Liverpool – Dining Out

Minh and I took a last-minute trip to Liverpool (Home of the Beatles… though we didn’t do any Beatles related touristy things while there… ) over the holiday weekend. We’re still sifting through the thousands of pictures that we took while we were there… but in the meantime, I thought I’d tickle your tastebuds with photos of all the food we ate over the weekend.

Sunday – Lunch – Bistro Jacques (Hardman Street) – tempura vegetables, chicken and mushroom penne, French platter (cured meat – frog legs – poisson cake – marinated olives – baked Camembert – mixed berry jam – gherkins), creme brulee

Sunday – Dinner – Alma de Cuba (Seel Street) – lycheetini, mojito, steamed mussels in white wine garlic sauce, crispy roasted duck, spicy pork belly with sweet potato wedges, chocolate and orange springs rolls with vanilla icecream

Monday – Breakfast – McDonald’s (St. John’s Shopping Center) – small coffee, sausage and egg mcmuffin, breakfast wrap (sorry no picture)

Monday – Lunch – Revolution (Albert Dock) – strawberry woo woo pitcher, chicken katsu with curry sauce, king prawn linguini

Monday – Dinner – Host (Hope Street) – Vietnamese iced coffee, duck gyoza, crispy sea bass, smoked tofu

Tuesday – Breakfast – Bold Street Coffee (Bold Street) – latte, croissant, french toast with bacon and maple syrup

Tuesday – Lunch – TriBeCa (Berry Street) – spiced pear collins, Brooklyn lager, margherita pizza, Italian sausage and roasted fennel pizza

More on the rest of our trip later… which involves a lot of walking and a lot of pictures and not a lot of being out at night.

Weekend Dilemma’s

Nottingham – Land of Robin Hood

This past weekend (11-12 May) was a disasterous waste. We didn’t make any plans for Saturday, so we ended up sleeping in like we usually do. By the time we decided to go out and do something, it was already 12pm.. too late to go anywhere far.. so we just headed into Nottingham to hang out. Walked by the Castle and had lunch at the oldest pub in the UK…

Taking a long trip back in time..

.. to the oldest pub in the UK

Couldn’t go to a pub without getting a drink.. or two..

Descent sliders..

nom nom nom

Walked around the shops in town.. finally went into Primark (which was like going into Nordstrom Rack on the weekend during Christmas season.. craziness).. grabbed a snack at Homemade… stumbled upon an awesome stag party in the rain (if you can see… they’re all dressed up like Disney characters).. and then headed home.

Homemade Cafe – voted Nottingham’s best cheap eats (2012?)

Interior of Homemade.. pretty basic cafe

SMILE!

Latte .. not so awesome… but they did have free issues of Vice magazine

Boozy smoothie for Minh

Pulled pork quesadilla

the rain won’t bring down this stag party

Sunday we actually had a plan.. but it was an epic fail. I was supposed to meet up with a group of ladies for the Rapha Women’s 100 training ride through the Peak District. Minh was coming along too.. either to ride with me or to do his own ride. And since Minh refuses to drive.. he was playing navigator.

Real life puzzle.. how to fit two bikes in a small sedan..

seats down. wheels off.. tight fit…

We ended up at the right restaurant, more or less on time, but in the wrong city… We ended up heading back to where the meet-up was supposed to be, then driving a bit of the route to try to find a place to park. After much driving and frustration later.. we just decided to give up and head home. The weather was rainy (as usual) and by this time (over an hour after we were supposed to start riding), I was just over it. Instead of heading home, we hit up the East Midlands Designer Outlets, which was on the way home.

lunch at the outlets.. where’s the green?

Outlet here are nothing like outlets at home… much smaller and not as many good stores. I did come home with a new Superdry jacket and some chocolate from the Cadbury outlet.. but that was pretty much the weekend. This coming weekend will hopefully be better.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Devil’s Food Cupcake with Marshmallow Cream Filling, Chocolate Ganache Frosting and Rainbow Jimmies

Yesterday was my 29th birthday! As is customary in the UK on your birthday, I brought in cupcakes for my coworkers. I had originally wanted to bake the entire batch from scratch, but I couldn’t find all the necessary ingredients quickly enough at the market (baking soda, baking powder, buttermilk, vanilla extract), and didn’t want to spend a lot of time trying to find everything.. so I went with a box mix for the cake – Devil’s food cake (from Betty Crocker – substituted 250 mL of water with 250 mL of Aeropress coffee), marshmallow cream filling (from Todd&Lindsey, but without the vanilla extract), chocolate ganache frosting (from Real Simple).

Birthday festivities were pretty low key, since it really is just me and Minh here. I went to work as usual, sporting a new sweater I got from my April GoldenTote (came just in time!). My phone got a new outfit too, courtesy of Minh.

