roti – Michael Eats

Delicious Roti at My Roti Place

Published on December 5, 2019December 6, 2019 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 406 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://myrotiplace.com/

I’ve heard basically nothing but good things about My Roti Place, a rapidly expanding chain that specializes in spice-packed roti. I feared it might have been overhyped, but yeah: it’s very good.

You can choose your roti, your meat, and your sauce; I went pretty basic with Mom’s Classic Curry with chicken, wrapped in a classic roti. The spice level is also customizable, with mild, medium, serious, and extreme being options. I figured extreme might be a bit too intense, so I went with serious.

I guess should have gone with extreme; the “serious” level of heat turned out to be not-so-serious. It was noticeably hot, but I’d put it on the upper level of mild. A bit more spice would have been nice.

I may as well get my other complaint out of the way. The chunks of chicken, though generous, are dry and leftovery.

Everything else about this was fantastic. The roti was nice and chewy, and complemented the vibrant curry perfectly. And that curry was outstanding; I’m happy to overlook any number of minor complaints when the curry is that tasty. I don’t care what you serve a curry that good with; it’s automatically going to be delicious. The curry has an amazing depth of flavour that I couldn’t get enough of. It’s serious business.

Fake Butter Chicken at TVX: The Vegan Extremist

Published on October 24, 2019October 24, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 291 Augusta Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/TheVeganExtremist/

Is it still butter chicken if it doesn’t have butter or chicken? That’s the question at TVX, a vegan joint in Kensington Market that serves what it calls “plant-based South Asian cuisine.”

Mostly, they serve a variety of vegan curries that come with rice and paratha roti. One of those curries is the aforementioned butter-and-chickenless butter chicken, which subs in fried cauliflower for chicken.

So is it still butter chicken? Not really. But is it tasty? Definitely.

It doesn’t taste quite like any butter chicken I’ve had before — the sauce is tangier and less creamy — but for what it is, it’s quite good. It’s garlicky, very spicy (you can choose your heat level — I went with the spiciest, and it wasn’t kidding around) and surprisingly satisfying.

The fried cauliflower works really well — it’s battered and fried, with a nice crunchy exterior and a meaty interior. It doesn’t even vaguely resemble the chicken in a traditional butter chicken, but the hearty crunch stands up nicely to the sauce, and it’s delicious regardless.

The paratha roti was also untraditional but tasty. It’s thicker and more substantial than any paratha roti I’ve had before, but it still had that satisfying combo of crispy, greasy exterior and chewy interior that you’re looking for.

Delicious Roti at D Hot Shoppe

Published on November 19, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4155 Fairview Street, Burlington
Website: https://www.dhotshoppe.com/

I showed up at D Hot Shoppe at around 2:00 on a weekday, and it was absolutely packed. They also had a section of the wall dedicated to framed plaudits from various publications (which didn’t even include the article that brought me here in the first place).

Suffice it to say, I was fairly certain I was in for a tasty meal.

I ordered the small chicken roti, which costs seven bucks and is actually quite generous, so it’s a great deal.

They have six heat levels you can choose from, ranging from mild to suicide — I went with hot, which is right in the middle. It was a great level of heat. It’s noticeably spicy, but not unpleasantly so.

It’s very, very easy to see why the place is so popular. Everything was just right, from the richly flavourful curry sauce, to the big chunks of tender chicken and potato, to the satisfyingly chewy, spice-packed roti shell.

It’s a fantastic, affordable lunch. What’s better than that?

Overpriced Thai Food at Kiin

Published on May 29, 2018May 29, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 326 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.kiintoronto.com/

Kiin is the latest Thai restaurant in the burgeoning restaurant empire of Jeff and Nuit Regular (they also own Sukhothai, Pai, and Sabai Sabai). It’s one of those places where you order a few things and share, which is nice because you get to try more stuff (though you inevitably end up spending more, which is a bigger issue than usual at Kiin).

The first thing we tried was the pandan chicken, which features tender pieces of chicken that have been wrapped in a pandan leaf (you can eat those leaves, though they recommend that you remove them). It comes with a bowl of sweet chili sauce for dipping. It’s a tasty dish, but definitely not a home run — the chicken, though nice and tender, was quite plain, and the chili sauce was standard-issue and nothing to write home about.

Next up was the pork jowl, which was a definite upgrade over the chicken. It’s crammed with classic Southeast Asian flavours: it’s a little fishy and a little sweet, with a nice punch of sourness to round it out. But it’s too assertive, and the balance of flavours is off. It’s tasty, but the slices of pork (which are slightly tougher than they should be) are completely wiped out.

The final dish was kua hang gai, which was a braised chicken stir fry. No complaints here — the chicken was super tender, and the flavours were well-rounded and satisfying. We got this with one order of jasmine rice and another of roti. The deep-fried roti was crispy and tasty, but it was closer to fry bread than standard roti. I liked it, but a more traditional preparation would have been preferable.

I mentioned that price was an issue. The pandan chicken was $15, the jowl was $17, the stir fry was $26, the rice was $5, and roti was $6. With tax and tip, it was approaching a hundred bucks, which is just way too much money for the calibre of food that we were served. Not that any of the dishes were bad, but those are fine-dining prices, and the food wasn’t at that level.