Chuckwagon BBQ (Madison, Al)

Alabama meets Texas

You sometimes have to wonder what possesses people to do the things they do. I mean, what would posses a person to open a Texas BBQ joint in Madison Alabama. Right in the heart of North Alabama BBQ country. Especially given that people from one BBQ region DO NOT, as a rule, like BBQ from another region. But....there it is, Chuck Wagon BBQ not 10 minutes from the legend, Big Bob Gibson's. It's a recipe, no pun intended, for disaster.

But what if I told you that at lunch time, you can't get near this place. That lineups start before the doors open. That ya, it's that good.

Owner Mike Holley, a genuine transplanted Texan is churning out what could very well be the best Texas Q East of the Pecos. Using recipes handed down from his Grandfather, George Washington Gray he's found enough room in the BBQ saturated landscape of Madison and Limestone Counties. While he toiled in the oil fields of Texas for many years, Mike had cooking in his blood. His Great Grandfather was a chuck wagon cook on the Goodnight-Loving Trail.

Located just off I-565 Chuckwagon BBQ is a sight to behold. An honest to goodness joint. Decked out in weathered barn board with a bright red roof and big BBQ spelled out it's a stand out. Smoke stacks and catering pits pop up like mushrooms in a damp forest.

Inside it mirrors the outside with more barn board and is decorated with many things Texas. You enter around back and go through the outdoor dining area. Food is served to you cafeteria style from a large serving station inside and the cramped main dining room seems to accommodate many more than you'd think.

So let's get a look at what's got Alabamians betraying their roots shall we??
 

The Beans were much better but seemed to be lacking something. It seemed to be an acid of some sort. I added a bit of BBQ sauce and that seemed to brighten things up a bit. So I added more. I found that there was a level that was perfect and one that was too much. So easy does it.
I quite liked the Tater Salad. Nothing special about it, it’s just good old solid tuber goodness. Nothing wrong with that.
 

A 2 Meat combo of Brisket and Sausage is a nice match. Smoked pork sausage and Texas style brisket are as ubiquitous in Texas as cows it seems. While both were terrific, they both lacked that great smoked flavour that I love. Otherwise, the sausage was incredibly tasty and perfectly cooked. When smoking sausage the casing can become rather rubbery and downright unappetizing. This wasn't the case here. The brisket also hit all the appropriate buttons but the smokey one as I mentioned. The meat was fork tender, juicy and great tasting. Gven that these are the two house specialties, they’d better be good.

They do actually do pork products as well. This horrible photo is of ribs. Given that we showed up 5 minutes before close and I got the last order of ribs they were needless to say, not very photogenic. Not to worry, the taste was pretty much everything you’d want. As you can tell by the pink in the meat, the smoke flavour was spot on.

For dessert there are some options but Mrs. Sippi was all over the Fried Pies. The apple was terrific but the peach was just slightly better.

So there you have it folks, terrific Texas BBQ in the Heart of Dixie.

You can find Chuck Wagon BBQ at 8982 Madison Blvd. in Madison, Al.

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You can also find them on facebook.


Well that's all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.

Porchetta and Co. (Toronto, On)

Hogtown Heaven

In the mid 19th century William Davies immigrated to Canada and before long, set up a stall at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market. William sold hams and bacon and quickly learned, he was onto something. By the 1860’s he was shipping high quality salt cured pig products back to his native England. In time, the William Davies Company would operate the largest pork processing plant in the British Empire, the second largest in North America and would be credited (in part) for creating the Canadian pork industry we know today.
This success wasn’t lost on others as competitors soon cropped up and would be the genesis of Toronto’s nickname, Hogtown.

Toronto has never gotten over it’s love affair with the pig. Toronto’s signature sandwich is the Peameal Bacon on a Bun. This simple dish, an almost “Must do” for any trip to the St. Lawrence Market, traces it’s DNA back to the inventor of Peameal Bacon; William Davies.
Another piggy treat that’s really gained a lot of steam over the last half decade or so is the Porchetta Sandwich. In “Hogtown”, there’s no better offering of this rich, slow roasted porcine deliciousness than at Porchetta and Co.
This small (mostly) take away only place nestled in the heart of Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood churns out plates, sandwiches and sides. The menu is really that small but is shored up by weekly “white board” specials like Fried Chicken.
 
