food – Page 5 – Around the World in 196 Plates

Country 040 – India (Sweet India)

Published on August 21, 2016August 21, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 7126 Airport Road, Mississauga
Website: http://www.sweetindia.com/

Remember when I was saying that a nicer-looking restaurant and a clientele that doesn’t match its ethnicity were both tell-tale signs that a place like this might not be all that great? Well, here’s a definite exception to that rule: Sweet India is both very nicely designed and, when I went at least, around halfway full of people who looked like they’d fit in comfortably with the cast of Friends.

It was also one of the best meals I’ve had since starting this blog.

The restaurant is laid out like any number of food court joints; they’ve got food in warming trays, and you can pick what you want. I went with the vegetarian thali, which comes with your choice of three different dishes, raita (a cold yogurt-based cucumber salad), rice, and a basket of naan bread.

I think it’s hard to tell from the picture what an obscene amount of food that is, but seriously: look at the fork and knife for scale. The plate is about the size of a cafeteria tray, and it was crammed with food. Not to mention the basket full of naan, and the generous serving of dessert.

Suffice it to say, after eating all that I was ready to lie down and go into a food coma. And for less than ten bucks, it’s a pretty amazing deal.

The three dishes in the top row of that tray are: aloo baingan, a flavourful mixture of eggplant and potato; chana masala, a chickpea curry; and aloo methi, a potato dish cooked with methi leaves (also known as fenugreek).

It was all really good, though with its fragrant intensity, the aloo baingan was clearly the star of the show. It was a flavour bomb in the best way possible. It helps that the accompanying ultra-fresh naan was superb; it was the perfect combo of lightly crispy outside and chewy inside.

The dessert was moong ka halwa, a creamy, pudding-like dish made mostly from lentils. Indian desserts tend to be a bit of an acquired taste, and I was so full at that point that I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t like it so I could take one bite and throw the rest out. But it was so good. So of course I had to eat the whole thing, food coma be damned.

If I had one small complaint, it would be that while everything was fairly spicy, it does feel like the spice level has been toned down to accommodate the aforementioned Friends-like clientele. A bit more of a fiery kick would have been nice, but everything was so amazingly tasty that it really didn’t matter.

Country 039 – Turkey (Kabab 49)

Published on August 7, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5308 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: http://kebab49.com/

So, here’s a fun fact (an actual fun fact, not E!’s version of a fun fact): Turkish doner was actually the first version of that particular type of vertically-rotisseried meat, preceding the similar shawarma and gyro by at least a few decades. I always assumed that shawarma was the O.G. vertical rotating meat-stack, but nope, apparently it’s doner.

And the version they serve at Kabab 49? It’s superb. I ordered the mixed doner plate, which comes with a salad, a big pile of sliced onions, a generous portion of delightfully greasy rice, a few slices of freshly-baked bread, and of course, enough shaved meat to feed a small family.

Everything on the plate is quite good (well, except for the onions — raw onions are the worst thing in the world, and no one is ever going to convince me otherwise), but the highlight is that amazing doner. The mixed plate features chicken and a mix of veal and lamb, and both were fantastic. The veal and lamb was a bit better than the chicken, but both were moist, had plenty of the crispy bits you’re looking for in this type of thing, and were really well seasoned.

The meat works just as well with the rice as with the fluffy, fresh bread. Eventually, you eat enough of the doner and discover a couple of bonus slices of bread at the bottom of the plate, suffused with tasty meat grease. And then you walk out of the restaurant clutching your stomach and wondering how and why you finished the whole thing, because seriously: that plate is enormous. But you kept eating it well past the point that common sense would dictate that you stop. That’s how you know it’s something special.

Country 038 – North Korea (Chaban)

Published on July 24, 2016July 24, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 872 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: http://chabantoronto.com/

No, this technically isn’t a North Korean restaurant — I think it’s safe to say that all Korean restaurants in Toronto (or any city, really) are South Korean. But I painstakingly researched how the cuisines in North and South Korea have diverged since their split in 1945, and I tried to order a dish that’s closest to what North Koreans actually eat.

Actually no, I didn’t do that at all; I just went to a Korean restaurant and ordered what looked good. Because I’m lazy, you see.

I ordered the Chaban Dolsot Bibimbap (it’s always a safe bet to order a dish that features the restaurant’s name). For the uninitiated, bibimbap is a dish in which plain rice is topped with various vegetables and meat, an egg, and is usually served with a tasty Korean hot sauce called gochujang on the side.

This particularly version is served in a piping hot stone bowl (which is where “dolsot” in the name comes from), which makes the rice along the edges delightfully crispy.

I’m generally a pretty big fan of this dish, and this might just be the best version of it that I’ve had. It has a really nice balance of flavours, and just the right amount of kick from the hot sauce. It’s one of those dishes where every bite is a little bit different. It’s pretty great.

