TOP 4 SPICY LUNCHES ON BAY STREET

I’ve had a gripe about the lack of spicy food in food courts for years. Whenever a fast food joint comes up with a “spicy” menu item, it’s laughable. Adding a little extra blac
k pepper and a drop of Tabasco doesn’t make it spicy. The masses can’t handle spicy food, so Harvey’s can’t sell a mass amount of a spicy burger if it burns the fragile palettes of its clients. Even the fast food Thai and Indian places “Americanized” their hear levels. Well, damnit, that’s not good enough! There are people out there that want REAL spicy food!

Do I sound angry? Well, I was angry, until recently. As we’ve mentioned in our previous blogs, over the past couple years our fast food has become more “gourmet”. Processed foods are out, real foods are in. And thankfully, so are real spice levels! Vindaloo is finally spicy. Jalapenos are not always from a jar. And “chipotle” and “habanero” and not just marketing terms.

This phenomenon motivated me to write about my top 4 picks for the best spicy food on Bay St. The criteria was very simple. It must pack heat. It must be delicious. That’s about it. Please enjoy and I look forward to any comments on my choices or suggestions for other great hot spots.

4. Piazza Manna

(Exchange Tower; http://www.piazzamanna.com/%20locationsPiazzaManna.html): There are a few locationsof this Mom ‘n Pops type Italian takeout shop, but I have a strong preference for the one in the Exchange Tower. I get the veal sandwich with the hot peppers. The sandwich itself is very good. Fairly tender veal on a fresh Italian bun. Lotsa tomato sauce and your choice of toppings. Their sautéed hot peppers add quite a kick. Though inconsistent, ranging from spicy to searing, the chilies are immediately noticeable. More of a heat that stays in your mouth than travels through the body.




3. Burrito Boyz

(Adelaide St; http://www.burritoboyz.ca/): Walk a couple mins, wait in line for a long time and walk away with perhaps the best burrito in the city. The halibut burrito is really special, but the chicken is also good for the less adventurous. But I digress. This shop makes the list because of its habanero hot sauce. Oh man, this stuff is potent! For “hot”, you’ll get about 3 drops of it. If you want intense heat though, ask for at least 5 drops and it’ll knock you out! The heat is immediately noticeable on the tongue and hits your torso almost immediately. Love it!


2. Amaya Express

(First Canadian Place): Finally, the first truly good Indian food I’ve ever found in any food court. For $6.99, you get a healthy amount of food with an intense flavour punch. Pick your rice, main and veggie side. The beef vindaloo is out of this world. Super tender cubes of beef simmered in a wildly spicy curry. The heat level is absolutely perfect and continues to build on you. It’s a deep heat, the kind that you feel throughout your body and does not sting the mouth. This, to me, is a great example of comfort food and is incredibly satisfying.



1. Gandhi Roti

(Queen & Bathurst; http://www.desiconnection.ca/webmaster2/motherindia.htm): Ok, this technically is off Bay St., but it’s worth an exception. Gandhi Roti is Toronto’s best roti and up there if comparing the top Indian food in the city. They have a variety of meat and veg choices, all delicious and superbly rich, encased in a paper thin, fluffy roti. The portions are massive and eaten with a fork and knife. And the best part is that you can order anything mild, medium or hot. Oh wait, that’s actually not true… the BEST part is that “hot” will blow your head off and eat a hole in your stomach! Very, very few people can handle the hot. Seriously! I can handle spice and have eaten the hot a few times. Each time, I swear I’ll never do that to myself again. Like Amaya’s hot, it’s a deep heat that builds and leaves you with a nice warm feeling all over. If you want intense heat, get the medium. If you want insane heat, get the hot. If you can’t handle heat, do not DARE order anything above mild. My favourites are the chicken korma, butter chicken and chicken tikka masala.