Golden Tote – Arrived just in time for the birthday!

New outfit for the phone!

Once I got out of work, I picked up Minh for dinner at Jamie’s Italian in Nottingham. We had fried gnocchi, start bay crab mac’n'cheese, wild rabbit tagliolini, and epic brownie!

Welcome to Jamie’s Italian – Nottingham!

Milano (Campari, orange juice & Prosecco) and Bramble (Gin, elderflower & blackberry liqueur with lemon & sugar)

Fried Three-Cheese Gnocchi

Wild Rabbit Tagliolini

Start Bay Crab Mac’n'Cheese

Epic Brownie!

Not a bad way to spend my birthday.. Minh even got me a cake with CANDLES!!!

Make a wish…

London Calling: NHM and an Unintentional Mini Food Crawl

Sunday we opted to “fly by the seat of our pants”.. in a way. We started the day with an unanticipatedly (yes.. new word) long walk to Ottolenghi - Notting Hill. This isn’t a full-up restaurant, but a small bakery that has seating for 10 in the back. They open at 9:30AM on Sunday.. but unfortunately for us, we thought they opened at 9AM, so we had 30 minutes to kill before actually getting any breakfast. Also unfortunately for us, none of the nearby shops opened before 12PM on a Sunday.. so we just strolled around..

Since we had some time on our hands, we decided to figure out these Barclay Cyclehire bikes that are dotted all over London. Basically, you pay £2 to use the service for 24 hours. Everytime you want to rent a bike, you get the first 30 minutes for free, and then you get charged for increments of time over that. This is actually pretty cool.. because as long as you plan your stops to be 30 minutes apart, you can get around all of London for just £2! And you’ll see a lot more than hopping around on the Underground (fast, not scenic) or on foot (scenic but very slow). It’s also less expensive than the Underground (each trip within Zone 1 is £2.10). Throughout the rest of the day, we were able to find cyclehire stations pretty much every block, except around Buckingham Palace, so it was definitely a good idea.

Back to breakfast.. we got back to Ottolenghi right when it opened. We got a latte, a croissant, a small brioche, and a slice of ham & leek quiche. I would definitely recommend dropping in if you’re in the area.. we couldn’t try it all, but everything looked really good, and what we did get to taste was top notch. Bonus, the latte was also very well made.. super smooth, not too hot, nice latte art..

After breakfast, we grabbed some bikes and headed to Kensington Garden. We had a nice stroll through the park, and checked out the outside of Kensington Palace. Something that Minh and I have noticed while being here in the UK.. the dogs are so well behaved! I don’t know what it is, but English dogs have no issues playing off-leash, coming back to their owners, and not harassing other dogs. It’s AMAZING!

Once we got to the other side of Kensington Garden, we hopped back on two wheels and headed over to the Natural History Museum. The line at the front entrance of the NHM was INSANE!!! Sure.. holiday weekend and free and all that, but it was ridiculous. Luckily, a nice museum worker told us that the side entrance was much faster. He wasn’t kidding.. the queue at the side entrance only took 5 minutes to get into the museum. But the museum was packed!

We found out about half way through the museum that the hour-long queue at the front entrance was also the only way to see the dinosaur exhibit.. so we had to skip that. Oh wells.. instead we worked our way through nearly all the other exhibits, including the Cocoon.. which would be really cool and interesting if you were into biology and natural history and collections and things like that.. which Minh and I aren’t really.. so noted for future museum exhibits.

By the time we got out of the NHM, we were pretty hungry.. so we strolled down the street to see what we could find for lunch. Actually.. we were headed to Fernandez & Wells, but I wasn’t really interested in having lunch there once we got there, so we ended up having lunch at Le Pain Quotidien instead. I had a nice cheese board with some carrot/apple/mango juice and Minh had an open-faced sandwich. I could probably eat a cheese board at every meal… if good cheese wasn’t so expensive.

After lunch, we had to plan our ride to the Rapha store. To get there, we would need to pass by Buckingham Palace, around which there are NO cyclehire stations. So we would either need to book it, or find a cyclehire station in between so that we wouldn’t go over the 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I think we missed the time by about five minutes (not realizing it until we had already docked out bikes)… But we did have a nice ride through Green Park, around the Victoria Memorial, and through St. James Park.

The Rapha Cycle Club is a different kind of bike shop.. in that.. it doesn’t sell bicycles. I guess that’s fine? The shop is actually really nice.. clean and well laid out. There’s a little cafe attached, and they were showing Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia, which was a nice bonus. We looked around the store a bit.. then ordered a latte (yes, another one) and pulled up a couple chairs to watch the rest of the team time trials. If you can believe it, the latte at Rapha was actually (slightly) better than the one from Ottolenghi.. not but a lot, but just by a little.