Country 036 – Afghanistan (Naan and Kabob)

Published on June 26, 2016November 12, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Bristol Road East, Mississauga
Website: http://nandk.ca/mississauga/

This is a probably a bit of a generalization, but there are a couple of pretty dependable rules of thumb for judging if an ethnic place is worth your time:

A nicer looking restaurant probably doesn’t mean you’re going to get better food. Don’t ask me why, but when it comes to non-Western eats, the tastiest stuff tends to come from sketchy little hole-in-the-wall joints.
This one is super obvious — a place filled with people who come from the country of the restaurant’s cuisine is always a good sign. If people who know what the real deal tastes like think the food is good, then the food is probably good.

Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but Naan and Kabob fails both tests.

For number one in particular, this seems like a particularly unfair complaint to make. What? Your restaurant is bright, clean, and stylishly designed? Ugh, no thanks. Kind of an insane critique, isn’t it?

Of course, arbitrary rules aside, the easiest way to determine if a restaurant is worth your time is to eat the food. Which I did, obviously.

I ordered the Qabuli Palau, Afghanistan’s national dish (according to Wikipedia, at least).

It’s pretty simple: spiced rice, topped with shredded carrots and raisins, and served with meat (in this case, braised veal, though you can upgrade to lamb for a couple of bucks). They also serve it with a bowl of chicken curry on the side.

It’s not bad. The rice is a little bit bland, and the sweet carrots combined with the even sweeter raisins makes for a dish that’s a bit more cloying than it probably should be, though the savoury chunks of braised veal help to offset some of the sweetness. However, while about half of the meat was unctuous and fork-tender, the other half was stringy and dry.

There’s the curry, too — and it’s not bad — though to be honest, I’m not sure why it was even there. It felt a bit out of place with the other flavours in this dish.

The whole thing is decent enough, but I can’t imagine anyone walking out of the restaurant raving about it.

Maybe there is something to those generalizations after all…

Country 034 – Myanmar (Royal Myanmar)

Published on May 29, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 483 Horner Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: http://theroyalmyanmar.com/

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to order for this blog; how do you distill a nation’s cuisine into one dish? I mean, you can’t. But it’s always nice to get something that can at least give a partial view of what a country’s food has to offer.

In the case of Myanmar, there doesn’t seem to be much debate over their national dish: it’s mohinga, Myanmar’s take on Asia’s ubiquitous noodle soup.

So, that’s easy. Mohinga it is.

Though Royal Myanmar’s version of this dish features noodles that are overcooked and somewhat mushy, and flavours that are more muted than you’d expect (for something that is ostensibly a fish soup, there is an odd lack of anything even resembling a seafood flavour), I still quite enjoyed this. It’s subtle, but a squirt of lime and a sprinkling from the jar of fiery-hot crushed chilis helps to kick it up several notches. It also has a nice garlicky hum, an added richness thanks to the sliced hard-boiled egg, and a vibrancy from the abundant fresh cilantro.

The broth has been thickened, but subtly so — some thickened Asian soups can be a bit gelatinous for my tastes, but here it’s just thick enough to to give it substance without going overboard.

It’s topped with crunchy chickpea fritters; it’s kind of like topping a soup with crackers, only with a million times more personality.

Country 031 – Austria (The Musket)

Published on April 17, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 40 Advance Road, Toronto
Website: http://www.musketrestaurant.com/

I can’t say I know too much about Austria, though they did give the world the gift of Arnold Schwarzenegger — so clearly, it’s a country worth knowing about.

The obvious order at The Musket is probably the schnitzel, but I decided to go a bit off the beaten path, and ordered the leberkase (without particularly knowing what it even was).

This turned out not be a particularly adventurous choice — leberkase is a mix of corned beef, pork, bacon and onions, which is ground into a fine paste and baked in a pan. It resembled, more than anything else, a really big, flattened Vienna Sausage patty. Served with a perfectly cooked fried egg on top and with a side of home fries, it was more classic comfort food than adventurous eating.

I quite enjoyed it, but then Vienna Sausage and eggs was a staple when I was growing up, so it definitely brought back some warm, fuzzy childhood memories. The fried egg compliments the salty leberkase quite well, and the home fries help round things out (I question their Austrian authenticity, but hey, if it works it works).

Country 028 – Poland (Cafe Polonez)

Published on March 6, 2016March 6, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 195 Roncevalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://cafepolonez.ca/

Like Cho Dang Soon Tofu, this is a place that I’ve not only visited before, but actually written about on another blog. But hey, if it’s good, it’s good.

A lot of the food here is actually Hungarian — given the restaurant’s name, I figured I’d order off the “Polish Classics” section of the menu. I went with the Hunter’s Stew, which is described on the menu as “slow cooked sauerkraut with slices of sausage and pork, served with rye bread.”

We started, however, with the cheddar and potato pierogies; they were pretty much pierogi perfection, with a tender, perfectly chewy exterior encasing a deliciously creamy potato filling. The little cup of golden caramelized onions easily puts them over-the-top.

The stew, on the other hand, was probably the weakest thing I’ve had at Cafe Polonez. Not that it was particularly bad; it was actually quite tasty. But even with the chunks of sausage and pork, it was essentially just a big plate of sauerkraut with some added richness from being cooked with the meat. It would make for an amazing side dish, but as a main meal it gets a bit monotonous.

