sandwich – Page 16 – Michael Eats

Surf ‘N Turf Burger at McDonald’s

Published on April 5, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

McDonald’s recently introduced a “Remix Menu,” featuring a few fun combinations of regular menu items. Yes, this is all technically stuff you could have been ordering all along, but that would require either:

Ordering two separate items and then winding up with a bunch of extra bread, or
Trying to explain an unnecessarily complicated custom order to an overworked cashier who has no time for — or interest in — your nonsense.

I didn’t particularly want to do either of those things, so this promo is actually kind of exciting to me.

The new menu consists of a burger/chicken combo, a Junior Chicken with a sweet chili sauce, an apple pie McFlurry, and the one I tried: the Surf ‘N Turf burger, which features all the stuff you’d normally find on a McDonald’s cheeseburger (cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and little onions) with a Filet-O-Fish patty crammed in.

It’s… fine? It’s not offensive to eat, but it turns out there’s a reason the cheeseburger / fried fish combo isn’t a thing. The two items don’t particularly complement each other.

McDonald’s beef isn’t super flavourful, so most of the taste here comes from the Filet-O-Fish patty. But the texture of the burger is much more prominent. So you’re basically eating a sandwich with a beef texture and a fish flavour. It’s weird. And again, it’s not gross, but I can’t see a scenario in which I’d ever want to order this again.

A Great Veal Sandwich at Cosimo’s Cheese and Deli

Published on April 4, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1051 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/mammaangelinacooks/

Cosimo’s Cheese and Deli is a delightfully old school Italian deli in Mississauga; it’s been around for over thirty years, and it looks like not much has changed since they opened (hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).

It’s a full deli with the usual assortment of cold cuts, cheese, and Italian pantry items, but it also serves hot sandwiches like veal and meatball.

I went with the veal, which — assuming you ask for everything — comes topped with a mix of peppers, onions, and eggplant, along with a fiery pepper paste.

It came up to $13 even (and it’s a cash-only establishment, so come prepared) and is a seriously hefty sandwich, so it’s a great deal. I was planning on eating half and then saving the rest for later, which obviously did not happen. I mean, come on. I’m sure there are people out there who have the self-control to stop eating a delicious veal sandwich halfway through, but I am not one of those people.

It’s a great sandwich. The veal is super tender, and the sauce it comes with is richly flavourful, with a nice garlicky punch that doesn’t overwhelm. My only real complaint is that this is a hot table place, which means that the veal has been sitting in the sauce. On one hand, that results in a piece of veal that’s really soaked up that tasty tomato sauce; on the other hand, you lose the crispy texture of the fried veal, which is missed.

The sandwich winds up being kind of one-note soft; the veal is incredibly tender, the bread is fluffy with no exterior crustiness, and the toppings are all silky, resulting in basically one texture throughout. But it’s so delicious that is is a very minor complaint.

Halal Deli Sandwiches at East Meats West

Published on April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2399 Cawthra Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/emwhalal/

East Meats West specializes in halal deli meats; they mainly sell various cooked and uncooked meats that you can buy and take home, but they also have an assortment of sandwiches for take-out.

One of their specialties is Montreal smoked meat. I’m never going to say no to a Montreal smoked meat sandwich, so obviously that’s what I ordered. I went with the small size, which comes with a decent amount of meat, and rings in at a delightfully cheap eight bucks. Can’t go wrong there.

The woman behind the counter asked if I wanted “everything,” which turned out to be quite a lot. The sandwich comes topped with lettuce, pickles, mustard, mayo, and one more sauce (Russian, I’m guessing).

The meat here was thinly sliced and a bit more on the chewy side than somewhere like Sumilicious, which means the extra condiments were probably necessary. The spicing is also a bit more subtle than the norm, so again, the many condiments aren’t unwelcome.

It’s certainly not the best Montreal smoked meat sandwich I’ve ever had, but it’s tasty enough, and it’s hard to deny that it’s a great deal.

Indian Grilled Cheese at Thindi Cafe

Published on March 31, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 400 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.thindi.ca/

Thindi is interesting — their website says that their goal was to offer something a bit different from the “curry focused” Indian restaurants in the GTA, focusing instead on Indian street food, with a bunch of sandwiches and jazzed-up Maggi noodles on the menu.

I went with the green chili cheese toast, which the menu describes as being “layered with fresh coriander chutney, onions, bell peppers, thai green chilies and cheese.”

It’s basically an Indian grilled cheese sandwich; it has a nice zippy flavour from the chutney, some pops of spice from the green chilis, and a decent amount of gooey processed cheese.

It didn’t exactly blow my mind, though I will admit that I removed the raw red onions, thus rendering my opinion somewhat worthless (raw onions are terrible, what can I say??). Usually when I remove them from something, I feel like I’m not missing out on much, but in this case I think they were probably pretty important to the overall taste/texture of the sandwich.

Quick Bites: Banh Mi Nguyet Minh, DeCourses Cafe, The Tuck Shop x Breadhead

Published on March 25, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Pork roll, cured pork and pate banh mi from Banh Mi Nguyet Minh

Not much to say about this one, to be honest. It was a perfectly tasty banh mi; not the best I’ve had, and not the worst. The bread was a bit overly crunchy (it was a bit of a mouth shredder) and I wish there were more pate, but it was otherwise a solid banh mi.

Breakfast sandwich from DeCourses Cafe

DeCourses Cafe is a charming little brunch spot that does quite well (it was packed when I visited, and had a steady stream of people picking up take-out orders). The menu mostly consists of brunch standbys; I went with the breakfast sandwich (“white artisan bread, bacon, fried egg, cheese blend”). Nothing about it particularly stood out, and it really needed something with some zippiness to cut through the richness of the egg, bacon, and cheese, but it was a solid breakfast sandwich. I enjoyed it.

Apple crumble croissant from The Tuck Shop x Breadhead

Note: I’m working on a bit of a backlog at the moment, and apparently this bakery is now defunct. Oh well; here are some thoughts on a bakery you’ll never get to try.
The Tuck Shop x Breadhead is a tiny little bakery that has a small but interesting variety of pastries on offer. I went with the apple crumble croissant, which has the general shape/configuration of a pain au chocolate, but with apple crumble stuff instead of chocolate. It’s very tasty — it’s not nearly as sweet as you’d expect, with a decent dose of apple crumble flavour encased in a good quality croissant. It didn’t exactly blow my mind, but I quite enjoyed eating it.