The Tuesday Taste - Good Behaviour

 

You and I

we were captured

We took our souls

and we flew away

We were right

we were giving

That's how we kept

what we gave away 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! And may I say, this week's particular review is only possible because I was on my best g... ...yeah no I just can't make the joke. It's too corny even for me. 

 

Anyhow, good fortune behaved enough for me to go try Good Behaviour! A place with sandwiches and ice cream? What more do you want? Seriously, tell me... TELL ME. No but seriously, admittedly this was not a place I was familiar with (hell I'd barely even heard of them). It must've been some tantalizing photo on the social medias that made me think "that looks good", leading me into looking them up, then seeing they have three locations... one of which is relatively close to me? Score! Yes, despite my many reviews I am far lazier than most people realize.

Good Behaviour as a concept is still in its relative infancy, about three-to-four years old by my research... their quick expansion from ghost kitchen into a trio of full fledged locations a testament to the quality of their offerings. 

It was born from co-owners Michael Lam and Eric Chow crossing paths while working at Ascari King West (now closed according to Google) and collaborating on an ice cream pop-up as a side-gig soon after. Their creative approach to flavours (a Hong Kong milk tea is not something you'll find at Baskin Robbins) and positive reception led to them pursuing this as a full time project, and so opened up an ice cream shop on Westmoreland Avenue in the Davenport neighbourhood here in Toronto. I'm about 95 percent confident this was their first location, but if I'm wrong please unsubscribe. Yank that 'like' button out of the keyboard.

Regardless of my factual accuracy, this appears to have been 2021 when Good Behaviour settled it's roots (wherever it was). At first their ice cream, which had gained them positive attention in the first place, was the singular attraction... but smartly (and rather quickly) they decided to offer sub sandwiches as well. Clearly this was also successful, they opened up a couple more locations and yada yada yada I showed up to the Gerrard East one on a Friday night I did!

This particular stretch of Gerrard East fascinates me, for the record. It's the "Little India" segment of Toronto, nicknamed as such because of the zillion Indian restaurants that occupy this fairly short stretch between Greenwood and Coxwell (just a hunch). Truly a lively pocket of East Toronto that is a ton of fun to walk through, with some sneaky fun dive bars among the excellent Indian restaurants and the awesome Greenwood Theatre (*cough* performed there *cough*) within it all. 

 

 

Good Behaviour fits this colourful, bit-of-everything vibe of Gerrard East also. I went inside expecting a simple sub shop... I did not anticipate a mini-speciality grocery taking up the entire area between the ordering counter and those two tables in front. Plenty of packaged ice cream and gelato for sale (shock) but also artisan frozen foods, like pizzas from Casa Nostra (a pizzeria based out of Port Credit specializing in supplying their frozen pies to small retailers).

 

Enough dawdling, here's the sub:  

 

 

Meatballs! While directly comparing their Italian cold-cuts sub against Lambo's might've been instructive... whatever! I was just craving a hot meatball sub, damnit. 

Points instantly to Good Behaviour for slicing this thing in half and presenting it open faced. As you can see, the ratio of 'meatball to everything else' is delightfully even at best... trying to eat this thing as a full enclosed sub? Two bites in you'd be staring at a few meatballs splattered upon whatever below surface you chose to eat this above.  

No matter how you slice it though (see what I did there), it is humanly impossible to eat a sandwich such as this without it being a fabulous mess. You can try your best, as I attempted, but it's gonna drip and droop and crumble and yeah just bring several times as many napkins as you might think you need. 

Getting into the tastes: well, I both really enjoyed it, and it was also not quite what I typically imagine a meatball sandwich to be. Usually I envision: heavy tomato sauce as the overriding flavour, hint of melted cheese... basic stuff. This one? Far, far heavier into the cheese equation, like dominatingly so. 

The tomato sauce is actually the weakest element here: there is a solid amount of it but it lacks anything especially notable about it. Not much sweetness or sting, not particularly hearty (fairly thin)... it's just sort of there as a well blended tomatoey texture. Totally fine (it isn't generic canned stuff is what I mean) but not memorable beyond being well made. 

Fortunately, this meatball sandwich holds some hidden aces. The bread is excellent: wonderfully soft, no stale segments front to back, and still firm enough not to let anything bleed into it as to make it soggy. This isn't a overtly saucy sub, true, but still a heavy one. Another positive: a parmesan presence alongside the melted provolone. That constant sharpness, mixed with a subtle creamy garlic kick here and there, adds so much to the enjoyment of this sub. There's a pesto spread in here as well, which also adds another nice flavour dimension to this. It's kind of like a nice meatball pasta dish, wherein somebody made all the noodles vanish and threw what's left into a freshly baked sub bun. I love a well balanced sandwich and I also love an adventure where every bite is a little bit different: the very best pizzas and burgers and sandwiches have this. 

The meatballs themselves... aren't meatballs kind of boring by themselves? It's really about the texture and a hint of taste within that sells them... when they're crusty on the outside and/or dry in the middle it's no good. 

These meatballs ain't that. Not super vivid as far as taste, but you get that necessary taste of juicy pork (their site mentions these have beef and veal also, but pork is the most noticeable) and some herbs... meanwhile the texture is incredibly on point. Soft all the way through, juicy without being oily or undercooked... and just enjoyable to take a big bite out of (they are huge too!). I'd gladly eat these with just some garlic toast on the side, very tasty. Really my singular complaint is: this sandwich definitely resides in Heartburn City. All that pork and heavy cheese... if you're like me and susceptible to such things, be warned. 

