Taste Test: Roger Mooking helps us pick Toronto’s best unconventional burger

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2:12 pm

Hogtown has a soft spot for burgers from the classic to the creative. So we enlisted chef Roger Mooking to taste the city’s best beef patties with wild toppings. The fusion of flavours between these buns takes these burgers to the next level.

Winner: Pho-tastic
Dac Biet, 213 Church St., $6.75
The pho burger is topped with sautéed bean sprouts, fresh basil and lime with hoisin and sriracha sauces and is served with a side of pho jus. “Pho is one of my favourite things on earth,” says Mooking. “This is the best-seasoned beef. It’s a really interesting idea. Strangely, it tastes like pho.”

Topped with a mighty mushroom
Burger’s Priest, 3397 Yonge St., $11.99
The Priest burger is topped with cheese and two portobello mushrooms breaded and deep-fried. “It’s shockingly cheesy, quite rich and decadent,” says Mooking. “I am getting the mushroom, but I find the edges of the breading to be too much. It’s well seasoned, and I love the raw onions.”

Turn up the heat
Big Smoke Burger, 799 York Mills Rd., $7.69
The Blazing Pineapple is topped with hot peppers, grilled pineapple, hot sauce, tomato and lettuce. “The heat creeps up on you. I love iceberg lettuce. The pineapple is cool, but I find it a little acidic because you also have pickled peppers. The patty is cooked medium and juicy, but is under-seasoned.”

Burgers for breakfast
Holy Chuck, 1450 Yonge St., $11.49
The Grind and Shine double cheeseburger is topped with bacon, caramelized onions, homemade potato chips and a fried egg. “The burger is cooked juicy to perfection. It has a lot of flavour,” he says. “I love the egg, and there’s something spicy in there. It’s nice.”

A toast to the West Coast
Fatburger, 10 Ddisera Dr., #120, $9.99
The California burger is topped with maple bacon, guacamole and double pepperjack cheese.
“There’s so much fat in this burger. The bacon is just like dripping fat. They cooked the patty a little bit over,” he says. “That guacamole tastes like a milkshake, it’s so creamy.”

Korean-inspired kimchi
The Rude Boy, 397 Roncesvalles Ave., $9.50
The Seoul Man is topped with fermented kimchi, pickled cucumber, garlic aïoli and BBQ sauce. “I like that they actually made a proper garlic aïoli. It’s a very mellow kimchi. I don’t get the depth of really good kimchi. The cucumber is a nice idea, but it gets lost inside the mix,” he says.

A Mexican mélange
Stack, 3265 Yonge St., $13
The chipotle burger is topped with jalapenos, corn salsa, avocado, pico de gallo and corn tortilla strips. “Lawd have mercy. The first thing I taste is pico de gallo and bread. The onion is cut too thick, but the burger is cooked well. I didn’t really get the corn salsa, but the avocado was nice,” he says.

From Philly with cheese
P&L Burger, 507 Queen St. W., $10
The Philly is topped with mushrooms, American cheese, sautéed onions and pickled jalapenos. “There are tons of mushrooms. The beef is nice, and the sweetness in the onions really comes through. There’s a certain nostalgia around processed cheese in a hamburger,” he says.

Five fun Toronto programs to prepare kids for the new economy

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Andrew Mannsbach

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8:54 am

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Extracurriculars are pretty standard for most kiddos: sports, dance, maybe a games club, an art workshop or a drama class.

But what if your child’s outside-of-school activities could teach him or her skills that might actually look impressive on a resumé when the time comes to apply for a job? If it seems far-fetched — because your offspring don’t even have bank accounts or know how to do their laundry yet — believe us, it isn’t.

Read on to learn about five programs in the GTA where your youngster is sure to pick up a thing or two.