Country 026 – South Korea (Cho Dang Soon Tofu)

Published on February 7, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5130 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: None

If the whole point of this blog is to try new things, then I’m failing pretty miserably with this entry; not only have I been to Cho Dang Soon Tofu several times before, I’ve even written about it for another blog.

Still, I haven’t written about the restaurant’s namesake dish: an intensely flavourful, bubbling hot stew that I can’t get enough of.

Like any Korean restaurant worth its salt, the meal starts with a generous selection of banchan — essentially a variety of small appetizers. My favourite here are the crispy, addictively salty fried sardines, but the silky cubes of soft tofu (made in house) with a little bowl of sesame- and green-onion-infused soy sauce for dipping are also quite memorable, as is the obligatory (and delcious) kimchi.

But of course, the reason to come here is that delicious, piping-hot stew. I got mine with pork, though several other options are available. It’s spicy, flavourful, and seriously hearty — aside from the aforementioned pork, its absolutely suffused with the restaurant’s creamy house-made tofu, not to mention the egg that you crack into the bowl yourself, and the generous bowl of purple rice that accompanies the stew (made that distinctive colour by mixing black rice in with the white).

The best part? All that food? Eight bucks. Yeah, it’s a deal.

Country 024 – Ethiopia (Ethiopian House)

Published on January 10, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4 Irwin Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://www.ethiopianhouse.com/

See, this is one of the big reasons I started this blog: I have zero experience with Ethiopian cuisine. And who knows when I would have tried it otherwise — the inspiration for this particular excursion was entirely blog-related.

The moral of this story? If you want to try new things, start a blog. (and ignore the fact that you could easily try new things without the hassle and work of maintaining a food blog — where’s the fun in that??)

My dining companion and I shared both the meat and vegetarian Bayaaynatu, which the menu translates as “of each kind,” and is essentially a sampler plate. It all came on one enormous platter bearing a kaleidoscopic assortment of tastes and textures. I’m not even going to try to describe them all, but I will say that there wasn’t a weak selection in the bunch. I was particularly impressed by the diversity of flavours here; I sort of figured that everything would taste similar, but with few exceptions, each selection in the assortment had a personality of its own.

I really enjoyed it, though the meat in the dish at the top of the header photo was a bit tough, and the whole spread felt like it could have used more spice (hot sauce was provided, however).

There’s no classy way to eat this. There’s no cutlery to be seen; you just tear off a piece of injera — a wheaty Ethiopian flatbread that’s kind of like a thin, spongy pancake — and start scooping. The whole thing is served on a piece of that same bread, so eventually you’ll start tearing pieces off and eating that too. Only one napkin was provided (though I’m sure I could have — and should have — asked for more), and without getting into too much detail, I’ll say that by the end of the meal that napkin had seen better days.

It’s also an intimidating amount of food. My dining companion and I were defeated by the enormous spread, and neither of us are exactly dainty eaters. Still, we did our best; when the food is this good, how could you not?

Country 017 – Philippines (Lamesa Filipino Kitchen)

Published on October 4, 2015November 29, 2015 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 669 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.lamesafilipinokitchen.com/

I was really looking forward to trying Lamesa — specifically, I was looking forward to trying their take on sisig, a dish that looked especially compelling on the Philippines episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show.

I came at brunch, and sadly, despite its presence on their website’s menu, the sisig was M.I.A. — apparently there’s a new chef in the kitchen, so I’m guessing what’s on their website and what’s in the restaurant might not match up for the next little while.

I ordered the Silog breakfast instead, which comes with your choice of boneless bangus (also known as milkfish), pork belly tocino (which the waiter described as their take on back bacon), or pork longanisa (a sausage), along with cassava hash, fried eggs, garlic rice, and salad.

I went with the fish, which had been fried, giving it a nice crispy exterior — but either this type of fish just naturally lacks any type of moisture, or it was way overcooked. I’m going to guess the latter.

It had an overt (though not at all unpleasant) fishy flavour, but was puckeringly salty and unpleasantly dry. Without the runny yolk to lubricate things it would have been nigh-inedible, but combined with the perfectly-cooked eggs, it wasn’t bad.

The cassava hash (which was also fried, and which lacked anything even remotely resembling any hash-like properties) was fine — nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside — but I wish they had taken some of the salt out of the fish and put it here instead. If it had been seasoned at all, you couldn’t taste it. It was exceptionally bland, though the tangy house-made ketchup certainly helped.

The salad was the standard boxed mixed greens with a basic vinaigrette that you can find at so many restaurants; fine, but nothing to see here. Move along.

I feel like I’m being overly negative; nothing here was particularly great, but nothing was outright bad, either. Certainly, I had no problem cleaning my plate. So I’ll end on a high note. The garlic rice — fragrant with garlic that’s right on the verge of being burnt — was an intense flavour-bomb, and easily the highlight of the meal. The garlicky taste from that rice lingered on my palate for the rest of the day, but it was totally worth it. I’d be tempted to come back just for that.