We spent a few hours walking around Soho, back and forth a few times, here and there through crowds of tourists, in and out of shops, past some shady looking Thai massage parlors next to gentlemen’s clubs and pornography stores… it was something different. We also walked over to Golden Square for some Nordic cuisine. I don’t think I knew what that would entail until we got to Nordic Bakery… and what it DOES entail is open faced sandwiches with some sort of smoked or cured fish.. and other baked goods. We got a smoked salmon sandwich and a rustic oatmeal cookie (which was wafer thin, but surprisingly delicious).

By this time, it was probably about 6PM. Stores were closing down (oh Sunday!), so we decided to head back to the hotel. We had a (very) late dinner reservations that we wanted to rest up for. Since our dinner reservations wasn’t until 10:30PM.. we picked up a takeaway order of pad thai from the Thai Terrace and brought it back to the hotel. Then we just rested up for our big dinner at… DINNER BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL!

The only reservation we could get was for 10:30PM on a Sunday night.. and the restaurant was still packed when we got there. We actually had to wait for 15 minutes for our table to be ready (the restaurant was also impossible to find because it’s inside a hotel and we passed it without even realizing). In any case.. the concept behind the menu is actually really cool. All of the dishes are based on historic “traditional” English cuisine.. but re-imagined with a modern twist. Here’s what we ordered..

Starter:
Roast Marrowbone (c. 1720) – with snails, parsley, anchovy, mace, and pickled vegetables

Mains:
Powdered Duck (c. 1670) – with smoked confit fennel and umbles
Spiced Pigeon (c. 1780) – with ale and artichokes

Deserts:
Tipsy Cake (c. 1810) – with spit-roasted pineapple
Bohemian Cake (c. 1890) – with chocolate, citrus & London summertime honey ice cream

So delicious! Minh wants to have pigeon all the time now!

And that was Sunday.. a very long Sunday..

Mellow Weekend

This last weekend (27-28 April) was pretty mellow. Saturday we did a mock ride-to-work to see if it’s something that I would actually want to do. Here’s the route…

Because we stopped a bunch of times to make sure that we were going the right way, the ride to work took about 2 hours. Even if I knew the route pretty well, it would still probably take 1.5 hours… mostly because of having to ride through city centers in the first half and groomed (but not paved) paths on the second half. So probably not going to be riding my bike to work… Might consider it more if I had brought the cross bike.. but oh wells.

We got rained on on the way back, but we managed to get over it. When we got close to the house, I slipped on my pedals trying to clip-in, and hurt myself rather badly… so I used that as an excuse to be lazy the rest of the weekend. During which I caught up on all of my TV shows on Saturday and managed to watch the first five episodes of Game of Thrones Season 2 (yea.. I’m behind) on Sunday. And then I napped because all that TV gave me a massive headache.. go figure. For dinner, Minh and I walked into town for Chinese food.

Just a stroll to town…

Left to Beeston.. Right to ??? (home)

more of the path to town..

I choose you, PIKACHU!!!

I don’t even know…

Construction for a new tramline.. set to open at the END of 2014

The Bee Man, in Beeston

Bees are actually this huge here..

There are four Chinese restaurants in town… we tried Lucky Cantonese to start, just because it seemed to be the busiest at the time. We did a set meal for 2, which was £10 per person. It came with chicken and corn soup, sauteed beef in chili bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken, mixed vegetables in bean sauce, and egg fried rice. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not “authentic” as it claimed to be. Tasted very westernized, like any Chinese takeout place. We’ll have to try the other restaurants to see if they’re any better. Hopefully yes.. one of them is supposed to be so authentic, there isn’t even any English on the menu or on the signs inside the restaurant (The Pink Wing)! Next time…

Starter of prawn chips

Chicken and corn soup.. was better with a dash of pepper

LUCKY CATS GALORE!!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Beef in Chili Bean Sauce

Mixed veggies in black bean sauce

All this (plus the soup) for £21

At least they have boxes so you can take your leftovers home at this place…

“Thank you for your custom”

So kiss me and Smile for me…

Because of the Dangerous Dog Act of 1991, Sprocket was not allowed to come with us to the UK. We made arrangements for my uncle to watch her (or take her) for the two years that we’ll be away… But, he lives in Utah, so we had to drive Sprocket out there to drop her off (we weren’t about to traumatize her by shipping her). Also, unfortunately, the rental car didn’t allow pets, so we had to keep Sprocket in her crate for the whole trip.

Had to “contain” her excitement..

She knows something is up…

The trip to Salt Lake City, UT, is LONG.. we knew that it would be a long drive (10 hours), plus stops and what not. We got a late start (didn’t leave OC until 11PM), so we were in for a long drive ahead of us. In an effort to gorge ourselves on All-American food before we would be deprived of it, we stopped at Bob’s Big Boy in Norco on our way out (yes.. only 45 minutes into the drive).