P  & Co. take the basic porchetta and soup it up. A pork shoulder is marinaded 24 hours with a variety of aromatics like rosemary and lemon zest. It’s then wrapped in proscuitto. Just because that simply isn’t good enough, the whole thing is then wrapped in cured pork belly. From there, the whole monster is blasted in an oven to create a great crust before slow roasting for hours to achieve that melt in your mouth, decadent flavour that has people lining out the door.
Chef/Owner Nick auf der Mauer open shop in December of 2010 and it has been on my “To do” list pretty much ever since. It wasn’t until a season 2 episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show The Layover came to town and, what with Tony being big on the pig, paid them a visit that I realized I could no longer put it off. Couple that with a tweet pronouncing they were serving Soft Shell Crab Po’ Boys, it was a done deal.

The tiny shop is a little hard to spot from the street but sniffing it out is well worth your trouble.
Inside there’s a handful of stools across the front window where you can eat your goodies but those seats can be hard to get. Especially when it gets busy. A good bet is to get out to one of the many local parks. Weather permitting of course.
The vast majority of the small space is dedicated to food prep and sales. The counter is backed by an open prep kitchen with the main one in the back.
Just a word to the wise. There’s no public bathrooms so you may want to wash up before hand and bring cash ‘cause they don’t take plastic.

So let’s get a look at these goodies.

Let’s start with the flagship. The porchetta sandwich. You can DIY your own with modifiers like Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella and Rapini. The latter being fantastic on porchetta.
This day, on the specials board was a sandwich constructed with Truffle Sauce, (real) parmesan and grainy mustard. This was simply an awesome sandwich. The bread was perfect in that it added some flavour but not a lot. It had enough body to hold together yet not so much as to cause the innards to squish out the back when you bite in. It had great pork taste as well. Bolstered by some cracklin’s which also added some crunch. The parmesan and truffle sauce were more back ground players. What tied the whole thing together is that mustard. It was tasty, tangy and had a little kick.

They offer up a trio of sides from which we selected the Baked Beans. These don’t resemble canned beans too much with hunks of pork and plump beans in a rich sauce. The whole mess is then garnished with cracklin’s. Very tasty although I’d leave the cracklin’s off next time. I didn’t feel they added much and were excellent of their own accord. So much so that Mrs. Sippi tried unsuccessfully to purchase some as a side.

The reason for the visit was the Friday - Saturday special that weekend. The Softshell Crab Po’ Boy. Crabs, as you probably know, have an exoskeleton. The bones don’t grow so need to be shed regularly as the animal grows. A process known as molting in case you didn’t know.
For a brief period the crab has no shell. Such beasts have become a delicacy world wide.
Typically (in NA) they’re deep fried and often served up sandwich style. P&C serves theirs on a Wonderbread style hot dog bun with sriracha mayo, slaw (which she omitted) and prosciutto bits. The crunchy crab shone on this and was nicely complemented by the garnishes. The bun served its purpose perfectly. It was merely a vessel to get from plate to mouth. A superb sandwich.

Well there you have it folks. Some rather decadent foods at a reasonable price.

You can find Porchetta and Company at 825 Dundas Street West in Toronto.

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You can also find them on the web, facebook and Twitter.

 

So that’s all for now folks. See ya again in the food court.

The “Windie” City

Jerk isn’t an insult the West Indies but a type of Jamaican seasoning that traditionally was rubbed into meat for curing. In bygone days, the heat of the Caribbean meant long term meat storage was a dicey proposition at best. Meats (traditionally pork or chicken) would be cured, smoked and then dried using a paste (or dry rub, or both) creating what we call “Jerky.” This fragrant and spicy concoction has basically three main stars with a larger supporting cast.  The headliners are scallions, scotch bonnet peppers and allspice. Rounding out the paste is garlic, thyme, some sort of sweet and some sort of salty. The later two usually consisting of brown sugar and soy sauce. The addition of nut meg and cinnamon round out the spice category nicely with the sweet and salty components tempering the heat as well as helping with the curing process. Make no mistake though, jerk is not for the faint of heart. Scotch bonnet peppers are among the hottest on the planet. Milder peppers can be substituted but heat is part of the deal. There’s no getting around it.
With refrigeration being prevalent now, the practice of jerking meats has gone from a necessity to a culinary art form. Tofu, fish and veggies now get the jerk treatment while secret family recipes are handed down and guarded like crown jewels. The open fire for the most part has given way to the oven as well. There are a few places that still cook over a fire but the large pimento wood pyres are more for special events in the islands.

