Lamb Noodles at Three Sheep Gourmet Foods

Three Sheep Gourmet Foods
Location
: 1000 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: None

I was intrigued by Three Sheep Gourmet Foods when I saw that they had a dish on their menu called “Lamb Haggis Noodle Soup.”  My initial assumption was that this was just a translation quirk — but then I saw that they also have a dish called “Scottish Noodles.”

Could it be… Chinese/Scottish fusion??

Three Sheep Gourmet Foods

No; the answer to that is no.  I ordered the Lamb Haggis Noodle Soup, and the only connection to haggis is that it features a bunch of innards.  Otherwise, there’s nothing even remotely resembling that dish.

(Still kinda curious about those Scottish noodles, though.)

Three Sheep Gourmet Foods

Aside from dashing my Chinese/Scottish fusion dreams, it’s a solid dish.  The soup has a clean, meaty flavour (and is nicely kicked up by the optional chili oil on the counter), the various organs are nicely prepared, and it’s got a very generous amount of thick noodles (which were slightly overcooked, but still satisfying enough).

My only real complaint here is that one of the bits of offal (spleen, possibly?) was just too strong for me.  It was like liver times a million.  I actually like the metallic, minerally taste of liver, but this one kinda knocked me out.  I quite liked everything else in the bowl, however.

Quick Bites: Mogouyan Hand Pulled Noodle, Loga’s Corner, Cafe KenKaKu

Mogouyan classic beef noodles from Mogouyan Hand Pulled Noodle
Mogouyan classic beef noodles from Mogouyan Hand Pulled Noodle

Mogouyan Hand Pulled Noodle is a rapidly expanding chain that specializes in, as you might expect, hand-pulled noodles.  Shocker, I know!  I kept it simple with their namesake dish, which features a generous amount of noodles and sliced beef in a very basic chicken broth, with a decent amount of chili oil for additional flavour and spice.  The noodles, sadly, were overcooked and a bit mushy, which is a shame since the chewy noodles are really the whole reason to eat this dish.  Otherwise, this was totally fine — nothing about it jumped out at me, but it’s all solidly executed (aside from the aforementioned overcooked noodles) and tasty enough.

Momos from Loga's Corner
Momos from Loga’s Corner

I wanted to visit Loga’s Corner mostly because I had heard good things about their hot sauce.  I actually got two, so I’m not sure which one is the one that people love (or maybe it’s both?), but both were nicely flavourful and had a nice kick.  As for the momos themselves, I tried three: steamed lamb, steamed veg, and fried potato.  The potato was probably the best of the three, with a satisfyingly crispy exterior and nicely creamy potato interior.  The lamb was mostly quite good, but had more gristly bits than I would have liked (they were in pretty much every momo).  All three definitely needed both of those sauces, particularly the veg, and had a much more muted flavour than you’d expect.

Tori Katsu Omurice from Cafe KenKaKu
Tori Katsu Omurice from Cafe KenKaKu

Cafe KenKaKu is a delightful little Japanese place that serves a variety of sandwiches, udon, and omurice.  I went with the omurice that comes with a side of katsu.  I quite enjoyed it — in particular, the omelette was creamy and perfectly cooked, and the katsu was nice and crisp on its exterior and tender within.  The omelette and the rice were both a bit underseasoned and bland, which was a shame (even pouring the curry sauce on top didn’t quite add as much flavour was you’d like), but it was all so well prepared that this is a minor complaint.

Satisfying Chicken Rice at Thai Nyyom

Thai Nyyom
Location
: 1419 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.thainyyom.ca/

Thai Nyyom has a delightfully focused menu.  Outside of the appetizers and desserts, they serve just three things: chicken rice, khao soi, and a rotating special.  The chicken rice and khao soi are both available in vegetarian versions, but that’s it.  If you don’t want one of those three things?  Too bad, go somewhere else.

Thai Nyyom

Honestly, I wish more restaurants would do this.  Just serve a handful of things and do them really, really well rather than spreading yourself thin with a huge, padded-out menu.

I went with the chicken rice, which is an abundantly simple dish, consisting entirely of poached chicken served on top of chicken-infused rice.  It comes with a container of hot sauce on the side, but otherwise, this is about as simple as it gets.

Thai Nyyom

It’s really good.  In particular, that rice is pretty much perfect, with a really fragrant, chicken-packed flavour that’s profoundly satisfying.

I wish the chicken were a bit better — it doesn’t quite have the silky texture that you’ll find in the best versions of this dish, and has a mildly leftovery flavour — but the rice is so good that it basically didn’t matter.

Thai Nyyom

Plus, any issues with the chicken basically disappear once you add some of that zingy, garlicky hot sauce.  That stuff could make anything taste great.

Tasty Eats at Lamb Soup Noodle House

Lamb Soup Noodle House
Location
: 4750 Yonge Street, Toronto (inside Emerald Park food court)
Website: none

The lamb soup at Lamb Soup Noodle House is pretty tasty, with a very clean lamby flavour.  I got the spicy version, which also had a very noticeable fiery kick.  Nothing about it blew my mind — but I’m a fan of lamb, and I’m never going to dislike anything that packed with lamb flavour.

Lamb Soup Noodle House

(The chunks of lamb are a bit tough and the fat noodles are overcooked, but I think the broth is the real reason to order this.)

I think the better thing to order here, oddly, isn’t the lamb soup — it’s the jian bing, an eggy Chinese crepe.

Lamb Soup Noodle House

I actually tried the jian bing here several years ago and quite enjoyed it.  It was called Gao’s Crepe back then, so I’m not sure if it’s the same place or another jian bing spot in the same location, but either way, it’s thoroughly delicious.

Lamb Soup Noodle House

Rather than going with the standard jian bing, I went with the one that comes stuffed with spicy noodles and cheese (!), and wow it was good.  The wrap itself was chewy and satisfying, it has a nice crunch, and the zippy noodles and melty processed cheese work surprisingly well together.  There’s also some kind of sausage in there, and yeah, that’s tasty too.  It’s all quite junky, but in a really satisfying way.

Delicious Noodle Soup at 555 Boat Noodles

555 Boat Noodles
Location
: 5308 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://555noodles.com/

I recently wrote about the boat noodles at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles, which were pretty great.  Well, the version at 555 Boat Noodles are equally delicious, so clearly, boat noodles deserve to be way, way more popular (I think these might be the only two restaurants in the GTA that serve the dish, or at least the only two that specialize in it).

555 Boat Noodles

The boat noodles here (“Chinese Broccoli, Garlic, Coriander, Bean Sprouts, and Onion”) come with your choice of beef, braised beef, or pork, and wonton noodles, rice noodles, or vermicelli.  The waiter suggested braised beef and rice noodles, so that’s what I went with.

555 Boat Noodles

The braised beef probably could have been braised a bit longer (it was slightly tough), but otherwise this was a fantastic bowl of noodle soup.  The broth is savoury and flavourful, with a decent amount of heat, a nice toasty garlic flavour, and a really satisfying tanginess that rounds things out.

555 Boat Noodles

And everything else in the bowl (aside from the aforementioned beef) was great, with a really generous amount of noodles, and a nice contrasting freshness and crunch from the veggies.