Oxford Word of the Year for 2009: Locavore

Yep, it’s all the craze these days. Everyone’s eating local. Why buy an apple from Chile when you pick one off a tree from the farm up the street? And few embody it as much as Jamie Kennedy does. While his high end restaurant empire was showing signs of cracks, he began opening up locavorized, affordable lunch spots (“locavorized” - no, it’s not a word, but maybe Oxford will consider it a candidate for next year – I want all the cedit!).

Within walking distance to Bay St., there’s Hank’s. Who is Hank and why is it not called Jamie’s? I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t even care, I just care about getting good food. The menu at Hank’s has some regular items. A few sandwiches and a couple other, simple items. Additionally, each morning they post a blog (much like this blog, but not nearly as good) and introduce their daily specials of soups and a nice variety of salads. What’s locavorized about it? Well, pretty much everything. The meat is organic and from nearby farms. Same with the cheese. And same with the veggies. Kinda makes you feel good about supporting the local economy. The truth is, there’s so much more to this movement. The products used in the food are very high in quality, ultra fresh and super tasty.

I’m tempted to order the smoked lake fish sandwich, but I’m feeling carnivorous today. So the flank steak gets the nod: “Flank steak marinated in mint and lime, smoked sheep’s cheddar, jalapeno mayo, acidulated onions, local greens.” Sounds awesome! But when the sandwich arrives, a sense of disappointment comes over me, because it seems a little on the small side for $9.50+tax (pictured here is half of the full sandwich). I press on, unwrapping it and examining it before taking a large first bit. The disappointment quickly fades and turns into… for lack of a better description… Mmmmmmm. The sandwich is perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of each ingredient. And while each ingredient is great on its own, all the flavours work phenomenally well together. The bread tastes like it came out of the oven an hour ago (probably not too far from the truth… it’s multigrain sourdough from St John’s bakery down the street), dense and flavourful. The steak is tender and tangy. There’s a perfect amount of spice from the mayo and the cheese adds an extra layer of complexity. Absolutely delicious! I love it!

But there are a couple negatives. First, the price. I understand why it’s priced high and can’t say it’s unreasonable. If I ordered this at a restaurant on a Saturday, I would actually think it’s great value. But for a takeout lunch, it doesn’t pass the “under $10” test. And it doesn’t fill me for the rest of the day. If it were $8, I’d get it a lot more often. And second, Hank’s doesn’t serve the infamous Jamie Kennedy fries. Blasphemy!! The fries, available at his other locavorized lunch spot, Gilead Café, are without a doubt the best in the city. Not having access to them kinda pisses me off, but I can get over that.

http://hankstoronto.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamiekennedy.ca/PDFs/hanksmenu.pdf

Black Camel: Consistently Fantastic!

Black Camel is a little café hidden away across the street from Rosedale station. So it’s not on Bay St., but it’s only a 10 minute camel ride, or, 7 minute subway ride for those that are hump averse or prefer the better way. And it’s well worth it. They have a very limited menu of five sandwiches and a few sides. My favourite is the brisket (I know what you’re thinking, but that cut comes from a cow, not a camel). The pulled pork (also not camel) comes a very close second. I haven’t tried the others, but the pulled chicken and veggie have each gotten rave reviews from my colleagues.

Mistakenly, many people try to compare this little café’s sandwiches to BBQ brisket/pulled pork sandwiches. Sure, you can compare them to Lou Dawg’s, Phil’s or many of Toronto’s mediocre BBQ smoke houses. But such a comparison would be both dead wrong with culinary standards and unfair to the comparison candidates. Why? Simply put, Black Camel does not own any BBQs or smokers. You see, a place like Phil’s smokes its brisket in a smoker for several hours. The meat becomes tender over this time and inherits the aroma and flavour of the smoke. Conversely, Black Camel braises its brisket over several hours in an oven. Believe me when I tell you that consistency is far easier to achieve in an oven than a smoker. The reward of true smoked meat, however, is greater. Unfortunately for Toronto, there are very few, if any, truly great BBQ joints (caveat: I have yet to try Stockyards).