For budding filmmakers
Fast Motion Studios specializes in motion capture and visual effect services, and it has smartly extended its expertise to kids. Parents of children aged nine to 14 can choose from after-school and camp-format workshops to introduce kids to the world of creating motion pictures, television shows or video games, in a hands-on way under the watchful eye of the pros. The company occupies an 8,000-square-foot building, with an in-house studio space, so the only problem will be finding your future tech expert should he or she decide never to leaving.

For computer wunderkinds
Knowing how to code is fast becoming a vital skill in many industries. Give your kids a jump on the competition by letting the experts at Hatch teach them how to program. Kids will learn to write code, as well as how to debug, find errors and read code written by others, in a fun, collaborative setting. Hatch also has classes in robotics, video editing, 3D modelling and more. Choose from weekly classes, camps or $5 Fridays, where kids who are interested in tech can come and try out a variety of workshops to get a feel for Hatch’s style.

For young entrepreneurs
Junior Achievement (JA) has been around for almost 100 years. It is dedicated to teaching kids about financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, and to date it has served more than 4.4 million Canadian students. JA Central Ontario offers programs for kids from Grade 5 and up, with topics such as owning and running your own business, making smart money decisions, understanding the value of diversity and how to be successful in academic pursuits. Visit the website to learn more about program offerings and availability in your area.

For future engineers
Named Best Kids’ Workshop by Toronto Life Magazine, MakerKids Coding and Robotics for Kids runs 10-week programs, for two hours a week either after school or on weekends, with an aim to teach kids real-world skills while helping them make friends and create something amazing. Choose from coding (How to Code a Video Game), robotics (Make It Light Up) and Minecraft (Commands and Circuits) options this fall. The programs, suitable for kids aged seven to 12, tout the ability to change kids from “consumers to creators.” Go online to read more or to register for an upcoming session. Birthday party and school PA day programs are also on offer.

For junior botanists
At the south end of High Park, just north of Colbourne Lodge, sits the Children’s Garden and Children’s Teaching Kitchen of Toronto’s Children’s Eco Programs. The organization’s MO is to introduce kids to nature in the city. Parents can choose from a variety of program opportunities, including eco camp, PA day and March break camps as well as birthday parties, family drop-in hours, leadership training and more (teachers, there are class trip options too!). During program hours, kids will learn to relate to and observe nature, cultivate growth in the field and the gardens and learn to cook with fresh fruits and veggies.

Even if your child doesn’t aspire to be a farmer or a scientist, learning about the environment is going to be more and more crucial for generations to come.

Restaurant Review: Uptown Kwan does decent — but unexciting — dim sum

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Andrew Mannsbach

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10:31 am

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Having another choice for high-end dim sum is a dream come true for dumpling-crazed Sinophiles like me. Or so I imagined when Kwan — the snazzy Chinese resto at Yonge and St. Clair — opened their all-day, dim sum-only branch on York Mills. It’s a very attractive room, with 3-D tiles and harmonious colour combos. The service is pretty quick and affable. And it’s in a mall, so you can park.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the new Kwan. I like the old Kwan, although I do find it hard to put up with their often churlish service in order to get the (not cheap) dumpling delicacies. And I can’t figure out why new Kwan, while focusing on dim sum, isn’t offering some of the more exotic dumplings served at the original location.

Or maybe I’ve gotten spoiled. Travel can do that to you. Ever since I ate carciofi alla giudia for the first time in Rome I’ve been searching for that ultra-crisp deep-fried artichoke explosion in the mouth. And now it’s the same with dim sum. On a recent sojourn in Beijing, I ate dim sum in the Four Seasons Beijing restaurant, which was a revelation. Each little gem was a flavour explosion, a clever combo like steamed pork dumpling topped with sweet hairy crab, or fried taro and chestnut dumplings in gossamer wrapper with morsels of tender roast goose on top. Super-delicate pan-fried beef pancake.

Unfortunate for my dim sum eating future.

