Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato (revisit)

September 15, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Caramel, Green Tea, Black Sesame, Akbar Mashti – Saffron and Rosewater

Revisit to Bella Gelateria! After Afghan Horsemen, C, K, J and I decided to grab some dessert. We had walked around Granville Island for a bit, and were craving some ice cream on that nice sunny evening. And of course I wanted Bella after my first time there. It’s pretty much my favourite ice cream shop now. We got there pretty late..I can’t recall the time now, but the line up was massive! We couldn’t even see the doorway at the point we lined up at.

We waited around 15-20 minutes, and got inside the shop. I decided to get Black Sesame and Akbar Mashti, which I honestly still have no idea what it is… The black sesame was actually out of stock at my turn, but they had made another batch, and I waited around less than 5 minutes, and they were able to get me some. The black sesame was rich and full of flavour. Really delicious! As for the Akbar Mashti, it was…kind of weird. I mean, the description behind the name was Saffron and Rosewater, so I was expecting something with rose flavour, and it sort of did. But it also had some weird ingredients that I was not expecting. It came with a nut, and even something that tasted like chocolate. I was really confused to be honest. I probably won’t get that again..and I probably should have tried the flavour beforehand. C got Matcha flavour, which is my all time favourite. And J got Caramel flavour, which was actually really good! It was for some reason, pretty melted, and I usually don’t like caramel, but it was really good! It wasn’t too sweet too.

Bella Gelateria is definitely an ice cream shop to check out if you haven’t already!

Piroshky Piroshky

August 29, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Beef & Cheese Piroshky

Off we continue with our Seattle foodie adventure. So after lunch at Thoa’s, we decided to head back to the Pike Place Market to explore. Still full of people, but most of the lineups at the food shops had definitely died down. On our way to Thoa’s, we had actually walked by a bakery. We actually didn’t spot the place originally, but the aroma was so strong that it attracted us to walk closer. And then we knew it was of course a bakery! A bakery named Piroshky Piroshky that had a massive line up too… Since we were starving, we obviously didn’t wait, but luckily, the line had shrunk by the time we got back after lunch! Okay, we were still pretty full to be honest, but hey, this place must have some good stuff with that long line up from before! So we lined up behind the others, excited to try a “piroshky”. So what exactly is a piroshky? I honestly had no idea, and was still pretty clueless after eating it.

We were quite full from lunch, so we decided to just share one piroshky, since they were quite large. So many choices! But a Beef & Cheese Piroshky seemed pretty safe. It was a bun filled with beef, cheese and some spices. The dough was soft and warm, and the filling inside was not overflowing or too little. Just the perfect amount. It actually sort of reminded me of a curry beef bun you can get in Asian bakeries, so I didn’t think it was THAT amazing. Maybe I had just expected much more seeing those line ups. They’re decent, but I didn’t find them too special. Perhaps next time, I would try some of their other unique fillings.

For those of you who want to know more about piroshkys, I went home and googled them up. So they are basically Russian baked goods – usually in the form of a baked stuffed bun. They are usually filled with meat and vegetables, (usually onions), so the meat and cheese piroshky was actually quite close to the traditional piroshkys! Other variations include savory fillings, such as fish, and also sweet fillings, such as apples. These were all offered at the shop as well!

Gingeri Chinese Cuisine

August 22, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste

Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings

Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup

Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables

Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce

Steamed Rock Cod

Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce

Dumplings in Supreme Soup

Chinese Petit

Coffee Jelly

Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream

Gingeri is one of my mom’s favourite dim sum place. I swear she suggests to come here every time we want dim sum food. Not long ago though, I attended a wedding and they held it at Gingeri. I don’t normally come here for dinners, so I was actually kind of curious what the food was like for dinner time. Chinese weddings always have some crazy dinner banquets, with hours of food. This one had around 12 courses I believe? I’m missing two pictures I think, since I was too excited to eat…