So, off to the sandwich we go. The meat is piled heavily onto a soft-in-the-middle, yet slightly-crunchy-on-the-outside bun. The meat is just as tender as it is flavourful. The brisket is shredded, which allows it to maintain a nice meaty feel, yet almost melt away as you chew through it. The BBQ sauce is homemade from all natural ingredients and just the right amount is applied. And the fontina cheese adds just enough tang to bring everything together. A perfect sandwich? YES! Well, sort of yes. If I had to give it a ranking, I’d give it 4.62 camel humps out of 5 (isn’t that how many humps Alice the Camel had??). The sandwich gets 0.3 humps deducted for the bun being slightly soggy in some areas after a 10 minutes of transportation and 0.08 humps deducted for having some oil in the wrapper (as is evident in the picture… I honestly don’t know what this is, as the sandwich itself is not oily whatsoever). Oh wait, maybe it’s not oil, rather camel drool? Either way, it’s a deduction. If the sandwich was eaten fresh at the café, it would have gotten 4.92 out of 5.

One day, I’ll make a list of the best sandwiches. I don’t know what it will look like yet, but I do know one thing for sure – this delicious brisket will be somewhere at the top. And for $7 + tax (extra $0.90 for the cheese), it’s a wicked deal. http://www.blackcamel.ca/

How To Make A Proper Burger

The title of this blog is deceiving. The purpose is actually to review a burger I recently at from Craft Burger. As Nitro discussed in his post below, I too am a purist and ordered the cheeseburger combo with onion rings... err... the onion rings combo with cheeseburger. Either way you look at it, it got me wondering: Why is it so difficult for a city the size of Toronto to offer several proper burger joints? To find out, I thought I'd first share my thoughts on what a proper burger is.

There are two philosophies. One argues that the ground meat should include all kinds of things mixed in, such as onions, sauces, herbs and whatever cool things you can think of. The other argues that the burger should be pure – nothing but ground meat, salt and pepper – and the interesting flavours added via gourmet topping choices. I have tried both variations and am firmly a believer in the latter. Neither is no right or wrong, it’s just my preference. Lucky for me, in order to accommodate different tastes, the industry caters to my philosophy. This is how I make my burgers at home and here are the rules that I follow, which I trust are consistent with all burger purists’ views:

1. Start with high quality meat. If you doubt the ground meat, ask the butcher to grind up a chuck or sirloin in front of you. This will ensure that rule #3 below is safe. Oh, and don’t skimp on the fat, as this is what adds flavour and juiciness.

2. The meat should be very loosely hand formed into patties. This is perhaps the most important step! If you overmix it, the burger will be tough. Loose forming ensure juiciness and every piece will fall apart in your mouth as you take a bite.
3. It should be cooked somewhere between medium-rare to medium-well, depending on your preference. I like medium. Again, just my preference.

4. It must, must, must be cooked at high heat. This will result in a deliciously charred exterior and not overcook nor dry inside.

Sounds simple, no? I thought so too, until I started trying some of these so-called “gourmet” burger joints and realized that it was much more difficult than it sounds. Not to say the burgers are bad, because I really enjoy some of them, even if they don’t follow my rules. But they’re not “proper” burgers that would please a purist. Just like Pizza Nova makes great pizza for a pizza chain, but it’s certainly no true Italian pizza.

Now that I’ve gotten my griping out of the way, I’m clear to talk about my Craft Burger

gourmet burger! I followed rule #1, as they offered organic meat of good quality. Where it lost ground was in the rest of the rules. The texture of the burger tells me that the meat was certainly over mixed. It was cooked medium well, which I’m happy to accept. The char marks were a little too pronounced, so it was on the grill too long. This, combined with the over mixing, explains the dryness. Thing is, they go through hundreds of burgers a day. So how can you expect them to make each one so perfect? I don’t, but it sure would be nice for the prices they charge. On my burger, I got lettuce, tomatoes and smoked cheddar. The bun was great. Nice texture, toasted and soft enough to hold everything together nicely. Now for the best part – the cheese! The smoked cheddar, in contrast to the burger, was (somehow) super juicy, extremely flavourful and transformed my burger from a 6.7/10 to a 7.9/10. Wow! If I had a re-do, I’d ask for triple cheese and light on the meat! I’m thinking of dropping by there and picking up a block of smoked cheddar. You know, just to eat as a snack when I get hungry.