Toronto, has a thriving Jamaican communtiy and boasts several restaurants offering tastes of the tropical island and one of the best is Mr. Jerk. Founded in '79 in a Carribean grocery they opened their first store in 1986. They now boast 6 GTA locations to serve you and are bringing the heat of the West Indies to the people of the north. My usual location is on Don Mills in the “Peanut Plaza.” So named for the peanut shaped island in the middle of Don Mills Rd on which the plaza sits. The broom closet sized place does take out only as a line up of thee or more customers constitutes a line up out the door. 

Serving the usual cast of characters such as Curry Chicken and Goat,  Jerk Chicken and Pork, Patties (made by Tastee) and Akee and Saltfish. The later being the national dish of Jamaica. Rice and peas being the common accompanying side.

Much like BBQ joints with their smoky, porky aroma, jerk has it’s own Siren’s song. Mornings in and around the city can find you intoxicated by smell of a jerk place gearing up for the days business. Most places roast their wares in an oven but there are a few, particularly in the Eglinton West areas heavily populated by West Indians that grill them in a barrel over charcoal.

Well, on to the food.

Rice and peas are like the pasta of the Caribbean. They often show up for duty. Peas are not peas as we know them though. Pigeon peas are small legumes much like Indian dhal or the black eyed pea. When not in season in Jamaica red or kidney beans are substituted and since it’s never pigeon pea season in Canada, we always get red beans. The rice and beans are cooked together in a coconut milk broth. Other flavourizers can be steeped in the cooking liquid such as thyme sprigs and garlic. Such aromatics are necessary to provided some back bone for the rice when going up against a pungent curry or jerk. While the rice and peas at Mr. Jerk are fine they don't have the background flavours that others do.

The Jerk Pork is wonderfully tender with a nice bark and is somewhat lean. Often times you find a layer of fat and even skin. The less fat content meant the sauce was a little thicker and a bit sweeter but nicely well rounded. The sweetness masked the heat which was a bit of a disappointment at first. I was hoping for much hotter. It was a bit of a Trojan horse though as by the time I finished my lunch my mouth was wide awake and very happy. The sneaky heat was very nice.


The oxtails are quite mild and very tasty. Teetering towards the sweet and sour that some trod upon and showing off the beef flavour of the meat. Said meat is wonderfully tender and holds together nicely on the bone but pulls away very easily and leave a clean piece of skeleton. In other words, cooked perfectly.

The Jerk Chicken is much like the pork although I swear it's hotter. I had chicken one night and pork the other and you'd have a hard time convincing me they're the same heat level. Again, the chicken is cooked perfectly so it's not dry. A half chicken is chopped up and served over top of the rice.
 
The home made pepper sauce is a real treat too. Slightly tangy with a nice sweet and heat to it. A very nice addition to any dish.

So there you have it. Great Jamaican take away food.

You can find Mr. Jerk at 3050 Don Mills Rd in Toronto or one of their other 5 locations.

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You can also find them on the web


Well that's all for now folks, we'll see ya next time in the food court. 

Smmmokin’

You’ve probably heard this story before. Boy’s father is in the restaurant business, eventually boy opens up his own restaurant. Well, meet Bill Panos. The son of a restaurateur he opened up his own place with his wife. Unfortunately for Bill, being a franchisee meant doing things one way and one way only. The corporate shackles just didn’t work for him.

Armed with a love for and knowledge of food, Bill went into business with Todd Savage. Eyeballing the burgeoning smashed burger market in the GTA they found a spot and set up shop. Freed up from the constraints of a chain restaurant Bill and Todd filled out the menu as they saw fit. The result was Stack Smmmoked. Basically, a slightly upscale sandwich shop, which just happens to have a smoker. Burgers, tacos and BBQ round out the menu as well as donuts and shakes.

What first put this place on my radar was the S’mores Donuts. My friend Abbey raved about them on her blog. So when the Smashed Burger Showdown came about, Stack made the itinerary. We purposely placed it as the anchor so we could finish with the donuts for dessert. What I found when I got there was a really terrific restaurant with a dedicated and enthusiastic owner. 

