spicy – Page 3 – Michael Eats

Cheesy Jalapeno & Bacon Quarter Pounder from McDonald’s

Published on March 12, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

One thing I appreciate about McDonald’s versus most other fast joints: they aren’t shy with the sauce. I think they’ve smartly realized that a fast food burger patty, on its own, kinda sucks. It needs a bit of help to make up for the lack of moisture and flavour.

Which is to say that the new Cheesy Jalapeno & Bacon Quarter Pounder is saucy as hell (it was one of the messier burgers I’ve eaten in a while), and pretty decent.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A quarter pound of 100% Canadian beef topped with a cheesy jalapeño sauce, hickory-smoked bacon, pickled jalapeños, ketchup, mustard and two slices of processed cheese served on a toasted sesame seed bun.”

It definitely lives up to its “Cheesy” moniker, with the two slices of cheese and the zippy cheese sauce being a tasty combo. I wish they had skipped the ketchup, though, because it kinda overpowers the burger’s other flavours.

As for it living up to the “Jalapeno” part of its name… not so much. I think there were maybe two or three jalapeno slices in there? And I guess the cheese sauce is technically jalapeno-flavoured, but the ketchup is really all you can taste.

The bacon is a nice addition (bacon is always welcome on a burger, for obvious reasons), but it gets a bit lost among the other ingredients.

Mike’s Hot Honey Sandwich from KFC

Published on February 20, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 156 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

I mentioned recently that KFC has really been leaning into wacky novelty items of late, which I quite enjoy. Mike’s Hot Honey Sandwich, on the other hand? Pretty standard stuff. It’s just a generic fried chicken sandwich that’s a little bit sweet.

Not the most exciting thing ever, but I guess they can’t all be delightfully weird.

The sandwich, as per KFC’s website: “The Mike’s Hot Honey® Sandwich features our triple-breaded chicken and is topped with signature Mike’s Hot Honey® – crafted from 100% pure honey and chili peppers. It’s also topped with crispy jalapenos for the perfect blend of sweetness and heat.”

(The website doesn’t mention it, but the sandwich also has pickles, and a decent amount of a mildly zippy mayo-based sauce.)

It’s… fine? Like I said, it’s a pretty standard sandwich, though the slight sweetness from the honey does work pretty well. I was afraid it was going to be too sweet, but it was actually pretty subtle. Plus, the zippy pickle slices do a good job of balancing out the honey’s sweetness.

As for the heat, it’s mildly spicy, but nothing that’s going to get anyone too hot and bothered. Even McDonald’s recent attempt at a spicy chicken sandwich, the McSpicy, is hotter.

Mostly, it’s a solid sandwich. Mostly. This is a luck of the draw thing, but the chicken itself was pretty dry and tough. I know they can’t do this (because it would acknowledge that the current way they do things sucks), but if you’re not in a rush, I really wish they’d let you wait for piece of chicken that’s freshly fried, rather than getting one that’s been drying out in a drawer. Oh well.

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.

Porky Goodness at C-Block Taiwanese Bento

Published on December 17, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 690 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/cblock.to/

C-Block Taiwanese Bento is a delightful little take-out counter (they have a couple of seats, but mostly, it’s take-out only) serving up a whole bunch of Taiwanese classics.

Their specialty are bento boxes that come with rice, one meat dish, and three veggie sides. I went with the braised minced pork, green beans, eggplant, and tomato scrambled egg.

This actually turned out to be not quite what I was expecting; the dish I thought this was going to be features braised pork belly and is thoroughly delicious. But then this was quite tasty too, so I can’t complain.

It’s really satisfying, with a spice-packed flavour that reminded a bit of Sichuan cuisine.

The sides were solid as well, with the highlight being the tomato scrambled egg; the contrast between the tender chunks of tomato and the firm, meaty egg was actually quite delightful.

Tasty Korean Food at Sinjeon Topokki

Published on November 21, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 712 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://sinjeoncanada.ca/

Sinjeon Topokki is a Korean chain that’s recently been expanding in the GTA — this is their third location. As you’d imagine from the name, they specialize in topokki (more commonly spelled “tteokbokki”), a dish that features chewy rice cakes in a spicy sauce.

They have a few different types of topokki — I went with the original, which is the classic version of the dish. You can pick your spice level from one to three. I went with the second level, which is legitimately fiery.

It’s quite tasty, with a very pleasant chewiness on the rice cakes and with a whole bunch of the sweet, savoury, and spicy sauce. The rice cakes are basically swimming in sauce, which is good because you can use it as a dip for the other stuff you order.

I also tried the fried combo, which comes with an assortment of fried fish cakes, dumplings, and other fried goodness. This stuff is tasty on its own, and even tastier when you dip it in the topokki sauce.

Kimbap (which is kinda like a Korean sushi roll, but filled with non-sushi ingredients) is another specialty here; I went with the Sinjeon cheese kimbap, which is filled with kimchi and gooey cheese. This one was a bit dry, but a dunk in the topokki sauce makes quick work of that.