Oh yeah, and the onion rings were awesome. But that’s pretty obvious from the post below…

The BEST Onion Rings Period.

With the ever popular food snobbery movement showing no signs of subsiding, it is with a refreshing note that I publish this post on a food that is neither fresh, nor healthy, nor composed of "hard to pronounce" ingredients from exotic locales.

Today we ordered lunch from Craft Burgers in Toronto. Being a bit of a purist, I opted to get the traditional Cheeseburger combo with coke and onion rings on the side. After I finished the meal though, I realized that the description of the combo was inaccurate. It should have been called an Onion Ring Combo with a coke and cheeseburger on the side.

This is not meant to be a knock on the cheeseburger. It was good. But it wasn't perfect. The meat was a tad on the dry side which in the end got me full but left me generally uninspired. What was lacking in the cheeseburger though was certainly compensated by the onion rings. Those big rings were pure tastebud bliss. The batter crispy and dry, curiously and fabulously devoid of grease. So much so that they almost tasted like a healthy food! The inside was juicy with huge pieces of onion that just melted in the mouth. All of this was complimented by a zesty dipping sauce that had a perfect tinge of spice (I'm pretty sure the dipping sauce was for the rings, but I could be wrong). The onion rings were truly inspirational. I think the best I've ever tried. Even the two resident food snobs, Tuscan Tart and Habanero, were smitten by the zesty rings. Need I say more?

El Burrito Grande: Part 1, Freshwest

Check it out. Three years ago, burritos didn’t really exist in our food courts. Since then, the only way to describe how many burrito shops have popped up is: HOLY SH-T! Why wouldn’t these things be popular?

It’s a wrap with nothin’ but goodness inside. Your choice of meat, rice, beans, veggies, cheese and whatever else you want to stick in there. Ok, it’s far from authentic (a true burrito is just basically meat in a wrap, topped with salsa and cheese, with rice and beans on the side). No, these super massive burritos are eaten like a sandwich.

I love burritos. And when I fulfill my once-a-week craving, I take my choice very (very!) seriously. Today, I chose Freshwest Grill, one of the first on the scene. Why? Because it’s more convenient and closer than the superior Burrito Boyz and Quesada, cheaper than the usually superior Z-Teca, and better than some of the others around. (I will eventually post reviews on the others, that’s a promise!) Yeah, it’s middle of the pack, but look… you can’t eat lobster tails every day, otherwise I’d be eating Burrito Boyz all the time. Freshwest is good, at times very good, but never exceptional and yet to be worse than not-bad. So I walked to the TD food court and got in line…

They make it how you want. I got chicken (I’m not a fan of their steak) with everything, but purposely excluded the rice, burrito sauce and sour cream. These burritos truly are grande (I estimate 2+ lbs), so cutting out some extra fat and bloaty carbs makes it more digestible. Today, the refried beans were watery.

The salsa was watery. I had to ask twice for extra stupid sauce (their hot sauce). Otherwise, the stuff that went in looked fresh. I carried it back to work and took a bite. Unusually overly salty, but I keep going. Wow, it’s quite hot today! But it’s just a mouth hot, the kind that’s hot when you bite into it and stays in your mouth, getting hotter as you eat more; it’s not a deep heat, which builds throughout your entire body, and more preferable to me (I will also eventually post some info on spicy food, and that’s a promise, too!). By the time I get to the last third, every bite results in a gushing out of today’s excess wateriness from the beans and salsa. Some goes into my sleeve, some onto my desk, and a tiny bit into the bite that’s in my mouth. OH NO, gotta get the sauce out of my sleeve!!! Damn, that’s not so easy, and really pisses me off. Anyway, I do what I can to clean up and keep going… back to the blog! Eventually, I need to get a fork and eat the filling out of the burrito shell, or else I’ll look like a salsa covered fool by the time I’m done.

