Mississauga – Page 6 – Michael Eats

Delicious Hunan Chinese Food at Chili Cabin

Published on February 3, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1100 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: None

As a fan of spice, I’ll admit that Chili Cabin mostly caught my eye because of its name. They specialize in Hunan Chinese cuisine, which, according to Wikipedia, is similar to Sichuan cuisine, but with a more pure level of spice rather than numbing heat.

I tried the Hunan style stir-fried pork and the stewed vermicelli, which both offer a customizable level of spice: mild, normal, or extra. I went with extra spice for the pork, and normal for the noodles.

Both dishes were very spicy. Not quite blow-your-face-off hot, but definitely hot enough to put some sweat on your brow and clear your sinuses.

And both were very tasty. The Sichuan comparison seems apt, as both dishes had a similar flavour profile to Sichuan dishes that I’ve had (but without the numbing heat). I liked both quite a lot, though the pork was my favourite of the two. The pork was nice and tender, and it comes absolutely doused in a flavour-packed oil that was intensely delicious. It’s one of those dishes that’s almost too flavourful on its own, but once you have it with rice it really comes alive.

I liked the noodles a bit less, but they were still very tasty, with a nice chewy texture, satisfying spicing, and savoury ground pork interspersed throughout. It’s a winner. They have a million things on the menu here, and I’m quite keen to come back and try some more stuff.

A Great Wrap at Shawarma Alzaeem

Published on December 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1018 Eglinton Avenue East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.alzaeem.ca/

How many shawarma restaurants do you think there are in the GTA? A thousand? Two thousand? More?? There’s no shortage of shawarma, that’s for sure.

(This would be a great place for me to be like, well the actual number is [insert actual number here], but no, I haven’t done that research. What do I look like, Edward R. Murrow? I would be very curious to know the actual number, though.)

This means if you’re going to go out of your way for shawarma, it had better be pretty damn good, because there’s probably one or two (or more) shawarma joints within walking distance of basically any home in the GTA (well, outside of the hardcore suburbs where there’s basically nothing within walking distance).

So, is Shawarma Alzaeem worth going out of your way for? Yeah, kinda. I got the chicken shawarma saj wrap, and it was thoroughly tasty. Most notably, it’s absolutely doused in a particularly delicious garlic sauce that would make pretty much anything taste great. It’s also nicely toasted, giving the saj a light crispiness on the outside (while maintaining its interior chewiness).

My only real complaint is that the chicken is a bit on the dry side (I’m pretty sure it’s all white meat, which doesn’t help). But then there’s so much of that aforementioned sauce that this barely even matters.

Tasty Eats at Kish’s Roti & Doubles

Published on December 26, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5019 Spectrum Way, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/kishsrotianddoubles

I love roti, though I’ll admit that my experience with doubles is limited. I’ve actually only had this dish one other time, and I wasn’t crazy about.

Still, if you’re at a place with both roti and doubles in its name, you’ve gotta try the roti, and you’ve gotta try the doubles.

I tried the boneless chicken roti (well, technically I ordered the goat roti, but I guess the woman behind the counter heard chicken), and I quite enjoyed it. The chicken was relatively tender, had a nice curry flavour, and a good pop of heat. The wrap was a bit heavy on roti and light on filling, but the roti itself was so fresh and tasty that this barely even mattered.

As for the doubles, they have a variety of filling options, including chicken, goat, and lamb, but I went with the classic, which is just chickpeas.

I really enjoyed it. The flatbread was fresh and chewy, and the filling has a nice sweetness that balances well with the tender chickpeas and the decent level of spice. I was a bit confused by the appeal of this dish after my last experience, but now I totally get it.

A Cheap, Tasty Lunch at Brandt European Food Market

Published on December 2, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1878 Mattawa Avenue, Mississauga
Website: https://brandtmeats.com/brandt-food-market/

I’ve written about hidden gems on this blog before, but it doesn’t get much more hidden than this place. It’s located along a dead-end industrial road, and unless you happen to work in the area, there is zero chance that you’d drive by the place.

(And even if you did, it’s so nondescript that you likely wouldn’t even realize that a delightful little Eastern European supermarket and restaurant can be found within.)

It’s actually a factory outlet for Brand meats, a Mississauga-based manufacturer of various Eastern European sausages and meats, and it features the aforementioned supermarket, along with a hot table with a nice spread of stuff like schnitzel and cabbage rolls.

I went with the BBQ pork chops, which features tender braised pork and mushrooms in a zippy sauce. The meal comes with two chops piled on top of a mountain of sides (you can pick two, and they are generous). I had the potatoes, which are basically like hash browns, and the sauerkraut, which is well above average.

Nothing about it particularly blew my mind, but the plate cost ten bucks and was piled high with food, so it’s a fantastic deal.

A Great Veal Sandwich at Palma’s Kitchen

Published on November 24, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3485 Semenyk Court, Mississauga
Website: https://palmapasta.com/

I found this place after typing “veal sandwich” into Google Maps while shopping (hey, sometimes you’ve gotta have a veal sandwich), but Palma’s Kitchen has quite a bit more going on than that. There’s the typical Italian hot table, along with a small but fairly extensive supermarket selection.

They have a handful of sandwiches on the menu; I went for the veal, and had it topped simply, with just hot peppers — I don’t think a good sandwich like this needs anything else, and this is definitely a good one.

It’s that sauce. It has such a delightfully rich, savoury flavour; I could eat it out of a bowl like soup.

The veal is served from a hot table, so its crispiness is long gone, but when the sauce is this tasty and it’s really soaked into the veal (which is melt-in-your-mouth tender), you don’t miss it.

The bread — clearly very fresh — suits the sandwich perfectly, with a very light exterior crispiness, and enough heft within to hold up to the saucy veal (but not so much that it feels overly dense). It’s great quality bread.

I wish the hot peppers were a bit hotter (okay, a lot hotter — they’re only mildly spicy), but this was otherwise a seriously great sandwich.