sweet – Michael Eats

A Creamy Pastry at Marvelous by Fred

Published on March 13, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 224 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://marvelousbyfredtoronto-order.ca/

Marvelous by Fred is a French bakery chain with a bunch of locations in Europe, the States, and, in the last couple of years, Canada. They have a handful of tasty looking desserts and sandwiches, but their specialty is the Merveilleux, a tasty combo of whipped cream and meringue.

They serve a few different varieties of this, but the classic is the dark chocolate, which the store describes as “dark chocolate whipped cream & dark chocolate shavings.”

It’s good. Obviously it’s good — it’s just a big pile of crispy meringue chunks held together by chocolate-infused whipped cream, and then covered in shaved dark chocolate and topped with more cream. You literally cannot go wrong with that. How could you?

It’s not mind-blowing, though. I know that its creation is likely more involved than it tastes, but it kinda feels like I could mix together meringue, whipped cream, and chocolate at home and wind up with largely the same result.

I’m almost certainly not giving the bakery enough credit, but I can’t say I’ve ever thought that about literally any dessert from a French bakery, so there’s that.

Tasty Ice Cream Sandwiches at Dainties Macaron

Published on February 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 235 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/daintiesmacaron/

Dainties has just two things on their menu: standard macarons with a Korean bent, and macaron ice cream sandwiches. I tried one of the ice cream sandwiches, and not surprisingly, it’s tasty. It turns out that when you specialize in just one thing, you can do it very, very well.

They have a bunch of traditional flavours like vanilla and pistachio, along with more Korean/Asian-infused flavours. I went with black sesame, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I’m not sure where they source their ice cream from (or if they make it themselves), but it’s clearly good stuff — it’s nice and creamy, and the flavour is aces. The nutty, somewhat earthy flavour of the black sesame complements the sweet cookies perfectly. And those macaron cookies are great; the combo of the chewy cookies and the rich ice cream is a clear winner.

The only issue: they serve it way, way, way (way way way) too cold. I could barely even bite through it at first. I waited something like 10 minutes and it was still a bit too firm, but I only have so much willpower when I’ve got a delicious ice cream sandwich in my hands.

Unique Doughnuts at Isabella’s Mochi Donut Boutique

Published on February 23, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4 St. Patrick Street, Toronto
Website: https://isabellasdonuts.com/

A mochi doughnut, for the unaware, is basically a regular doughnut, but with the addition of rice flour. This gives it a delightfully chewy texture that works better than you might expect. Even if you don’t like mochi, it’s worth a shot — the chewiness is definitely there, but it’s not particularly aggressive.

They have nine flavours at Isabella’s; they all looked tasty, but I went with the s’mores (“chocolate, toasted meringue, graham crackers”).

It’s really good. The chocolate glaze has a nice chocolatey flavour that isn’t too sweet, and while the fluffy toasted meringue isn’t super marshmallowy, it’s tasty and complements the chocolate well. I don’t think the graham cracker crumbs made much of a difference, but it’s tasty either way.

As for the doughnut itself, yeah, it’s good. The chewiness is just enough to set it apart from a standard doughnut, but not so much that it feels overwhelming. It’s really satisfying.

Enjoyable Yogurt Drinks at Kome Yogurt

Published on February 19, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 10 Stephanie Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.komeyogurt.com/

Kome Yogurt is right across the street from the original Mizzica Gelateria & Cafe, which is an unfortunate location; I’ve been intrigued by it for a while, but obviously if I’m in the area my first choice is that amazing gelato, which is some of the best in the city.

But I’ve been to Mizzica a few times now, so sure, why not — let’s yogurt it up.

They actually have a pretty extensive menu, with a couple dozen choices ranging from various fruity options to Asian dessert standbys like red bean and black sesame. The woman behind the counter said that the Purple Kome is one of their most popular choices, so I went with that.

It’s pretty simple — it’s just sweet yogurt blended with purple rice. But sometimes the simplest things are the best.

It actually reminded me a lot of the dessert I recently had at Xe Kem; it’s pretty much the same thing, but in beverage form. There’s a decent amount of chewy rice at the bottom that you suck up with a big straw like bubble tea. It’s like rice pudding, but yogurty and drinkable. It’s quite refreshing.

My only complaint is that it’s probably a touch too sweet; I would have liked the tartness of the yogurt to stand out a bit more. But the sticker on the side of the cup indicated that the sweetness level was standard, which makes me think you can customize the sugar level. I’ll definitely have to do that next time.

(Mostly) Tasty Doughnuts at Cops Doughnuts

Published on January 31, 2023January 31, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 445 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.eatcops.com/

What’s better than a doughnut? A warm, fresh-from-the-fryer doughnut, that’s what.

Outside of a few beverages, Cops does just one thing: Tiny Tom’s-esque mini doughnuts that you can order topped with OG sour cream glaze, cinnamon sugar, or the weekly feature, which was orange sherbet when I visited. I went with an order of six of the feature.

My batch had an unnervingly pale colour, and I thought, uh oh, but maybe they serve a different style of doughnut?

Alas, they do not — the doughnuts were underdone, with an interior that wasn’t quite raw, but that was softer than you’d like.

Still, I didn’t dislike eating them — it’s hard to go wrong with a fresh doughnut, even when it’s not quite fully cooked. The exterior still managed to have a very light crispiness, and while I wish the interior was less mushy and more fluffy, it wasn’t unpleasant to eat.

That’s not to mention the orange sherbet icing, which was fantastic — it had a great balance of sweet and tart, and a nice hit of orange flavour. You could put that on anything and it would be great.