So here’s what I’ll say. At $8.25 tax-in, including $0.75 extra for guacamole, this burrito is well priced. You can choose an “inside-out” (without the shell) or a salad covered in burrito toppings. Either way, you get good value. The filling is good, but not as inspired as some of the other shops. If you put 87 octane into a race car, you can’t expect it to win the race. Salty salsas don’t cover up the fact that the chicken is somewhat bland on its own. But on the whole, it’s tasty nonetheless. Here’s a pro tip: you gotta get there before 11:45, or else you’re in line for a crazy long time. And you gotta ask them to toast it “well done”, or else it will be impossible to eat as a sandwich. Yeah, it’s messy, but it’s a burrito. It takes true talent to make one that doesn’t fall apart, and that’s rare to find (stay tuned when I discuss Burrito Boyz). I’m pretty satisfied today and hope that next time the wateriness and saltiness is corrected.

Ah, El Burrito Grande. ¡Hasta la semana próxima!

Holy Smokes!

Had a special treat recently. A smoked meat sandwich and poutine from Caplansky’s. It was one of the last before they temporarily close and move to a new location Sep 1. Caplansky’s got to be quite well known around the city for the year that it’s been open. And its popularity has spawned about a million reviews, a billion blogs and certainly over a gazillion word of mouth praises. Go ahead, Google “Caplansky’s review” and the Google page counter on the bottom won’t be able to keep up.

Therefore, I’m not going to bore you with another review. Because, you don’t need me to tell you that the smoked meat is one-of-a-kind, tender, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that has a smokey flavour heavier even than any BBQ shop in Toronto. I certainly don’t need to mention that it compares favourably to the best smoked meat shops in the world, such as Katz’s and Shwartz’s. And it’s absolutely clear to everyone by now that this is the only true, authentic, purely home-made smoked meat in the city worth trying. Naturally, my sandwich was damn good. And the smoked meat poutine was like eating the same damn good sandwich, but with fries instead of the bread and with an extra healthy dose of half-melted cheese curds.

Instead of a review, this blog is about the strive to perfection. I’ve noticed that way too many restaurants, rather than trying to get better every day, just fall into the funk of complacency. Caplansky spent a significant amount of time perfecting his sandwich. He developed his own brine recipe. Determined how long the meet needs to brine for. Experimented countless hours with the amount of smoke, the length of time to smoke, the type of wood to use, and the perfect smoking temperature. Considering the meat smokes for roughly 14 hours at a low temperature (around 220 degrees), you can imagine how much of a difference 5 degrees can make. And believe me, from someone who’s attempted smoking meat, it takes a phenomenal amount of skill and experience to get the routine right, sandwich after sandwich, day after day. And throughout the year, the recipe has been tweaked. The fries have become tastier and crispier. And the meat has become more consistent.

That’s not say that it’s always perfect. It’s not a cookie cutter cold cut sandwich that comes pre-packaged and is assembled as you wait. Everything is made from scratch, so sometimes it’s a little different than other times. One time, it was… well, there’s no other way to put it… just not good. It was difficult to bite through, not the supple meat that we were used to. So we called the man behind the smoker. He tried the meat himself, apologized and gave us a credit for the entire order, fries and all. But even more surprisingly, he refused customers for several hours, refusing to serve food that wasn’t to his liking. That’s obviously someone that takes pride in what he does. And there are other places that do the same. But for every one that takes pride in their food, there are ten that are there to simply earn a buck. If you care about who earns your well-earned money, then take note of what you’re buying and make sure you pay for what’s worth paying for. We are trying to do our part to help by candidly providing our feedback in this blog. And that’s why my $7 will always find it’s way to a Caplansky’s type establishment. (No, it’s not on Bay St., but they’re great at large group orders if you have someone that can pick them up on occasion.)

