just right.

The quality of the ice cream itself wasn’t as perfect as Bang Bang’s — it didn’t quite have the same level of rich creaminess, and it was very subtly icy — but it’s still top-shelf stuff.

Decent Fried Chicken at Love Chix

Published on July 25, 2018 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 111 Richmond Street West, Toronto (in the Assembly Chef’s Hall)
Website: http://www.lovechix.ca/

I got nervous when, after I ordered my chicken sandwich from Love Chix, they opened a drawer filled with pre-cooked chicken pieces and then dunked one in the fryer to reheat it.

Thankfully, it certainly could have been worse, but the chicken was dry and overcooked, and it’s easy enough to see why. This might have been less of an issue if they started with dark meat, which has a bit more leeway during the cooking process before it dries out. But it was white meat, and “moist” was not a word in its vocabulary.

The sandwich was otherwise quite tasty. It’s tossed in a honey hot sauce and topped with buttermilk ranch, coleslaw, and arugula. The honey flavour was quite pronounced, but there was enough of a spicy kick and a vinegary bite to balance out the sweetness. The creamy ranch and the peppery arugula helped to round things out. It was actually quite tasty.

And while the crunch factor wasn’t quite as pronounced as it could have been, it was certainly satisfying.

I just wish the meat itself weren’t so dry. I certainly understand why they serve their chicken this way; people might get impatient to wait the almost ten minutes it would take to fry a piece of chicken from scratch. But I wish they’d give you a choice.