Caramel Turtle Shake. Chili Spaghetti. Patty Melt and Onion Rings.

Bob’s Big Boy – Cowtown, USA

We didn’t do too much while we were in Utah except hang out with Sprocket and Xavier. It was good to spend time with her and get her adjusted to her new home. My uncle has two other dogs of his own (Mika and Chewie), plus they were dog sitting two other dogs over Easter.. so it was almost like he’s running a shelter. I think Sprocket knew something was amiss, but I don’t really know what she’s thinking…

So sad to leave her…

After we left Sprocket, we had to redeem a “loss” that I had last time I was in Vegas.. getting roped into signing up for a time share presentation for a stay at the Venetian. On the way to Vegas, we stopped in St. George to eat at CRACKER BARREL!!! I haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel since I was in grad school, where I first discovered them. It was just as good as I remembered it.. and the store and restaurant looked exactly like the one in VA.

LOVE CRACKER BARREL!!!

We stayed a couple nights in Vegas. The hotel room was really nice, but the timeshare presentation was FOUR HOURS LONG!!! Good thing we got it over with in the morning and was able to enjoy the rest of the day. We also got to indulge in the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace. The food was good, but the desserts were just so-so…

Sleeping in luxury … perhaps not completely worth the four hour timeshare presentation we had to go to..

Buffets = this is why you’re fat…

Amazing dessert spread at Bacchanal Buffet (looks better than it tasted)

Chris decided to fly out last minute to spend some quality time with us before we left. He came in late on Monday. We grabbed dinner at Grimaldi’s and hung out all night.. he actually got Minh to GAMBLE!! WHAT?!?

Spontaneous visit from Chris in Vegas

Hello/Goodbye Las Vegas!

It was sad to come home without Sprocket there, but she was probably having a blast playing with her new friends. We’ll see if we get her back after two years… after all, she’ll have been with them for longer than she’ll have been with us. As long as she’s happy and taken care of.. that’s what really matters.

One last “family” picture

Minh’s First Time: Seven Courses of Beef (Bò 7 Món)

One thing that I requested before we leave (and will probably request at least one more time with my family) is Seven Courses of Beef… better known as  Bò 7 Món. Seems like a lot when you say it out loud, but it’s not all that bad. The courses are fairly small, and it’s all shared family-style.. so it’s not like you’re eating seven fat steaks or something. Minh had never tried  Bò 7 Món before, so I HAD to document it (also because I’m Asian, but mostly because it was Minh’s first time). We went to Ánh Hòng Restaurant, which is one of the original places to do this in the Little Saigon area. The seven courses are:

1. Gỏi bò: Beef salad with pickled carrot, daikon, and celery
2. Bò chả đùm: Steamed ground beef patties served with shrimp chips
3. Bò nhúng dấm: Raw slices of beef to be cooked in a vinegared fondue
4. Bò nướng mỡ chài: Grilled ground beef wrapped in caul fat
5. Bò lá lốt: Grilled ground beef wrapped in a Lolot leaf (very similar to a grape leaf)
6. Bò nướng vì: Raw slices of beef to be cooked on a skillet
7. Cháo Bò: Beef congee

Course #1: Gỏi bò – Beef salad

Course #3: Bò nhúng dấm

Course # 2, 4, 5, 6: Bò chả đùm, Bò nướng mỡ chài, Bò lá lốt, Bò nướng vì

Course #7: Cháo Bò

We opted to add shrimp and squid to Course #6.. AWESOME! Everything can be eaten by itself or, more traditionally, Course #3 and #6 gets wrapped up like spring rolls.. and I like to do the same with Course #4 and #5. I prefer dipping my rolls (in this instance) in mắm nêm, which is a sauce made with anchovies and pineapple. Minh prefers (since he found out that this was “allowed”) to dip his rolls in (the less “aromatic”) nước mắm (otherwise known as fish sauce), prepared with lemon juice, sugar and vinegar to cut through the saltiness/fishiness of straight up fish sauce.

To continue with our night of “firsts”.. I tried Tastea for the first time, which was just like any other boba place I’ve been to, only the menu was not as overwhelming. Note: Honey boba tastes just like regular boba, only a little sweeter, and has an uncomfortably vibrant green color.

“Mini” Peach Me Freezie with Honey Boba (left) and “Regular” Strawberry Black Tea with Lychee (right)

And Chris tried Dairy Queen for the first time… where he was not so impressed with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard… and I was not so impressed with the lack of swirl on my chocolate dipped cone. But I love Dairy Queen softserve.. and swirl or no swirl.. I always come back.

DQ First-timer!

Where’s the swirly? DQ fail!