Evolution of the Fast Fresh Sandwich

Take 2 minutes and think about how the humble sandwich has evolved within our food courts. Years ago, a sandwich meant ham ‘n cheese with mayo on white bread. Mr. Sub started making enormous sandwiches with a variety of cold cuts. And then Subway came on the scene with slightly higher quality ingredients and freshly baked bread. Quiznos took the sub one notch higher with the toasted concept. And added an astronomically high price tag to boot.

A couple years ago, all of the above was automatically kicked down to a lower league when the “gourmet sandwich” craze took over. Fast Fresh Foods opened up in a food court. What? A small sandwich with a half handful of lightly dressed spring mix salad for $7.50? No way, that can’t be worth it. And then Sandwich Box came along. Eventually, everyone started offering “grilled” or “pressed” or some sort of value added feature to allow them to charge and extra $1.50. And ultimately, Petite Thuet offered up their super-ultra-over-the-top-gourmet sandwiches. So reads the blog post below. And so begins my review of Fast Fresh Foods (FFF) in Commerce Court.

First, let us examine whether the name serves it justice. Fast? When the spot first opened, long lines were the norm. But now, the honeymoon is over and the crowds have moved on. A few short minutes in line and a couple minutes waiting for the sandwich to be grilled is relatively fast. Fresh? Sure. The varieties of bread are mostly from Ace Bakery and are consistently fresh – nice crispy outside and soft chewy inside, stepped up a level once it’s grilled. Meats and cheese are consistently fresh as well. The veggie toppings, however, have lost some of their glamour over the years. What used to be a beautiful and flavourful arugula option is now just dull and slightly limp lettuce. The peppers don’t have the fresh and vibrant colours that they used to. And the side salad has become mediocre at best, just something there to add perceived healthfulness for those concerned. But relative to food court standards, this is absolutely fresh. Food? By Michael Pollan’s own standards, definitely. The chicken is sliced off an actual chicken breast, not an overly manufactured and artificially flavoured Subway-style patty that is identical in size to the last 4,000 served. And the cheese is actual cheese, not modified with plastics and chemicals to have a shelf life of 64 weeks. And the vegetables are made from produce that has been grilled, sautéed, caramelized or otherwise had its flavour enhanced naturally.

I like that you can custom create your own sandwich. Although at times that can get confusing to the point where an inexperienced sandwicher may potentially create a Frankenstein-like monster whose parts taste a whole lot better eaten separately than combined. The sandwich I ate today was good. Frances roll with garlic aioli, chicken, brie, hot peppers and tomatoes. It is fairly consistently very good, at times excellent. Rarely just ok, although this particular experience happened to be that rare case. For $8.48 (tax-in), that compares favourably to, say, a large “gourmet” Subway sandwich at $8.99. It’s not as big, but it’s certainly big enough for a complete lunch. I always had a hard time understanding how one could digest an entire 12” monster loaf for lunch, forget about all the toppings that go inside. And the quality of ingredients more than makes up for any lack of size. FFF compares less favourably to an “ultra-gourmet” sandwich at Petite Thuet for $7-8 (tax-in, but no side salad). These comparisons are all value-based. Thing is, all of this is like comparing last week’s economic numbers to the political environment in South Africa. The sub shops are in a lower league of processed food. And Thuet is in a higher league of gourmet excellence. For what it is, FFF is very good. It’s certainly no Thuet, but many layers of shoulders above the old-fashioned, traditional ham ‘n cheese sandwich.

Chicken Souvlaki Dinner for Lunch

In the interest of furthering science, for the past 6 months I've eaten "chicken souvlaki dinner" from Jimmy the Greek a minimum of 3 times a week (all lunches) alternating between the 1st Canadian Place location and the one in Scotia Plaza. That translates to a minimum of 36 servings from each of the locations. Broken down into its components, that is a total of 72 skewers of chicken, 288 pieces of roasted potatoes and a load of rice and greek salad.