First up was Roasted Pig Slices with Jellyfish Appetizer, which was one of the dishes where I got too excited to eat that I totally forgot to take a picture of. The pig skin was roasted to a nice crisp, and the meat wasn’t too salty. Jellyfish is one of my favourite Chinese appetizers, and this one was marinated very well. The second dish was the Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste. It was basically a crab claw with shrimp paste surrounding it to form a round shape and then it was deep fried. I really liked the shrimp part, but the crab claw didn’t really have any meat to it. Way too many fruits on the side too..I was already starting to get full. Third dish: Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings. This was a really nice dish, as the Mo Qua, which were basically some sort of melon were braised in a very nice sauce. The dried scallops were also extremely soft. Fourth dish: Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup. The soup was definitely very thick, and you could feel the collagen stick to your lips. They also didn’t cheap out on the ingredients. Fifth dish: Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables. Another delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The abalone was quite large in size, and it was cooked so it wasn’t too chewy or too soft. Perfect tenderness! I also loved the sauce that it was paired with. But oh my, I was getting REALLY full by the fifth course…so I started leaving my vegetables behind.. Moving on, sixth course was the Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce. These were alright. I’ve had better lobsters before. Nothing too special. Seventh course: Deep Fried Crispy Squabs. And yes, I forgot to snap a picture of it as well. It was served still hot and crispy. Good stuff! Eighth dish: Steamed Rock Cod. I’m not a big fan of fish, so this was probably my least favourite of the night. I have to say that the fish wasn’t fishy though, and the meat was quite tender. Still, steamed fish isn’t something I like to eat. Ninth course: Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce. This dish, no one at my table even touched it. We were all too full, and stuffing ourselves with more rice seemed silly. Some of us ended up packing it away instead, so I can’t comment. Tenth dish: Dumplings in Supreme Soup. These were actually really nice to end the dinner off. The dumplings were filled with shrimp and the soup was a thin clear broth. As for the desserts, there were Chinese Petits, which were basiaclly some sort of cookie dough batter, with read bean paste inside. As well, there was Coffee Jelly, which was one of my favourites. It was strong in coffee flavour and was a great dessert for a summer night. Lastly, there was the Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream. I’m not a fan of red bean soup, but I enjoyed the sesame dumplings as I love the surprise of the filling spilling out when you bite into these sweet dumplings.

Way too much food for this set menu, and I wish everything was portioned smaller, so I could actually eat everything without feeling like my stomach would explode… Good food though! And service wasn’t too bad.

Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato

August 16, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender

Espresso ‘La Futura’ – Milano Coffee

J got me a gift card to Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato, and I must say it was my favourite gift card out of all of them! I didn’t even know of this place, but I looked on Urbanspoon after and found it was one of the top places! I was extremely excited to try it since my favourite dessert is ice cream! And so why not get three flavours at once…I wanted more, but the biggest size only contained three flavours, unless I wanted to get a second cup… We got there around dinner time, but it was packed! There was a line up, but it moved fairly quickly as they make you pay first, and then you can try and decide what flavours you want.

So many flavours to choose from, but I knew I wanted to try the Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender, although I still want to try the sesame flavour. Next time! Anyways, The Matcha was definitely my favourite. My next favourite was the Lavender. I personally love anything lavender, as I think it smells so good! It had a strong floral flavour to it, and I found it really interesting. I don’t think J really liked it though. The earl grey was alright too. Not my favourite, but pretty interesting. I find that earl grey flavours are usually pretty bland for most desserts though. J got the Milano Coffee, which was pretty good. It was really strong in coffee flavour.

Bella is a great place to get genuine Italian gelato, and although it is a bit pricey, it is definitely worth it!

Cora’s Breakfast & Lunch (Ironwood)

August 13, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fruit Cocktail

Jo Construction – 3 eggs (easy over), 3 sausages, and bacon

Toast that came along with Jo Construction

Eggs Ben et Dictine – two poached eggs and ham on an English muffin covered with Hollandaise sauce, served with roasted potatoes and fresh fruit

My parents normally don’t go out to eat breakfast, unless it’s dim sum, but we decided to head down to Ironwood to check out Cora’s since it had opened not too long ago. The service there is…interesting. The people are really friendly, but a little overly friendly that it seems almost fake. They seem to just recite these lines, and it’s almost a little awkward.

But anyways, my dad decided to try their Fruit Cocktail of the day, which was supposed to consist of 5 fruits or something like that. I don’t remember which fruits she said, but I took a sip, and it was alright. Just a bunch of fruits blended together I’m guessing, but not a smoothie texture for sure. It was much more light and watery. For myself, I got the Eggs Ben et Dictine. I seem to always get the eggs benedict at breakfast places, but that’s cause I feel like I can’t easily make that at home. Or at least I don’t feel that I’m skilled enough to do so! It was presented really nicely with fruits covering the plate in a nice presentation. Apparently, at Cora’s, their selling point is that their breakfasts are supposed to be extremely healthy because of all the fruits they add to the plate. But the funny thing was that my roasted potatoes were the last thing I would call healthy. They sure were roasted… Some of them were so burnt that you pretty much couldn’t even take a bite from the side. It was just pure black. I swear I had 1/3 of the potatoes left on my plate because they were just clearly inedible.

Other than that, everything was decent. Surprisingly, the portions weren’t as large as I had imagined. I think it’s probably because 1/4 of your plate is full of fruits, so it’s not as filling. So I would say Cora’s definitely has smaller portions compared to places such as IHop. I was also quite surprised that on a weekday morning, there were actually quite a few tables of people eating.