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Well, this is going to sound crazy... but despite Good Behaviour starting out as only an ice cream shop, going into review I had no intention of trying that. I'm not a dessert guy! I love ice cream (which proves yes, I am human and not a goblin in disguise) but honestly I buy some maybe twice a year. Indeed, reviewing this sub sandwich was going to be enough for me.

Until... as I was finishing this tasty sub on Good Behaviour's patio, on the other side of Gerrard I saw a family of six emerge from a car and all jaywalk (it was almost dicey) with considerable haste and go directly into Good Behaviour. Minutes later they all emerged with ice cream cones... and the most obvious idea at last struck me: "Gee I'm still here, I should probably check out the ice cream too." You know, the thing they're actually famous for...

 

 

So I did! First off, gimme a sugar or waffle cone all day. Cups are boring and safe. Second, Good Behaviour offer some pretty inspired flavours. I was oh so tempted to get the HK Milk Tea flavour, which I later learned is indeed one of their well known staples. Instead, this is their strawberry cheesecake.

I may not be a dessert person but this has very much been a strange development in my adult life. As a teenager? I'd go through tubs of cheap ice cream (those 4L No Name ones... not proud of it) and make root beer floats constantly... and so when I taste legitimately good, made-in-house ice cream it stands out to me that much more. This here is the real deal: that great taste of real cream and milk lingers in the mouth so long after each bite or lick or whatever.

Second: they absolutely nail both the strawberry and the cheesecake aspect of this. The strawberry isn't overpowering but its sharp sweetness is a consistent presence throughout, perfect for cutting into what would otherwise be one rich tasting scoop. That distinctive floaty cheesecake flavour runs throughout this as well, but the true strokes of genius are the chunks of graham cracker-like cake crust all over. Without them, it would be an enjoyable sweet cone... but with? Like two classic desserts merged together into something really exceptional. I really, really liked this... and enjoying it while walking down the vivid stretch of Gerrard East, after eating a satisfying sandwich, all on a pleasant Friday evening? That's the good stuff.

 

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Overall! Damn right I recommend checking out Good Behaviour. Very good sub sandwiches (not sure if all three locations offer them but I think so?) and even better ice cream. Keep in mind, I am no ice cream expert. Legitimately I've lived a few blocks from an Ed's Real Scoop for almost a decade, and have only been inside once about eight years ago just to drop off a resume (in my defense, the lineups for that place from May to September are ridiculous). However! I feel I'm a good judge of strong quality food in nearly all of its forms, and Good Behaviour definitely offers that in both sub and dessert form. Highly enjoyable. 

 

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Funky Jobs On The Run

I've worked a lot of various jobs in my adult life, the vast majority of them in bars/restaurants, and as such some of the extremely brief ones do stand out in my memory for something comedic and/or bizarre. Enjoy this new semi-short feature on the TT.

Friendly Thai (Leslieville)

Ah 2015. Fun summer to follow the Toronto Blue Jays, not a fun summer as far as securing a steady job.

I was still enrolled at University of Toronto at the time although my enthusiasm for studying English Lit was seriously waning... plus this was summertime, I had rent to pay and OSAP support wouldn't arrive until the fall. 

It would've been sometime in late June or very early July I saw a Craigslist posting that the Queens Head Pub, right at Leslie and Queen East, was hiring. At this point I had some limited bartending experience, so I applied, got called in for an interview at the pub with the then (or still? who knows) owner/manager, who was impressed enough to give me a trial shift. 

The thing was, he also ran the Thai restaurant next door, where the trial shift would be. "Just as a way of feeling out if you can handle things" was something along the lines of what he said. No problem. I show up at 5pm the next day ready to go... and nobody in this Thai restaurant has any clue whatsoever I was supposed to be shadowing or training, while the manager is nowhere to be found at either place. Seriously, I could've just been a random dude from the street wandering in and claiming I had a job here... it would've been the exact same kind of situation. 

Awkward as this is, I linger about and get shown around by the other servers. The restaurant, which is still there and not very large whatsoever (ten tables), is also completely dead. Not a soul comes inside the entire time. About an hour and a half into this (a ninety minute span that felt like nine hundred) I'm starting to think this just ain't happening... not only is this not at all the gig I thought I was applying for, but this is boring as hell and wasting my time for a place I'm essentially volunteering for. 

Must escape! So, I devise a (very obvious) lie that "Oh! I have to go umpire a softball game! Just remembered! Sorry gotta go!" I never signed any paperwork, filled out any forms and nor were any offered to me... I would not have been paid for this even had I stuck around longer than two hours. I got home just in time to see the Boston Red Sox completely obliterate Matt Boyd (there's the exact day, BbRef nerds!).

And that is surely the shortest job I've ever had, although it is pretty iffy whether or not it really qualifies. For the record, I hold no hard feelings towards the Queens Head. Solid pub with good wings that one of my softball teams likes to frequent after our games (sort of a strange irony how my weak-ass lie about umpiring softball got me out of the weirdness next door, and 2015 was well before I even played softball).    

Anyhow, I've got plenty of other odd stories about weird jobs I worked very briefly. Until the next edition...

 

Tuesday Tune

Outdoor concert season is upon us! Seeing as I saw this legendary artist just last night (with a direct view of the stage, no less... very cool) it's fitting the song of the week has to be one he performed during the brief acoustic section of the concert. Heck, here's even a (older) live version of it:

That's all for this week! Until the next one, stay cool, stay safe, and most of all don't spill that mustard.