The uptown restaurant has a bistro meets sports bar look with plenty of seating and some flat screens sprinkled in, in a clean, modern space. The feel though is more laid back. Reflecting the owners. There’s murals on the wall and it even has an upstairs. The two tops beside the window up there look to be great seats. There's also a small patio out front. Downstairs, in front of the kitchen you’ll find the smoker. It has its own room and is vented outside so you don’t get that great smoker/meat aroma that so many great BBQ joints have. Sigh.

In the kitchen they use top quality ingredients from right here in Ontario and craft them into some tasty food. They also tinker. Constantly trying to improve their wares. With dedication like that you can rest assured that what comes out of there is first rate. Not just slapped together, jumping on a craze.

So let’s have a look shall we??

Stack fresh cuts their fries in house every morning. That’s nice but if you don’t do things right, you’re better off with a good frozen fry. Too many places use the wrong potato, don’t cook them long enough or fail in some other way. Not Stack. A good size, nicely crisp and lightly salted. Perfect for those who like ‘em a little less salty. Easily salted for those who love ‘em salty. These fries are simply great. Some of the best. They also can be had with BBQ seasoning on them.

I'm a big fan of the Mac n Cheese. This is not likely to bring about some noodle epiphany, being a typical old school, creamy example but that's perfectly fine. It's served in a small cast iron skillet and topped with bread crumbs. I found it slightly loose (soupy) but that's probably more a preference thing. Typically that would make it watery but not so in this case. It had a good cheese taste that was nicely rounded. The pasta wasn't over cooked either. Al dente the way it should be.

Back in June during the Showdown they produced a good burger but it wasn't without it's flaws. Most notably, the bun. Well that old bun is gone. Replaced with a gorgeous poppy seed burger bun from Ace Bakery. The gind on the burger seems a bit better as well. The result is a fantastic sandwich. Their smashed burger 2.0 can rightfully take it's place with the likes of Burger's Priest, Holy Chuck and Stockyards now. I got the simple Applewood Smoked Bacon Cheeseburger.  I'm a believer that a smashed burger needs American cheese but for those who hate the stuff, this is for you. They use real cheddar on it. The bacon gets a second go ‘round on their smoker so it’s extra good. It's juicy, tasty and as you can see, pretty photogenic with that bun. 

They do a really  nice Pulled Pork. Normally served in a sandwich, this sample shows the nice barque and smoke ring. It’s very piggy, nicely smoked and quite simply, great as is.

The accompanying Lexington Vinegar Sauce was very nice but totally unnecessary. This stuff just didn’t need it.

The Brisket is some of the best I’ve had. Very moist, tender, smoky, beefy and with a magnificent crust. It had just enough fat on it as well. Again, usually in sandwich form but here for photographic and sampling purposes.

The Chipotle/Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce was really good but again, this meat didn’t need it.

An “Airline Breast” is, in the restaurant biz, a breast with a wing (or part there of) still attached. Here we have it smoked and slathered with a Peruvian Pepper Sauce. OMG this is incredible. The meat on its own is very moist, tender and smoky but the sauce just kicks it up another couple levels. Best chicken breast in the city.

I just really can’t say enough about the Smoked Meat Sandwich. Plain and simple, it’s incredible. NOT Montreal Smoked Meat but an homage to it, at Stack they use their own spice blend, brine and then smoke it in the same manner as MSM. This tastes more like a heavily smoked, overly tender, juicy ham. (Yes I know it's cow and not pig but that's what it reminds me of) It comes on rye bread with regular mustard but Bill tells me he’s looking to bring in Keen’s. The ultimate mustard for smoked meat sandwiches in my humble opinion. Hard to believe this could get any better.

There's a donut maker in the kitchen and you can have them in a number of different ways. All served in a cone shaped vessel.
I’ve had the pleasure of trying a few of them plain. (Well, dusted with cinnamon sugar that is). To be honest, they really don’t need any sprucing up other than that. Slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. There's sometimes no better way to enjoy something than au natural.  But if you like all the fixin's......
The "Strawberry" is simply the donuts with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. While I would never in a million years think that these could outdo the Rocky Road donuts, I may be willing to concede it may be a toss up as to which is better.
The "Rocky Road" donuts are incredible. Crumbled graham cracker crumbs, whipped cream, toasted marshmallows and chocolate sauce dress these babies up beautifully. Every bit as good as they look. There's a decadence to them however they're not too "Over the top."

