spicy – Page 9 – Michael Eats

Spicy Habanero McChicken at McDonald’s

Published on January 28, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

You might recall that last year, McDonald’s released three progressively spicier McChicken sandwiches: jalapeno, habanero, and ghost pepper. I was, sadly, out of town when this happened, otherwise you’d better believe I would have tried all three.

Well, McDonald’s has done me (and you?) a favour by bringing back one of them — the middle one, habanero. I wish I could have tried the ghost pepper version, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

Anyway, it’s nothing anyone should get too excited over; it’s just a standard McChicken with a creamy habanero sauce subbed in for the classic McChicken sauce.

The sauce is pretty tasty, though. It’s got a nice zippy flavour and a vague level of heat.

No, it’s not particularly spicy (I’d put it somewhere between mild and medium), but there’s definitely a noticeable tingle. Between that and the slightly zestier flavour, I’d say it’s an upgrade over the standard McChicken sauce.

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.

Spicy Chipotle Seasoned Fries at McDonald’s

Published on December 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Spicy Chipotle Seasoned Fries aren’t the most exciting new item at McDonald’s — they’re just fries with some seasoning on them.

And when I popped open the box, I was skeptical. The way the spice blend was mounded onto the fries, there was no way they could be good. That’s too much seasoning, isn’t it?

They were actually pretty tasty. The profound amount of seasoning on the fries (particularly the ones on top) made me assume that the flavour was going to be overwhelming, but it was more subtle than I was expecting. There was a lot, but it worked.

The seasoning is lightly zingy, with a decent chipotle flavour and a mild hit of spice. It’s not too salty, which is good because if it were, it would have been inedible.

The effect is basically like a cross between a flavoured bag of chips and French fries. It’s quite tasty. The only real downside is the presence of garlic and onion powder in the spice mix, which means you’re going to be stuck with a lingering aftertaste for hours after you eat it.

Extremely Spicy Noodles at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Published on November 21, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 190 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://noodlebar-toronto.momofuku.com/

After my recent disappointment with Canada’s so-called hottest burrito, I found myself craving extreme spice. That burrito was a complete buzzkill. You can’t get me all hyped up to eat something stupidly spicy and then serve a regular burrito with a little bit of hot sauce on the side. That’s not cool.

The ~~Very~~ Extremely Spicy Noodles at Momofuku Noodle Bar was just what the doctor ordered.

I knew it would be; I tried it a couple of years ago and found it to be quite tasty, but spicy enough that I needed a year or two to want to eat it again (especially when there’s so much good stuff on the menu at the Noodle Bar). But enough time had passed for me to go for round two.

It is definitely as advertised. It’s extremely spicy, but not so ridiculous that it’s inedible. It’s a very, very spicy dish, but it’s clearly designed to be delicious, and not to be something you’d only eat on a dare.

It’s an explosion of flavours; it’s spicy, garlicky, fermented, and funky. It also has that numbing heat from Sichuan peppercorns, which helps to balance out the extreme spice.

The explosive sauce and the chewy noodles are a great combo. Assuming you have a decent tolerance for spice, it’s seriously delicious (and the glass of soy milk that comes on the side does a decent job of cooling down the inferno in your mouth).

I also tried the hot cocoa soft serve, which the menu describes as “chocolate, coffee, ancho, cocoa cookie”; this wasn’t quite as good.

I think the main issue is that it’s clearly mislabeled — it tastes way more strongly of coffee than chocolate. It’s basically coffee ice cream with mild chocolatey undertones, and a surprisingly restrained level of sweetness.

I don’t particularly like coffee, but if you do I’m sure you’ll find this delicious. The ice cream has an amazingly smooth and creamy consistency, but the coffee flavour was way too intense for me.

An Excellent Steak Sandwich at Completo

Published on September 4, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 Coady Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://completo.club/

There are a lot of ways that a steak sandwich can go wrong, but when it’s good, it’s really good.

Completo, a tiny little take-out spot on the east end that describes itself as serving “Latin fresh fast food,” has a steak sandwich that’s very, very good.

The steak sandwich is dubbed the classic churrassco. Pork or chorizo are options, but trust me, you want that steak. It’s topped with diced tomato, avocado, mayo, roasted red pepper sauce, and hot sauce.

It’s one of those sandwiches where everything is just right. I don’t think there’s a single thing that I’d change.

The steak is outstanding. You could put it on two slices of plain Wonder Bread and it’d still be an amazing sandwich. It’s tender, it has a nice crust from the griddle, and a very satisfying beefy flavour.

The other stuff is just the icing on the cake. The mayo and avocado add a nice creamy heft, though it’s the spicy/sweet combo of the hot sauce and the roasted red peppers that really makes the sandwich sing. You have the choice between mild, medium, and hot; I went with hot, and yeah, it’s hot. But the spice works so well with the sandwich’s other flavours. And of course, the fresh bun suits the sandwich perfectly. It’s pretty amazing.