This peak eating moment has made the good stuff less exciting. And the Kwan dim sum isn’t. Exciting. All the regulars are here and done pretty nicely. Sticky rice in lotus leaf, siu mai and har gow. Steamed seafood and veg dumplings. Thin pancake with clams and chives is its usual addictive greasy self. They do a great job on the rice flour rolls, prepping the rice wrappers from scratch and cooking them to order. One, in particular, stuffed with snow pea sprout and mushroom, has vegetable sharpness from the greens in great contrast with mellow depth from the mushrooms in toothsome rice. Only two items disappoint badly: So-called deep-fried squid tentacles with salt are neither crispy from the deep fryer nor salt-crusted. And seafood dumpling soup, one of my other all-time dim sum favourites, suffers from both lackluster soup stock and overcooked and unexciting seafood.

Moral of the story: Stay home. Or stick to Big Macs and KFC when travelling.

Kwan at York Mills, 808 York Mills Rd., $50 dinner for two

Taste Test: Chef Anthony Rose picks the best midway-style snacks in Toronto

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Andrew Mannsbach

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9:36 am

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Need a head start on the CNE? Chef Anthony Rose has you covered. He dove into the wildest and wackiest food creations across the city to find out which ones are worthwhile to get your fix of funky food before heading to the fair.

Winner: Delicious doughnuts
Stack Restaurant, 3265 Yonge St., $8
“This is delicious,” says Anthony Rose after his first bite into the house-made doughnuts topped with chocolate sauce, vanilla glaze, icing sugar, whipped cream and candy sprinkles. “Something like this should be a mess, and it is a mess,” he says. “This is my favourite by far.”

Nacho typical bag of chips
Junked Food Co., 1256 Dundas St. W., $8.95
“Thank you for the salad,” Rose says jokingly as his paleo diet is suffering with all the junk food he’s eating. “The chips are fantastic, and this is a mess,” he says, of the aptly named hot mess smash bag, but he also says he would like the house-made sauces to be more distinguishable.

Not your average ring
Olde Yorke Fish & Chips, 96 Laird Dr., $4.95
“The batter itself is kind of nice and crispy and fairly good,” says Rose of the deep-fried pineapple rings that are topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. “The pineapple doesn’t have a lot of flavour, though, and it’s a bit stringy.”

Deep-fried lollipops with a twist
Holy Chuck, 1450 Yonge St., $4.99
“My guess is they took Nutella, scooped it and froze it,” says Rose as he examines the three deep-fried Nutella lollipops served with fresh whipped cream. “I think it’s a cool idea. You can’t go wrong with Nutella. The Nutella is delicious, but the rest is a bit greasy.”

A sweet start to the day
Uncle Betty’s, 2590 Yonge St., $6
“I do like the egg and cheese combo,” says Rose of the house-made doughnut stuffed with egg and cheese. “I think that eggs and cheese are beautiful together, but unfortunately the doughnut is reminding me of a bad experience I had with a Krispy Kreme burger.”

When avocado meets s’mores
Muncheez Creperie, 7181 Yonge St., Unit 21, $7.49
“This is surprisingly good,” says Rose of the crepe stuffed with avocado, marshmallows and Nutella. “I enjoy the avocado, it’s got Nutella, and I get the marshmallow flavour, but I just wish there was more of it.”

Peanut butter jelly time
I Went To Philly, 997 Eglinton Ave. W., $5.65
“The topping tastes almost like a crushed-up cereal of some sort,” says Rose. “I was excited for a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I can mostly just taste the oil and not the other flavours.”

A burger inspired by the king
Dangerous Dan’s, 714 Queen St. E., $6.40
“Ewwwww,” says Rose as he finds out this beef burger is topped with bacon, fried banana and peanut butter. It’s a take on the classic Elvis sandwich. “All the flavours are definitely there. Bacon is one of my favourite things in the world, and I do love peanut butter with it,” he says.

