sticky rice – Michael Eats

Tasty Rice Bowls at Omai Rice Bar

Published on October 21, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 21 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://omairicebar.com/

Omai Rice Bar is a spin-off of Omai, a high-end Japanese restaurant. The rice bar is much more on the casual end of things — they serve a selection of six rice bowls that are all around 15 bucks, and it’s take-out only (they also have a few benches on a patio out front).

I went with the Oh-My Fried Chicken: “Korean fried chicken, garlic yuzu glaze, wasabi cucumber, kimchi slaw and pickled daikon. Every bowl comes with our signature Omai salad on a bed of steamed white rice.”

I liked everything about this. The fried chicken was fresh, crispy, and tender, and was tossed in a tasty sauce (that was maybe a touch too sweet — my only complaint). Everything else in the bowl complemented it perfectly, with a whole bunch of bold, zippy flavours.

Even the salad on the side was a noticeable upgrade from the standard vinaigrette-tossed greens, with a nice citrusy punch that was really satisfying.

It’s all served on a bed of fluffy white rice, and it’s great. I wish I lived closer to this place, because I feel like I need to try every bowl on the menu.

Tasty Eats at Gushi Fried Chicken

Published on June 26, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 707 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.eatgushi.com/

There are a bunch of great options in Market 707, a collection of street vendors that operate out of shipping containers near Kensington Market. I’ve previously tried (and loved) Marq’s Chicago Beef, and I think the fried chicken at Gushi is just as good.

I ordered the original Gushi chicken meal, which comes with a generous amount of karaage (Japanese fried chicken made from bite-sized pieces of thigh meat) on top of purple rice, topped with spicy mayo.

The fried chicken is stellar. It’s super crispy, nicely seasoned, and features perfectly cooked chicken. It’s incredibly satisfying, and works very well with the sticky purple rice.

The only thing I would change is that I’d probably ask for the spicy mayo to be on the side next time. It’s quite tasty — and its zippy flavour complements the fried chicken very well — but there’s a lot of it. It’s a bit overwhelming. The chicken is so tasty on its own that such a thorough deluge of heavy sauce is probably overkill.

Horcha-ta-ta at Bang Bang

Published on July 11, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 93a Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://bangbangicecream.com/

Oh hey, another super delicious scoop of ice cream from Bang Bang. Are you surprised? Because I’m definitely not. They’ve been around for five years now, and they’re still serving up what is hands-down the best ice cream in the city. It’s not even close.

This particular flavour was called Horcha-ta-ta and is inspired by horchata, a sweet, creamy drink made from rice.

The ice cream itself has a really rich flavour, and is imbued with cinnamon and other spices (nutmeg I think? Some other stuff, probably?). It’s topped with sweet sticky rice, condensed milk, and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

It’s delicious. It actually reminds me quite a bit of rice pudding, but with the cinnamon and other spices giving it a really interesting flavour. And of course, the quality of the ice cream is just as great as ever. It’s so good.