The Local Yolk Cafe

August 9, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fresh Orange Juice

Our Famous Combos – French Toast, Sausage Links and Three Country Eggs

One Pancake – with two eggs and two slice of bacon

Eggs Benedict – English Muffin, Slice of Ham, Hollandaise Sauce and Hashbrowns

My family had stayed in Lynnwood since we booked our hotel last minute, and everywhere in Bellevue was full, or at a ridiculous price. We got up early to start our day of more shopping, and we decided to head out to grab some breakfast. I really wanted to try these KFC chicken bites that were new, but we were 30 minutes too early, and it wasn’t opened yet. We decided to go to Denny’s which was in close proximity, but we ended up passing by The Local Yolk, which seemed to be a local breakfast place. So hey, why not give it a try. The parking lot had a few cars, so we thought it couldn’t be too bad.

It seemed to be a family run business, and surprisingly it was quite packed on a Sunday morning. The prices were the typical breakfast prices, around $10-$15. My sister and I shared the Eggs Benedict, which was quite large, and consisted of 3 English muffins. The hashbrowns were also really tasty with some crispy edges to them! I also enjoyed their Fresh Orange Juice, which consisted of pulp, so you knew it was freshly squeezed – at least I hope it was!

By the time we left, the parking lot was jam packed, so I guess people really do like coming here for breakfast. Much better than Denny’s for sure in my opinion.

Ikea

June 29, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Swedish Meatballs with Pasta – ($1.99 for past + $1.49 for 5 meatballs)

The new Ikea has been opened for a quite a while now, and I always seem to pass by it, but still hadn’t gone to have a look. I finally decided to check it out, and it definitely is much larger. Everything still looks pretty much the same though, except for the huge Ikea Food Service cafeteria. It is actually quite gigantic! There are basically two lineups to get food, and the beginning has desserts, drinks, and such that you can just grab and place on your tray. Then the hot food comes along, and you let the food service people know what you want. Lastly, you lineup at the cash register to pay. And then there is a huge seating area, with different styles of furniture, from children furniture, to couches to more classic furniture. And of course they are all featuring Ikea’s furniture.

So I have always wanted to try their Swedish Meatballs since I see it on those flyers all the time. And they are always advertised so cheap too! I saw the menu saying that I could get a pasta for $1.99 and add 5 meatballs for another $1.49 and decided to get that. To my disappointment, the pasta was horrific. It was hard, and some of the pasta wasn’t even cooked yet. The sauce was good and helped the terrible pasta a bit, but it was still pretty horrible. The meatballs were much better, but not anything amazing. For that price, I guess it’s pretty decent. I’m not sure if I would want to come back for their food again, but I still remember their hot dogs and ice cream that were really delicious and delicious at the old store. I’m not sure if they were at the new store though, since I didn’t seem to see it on the menu.

Twisted Fork Bistro

May 27, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Snails – Tender garlic snails cooked with shallots, mushrooms, herbs and white wine served with tomato basil sauce, arrugula and crushed croutons

Scallops and Bacon – Pan seared scallops marinated in thyme and chipotle oil served with caramelized onion, potato puree, Vancouver Island’s double smoked bacon and house corn relish

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom – Filled with arrugula, and pesto vinaigrette, topped with a cashew dill crust served with lentils, baby carrots and tomato basil sauce

Fresh Mussels – One pound, with cream, herbs and fresh tomatoes, served with frites

Confit Duck – Crispy Confit duck served with bacon braised cabbage, duck jus and finished with fruit ketchup

Lavender Creme Brulee

Chocolate Terrine – Frozen dark chocolate mousse layered with raspberry sorbet, with biscotti crumbs and raspberry coulis

Twisted Fork Bistro has been on my go to list for quite a while now. I was so excited to try it finally since there’s always huge line ups for it. Waited a little more than 15 minutes and finally got a seat. The place is really small, so it usually gets packed quite fast. It’s got a warm, homey feeling to it which I love. They serve cozy French cuisine, and are known for their great desserts.

First off, we got the Escargots, which I didn’t find particularly special or anything. There were a lot of escargots, but the flavour was nothing special. The Scallops and Bacon had a sauce that basically tasted like salsa with corn, and I found it a little too sour for my liking. The Stuffed Portabello Mushroom was just alright again. Nothing too special. As for the Fresh Mussels, I found that there were not enough flavour. It was a little bland for me, and I usually don’t eat very feisty flavoured things too. My favourite dish had to be the Confit Duck. The duck was cooked really tender and the sauce complemented the duck breast very well. And finally, we ordered desserts! Tha Lavender Creme Brulee was really delicious! It was infused with a lavender flavour, which I found very special since not many restaurants serve creme brulee with lavender. The lavender actually worked very well with the creme brulee. Lastly, we also ordered a Chocolate Terrine, which had raspberry sauce, and was extremely rich and creamy.

Overall, the main dishes were just alright, but I really enjoyed the desserts, and would probably come back again for that. Always so packed though, so I’ve got to come here earlier!