Restaurant Review: Honest Weight is a 20-seat heartthrob in the Junction

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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10:15 am

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John Bil, the owner, pours shots of skull vodka for a couple of regulars and says he never wanted to open a restaurant that a lot of people made a fuss over. He only ever wanted a neighbourhood place, which is why, he says, “It’s only 20 seats.”

Well good luck with that, John. You shouldn’t have made such a fantastic restaurant if you didn’t want people to flock from all over town to your little Junction hot spot.

Honest Weight is a heartthrob. How cool to see the fish counter and know that by day John sells all this impeccably fresh fish, and by night he cooks it up for you to order. His CV is all fish: Before Honest Weight he did oyster sales, was once a PEI oyster farmer and managed a salmon farm in New Brunswick.

The small menu reaches from Italy to Japan via Thailand and with great grace. Quaff the Caesar with house-made Clamato and cucumber vodka while you’re deciding. Dreamy. It’s easiest to order pan-fried fish, as you see on display at the impeccable retail fish counter. But they do complex really well too. Other than the chowder and the iconic okonomiyaki pancake, the menu changes based on the fish coming in.

(IMAGE: CJ BAEK)

Their trademark okonomiyaki — a tradition to which whole restos in Japan are dedicated — is a feather-light pancake stuffed with the fish of the day, shredded cabbage, mountain yam and bacon, topped with bonito and green onion spiked with okonomi sauce, which to me is sweet soy. Their Thai lobster salad is loaded with lobster spiked with toast peanuts, chilies, Thai basil and vinegar. And we love the chowder, a clean un-thick cream (made with organic 40 per cent cream).

They steam mussels and clams with bacon, shallots and fish stock to great effect — with sourdough for dipping. There is moist smoked sturgeon served with lightly pickled mussels. And Ontario shrimp.

Yes. Ontario. John knows a local hog farmer who threw in the towel when the price of pork went south. So this hog farmer installed big saltwater tanks in the old hog barn. John gets them often enough that the Ontario shrimp you eat tonight were alive yesterday. Though not as sweet as Gulf shrimp, they’re so fresh they’re wonderful.

Dessert is hardly necessary after the seafood feast, and there’s usually only one. If it’s pouding chômeur (meaning literally unemployment pudding or poor man’s pudding) was created in Quebec during the Depression. Super-moist white cake/pudding cooked with maple syrup. Yum. And depressed is what you’ll be if you fail to get a table at Honest Weight. ’Cause it’s in the Junction and they don’t take reservations.

Honest Weight, 2766 Dundas St. W., $65 dinner for two

The parent Olympics: Mom and Dad are the unsung heroes behind Toronto’s top athletes

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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11:38 am

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It all comes down to one moment. That moment when they walk up to the podium, their eyes searching the crowd — searching for that one person who is the proudest of them and has worked the hardest to get them where they are today. Normally, it’s Mom. OK, and Dad. They’ve put in Olympian efforts to see their children succeed. But what does it take?

“They were our first sponsors,” says Roseline Filion, a member of Canada’s pre-eminent diving team (dubbed “the Fab IV”) about her parents and the sacrifices they made to get her to be able to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Sponsors are those who support us financially, physically and mentally, something that all athletes rely on from their families while in training.

Rosie MacLennan, Olympic gold medallist on the trampoline, has always felt that from her mom, Jane.

“She’s been there since day one,” MacLennan says. “She was there when I was scared, wiped off my scraped knees. She was my support, physically and mentally.”

As one of the Canadian athletes working with corporate sponsor Procter & Gamble and their “Thank You, Mom” campaign, she is grateful for the chance to have her mom recognized on this world stage.

Canadian women’s star soccer goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe agrees.

“My mom was always my biggest supporter. She never tried to change what I did on the field, but she supported my dreams and what I wanted to do. She drove me to all of my training and encouraged me and was always the first person to give me a hug after the game.”

In many families, the athlete isn’t the only child in the family, adding extra pressure to the parents.