We ended the night with a movie at home with Scott and Laurie… finished a bottle of Confectioner’s Chocolate Wine and snacked on Gardetto’s.

Confectioner’s Chocolate Wine and Gardetto’s

A San Francisco Food Crawl…

Minh and I recently took a trip to the Bay Area to visit some friends. We did a little touristy stuff, but for the most part we ate… A LOT. Wanting to cram in as much good food as we possibly could in the short amount of time we had there, we concocted a SF food crawl, during which we (Minh, me, and two friends) embark on a journey across San Francisco and eat at 14 (!!!) different places in one day… Let’s begin…

1. Locations San Francisco Baking Institute, Food: Croissants

Davis recently completed baking school and has been interning at the San Francisco Baking Institute. This mostly involves long hours of baking a lot of bread. Minh and I wanted to check out what a large scale baking operation looked like, so Davis gave us a quick tour and we grabbed a croissant to-go. No picture of the food or the place, but I did get a shot of Wind Harp Tower out back.

2. Location: Just For You Cafe, Food: Chorizo con Heuvos and Beignets

Our first stop in the city was Just for You Cafe, in the Dogpatch Neighborhood. There was a little bit of a wait, but not too bad. We shared one breakfast entree.. chorizo con huevos with corn bread and home fries.. and an order of beignets. The beignets were nothing special, mostly tasted like good donuts.. but the chorizo con huevos (basically a chorizo egg scramble) was DELICIOUS! We probably should passed on the beignets, or just ordered one to split.. because we were pretty full after breakfast. How would we fit all the other food in??

3. Location: Woodhouse Fish Company, Food: Maine Lobster Roll and Fries

I think this lobster roll was one of my favorite dishes during the whole food crawl. We stopped by the Woodhouse Fish Company in the Castro. The split top roll was toasted for a crunchy outside, but still soft in the middle. The lobster was fresh and not overly dressed. The fries were crunchy and well seasoned (or like Minh dubbed “seafood fries”). Probably could have finished one by myself (a little one).

4/5. Location: Four Barrel Coffee and b. Patisserie Pop-up, Food: Iced Coffee, Macarons, and Kouignettes

First “sweet” stop of the day… Davis heard about a pop-up going up behind Four Barrel Coffee for a new bakery called b. Patisserie. The genius behind b. Patisserie is pastry chef  Belinda Leong, who is getting ready to open her first brick and mortar store with Davis’ boss (set to open in Lower Pacific Heights in December). We tried nearly every flavor of macarons she had.. and they were awesome. They were all Halloween candy themed – Snickers, Whatchamacallit, Lemonhead, Mounds,… We also grabbed a handful of kouignettes (tiny bite-sized Kouign Amanns), which were amazing. Paired it all with an iced-coffee from Four Barrel, and it was definitely a good pre-lunch snack.

6. Location: Craftsman and Wolves, Food: The Rebel Within

While we were sitting at Four Barrel Coffee enjoying our coffee and sweets, I casually mentioned to the gentleman sharing the table with us that our next stop was Craftsman and Wolves, (from the genius behind the now closed Tell Tale Preserve Company) to which he replied, “You MUST try the Rebel Within” (and of course.. I am paraphrasing). In theory, the Rebel Within should have been a heavenly breakfast treat… a savory breakfast muffin with a perfectly cooked egg hidden in the center. But… Minh and I were not impressed. It had some good merits too it, but I think it was maybe over-hyped (?)… the execution could have been better.. but it wasn’t bad. I might need to try this at home.. maybe next time I host book club.

7. Location: Tartine, Food: Croque Monsieur and Frangipane Tart

I’ve been DYING to try Tartine ever since I picked up the book and dreamed about taking care of my own starter (which I attempted to start a while back, but neglected… ). Angie brought us down a morning bun last year when she came to visit, but I had to try something from the bakery.. with BREAD. We were all really starting to get full by this point, so we barely took a few bites of the croque monsieur (which was delicious!!!) and the frangipane tart (which I took home with my to OC and had for breakfast some days later.. still good). If we timed it right, I would have wanted to come back at 5PM for some fresh baked bread.. but, ALAS, it was not meant to be. Next time…

8. Location: Bi-Rite Creamery, Food: 1-scoop Vanilla and 1-scoop Honey Graham icecream

Angie had requested to hit up Bi-Rite Creamery, since it’s kinda a big deal (5100 reviews on Yelp!) and she’d never been before (neither had Minh and I). As an icecream gage, we decided to try vanilla and then one other flavor (which Minh let me choose). Overall, it was pretty basic. I didn’t think the ice cream was anything special… but it was good icecream. I also have their book at home, so I may be trying out some of their other flavors (homemade).. but I don’t think I would go out of my way to stop by the shop (and especially not if we have to wait in line). We took our icecream across the street to Dolores Park for some people watching and to plan our next few stops…

9. Location: Chili Pies, Food: Green Chili Pot Pie

Davis was raving about the hand pies from Chili Pies the day before.. but by the time we got there, they were all sold out of the one we wanted… so we opted for a homemade pot pie instead. I have to say, if it was hot, then this would have been the BEST CHICKEN POT PIE EVER (!!!), but since it was not heated through all the way, it was only better than any pot pie I had ever had before. Still pretty damn good, right? The little side salad was good too.. Minh killed it.

