Mississauga – Page 17

Spicy Habanero McChicken at McDonald’s

Published on January 28, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

You might recall that last year, McDonald’s released three progressively spicier McChicken sandwiches: jalapeno, habanero, and ghost pepper. I was, sadly, out of town when this happened, otherwise you’d better believe I would have tried all three.

Well, McDonald’s has done me (and you?) a favour by bringing back one of them — the middle one, habanero. I wish I could have tried the ghost pepper version, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

Anyway, it’s nothing anyone should get too excited over; it’s just a standard McChicken with a creamy habanero sauce subbed in for the classic McChicken sauce.

The sauce is pretty tasty, though. It’s got a nice zippy flavour and a vague level of heat.

No, it’s not particularly spicy (I’d put it somewhere between mild and medium), but there’s definitely a noticeable tingle. Between that and the slightly zestier flavour, I’d say it’s an upgrade over the standard McChicken sauce.

Maple & Cheddar Chicken at McDonald’s

Published on January 13, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 796 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Maple & Cheddar Chicken was a pleasant surprise. “Maple” being so prominent in the name of the sandwich, I sort of figured it would be way too sweet. And yeah, it was sweet. But the sweetness feels relatively well tuned.

The Maple & Cheddar Chicken comes topped with maple mustard sauce, “mayo-style sauce,” cheddar cheese, crispy onions, tomato, and lettuce.

It pretty tasty, though the maple mustard sauce is basically all maple with a tiny bit of mustard. It’s a glaze. It’s incredibly mapley, and hardly mustardy at all.

But the salty chicken, cheddar, and crispy onions all do a pretty decent job of balancing out the sweetness. It works.

Also: put crispy onions on everything, please. They’re delicious and enhance basically everything they’re on. Well, maybe not on dessert, but hey –who knows? Crispy onions on a sundae? Might work. I can’t rule it out.

Spicy Chipotle Seasoned Fries at McDonald’s

Published on December 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Spicy Chipotle Seasoned Fries aren’t the most exciting new item at McDonald’s — they’re just fries with some seasoning on them.

And when I popped open the box, I was skeptical. The way the spice blend was mounded onto the fries, there was no way they could be good. That’s too much seasoning, isn’t it?

They were actually pretty tasty. The profound amount of seasoning on the fries (particularly the ones on top) made me assume that the flavour was going to be overwhelming, but it was more subtle than I was expecting. There was a lot, but it worked.

The seasoning is lightly zingy, with a decent chipotle flavour and a mild hit of spice. It’s not too salty, which is good because if it were, it would have been inedible.

The effect is basically like a cross between a flavoured bag of chips and French fries. It’s quite tasty. The only real downside is the presence of garlic and onion powder in the spice mix, which means you’re going to be stuck with a lingering aftertaste for hours after you eat it.

The Sad Decline of Paramount

Published on November 12, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1290 Crestlawn Drive, Mississauga
Website: http://www.paramountfinefoods.com/

You’ll notice that I only have the one photo from Paramount, of a partially eaten take-out box of a dozen falafel. I wasn’t planning on blogging about this one, but I think I kinda have to?

Paramount makes me sad. The one I visited, in an industrial area of Mississauga, is actually the first location of the now omnipresent chain. Back before they started expanding, it was a fantastic restaurant — easily some of the best Middle Eastern food in the GTA. Every time I went there, the place was absolutely slammed. It was so good, and people couldn’t get enough of it.

Then, of course, they started expanding, and the quality started to go downhill. Slowly at first, but the decline was unmistakable. The crowds thinned out, but it was still popular enough.

The last time I was there, maybe about a year ago, the food was clearly inferior to its highs in the pre-expansion days, but it was still pretty decent.

I just went to pick up an order of a dozen falafel, and the place was an absolute ghost town. It’s easy enough to see why; it was quite possibly the worst falafel that I’ve ever had. It was dense and dry, with an unpleasantly crumbly texture that sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. It tasted wrong and stale despite being fresh from the fryer.

As for the weirdly sour tahini sauce and the bland pita bread, the less said the better.

I think I’m done with Paramount, and considering how good it used to be, that makes me sad.

Tasty Chicken at Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice

Published on November 11, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 780 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: http://yangschicken.ca/

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is a Chinese chain that recently opened seven simultaneous locations in the GTA. Opening one restaurant is tricky enough; I can’t even imagine what must go into opening so many at the same time.

Whatever kinks they had (and there must have been kinks) since opening in September have clearly been worked out; the food and service were both top-notch. Apparently they have over six thousand locations worldwide, so I guess opening seven more is no big deal.

As you can probably guess from the name, Yang’s specializes in braised chicken rice, a dish in which tender, saucy braised chicken is served with a bowl of rice.

You can either get it standard or boneless (I went with the former), and you can pick your spice level (I picked “authentic,” which was actually quite mild; I’ll probably go spicier next time).

It seemed a bit simple at first, but it really grew on me; by the time I was done, I was 100 percent into it.

The chicken is quite tender, and has a nice soy-sauce-infused flavour from the braising liquid. Combined with the rice and the richly flavourful sauce, it’s surprisingly addictive.

Oddly enough, however, the chicken wasn’t the highlight — it was the slices of mushroom in the sauce. These things do an amazing job of soaking up all the flavour from the dish; they’re basically chewy little flavour bombs. They’re delightful.