“I have younger twin sisters, and she had to bring them to the pool with me all the time,” says Meaghan Benfeito, also a Fab IV diver. “She was my taxi.”

Much of the time, the support does come on four wheels.

“My mom was driving non-stop, carpooling. As a kid, you don’t always appreciate that,” says Mark Oldershaw, Olympic canoeing bronze medallist. “But she always encouraged us to be having fun where we wanted to go.”

Brianne Theisen-Eaton, track and field competitor, echoes these sentiments about her own mom.

“She’s always been there to support me both emotionally and financially. I love talking to her on the phone, when I just need to get away from the track,” she says.

Athletes always get highlighted. It’s nice to show the support system behind the scenes because they do just as much and are just as much a part of the story and journey as the athletes are.

Help your kids build their own adventure

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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10:25 am

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Cultivate independence, creativity and initiative with these DIY projects that will also keep the kids busy during the hot days of August.

A) Grow mushrooms
A gourmet oyster mushroom kit from T.O.’s Fungaea, $19.99

B) Make a computer
This Kano kit is as easy to build as lego, $195

C) Sew a stuffed animal
A DIY stuffed owl from T.O.’s Cate & Levi, $29.99

D) Build a Pinball Game
Fun and educational to build, U Can Do It!, 50 Carroll St., Unit 103, $44.99

E) DIY ukulele
Build and decorate your own instrument from Uncommon Goods, $55

Towers for Bayview Village shopping centre?

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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9:31 am

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Two or three towers could be coming to the Bayview Village Shopping Centre property.

Bentall Kennedy, a real estate investment company that leases and manages Bayview Village, held a consultation meeting with the local community on June 14 to gain feedback on a redevelopment plan for the property.

Bentall Kennedy has proposed redeveloping two parking lots on the property surrounding the 440,000-square-foot shopping centre. Bentall Kennedy is considering building one residential building on the southwest parking lot across from the Bayview subway station.

On the north parking lot, preliminary plans show a mixed-use development.

The lot would be replaced with two or three levels of underground parking.

There are no plans to change the shopping centre, and the Bayview Mews rental property to the north will not be affected.

“It’s a very positive step,” said David Magil, chair of the Bayview Village Association’s municipal and government relations committee. “They’re reaching out … a lot earlier than most developers do consultations.”

The primary challenge facing the proposed development is traffic.

Bentall Kennedy is working with a traffic consultant to reach an agreeable solution with the community.

Magil said there was mostly constructive criticism at the consultation meeting but acknowledged there are some issues.

“People are concerned that this is sort of the thin [edge of the] wedge of bigger things to come, which will have a significant impact on the community,” he said.

“Until they have something firmer, those concerns are going to remain,” he added.

Hariri Pontarini Architects and Dialog Architects have been selected to design the buildings, along with landscaping and streetscaping from Janet Rosenberg & Studio.

A formal proposal has not yet been submitted to the City of Toronto.

Taste Test: Beat the heat with the best ice cream sandwiches in Toronto

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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3:47 pm

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It’s not enough to just serve ice cream in this town anymore. T.O.’s frozen treat purveyors are dishing out wild and wacky creations for everything from soft serve to frozen sandwiches. We invited chef Cory Vitiello of the Harbord Room, Flock and the TV series Chef In Your Ear to taste these over-the-top sammies and find out who has the cream of the crop.

Winner: Berry delicious
Summer’s Ice Cream, 101 Yorkville Ave., $5.95
“The ice cream itself might be my favourite, but I’m very biased toward strawberry and rhubarb flavours. It’s made fresh with seasonal fruit, not prepackaged or processed, and the chocolate chip cookie works surprisingly well with it,” says Vitiello.

Doughnuts and cream
Uncle Betty’s Diner, 2590 Yonge St., $6
“In individual pieces, everything is really good — the doughnut, the marshmallow ice cream, the Skor pieces — but together it’s just a bit heavy for me. It would be nice if there was one item to balance it,” he says.

