Zinger Drip Sandwich from KFC

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC
Location
4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Websitehttps://www.kfc.ca/

KFC recently came out with a “Zinger Drip” menu, which seems to have nothing to do with the Zinger Sandwich that they currently serve, aside from the presence of spiciness.  But sure, I like spice — I’ll check that out.

There are three items to choose from: a sandwich, popcorn chicken, and hot wings, all coated in a spicy sauce.

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC

I went with the sandwich: “The Zinger Drip Sandwich brings bold, saucy heat to a fan-favourite classic. Our Famous Chicken sandwich fillet fully coated in KFC’s rich Zinger Drip sauce, then layered with cheddar cheese and fresh lettuce – all served on a soft potato bun. It’s a spicy, satisfying bite from top to bottom.​”

It’s tasty.  The Zinger Drip sauce has a vinegary, Frank’s-esque base, but with some mild sweetness and a bit of a garlicky punch to round things out.  It’s not particularly spicy, but there’s enough heat to give your mouth a tingle.  It’s pretty satisfying, which is good because the chicken is absolutely drenched in the stuff.

Zinger Drip Sandwich at KFC

The word “drip” in the name of this sandwich is extremely appropriate — this was one of the drippiest, messiest sandwiches I’ve eaten in quite a while.  After I was done, I had to lather up my hands like a doctor preparing for surgery just to get the stickiness off them.

As for the rest of the sandwich, it’s all pretty standard KFC stuff.  I will say that the cheese feels entirely superfluous — the Zinger Drip sauce is not subtle, and its flavour completely wipes out the cheese, which may as well not be there.

Tasty Fried Chicken Sandwiches at Mad Bird Hot Chicken

Mad Bird Hot Chicken
Location
: 154 Queen Street South, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/madbird.ca/

There’s certainly no shortage of solid fried chicken sandwiches in Toronto, but Mississauga?  That’s a bit more rare.  So I was excited to check out Mad Bird Hot Chicken in Streetsville.

Mad Bird Hot Chicken

They have a variety of sandwiches, wings, and “bird bites” (chicken strips, basically).  I went with the Nashville Napalm Sando: “This sando brings serious heat and Southern swagger. Our 48-hour marinated crispy chicken thigh gets baptized in fiery Nashville chili-oil, then stacked with cool Bird’s ranch, crunchy southern slaw, and tangy pickles — all hugged by a buttery brioche bun.”

Mad Bird Hot Chicken

You can pick your spice level from one to five; the guy behind the counter recommended three, so that’s what I went with.

Mad Bird Hot Chicken

It’s a tasty sandwich.  Nothing about it blew my mind, but it’s nice and crunchy, the chicken is tender, and the slaw and the pickles give it a nice zippiness that cuts through the richness.  I’d probably bump up the spice level to four next time, though.  The spice level was pronounced, but I want a sandwich like this to really put some sweat on my brow, and this one didn’t quite take me there.

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee
Location
800 Boyer Boulevard, Mississauga (inside Seafood City Supermarket)
Websitehttp://jollibeecanada.com/

I’ll give the Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich one thing: they’re not stingy with the avocado.  Typically with a fast food sandwich featuring avocado, you need to pull out a magnifying glass to spot the stuff, but there’s actually a generous amount of it here.

As for the rest of the sandwich?  Uh…

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

Here’s how Jollibee describes it: “Our New Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich starts with a crispy, juicy, hand-breaded chicken breast fillet, topped with hickory-smoked bacon, creamy Hass avocado, fresh jalapeños, crisp lettuce, and spicy sriracha mayo, served on a toasted brioche bun.”

It’s fine, mostly, but it’s a bit of a salt bomb.  Between the salty chicken and the salty bacon, and with nothing sweet to balance things out, it’s a lot.  The chicken was pretty dry, which somehow made the saltiness issue seem more pronounced (the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes in a mostly empty restaurant for this thing, only for it to be clearly not fresh, just added insult to injury).

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

The sandwich is also not particularly spicy, which is a shame.  The spice level is there, but it’s quite mild.

Otherwise, it was okay.  The chicken had a nice exterior crunchiness, the combo of bacon and avocado is certainly a tasty one, and the bun was nice and fresh.  It’s fine, but I can’t say I’m particularly keen to run out and buy another one.

Also: the sandwich cost $13.99 before tax (!!), which might make it the most expensive fried chicken sandwich in the GTA (at least outside of restaurants with waiter service).  Even local joints like PG Clucks and the Michelin-noted Chica’s Chicken are cheaper by a buck or two.

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery
Location
: 1100 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga 
Website: https://www.iancakery.ca/

I’ve mentioned before that, even now — years after they closed their only location in the city — I still regularly think about Beard Papa and their delicious Japanese cream puffs.  Tragically, they used to at least have locations in Vancouver, but they’ve now apparently vacated Canada altogether.

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery

(They are, however, still alive and well in Japan and elsewhere in the world — just not here, for some reason??  Come on, man.)

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery

There are a few places serving a similar style of cream puff in the GTA, but I think the one at Ian Cakery might actually be the closest to what Beard Papa serves.

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery

They have a few different flavours — I went with the classic vanilla, and man, it was good.  The choux pastry has a nice crispy exterior, and the very generous amount of custardy cream within is seriously delicious.

I’m still longing for the day Beard Papa makes its triumphant return to the GTA (it’s gotta happen eventually, right???), but until then, I’m glad that Ian Cakery exists.

Tasty Hot Pot at Mabu Generation

Mabu Generation
Location
: 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Website: https://mabugeneration.com/

Mabu Generation is a small chain (they also have locations in Markham and Toronto) that serves what they call Taiwanese fusion.  Their specialty seems to be their “Taiwanese style mini hot pot.”  Not so sure about that “mini” designation —  I split this with one person and it was way more food than either of us needed.  I’m pretty sure you can comfortably share this with three or even four people (making it a great deal at 26 bucks).

Mabu Generation

I went with the House Special Spicy Hot Pot: “Nappa cabbage, seafood mushroom, tomato, iced tofu, meat ball (pork), clam, quail egg, pork blood cake, pork blood, pork intestine, preserved vegetables, cilantro, sliced beef, luncheon meat.”

Mabu Generation

It’s a very enjoyable dish.  It’s absolutely crammed with tasty stuff, and the Sichuan-peppercorn-infused soup has that satisfying spicy/numbing mala thing going on in spades.  It could probably be spicier, but it’s got a decent enough kick.  It’s quite good.