Here are my findings......

Ok, I'm joking. Not about the number of servings that I've eaten in the past 6 months (that part is actually true), but the part about furthering science. My intention was not to conduct some ridiculous natural experiment, far from it. I'm just a creature of habit (aka lazy and unimaginative) and thought that chicken souvlaki was a good lunch choice as it is tasty and is about as well balanced as you can find in the food courts.

One of the benefits of eating one particular dish from two different restaurants repeatedly over a period of time is that you are able to form a very informed impression of the quality of food, service, etc., for each particular location as well as a comparison of the two. So here are my real findings.......

Overall
The components of the dish at both locations is almost identical, as is the price (just shy of $10, including a can of pop). Overall, I give the dish two thumbs up or 5 stars. I have no idea whether it tastes like authentic greek food since I've never eaten the dish in Greece, regardless, it is good. Ingredients are always fresh (especially the salad) and the chicken is cooked to perfection. If you are in the mood for chicken souvlaki you will be pleased with what you get at both locations. As a side note, and subject to the proviso below with respect to the roasted potatoes, I found that the level of consistency in the food was very high. The dish tasted the same day in, day out. This is pretty amazing when you think about it. In my view, the only other restaurant that can boast the same level of consistency is McDonald's.

Comparison of the Food
As noted above, the dishes are very similar; however, over time I did notice several subtle differences that are fairly significant.

The roasted potatoes. The roasted potatoes at the Scotia Plaza location (SP) are standard roasted potatoes, cut in random shapes and boiled (?) with various seasonings (I have no idea what they are) to the point where the skin just starts to peel off. They are tasty and so soft that you barely have to chew. Random shapes are not a feature of the potatoes at the 1st Canadian Place location (FCP). The roasted potatoes there are always the same shape. Wedges cut lengthwise down the potato. Similar seasonings are used for these potatotes, but I don't think they are boiled. It almost tastes like they may have been cooked in an oven (mybe after some light boiling?). This really brings out the taste in the potato and is superior to the one at SP. The one downside, is that occasionally you will get one or two wedges that are undercooked which results in a crunchy variant that is slightly displeasing to the palate. Risk and reward I guess.

The sauces. At both locations, the staff will ask you whether you want salad dressing, hot sauce and/or tzatziki. Generally speaking, I think the salad dressing is meant for the salad, the hot sauce for the rice and potatoes and the tzatziki for the chicken. At SP, that is generally where the sauces land.. and always in the right amount. At FCP, the sauces all get blended together and end up on everything. There is no shortage of sauce at FCP either as you will get a "healthy" squeeze of each bottle. I'm a bit of a sauce freak so I actually enjoy the overdose that is typically the norm at FCP... the one negative though is that the container is pretty greasy so be careful when you carry it back to the office. No such issue at SP.

Service
Fast and efficient. Both locations employ the assembly line concept first used by the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi to build the terracotta warriors and later perfected by Henry Ford. There are essentially 3 staff that will assemble the meal. It starts with the person who takes the order and initiates the process with the styrofoam container (which is already pre-filled with salad). Next it goes to the person who handles the entree. They will throw in the rice and the potatoes and then with one swift move slide the pieces of chicken off the skewer into the container (so fast that you almost miss it). This person will also ask you if you want hot sauce and tzatziki. If you want both, just nod your head (even if you don't want it you'll get it on occassion... apparently it is easier to stop a golf swing midway then it is to stop the squeeze of the bottle...). Finally you are at the cashier who has already rung up the order and is waiting for your money.

Both locations are so efficient that long line-ups rarely have a chance to form.. and even if they do the wait time is not significant (making it the perfect lunch choice if you decide to go at noon). This is my favourite part... in and out.. no small talk... all business.

Epilogue
So that's my review. I had chicken souvlaki dinner for lunch again today. It was good.