 
The “Oreo” donuts  are certainly the best in my books. Crumbled Oreos, whipped cream and vanilla sauce these babies are just incredible. If you love Oreos, you’ll love these.

You can find Stack Smmmoked at 3265 Yonge St in Toronto.

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You can also find them on the web, facebook and Twitter.


Well that's all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.
Davwud

Smokey Hollow

For Chuck Baker, BBQ isn’t just a passion it’s his life. Almost literally. Chuck is there in there in the evening putting pork butts in the pit. I can only assume he goes to bed sometime after that. First thing the next day, the butts come off and the ribs go on. Thus begins another day for Chuck. If you’ve ever smoked at home, you know that BBQ is a painstakingly long endeavour. If you’ve ever owned a restaurant (or any business for that matter), you know that it’s life consuming job. Marry the two vocations and it pretty much is your life. Good thing Chuck loves what he does. It shows too. Chuck is cranking out some high quality Q from his little smoke shack just off the square in Lynchburg proper.

Barrel House BBQ is really two separate buildings. The big one is the restaurant. Complete with a kitchen and dining room it even has a small section for souveniers. The smaller building is the smoke house and where pigs go to become delicious.

Chuck makes everything himself. Including the restaurant. He remodeled it and even built some of the furniture. Repurposing spent barrels and such for some thematic tables and chairs. The whole restaurant, as you can imagine, is decked out as much as possible in Jack Daniels.

One of the neatest things at Chucks place is the "Post Cards." Chuck has flipped over some acoustic ceiling tiles and uses them as pseudo post cards. Different tiles for different countries. That’s me in the very top left obviously. As you can tell, this is the Canadian tile.


So let’s have a look at some of what Chuck has to offer.
I should start off by saying that the general feeling among locals is that the meat is top notch while the sauce leave a bit to be desired. My mileage differed as you are about to find out.

There are two house made sauces, both of which are fantastic. The vinegar sauce is really that. Vinegar. It's pumped up with BBQ flavours and hot peppers for a little bite if you like. The other, a thick, slightly chunky sweet sauce that's the complete antithesis of the vinegar sauce. Equally good IMHO. For me though, a 1:1 mix of the two proved awesome. The sweet and tart from the two performed a beautiful balancing act that when used as a dipping sauce for the ribs was perfect.

The Pulled Pork was very tasty although had a bit of a stewed flavour to me. Perhaps it was over steamed in a warming tray. That's one problem with pulled pork is it can lose a lot of it's goodness if it isn't fresh. Not that it loses so much it's not good. Far from it. All in all it's just good solid pigness.

The ribs, dry (aka Memphis Style) were good. Nothing special other than a flavour to them that I couldn't quite place. Mrs. Sippi didn't care for that flavour, I didn't have any opinion one way or another about it. It was just there. Where they did really well is with the sauce. The golden rule is "If the "Q" good, it doesn't need sauce." I'm somewhat in this camp. I can however attest, sometimes the sauce can make it better. This is one of those times. Especially since I'm a sauce guy. As I said above, the two sauces combined were magical with these ribs.
The Tater Salad and Beans were run of the mill if not very solid sides. These didn't jump off my plate as seminal additions however that doesn't mean the weren't very enjoyable. The beans were nicely balance in that they weren't sweet, savoury, spicy, BBQ'y (is that even a word??) or any thing. They were smooth and tasty and there isn't anything wrong with that. Add creamy to the description and that's what you get with the other side here. Just good old BBQ style potato salad. Well done.

So there you have it. Good food in the Mecca for Tennessee Whiskey aficionados.

You can find Barrel House BBQ at 105 Mechanic St S. Lynchburg, Tn.

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You can also find them on facebook

 
Well that’s all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.

Davwud

Fusion Fun

It can be a little bit like winning the lottery. You have an idea for a restaurant, open the doors and are instantly inundated with customers. Or can it? Too much too soon can kill a place. Service, quality and ultimately reputation suffer.
In December of 2011, Banh Mi Boys opened up and were, lets face it, overwhelmed. Far too popular for them to keep up they shut their doors and regrouped. A complete overhaul of service and space occurred. They reopened a couple months later and were off to the races. As popular again they’ve tidied up the store and tightened up their chops.