10. Location: Thorough Bread and Pastry, Food: Lemon Blackberry Mousse Cake and Chocolate Eclair

By this point, we were all macaron-ed out from b. Patisserie, but we still had room for some other sweets. Few people know, but Thorough Bread and Pastry is associated with the San Francisco Baking Institute, where Davis works. It was named by the owner’s daughter.. and a pretty clever name, if I do say so myself. Minh couldn’t resist the eclair and Davis recommended the lemon blackberry mousse cake.. so we got both. AMAZING! We also grabbed an almond croissant to go.. but didn’t eat that till the next morning.

11. Location: Smitten Icecream, Food: 1-scoop Salted Caramel and 1-scoop TCHO (chocolate) icecream

Minh and I had stopped by Smitten the night before.. because we weren’t sure if we’d be able to make it out that way again during the weekend. If you’ve not heard of Smitten, I would highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever in San Francisco. This is the freshest icecream you will ever have, because the icecream is frozen/churned to order in an awesome machine called the Kelvin (invented by the founder of Smitten) that freezes the base with liquid nitrogen before your very eyes (!!!) (Check out this video). The first night, we had classic vanilla (as a gage.. very vanilla-y) and pumpkin spice (which tasted like the best pumpkin pie filling you’ve ever had.. but creamier and frozen). This time, we had to try the other two flavors they were offering (they only have four flavors a day): TCHO chocolate with pistachio brittle and salted caramel. The chocolate was delicious.. the salted caramel a little bit on the sweet side.  But overall, I really like Smitten Ice Cream. The texture of the ice cream is so much smoother and creamier than any other ice cream you will every try, and the flavors are actually really good.

12. Location: Bun Mee, Food: Sloppy Bun and Salt &Pepper Garlic Fries

Unlike the other stops of the day, this one was COMPLETELY spontaneous. We were meeting up with a college friend for dinner in Pacific Heights, and had some time to kill. The bars were all packed because of some crazy sporting event, so we were just aimlessly walking up and down the street looking in the shops. We walked by Bun Mee, and just had a glance at the menu. After all the eating we had done all day, none of us were hungry, but Minh INSISTED that we get a sandwich. I have to be honest, being from Orange County (home to the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam), I’m not a fan of paying more than $3 for bánh mì (Vietnamese sub sandwich).. and I’m always skeptical of so-called “Asian fusion.” Minh picked the Sloppy Bun – red curry ground beef, house garlic aioli, shaved onion, thai basil, jalapenos – and for whatever reason, our stomachs insisted on an order of garlic fries. The sandwich was surprisingly good (but totally make-able at home if you can find some good baguettes) and the fries were a pleasant surprise. Instead of your traditional garlic fries that just have loads and loads of minced garlic or garlic salt and chopped, these fries are tossed with sauteed onions and garlic and jalapenos… it was AWESOME!! Best fries EVER!!!

13. Location: La Mediterranee, Food: …

Angie had suggested La Mediterranee because it was a nice halfway point from where we were (Hayes Valley) and where our friend was (Fisherman’s Wharf). I honestly cannot remember everything that we had for dinner.. but it was a lot of Mediterranean food – hummus, lamb, chicken, meatballs of sorts, salads, dips… This was not my favorite meal of the day, but it was still very good, and it was nice to end the night at a table with friends, with good food and good drinks.

14. Location: Humphry Slocombe, Food: Vietnamese Coffee Icecream

Last stop of the night, and in an attempt to make it out of the city before some crazy event (like a riot) happened.. we stopped for dessert at Humphry Slocombe. I also picked up this book after watching a little Vimeo bit on these guys. I was excited to try their Vietnamese Coffee ice cream, made from Blue Bottle Coffee and Vietnamese charm. Tasted just like a nice glass of cà phê sữa đá.. DELICIOUS! Davis got a scoop of Secret Breakfast, which tasted like boozy breakfast cereal. As we were waiting in line, a major sporting victory for San Francisco occurred.. and the streets went WILD. We high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could, for fear that a bunch of Asians in that part of town would draw suspicious attention…

BONUS: What we took home… and the day after

As if all the food we actually ate during the day wasn’t enough… we also had tons of goodies that we brought home with us, either that we couldn’t finish or that we just picked up for later. This included caramels and sweets from Craftsman and Wolves, 70% single origin (Rio Caribe, Venezuela) chocolate from Dandelion Chocolates, leftover macarons from  b. Patisserie… which we snacked on back at home-base.

