Stay out super late tonight
Picking apples
making pies
Put a little something
in our lemonade
and take it with us
Another Tuesday... another Taste!
Okay... I have to get this joke out of the way.
Lets all presume that aged extremely well and nobody is cringing. It is stupidly silly at the very least...
Also lets have some historical factual fun. Did you know King Tutankhamun only lived to the age of 18 or 19? And yet still had two children? He married his half-sister? (and yeah gross). I'm no expert these are literally (literally indeed) the introduction notes on a Wikipedia page... I just find stuff like this randomly fascinating.
Tut's Egyptian Street Food, while utilizing the name of the perhaps most famous ancient pharaoh (at least for musical comedians), offers a cuisine that is not super well known here in Toronto. I personally, off the top of my head, would not be able to tell you anything distinctive about Egyptian street food. As such, coming into this I did not know what to expect whatsoever. Which is genuinely fun and a little scary, but mostly fun.
Tut's, by my lazy research, operate four locations and three quarters of those are in the western edge of the GTA (Mississauga and Oakville)... the lone downtown Toronto outpost sitting near King West and Bathurst. This particular location is also open until 3am everyday? Astonishing, and also excellent for my specific schedule.
I was working Stone Temple Pilots down at the Amphitheatre on a Sunday but was finished with plenty of time to take a King West detour. Considering the presence of TIFF as well, which was most definitely popping even on a Sunday... this made for a memorable post-work meal experience. Window-watching, you observed a compelling blend of folks dressed up to impress (likely for a film afterparty) alongside aging film hipsters with their own 'unusual' brand of style, to put it politely.
Tut's (apologizes I keep opening every paragraph with the name of the place) is a joint focused on mini-sandwiches. Ideal for a reviewer like me who wants to try everything, and so the fact they offer a three sandwich combo with fries... where you can pick any two or three or four of their offerings... I approve of this system. Choose your own adventure as it were, and there were a couple of creations I did not get but were tempting enough to sniff the final cut (looking at you, shrimp one).
Anyhow, the three I went for: the grilled chicken (Ferakh), the beef sausage (pictured above with the fries, the Soguk) and the fried falafel (the Taameyah).
But I'm gonna start with the fries. Full stop: they good. A light beer batter (or something similar), these are wonderfully crispy on the outside with perfect potato goodness inside. The dukkah seasoning doesn't stand out insistently, but it is a nice subtle addition that is different than your usual salt/pepper seasoning (this here more like a nuttier paprika).
A photo so nice I took it twice.
Told ya.
This is the falafel/tameya and yes I'm certain I've misspelled all those words. So straight off the bat I have to mention the negatives with Tut's here, and this particular sandwich was indeed the weakest one. The biggest issue for me: the bread. Too firm and too much of it. Showing up at 11:30pm on a Sunday, maaaaybe isn't the ideal moment to get the freshest stuff... but nevertheless there is just an excessive amount of bread here that distracts from the real attraction, and this is a consistent issue with all three sandwiches I sampled.
That said... the falafel itself is awesome. Fabulous flavour, perfectly precise crunch on the outside... and while normally falafel is made of ground chickpeas this particular style (tameya) can be made with dried fava beans. Personally... I couldn't compare or describe the difference but! These falafels were incredible. Lots of lasting flavour, sharp and distinctive, with nice fresh crunch.
I wish the sandwich itself had more: it's on the drier side despite the tahini sauce you see... it's begging for turnips or cabbage and the sauce can only do so much. A minor shame. Decent-to-good overall, but lost in a bready dominance that robs it from being elite. The falafel balls are that tasty... I'd eat at least ten of these as a snack.
This here is the Sojuk, the beef sausage sandwich, which is very much like the Egyptian version of a hot dog. The wieners are thin (actually there are two in here) and the dressing is a mint mustard, with some grilled onions underneath.
I mean that ballpark dog comparison very intently: the mustard itself has that classic bright sharpness you get with normal yellow mustards (I'm a honey or dijon man myself) with a genuine subtle minty hit that elevates it a few levels. The sausages themselves have a peppery, greasiness to them (a quality I find consistent within south eastern Europe/Middle Eastern cuisine) and are quite juicy. These are all positives, beyond once again there being way too much bread-to-everything-else. Very tasty.
Last and certainly not least, the grilled chicken (Ferakh), lathered in a garlic sauce (which is the same sauce as the dip in the lead picture). Hey, in my eyes (or mouth) it's extremely hard to screw up a creamy garlic sauce (Pizza Pizza's garlic dip remains the only non-horrible thing they make) and this one from Tut's is certainly delicious. Not aggressively garlicky, nor overly creamy... very accessible and with a thicker kind of texture. A fabulous dip for the fries I described above.
As for this chicken sandwich itself... this was easily the star of the Tut's show. Delicious shaved chicken (rather like one you find in a shawarma) that is well seasoned and flavoured, mixed in with thin strips of fried onion that work fabulously together. Difficult to tell where the chicken ends and the onions begin, in the best possible way.
All of these sandwiches are quite simple: the headline item, a secondary support with a sauce... that's all. The beef sausage one is quite tasty, the falafel one rather dry and limited despite the excellence of the falafel balls themselves... this chicken one rises high above those just via how full and flavourful this chicken is, and the tender texture of it adds to the enjoyment.
Again... and I keep saying this but there's just too much damn bread, and it lessens the overall texture of these sandwiches when half the bites your mouth is overloaded with a firm bun (insert joke here). Unfortunate especially because, and this chicken sandwich in particular, the main portions are memorably tasty. If the bread itself were softer or exceptionally fresh I'd be fine with it... but this is just very okay. It's also just firm enough that lots of these wonderful things within will spill out and get on your beard, if you (like me) happen to adorn your face with one of those.
It's still an awesome sandwich, don't get me wrong. That chicken is truly the perfect balance of oily and tender, easy on the stomach, loaded with flavourful seasoning, and surprisingly filling.
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Overall! There are far more positives at Tut's than negatives, which are mostly this particular reviewer complaining about the 'meh' level of the bread (the bread-to-filling ratio is just so extremely off balance).
Would I recommend Tut's? You know... yeah I think I would. The mini sandwiches are sneakily filling (I'm a tall fella and could barely finish the three sandwich-plus-fries combo, and this was after working a busy concert) and those fries are indeed fantastic. That battered flavour and great crispiness, the dukkah seasoning (a subtle presence) alongside a quality garlic dip? Very much my jam.
There are some flaws. The falafel sandwich especially was very dry (despite the upper-tier falafels themselves) and all three of these sammies were just a bit too simple... lacking a crucial extra element to truly elevate them. Still, that grilled chicken one was real damn tasty... while the other two have their charms as well. Solid stuff!
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Tuesday Tune
For the second straight week, I'm seeing a concert and so using a song from said band I happen to be seeing (at the very venue I happen to work at also, always fun to be on the other side).
And that's all for another week! Not feeling super well as I edit this (the changing of the seasons are often rough on my constitution) but! We will be back with another edition seven days from now, same internet channel, same internet time. Until then... stay safe, stay cool-ish, and do not spill that (minty) mustard.
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