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.

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King
Location
: 6010 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.burgerking.ca/

Burger King has come out with a new “better than ever” Whopper and… it’s fine?  It’s a Whopper?  I don’t know what to tell you.

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

Here’s how Burger King describes it: “Already BK Canada’s most iconic burger, the Whopper has been further refined to deliver an even better experience. Made with more than a 1/4lb of 100% flame-grilled beef and hand-cut produce, the Whopper is now served on a more premium, better tasting bun and in a box to help ensure it makes it to Guests exactly the way it left the kitchen.”

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

The news stories about this thing also mention a new mayo, but the Canadian press release doesn’t have a peep about that, so I’m guessing that part didn’t come to Canada.

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

About a month ago, when the news first came out and before the new Whopper was introduced here, I went and had an old Whopper so I could compare the two, and it was perfectly pleasant.  It came wrapped in paper but wasn’t smushed at all, and the bun was fine.  Maybe a bit too sweet and dense, but totally acceptable.

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

The biggest issue was the burger patty itself, which is not being improved, but probably should; it had that smoky flavour you associate with Burger King, which is nice, but it was extremely dry.

The New, Improved Whopper at Burger King

As for the new Whopper, I think maybe the bun was slightly more plush, but otherwise they both tasted exactly the same.  It’s possible that if I had eaten them side by side, the differences would have been more apparent, but a month apart they were basically identical.  The old one?  Fine.  The new one?  Also fine.  Perfectly acceptable fast food hamburger, but definitely not my first choice.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Pho Anh Vu

Pho Anh Vu
Location
: 1482 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://phoanhvu.com/

I’ll admit that I did not have particularly high hopes for Pho Anh Vu.  A chain Vietnamese restaurant in a Walmart plaza?  Surely that will be okay at best.

Pho Anh Vu

And indeed, the chain Hakka joint a couple of stores over is just as mediocre as you’d think.  This place, however?  Surprisingly good.  Way, way better than you’d expect.

Pho Anh Vu

In particular, I’d heard good things about the bun bo hue here, so that’s what I got.  I actually got the deluxe version of the dish, bun bo hue dac biet, which they only serve on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: “Hue Style Beef Special, Crab Cake, Homemade Sausage, Rare Beef with Vermicelli Soup, Beef Shank, Ham Hock.”

Pho Anh Vu

It’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup and a solid version of this dish, with a vibrant, flavourful broth that has a nice spicy kick.

It’s also crammed with tasty stuff (though I think they left out the crab cake in mine, sadly), with the very tender beef and the flavour-packed sausage being the highlights.  It’s quite good.