pork – Page 8 – Michael Eats

Tasty Italian Food at Spaccio West

Published on March 17, 2024March 17, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 128A Sterling Road, Toronto
Website: https://www.terroni.com/locations/spaccio-west

Taking over the spot where the Drake Commissary used to be, Spaccio West is the latest addition to Terroni’s increasingly expanding Italian food empire.

It’s an enormous space, and features a full restaurant, an Italian grocery, and an assortment of pastries, pizza slices, and sandwiches you can take out.

I’ll have to return at some point to check out the restaurant, but on this trip, I tried the porchetta sandwich.

Featuring a generous amount of thinly sliced porchetta topped with some braised greens and some kind of creamy sauce, it’s a solid sandwich. It doesn’t have any of the crispy bits you might hope for from a porchetta sandwich, but the meat is tender and tasty enough that this never feels like a big deal.

It’s served on a flatbread that basically tastes like an undressed pizza. This mostly works quite well, though the bread is a bit on the bland side.

The McRib is Finally Back

Published on December 11, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2439 Steeles Avenue East, Brampton
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/

The McRib! It’s back! Sort of — for some bizarre reason, McDonald’s has chosen to only bring it back to five random locations in the GTA, mostly in Brampton. But you know what? This is the first time in like a decade that the McRib has come back to Canada, so I’m certainly not complaining.

I seem to recall that the last time the McRib came back, it wasn’t as good as I remembered. But my McRib nostalgia is strong, so of course I had to try it again.

It’s good! I was wrong, it’s good. It helps that I got a freshly-prepared one — it was quite dry last time, and that definitely wasn’t the case here. It also helps that I ordered it without onions, and with extra pickles instead, and yeah, that’s the way to go. Raw onions are for jerks.

It comes absolutely slathered in a slightly smoky, sweet-but-not-too-sweet BBQ sauce, which is a pretty big part of its appeal.

Maybe I just got lucky and got a very well-prepared one, but I think is probably one of the better things on the McDonald’s menu. Hopefully it’s not another decade before they bring it back again.

Solid Noodle Soup at Kenzo Ramen

Published on December 10, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3337 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.kenzoramen.ca/

It’s hard to remember this now, but there was a time (not that long ago!) when ramen was actually pretty difficult to find in the GTA. And Kenzo is Toronto’s ramen OG; they opened their first location in 2002, and for quite a while, they were pretty much the only game in town if you wanted to sample ramen in the city.

Of course, these days it’s hard to go more than a few blocks without coming across a ramen joint, but Kenzo’s still around despite all the competition. So they must be doing something right.

And indeed, the bowl I had might not have been up there with the city’s best, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

They have a whole bunch of options, but the waiter mentioned that the King of Kings is their most popular, which is a spicy shio broth with an “assortment of stir-fried vegetables with ground pork, topped with charsu, egg, naruto maki, menma, wakame, green onion, nori.”

You can choose your spice level; I went with the spiciest, and it was indeed quite fiery.

The stir-fried vegetables are actually the most unique part; they give the whole bowl that distinctive stir-fried wok hay flavour, which makes it feel quite distinct. It actually kind of reminded me of a style of ramen called burnt miso ramen that I don’t believe you can find in the GTA.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, and the broth lacked the complexity you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, but overall it’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup.

Tasty Sandwiches at Gus Tacos

Published on November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 1546 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: https://tacosgus.ca/

I recently had a couple of tacos from Gus Tacos; I enjoyed them enough that I figured I should come back and try some other stuff. Well I just tried the carnitas torta, and yeah, this place is the real deal.

The menu describes the torta as coming topped with “beans, cheese, guacamole, chipotle mayo, onions, cilantro and your choice of protein.” I skipped the onions, though if you can handle raw onions, I’m sure their crunchiness would enhance the sandwich.

It’s a top notch sandwich. It’s served on a fresh, fluffy bun, and all of the flavours are exactly where they should be. The carnitas (which is basically like pulled pork) is super tasty, with a nice porky flavour and a great texture.

I asked for the sandwich spicy, and it came with a little container of zingy hot sauce on the side. Once I added this to the sandwich, things really came alive — it made a very good sandwich even better.

Torteria San Cosme, a thoroughly delicious torta place in Kensington Market, shut down during the pandemic, which seriously bummed me out. I don’t know if the torta here is quite at that level of amazingness, but it’s close enough.

Delicious and Unique Ramen at Afuri Ramen + Dumpling

Published on October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 411 Church Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.afuriramen.com/

There are many, many ramen shops in the GTA, but I can say with a good amount of certainty that what they’re serving at Afuri Ramen is delightfully unique.

Their specialty seems to be the yuzu shio, which the menu describes as “shio tare, chicken broth, bamboo shoot, frisee, chashu, egg, nori, yuzu, thin noodles.”

It’s the yuzu (a clementine-esque fruit from Asia) that sets this apart; the light, chicken-infused broth has a distinctive citrus-zest brightness that really makes it sing (there’s also a tasty browned garlic flavour that rounds things out). It’s leagues apart from the typically heavy tonkotsu ramen that’s so common in Toronto, but no less delicious.

The toppings are (mostly) quite tasty, with the perfectly cooked egg having a delightfully savoury kick, and with the light bitterness of the frisee contrasting nicely with the slightly sweet broth. That’s not to mention the thin, chewy noodles, which complement the bowl perfectly.

The chasu is the one weak point; it’s fine, but it’s a bit tough, and nothing about the flavour particularly stands out. Still, everything else is so good that this barely even matters.