Pop goes the ice cream
Bake Shoppe Pop-up, 157 Bloor St. W., $6
“The Pop-Tart is delicious, big points right away for making your own Pop-Tarts,” says Vitiello of the strawberry, raspberry and cream tart filled with Ed’s Real Scoop’s Tahitian vanilla ice cream. “It’s the right amount of ice cream and you can taste the quality.”

Mango macarons
The Milkaron, contact by email, Richmond Hill, $15 for 5
“The macaron is nice, and the mango ice cream is refreshing and not too sweet. The macaron still had a nice crunch to it with softness in the middle. It’s easy to miss the mark when you’re making something so small, but those were pretty tasty,” says Vitiello.

Cinnamon bun fun
Bang Bang, 93A Ossington Ave., $7.50
“The London fog ice cream is really tasty. You get that bergamot flavour right away. This is more of a cinnamon roll with ice cream as a garnish, and I would usually go ice cream first. It is very, very heavy, but it’s fun and clever, and the flavours go well,” he says.

Top-of-the-line toffee
Booyah, 16 vaughan rd., $4.65
“I like everything going on here. The homemade butterscotch toffee cookies and toasted marshmallow ice cream. The salted caramel ice cream is perfect: not too sweet, and the salt is good. The only criticism is the sprinkles, because everything else is homemade.” he says.

Ice cream dream team
Junked Food Co., 1256 Dundas St. W., $6.95
“This is something you’d expect to find at the Ex. I feel guilty just looking at it, but that’s the point. Who doesn’t like all the stuff piled on top?” he says of the Cocoa Puffs, Oreos, brownies and cookie crumble. “It’s not my style of ice cream dessert, but it’s fun.”

A berry and basil bash
Red Bench, 611 Yonge St., $6
“By looks, this is my favourite. The quality of the ice cream is amazing and there’s a lot of cookie,” says Vitiello of the shortbread with basil, cranberry and white chocolate. “The blueberry cream is really fresh. You get a nice rich cream taste like a soft serve.”

Restaurant Review: Superstar chef’s El Rey Mezcal Bar lacks magic touch

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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10:30 am

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There’s a babe at the next table wearing booty shorts. And both legs liberally tattooed in bright colours. Her swain, equally inked, has a greying ponytail. A brief and highly informal survey of the customers at El Rey, the new resto owned by Grant van Gameren and Owen Walker, indicates that the majority of the customers are more like the aforementioned couple than like me and my equally aging uptown spouse.

Which is a good thing. I’m guessing they like El Rey for its cocktail extravaganzas and Mexican munchies. After all, this is Kensington. People need munchies. Which don’t have to taste great.
And they mostly don’t.

The bar at El Rey (IMAGE: LIBBY ROACH)

The only standout I tasted on the menu is green ceviche, which is impeccably fresh raw scallops and marinated halibut in pale green blender-whizzed sauce with coriander and lime. It’s delicate, citric and creamy all at once. But all else disappoints, especially in taqueria town. I personally liked the Peruvian anticuchos, which were little skewers of grilled chicken hearts with chimichurri sauce, tiny fried potato cubes and a lot of oil. But not everyone favours either chicken hearts or oodles of oil for dinner. Bar food.

Does the world really need a deep-fried slightly mealy potato/corn tortilla holding refried beans and chorizo with tomatillo salsa on top? Or seafood cocktail made of octopus, oysters, shrimp, olives, avocado and clams with tomato, orange and lime juice — with enough sweet to make it sophomoric. And saltines on the side? Is that to be retro and cool? The saltines go well with the store-bought corn tortillas.

They really can’t make ’em fresh?

But it’s dessert time when the biggest letdown happens. Their one dessert is plantains with nut crumble and goat caramel. The crumble and the caramel are munchies madness, super-sweet buttery crunchy. The sweet that makes your teeth hurt. But the plantain — like most other plantain — is the texture of shoes. Most unfortunate.

