Mississauga – Page 18

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles at Gol’s Lanzhou Noodle

Published on October 29, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (inside Square One)
Website: https://lanzhou.ca/

There’s something both delightful and bizarre about the presence of Gol’s Lanzhou Noodle in Square One’s food court. It’s hard to imagine a place serving legit Chinese hand-pulled noodles — nestled between a KFC and a cheesesteak joint — being able to exist in a suburban shopping mall like Square One even just a decade ago.

But it’s here now, and it’s surprisingly great.

I had the beef noodle soup, and I was shocked at how good it was. It’s not the best bowl of noodles you’ll ever eat, but it’s seriously tasty for something in a mall’s food court. It’s not even in Square One’s fancy new “Food District” — it’s in the plain old food court, right near places like A&W and Manchu Wok.

(Sorry, I know I’m harping on its location, but it kinda blows my mind.)

And yes, they serve real-deal hand-pulled noodles; they’re freshly pulled to order, and you can watch them do it (which is always an oddly hypnotic display).

It’s a tasty bowl. The soup is a bit too salty, but it has a clean beefy flavour with a nice hit of freshness from the cilantro. It comes with a healthy amount of chili oil on the side; I wish this stuff were spicier (it’s just barely hot), but it has a fantastic smoky/savoury flavour that really kicks up the flavour of the soup.

The sliced beef had a slight leftovery flavour, but was otherwise tender and enjoyable.

And the medium-thick noodles are great. They were ever-so-slightly on the soft side, but they were nice and hearty, with a satisfying level of chew.

Rolled Ice Cream at Wow Wow Yum Yum

Published on October 28, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4141 Dixie Road, Mississauga (inside Rockwood Mall)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wow-Wow-Yum-Yum/809769729167391

I’ll admit that I had basically written off rolled ice cream as a gimmick. The one time I tried it previously, in Kensington Market, I thought it was fine, but a bit thin and mediocre.

Wow Wow Yum Yum, on the other hand, has me convinced that rolled ice cream can be just as tasty as the traditional churned variety.

If you’re not familiar with this type of ice cream, what makes it so distinct is that it’s essentially created right on the spot. It’s made by pouring the unfrozen ice cream mixture directly onto an ice-cold anti-griddle. The mixture then freezes almost instantly, and is rolled up and served in a cup.

It was way better than I thought it would be. It’s remarkably rich and creamy — if you close your eyes and forget about the gimmick, it’s just really good quality ice cream.

My only real issue here was the flavour. I tried their most popular, Nutella banana, which had the problem that plagues so many banana desserts — the banana they used was clearly underripe. That was a bit of a bummer.

A Lauded Veal Sandwich at Kantene

Published on October 25, 2019October 29, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1059 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://kantene.com/

The Veal Supreme at Kantene was recently named the best veal sandwich in Ontario by a group including John Cattuchi (of You Gotta Eat Here and Big Food Bucket List fame). If that’s not a reason to check the place out, I don’t know what is.

The sandwich consists of “Grilled Eggplant, melted Bocconcini in a fresh tomato based basil sauce with melted Provolone and crispy Parmesan on a soft bun.”

It’s a solid veal sandwich. The breading is nicely seasoned and has the perfect amount of crunch, and the veal is nice and tender (if a bit dry).

The sauce doesn’t quite have the oomph you’ll find in the best veal sandwiches, but it’s certainly tasty enough. And of course, tender eggplant and veal are best friends.

The bocconcini wasn’t quite melted all the way through, but for the most part it was gooey and satisfying. As for the crispy Parmesan, it’s a great idea in theory, but it had a profoundly burnt, bitter flavour that was actually quite unpleasant.

You can get the sandwich mild or spicy; the spicy version features pickled peppers that do a nice job of cutting through the richness of the sandwich. They’re quite mild, however, and I missed the intensely spicy bite of the un-pickled peppers you normally find in a sandwich like this.

The bread is great, with a lightly crispy exterior and a fluffy interior that holds up admirably to the very saucy sandwich.

Its a tasty sandwich — but I don’t think it’s the best in Mississauga, let alone all of Ontario.

Lay’s Bar-B-Q Tenders at KFC

Published on October 9, 2019October 17, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3015 Winston Churchill Boulevard, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

Coating a piece of fried chicken in flavoured potato chips is pretty bizarre; it’s also obvious enough that I’m surprised KFC or some other fast food chain hasn’t done it sooner. This is particularly odd in a post Doritos Locos world, where mashing up two seemingly disparate but complementary flavours has revealed itself to be a gold mine.

Anyway, KFC has finally done it, and yeah, it’s good.

The Lay’s Bar-B-Q Tenders, according to KFC: “Canadian farm raised chicken tenders coated in Lay’s sweet and smoky Bar-B-Q potato chips”.

The flavour is pleasingly familiar, with a nice balance of sweetness and tanginess; if you’ve had Lay’s BBQ chips, then it tastes as you’d expect. The whole thing is exactly what you think (and hope) it’s going to be.

I will say, however, that these taste like they were made with plain chips and then seasoned post-fry. This is mostly not an issue, aside from the fact that the seasoning is a bit uneven.

Still, it’s a good quality chicken strip; the BBQ flavour complements it well, and the chip pieces add a nice crunch. It’s one of those things that sounds weird on paper, but mostly just tastes pretty good (i.e. it’s not a Double Down, which is a fun gimmick until you actually eat it).

This is entirely down to the luck of the draw, but my order was hot and fresh, which definitely helped. The chicken could have been a bit more tender, but for white meat, it’s not bad.

Pumpkin Butter Tarts at La Casa Dolce

Published on October 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 755 Queensway East, Mississauga
Website: https://lacasadolce.ca/

My first time hearing about La Casa Dolce, an Italian bakery in Mississauga that specializes in desserts, was when I recently saw a photo of the Pumpkin Butter Tart on Instagram.

Obviously, I felt an immediate and overwhelming urge to eat it ASAP. Why? Look at it, that’s why.

Butter tarts are delicious. Pumpkin pies are delicious. Surely when you cram the two desserts together, you must end up with something magical. Right…?

Well, maybe not.

It’s certainly not bad; it’s one of those things that would be very difficult to completely mess up. But the one-note sweet butter tart is nothing special, and it completely overwhelms the comparatively subtle pumpkin pie filling.

The crust is the weakest part — it’s soft, doughy, and bland. The tart is mostly inoffensively tasty, but that crust does its best to bring the whole thing down. It definitely makes me wary to go back and try some of La Casa Dolce’s other baked goods.

Oh, and that stuff on top that looks like cream? It’s actually Cool Whip or something similar. It’s not great.