The next morning before heading out for more food (this time for amazing fried chicken at Hard Knox and a food crawl of the East Bay), we had a breakfast of the leftover croque monsieur from Tartine and an almond croissant from Thorough Bread.

NOTE: Apologies for the low-quality Instagram photos… I have better ones trapped on an SD card somewhere at home, but these were readily available when I decided to put together this post.

Review: Cocoa Lounge at the Island Hotel

I was SO HAPPY to find out that my best friend does not have gestational diabetes. This meant that we could eat all the sugar and sweets we want!!! It also meant that I had someone to go check out the the Cocoa Lounge at the Island Hotel with, since Minh is not a big fan of desserts. I, on the other hand, could LIVE off sweets if it wouldn’t make me sick or malnourished.

So.. on Friday, Michele and I headed to the Cocoa Lounge for a nice girls’ night out…

The Cocoa Lounge at the Island Hotel - Newport Beach, CA

I didn’t really know what to expect with a chocolate dessert buffet. Part of my was expecting a Vegas-style buffet line, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually a “lounge”. There was lush velvet draped over the walls, and cozy couches and coffee tables for lounging. The lighting was a bit dim, which didn’t make for good pictures, but added to the romantic and relaxing feel of the room. Michele and I took a table out in the restaurant instead of the lounge, but there were other people actually “lounging” with friends.

Between Michele and I, we tried almost everything… and there were over a dozen different chocolate desserts to choose from… I was in chocolate heaven.

Snickers Cake and Chocolate Caramel Tart

German Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Pudding Cake with Gianduja Mousse

Strawberry Shortcake with White Chocolate Mousse and Chocolate Pot de Creme

A "handful" of truffles.. hehe..

Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Cookie S'more, Banana Chocolate Mousse Cake, and Chocolate Cupcake

Vanilla Custard-filled Eclair and "White Chocolate Mousse Square"

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Here’s how I ranked everything – from best to good (there was not “worst”):

• Chocolate Pudding Cake with Gianduja Mousse – This one was THE BEST!!! It was rich and creamy and almost the perfect chocolate dessert.
• Pots de Creme – Cold, custard-y chocolate pudding, with cute little malt balls
• German Chocolate Cake – Rich, moist chocolate cake with a coconut creme. Very well balanced and not overly sweet.
• Chocolate Caramel Tarts – This was Michele’s favorite because of the different textures: the silky chocolate and caramel with the crunchy tart shell.
• Strawberry Shortcake with White Chocolate Mousse – light mousse with a moist vanilla cake and just a hint of strawberry sweetness
• Snickers Cake with Cream Cheese Icing – first thing we tried that night, and it tasted like the best Snickers I had ever had.
• Port Truffles – No overpowering port taste, which made for a sweet, rich truffle; the ganache was the perfect texture
• Chocolate Lollipop – a good chocolate truffle.. ON A STICK!
• White, Milk, and Dark Chocolate Truffles – by the end of the night, I was too stuffed to actually eat any of the “plain” truffles. But I imagine that they tasted just as good as the chocolate lollipop. UPDATE: My coworker just told me that these were not “plain” like I had assumed.. which makes me which I had actually grabbed one of each.. oh wells. There’s always next year!
• Vanilla Custard-filled Eclairs – the custard was good, but the eclair was nothing to right home about. I think I’ve had better eclairs from a Vietnamese Bakery, but it was nice that they added a dessert that wasn’t some form of cake.
• Chocolate Cupcake – your basic chocolate cupcake.
• White Chocolate Mousse Squares – this one confused Michele and I a bit because it seemed like just a chocolate cake when we ate it, no white chocolate or mousse in site. Perhaps mislabeled? UPDATE: Apparently, the white chocolate mousse was the layer inbetween the chocolate cake layers.. but there was so little that I didn’t even notice it.
• Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding – the bread pudding was good, but very custardy. I think they made it in a water bath (lending to the texture).. I wished it was a bit more firm. I did like that they used croissants for the “bread”.. it makes it more buttery and delicious.
• Chocolate Fudge Cookie S’mores – the marshmallow on top was DELICIOUS.. but the fudge cookie on the bottom was HARD. Would have been better if it was a fudge brownie… but maybe the chef was going for the different textures..
• Chocolate-covered Macaroons – tasted like a good Mounds.
• Banana Chocolate Mousse Cake – This one threw me off a bit.. the banana flavor was a lot stronger than I was expecting. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t really in the mood for banana.
• Chocolate-covered Peanut Caramels – I didn’t get to try this one, but Michele wasn’t a fan. Perhaps because it was one of the last things she ate and she was all chocolated out…
• Milk Chocolate Cheesecake – I dont’ remember this one, perhaps I didn’t eat it?
• There was one thing that I know I didn’t try.. and I can’t remember what it was called… but it looked too exotic so we skipped it. UPDATE: My coworker told me that the one we skipped (that sounded too exotic) was actually one of her favorites that night.. Which teaches me that at a buffet, EVERYTHING deserves a taste.