The brainchild of David, Peter and Phillip Chau, the brothers come by their abilities honestly. Their parents opened the very successful Nguyen Huong Food Co. back in 1986 and now have multiple locations in the GTA as well as their own bakery. The boys plan was to, for all intents and purposes, serve food truck foods out of a store. Popular mobile kitchen goodies like Korean Tacos and nouveau Vietnamese Subs are selling like hot cakes from curbside vendors south of the boarder. They wanted to bring that same food flair to the Big Smoke. From their little sandwich shop on Queen St. W they’re doing banh mi, tacos and bao along with fries and salad. All with their unique spin on things.

The renovation has given the boys a spiffy, east meets west, old meets new interior. Barn board, mixed with Formica meets Oriental lanterns and technology. Splashy paint on some walls, reclaimend wood on others. Menus on flat screens are there too but the best thing they got out of the reno was tables. Once a grab n go place it now has seating for 20 or so. There’s a main kitchen in the back and an open kitchen/prep station at the back of the long, thin dining room.

Those kitchens are where all the magic happens. Everything is made in house. All sauces, breads, condiments and proteins are made on site. Heck they even have their own little smoker. Slightly bigger than a mini fridge it’s perfect for a college dorm room.

So lets get a look at these goodies.

Perhaps my least favourite thing first on menu is the Jicima/Papaya salad. It’s very good but for me, nothing all that mind blowing. I actually think it would be amazing as a sandwich condiment. It has a lot more going on than do chua. It comes with an Asian salad dressing and I think I probably used too much of it. I really kinda drowned it. I’d order it again but as I said, it’s not my favourite thing here.

The Kimchi Fries were simply fantastic. Fries covered in mayo, pulled pork and kimchi. Garnished with green onion. The whole dish was great and really did scream drunk food. Broken down I found that pulled pork to be among the best smoked pork shoulder anywhere. Also, the fries on their own are some of the best I've had in the city. If not anywhere. They held up very well (both in terms of flavour and crispiness) to the components above and had a great potato taste. The kimchi tasted pretty much exactly like what my friend's Korean wife's family makes. I have 2 small complaints though. First off, the kimchi was cold. By the time I got half way through it had warmed to room temp and I much preferred it then. Perhaps that was because I was there right after they opened it was fresh out of the fridge. Also, I'd like to have seen a touch more pulled pork on them. Not a whole lot more would be needed but the smoky, porky flavour could've used just a bit more punch.

The 5 Spice Pork Belly Banh Mi was nicely packed with all the requisite goodies. Cucumber, cilantro, and do chua. They add sliced pickled radish and a nice helping of the pig tummy. I told the girl to make it (spice level) like she'd have it since she likes hot stuff. She gave me "Hot" and it was perfect. I could handle hotter but this was the right heat level. Enough to light up the taste buds without drowning anything out. On it's own the pig tummy was fabulous. Tender, tasty and not overwhelmed with the 5 Spice. Complimented and allowed the porky goodness to shine. 

The Squid Taco is worthy of it’s praise. A friend and fellow food nut is totally in love with this and it’s easy to see why. The squid rings are perfectly cooked. Breaded with panko they’re deep fried to the point of golden brown but not so much that the meat turns into tires. Topped with do chua, cabbage and cilantro, then add some minced Thai chilies it’s incredible. Don’t let the picture fool you. There’s squid rings under that there vegetation. Plenty of it too.

The Grilled Chicken Taco is, so far, definitely my favourtie thing on the menu. Grilled and sauced chicken that’s totally tasty. I think the tortilla was flavourful enough but very nicely grilled and somewhat hearty. The meat was saucy (some say too saucy) which, as I've said before, is right in my wheelhouse. The vegetation on it was a good compliment of taste, temps and textures. I could eat a hundred of these.

The Fried Chicken Bao is often cited as a favourite of people and there’s good reason. It’s awesome. While bao isn’t exactly my favourite bread it’s okay but what they stuff inside is what makes this sandwich. It’s dressed much like the banh mi so you know that’s a huge plus. The big thing is, one of the best pieces of fried chicken stars. A thin piece of breast meat in a fabulous breading is deep fried to perfection. The chicken is nice and juicy while the breading gets a golden brown, crunchiness. Simply fantastic.

So there you have it folks. A great little sandwich shop churning out some cool twists on traditional favourites.

You can find Banh Mi Boys Sandwich Shop at 392 Queen St. W. in Toronto.

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You can also find them on the web, facebook and Twitter.


Well that’s all for now folks. See ya next time in the food court.

Davwud