Do we think Grant has tasted it? We know he didn’t cook it.

I’m always nervous when a superstar chef expands. Can he control more than one kitchen? Will it be his hand on the tiller? In the case of Bar Raval, Grant’s second resto after the superlative Bar Isabel, we taste his imprimatur everywhere. But El Rey is a frank statement of Grant owning the shop with the food vision of others. Grant fell for the cooking of the Montreal husband-and-wife team Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo (La Catrina, Tuck Shop, Le Comptoir). He went to Montreal, tasted their food and hired them to helm El Rey.

El Rey’s patio with a view (IMAGE: LIBBY ROACH)

It’s a cute spot, with bar and small eating tables inside and a front terrace with a good view of the Kensington parade. The flights of mezcal are dandy. One feels almost cool just by showing up. No reservations of course. Would you want one?

El Rey, plus the fact that Grant is opening yet another bar, this one in Parkdale, begs the question: If I could use my name to make money without having to show up, would I? Would you?

El Rey Mezcal Bar, 2A Kensington Ave., $65 dinner for two

Big Opening: Fashion fit for the beach at TeamLTD

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2:01 pm

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TeamLTD (living the dream) is a lifestyle brand dedicated to action sports, travel and adventure. It was founded in 2012 by two Canadian athletes, Jamie Visser and Scott Croxall.

“What our customers and friends define as ‘living the dream’ is unique to them. We simply pride ourselves on being able to share their experiences,” says Visser.

Bestsellers include the Boardwalk swim shorts for men and yoga tank tops with an ultra soft tri-blend for women.

TeamLTD, 1043 Bathurst St.

Taste Test: Chef Massimo Capra picks Toronto’s best butcher-shop sausages

By

Andrew Mannsbach

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9:41 am

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WINNER
Chili & lime sausage from Summerhill Market
“It’s very juicy and fresh. The lime and chili come through. This is a very well-made sausage.”
446 Summerhill Ave., $7.99/lb.

RUNNER-UP
Chicken with shiitake sausage from The Butcher’s Son
“Wow this is really good. I get the shiitake mushrooms, I get the scallions, I get the moisture from the chicken. The flavour is fantastic.”
2055 Yonge St., $9.99/lb.

Cubano sausage from Olliffe
“It has a beautiful smell, and the flavour is very good with the pickles, cheese, garlic and pork. The flavours are well balanced.”
1097 Yonge St., $12/lb.

Root beer sausage from Roast
“It tastes sweet. The root beer is the sweetness. The flavour is very interesting and well-balanced. And I love the green onion.”
786 St. Clair Ave. W., $9.99/lb.

Blue cheese & pear sausage from The Healthy Butcher
“If you’re a lover of blue cheese, you’re going to love this and I get a bit of the pear.”
298 Eglinton Ave. W., $8.99/lb.

Jerk chicken sausage from Cumbrae’s
“I can smell the clove and all the jerk spices. This is a tasty sausage. It’s very innovative and very pleasant and mildly spiced.”
1636 Bayview Ave., $9.99/lb.

Maple chipotle sausage from Pusateri’s
“The maple comes through really strong, and the chipotle a little less. It’s a beautifully constructed sausage.”
2901 Bayview Ave., $10.99/lb.

Moroccan sausage from Magen Meats
“It’s made in the right size and casing, but the Moroccan spicing is not very strong.”
1118 Centre St., Unit 21, $15.55/lb.

Honey garlic sausage from Bruno’s
“It’s nice and moist and well composed. I think there’s something missing in terms of the honey and the garlic to balance the palate.”
2055 Avenue Rd., $5.99/lb.

Apple ginger sausage from The Friendly Butcher
“You can see all the apples inside. It’s tightly packed. This is done very well. The salt is perfect, but I don’t get the ginger flavour.”
3269 Yonge St., $8.99/lb.