Along side all the desserts were these amazing chocolate sculptures. I especially liked the chocolate fish and the basket of roses.

Abstract chocolate sculpture with various chocolate desserts

Chocolate Fish ... so cool!

Close up of Chocolate Fish

Chocolate Rainbow Fish

Truffle Table with Rose Basket

Close-up of Chocolate Roses

Another abstract chocolate sculpture

By the end of the night, Michele and I had had our fill of chocolate desserts.. and table full of plates to prove it.

A chocolate battlefield..

Those desserts really didn't stand a chance..

The Cocoa Lounge at the Island Hotel is only open for the month of February. Apparently, 2011 is the third year that they’ve put on the Cocoa Lounge, and it has been a huge success! I don’t know why I had never heard of it before, but I’m hoping that I can make this a February tradition for many years to come.

Cocoa Lounge at the Island Hotel
(Inside the Palm Terrace Restaurant)
690 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Tues – Sat, 6PM – 10PM, until Feb 26th
Price: $18 per person
Call for reservations: 949-760-4920

Review: Valhalla Table

Last Sunday (January 30) was Minh’s Birthday. For whatever reason, I made NO PLANS to celebrate his birthday. We went to church in the morning.. had breakfast.. watched some TV.. had lunch.. hung out at Barnes and Noble for HOURS (one of our FAVORITE activities) .. and then planned to go to dinner.. this is where the “no plans” went horrible awry… Ends up that at some point between paying for lunch (at Boudin’s) and hanging out at B&N for hours, my wallet went mysteriously misplaced. It must have fallen out of my purse when I was pulling out my phone or something.. either way, we didn’t realize that it was gone until we went to pay and I had no wallet (note.. this is the third time I’ve lost my wallet.. it really sucks). The one thing I did plan for the night was where to have dinner.. We were going to try out Valhalla Table at the CAMP since Minh and I LOVE LOVE LOVE sausage and beer… but since I was now totally bummed out, we decided to just go home and call the necessary banks and such and order pizza….

Fast forward to this past weekend.. we were originally going to get dinner at the Tet Festival in Garden Grove, but Minh didn’t want to deal with the parking and the crowds and the noise.. so we headed to Valhalla Table for dinner (side note.. the streets were absolutely DEAD because people were inside watching the Superbowl). The place was DEAD.. we were the only customers in the place for a while (but people started showing up later).

We ordered three sausages (served in french baguette) and an order of Belgium fries with garlic aioli… The fries were DELICIOUS, as was the garlic aioli. They were pretty much fried perfectly (with a nice golden color, crunchy outer, and soft inner) and lightly salted.

Sausages (top to bottom): Wild Boar Balinese, Traditional Bratwurst, Veal with Basil and Parmesan

Sausage #1: Traditional Bratwurst with Homemade Sauerkraut

There wasn’t anything special about the bratwurst. It was a good sausage, though a little bland.. definitely needs ketchup and a little brown mustard. The homemade sauerkraut is good, but nothing to write home about. It’s good if you want a traditional bratwurst and don’t know where else to go to get one.

Sausage #2: Veal with Basil and Parmesan with Sweet Peppers

The veal sausage was actually pretty good. I think it had a great flavor, probably from the crumbled bacon on top and mixed in Parmesan. It was better with less sweet peppers, since the peppers tend to overpower the sausage. It doesn’t need any extra condiments, but if you have some extra garlic aioli from the fries, it doesn’t hurt to spread some on the bun. It actually tastes very good.

Sausage #3: Wild Boar Balinese with Caramelized Onions

I don’t know why, but I was surprised at how “wild” this sausage tasted… it had an earthy taste to it, like goat meat or lamb. I’m not complaining, the sausage was good. But like the bratwurst, it was a little bland, so needed the addition of ketchup.

And.. of course.. you can’t have sausage without beer. Minh got a bottle of Palm and I got a bottle of Mad River Brewing Co. Steelhead Scotch Porter.

Overall, Valhalla Table isn’t awesome, but it isn’t bad either. It’s a good place to go if you’re craving sausage, and it’s reasonable priced. The menu is simple, the staff is nice, the decor is clean… I would definitely come back to try something different on their menu… maybe the duck, buffalo, or Texas BBQ.

Valhalla Table
2981 Bristol Street (the CAMP)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 549-2960
http://www.valhallatable.com