Tasty Sandwiches at Dear Grain

Dear Grain
Location
: 48 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://deargrain.com/

Mostly, Dear Grain is a bakery that sells some seriously tasty sourdough loaves.  But they also have a variety of sandwiches and pastries, and yeah, those are quite good, too.

Dear Grain

I had the roasted turkey sandwich (“brie, brown butter and chutney”), and it was very tasty.

Dear Grain

They toast the sandwich until the bread is crispy and the brie is melty, and the combo of that creamy, slightly nutty cheese and the meaty turkey works very well.  The chutney is cranberry-sauce-esque, which works for obvious reasons.  And, of course, the bread is great.  It’s a stellar sandwich.

Dear Grain

I also tried a sesame cookie; I found the texture to be a bit cakier than I normally want in a cookie, but it’s not too sweet and has a very pronounced roasted sesame seed flavour.  It’s quite good.

Delicious Hot Turkey at White Lily Diner

Delicious Hot Turkey at White Lily Diner
Location
: 678 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://whitelilydiner.ca/

I tried the meatloaf sandwich at the White Lily Diner a few years ago and found it to be thoroughly tasty.  I recently went back, and I’m happy to report that the place is still cranking out delicious food.

Delicious Hot Turkey at White Lily Diner

That meatloaf sandwich is tough to beat, but I think the hot turkey (“stuffing French toast + smoked turkey + gravy + chutney + maple butter”) might just do it.

Delicious Hot Turkey at White Lily Diner

The idea of making French toast that tastes like stuffing is actually fairly ingenious, and works perfectly with the smoky turkey.  The rich gravy soaks into the French toast and amps up the flavour from the turkey, and the creamy maple butter on top cranks the richness up to 11.

It’s a dish that could very easily be too rich, but the sweet, tangy cranberry chutney does a great job of ensuring that this never happens.  It’s a fantastic dish.

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons
Location
: 1084 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.timhortons.ca/

I’ll admit that I tend to ignore Tim Hortons.  I know they’re beloved (and pretty much always busy), but I’m not a coffee drinker, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a savoury item from them that I thought was much better than okay.

But a Thanksgiving sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce?  Yeah, I’m all over that; I don’t care who’s serving it.

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

Here’s how Tim Hortons describes it: “The Thanksgiving Stack is prepared to order, served hot out of the oven, and features thick slices of seasoned 100 per cent Canadian carved turkey breast, homestyle stuffing, cranberry sauce made with 100% real cranberries, crispy onions and mayonnaise, and is served on a toasted potato bun.”

I will say that I saw the woman behind the counter prepare this, and yeah — it’s literally hot out of the oven.  The whole sandwich goes in the oven for something like 30 seconds, and it is noticeably hot and toasty.

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

It’s totally fine.  It’s kinda one-note salty and nothing really stands out (the turkey is vaguely dry and the stuffing is standard boxed fare), but the bread is soft and fresh and the flavours all work well together (unsurprisingly).

The biggest issue here is that the crispy onions are on the bottom of the sandwich, between the cranberry sauce and the turkey, and by the time it was served to me, they had almost entirely sogged up.  They should probably be applied to the sandwich last.

Quick Bites: Wish Restaurant, Nadege, Good Behaviour Ice Cream

Turkey Aussie Burger at Wish Restaurant
Turkey Aussie Burger at Wish Restaurant

My new policy with this blog is that it’s a negativity-free zone, so I’ll highlight the crispy fried potatoes that come on the side here, which are super tasty — they’re perfectly crispy on the outside, and creamy on the inside — and I’ll leave it at that.  I’ll also say that my dining companions both enjoyed their meal, and that the place was packed (and always seems to be packed), so maybe I was just being a grumpy gus.

Ice Cream Bar at Nadege
Ice Cream Bar at Nadege

Again, this is a negativity-free zone, so I’ll just say that Nadege has ice cream bars now, and that  I didn’t particularly care for the one I tried; it’s probably slightly below a higher-end mass-produced product like Magnum or Haagen-Dazs in quality, but much, much more expensive at about seven bucks (!!) per bar.

Birthday Cake ice cream at Good Behaviour Ice Cream
Birthday Cake ice cream at Good Behaviour Ice Cream

And on the exact opposite end of the quality spectrum, there’s Good Behaviour Ice Cream.  I like this place more and more each time I go (and I liked it a lot right from the get-go).  This particular scoop has that classic birthday cake flavour, and the quality of the ice cream is off the charts; it’s almost absurdly creamy and rich.  Assuming we’re splitting traditional ice cream and gelato into two separate categories, I think this place and Bang Bang are neck and neck for the title of the best ice cream in the city (but if gelato is in the mix, then Nani’s pretty much has to be the king).

An Amazing Turkey Sub at Good Behaviour Submarine

Good Behaviour
Location
: 342 Westmoreland Avenue North, Toronto
Website: https://goodbehaviourto.ca/

The last time I went to Good Behaviour, I tried a couple of the hot subs, and found them to be tasty, but not much more than that; they were a bit too one-note rich.  Well, clearly the cold subs are the way to go, because I just tried the turkey and it was very, very good.

The turkey, as per their menu: “smoked turkey, smoked gouda, grainy mustard, salsa verde, pickled artichoke, iceberg lettuce.”

Good Behaviour

The key here is that, unlike the hot subs, there are a variety of tastes and textures — the meaty turkey, the creamy cheese, the crispy lettuce, and the sharp mustard and salsa verde are a winning combo.  It seems like a lot of lettuce, but it’s nicely dressed, so it adds a ton of flavour, not to mention the very satisfying crunch and freshness.

It’s a great balance of flavours that’s all held together by a fresh, tasty bun; it’s a seriously top-notch sandwich.

Good Behaviour

I also got a scoop of ice cream, because it’s an ice cream shop, so of course I got some ice cream.  I got the coconut cream pie, which is rich, creamy, and thoroughly coconutty, with tasty cookie chunks interspersed throughout.