Salt & Straw – Portland

October 14, 2014October 13, 2014Leave a comment

After 5 hours of driving, we finally arrived in Portland and settled into our hotel at Park Lane Suites. It’s a pretty nice hotel for the price and was located quite near downtown city centre. After dropping our stuff off, we decided to take a walk in the neighborhood and try Salt & Straw, which is a famous ice cream shop.

The inside is hip with cool music blasting and friendly servers. It reminds me of Earnest Ice Cream, with unique flavours. The inside smells like freshly made waffle cones too!

There’s a line up, but it’s really not that bad. The servers will come up to you and ask if you would like to sample some flavour. They then bring you spoons with the samples to try before you even get to the ordering area. That way, it speeds things up.

They have their classic menu, but also a seasonal menu. They were featuring a summer harvest series, which included sweet corn, apricots, peaches, and plums. A favourite classic that many talk about is the Pear and Blue Cheese, which I actually sampled and surprisingly thought was really good! A odd combo and for someone whose not a blue cheese fan, I actually still liked it! They also have sundaes, ice cream floats, milkshakes, and draft beverages.

Honey Lavender

For myself, I ended up with the Honey Lavender. I’m a sucker for floral flavored food, or food items that use flower petals.

The Honey Lavender uses Oregon-grown lavender petals which are steeped in honey to extract the floral flavor. The honey used is from Bee Local which is harvested from urban hives all around Portland. I loved the hint of floral but sweetness from the honey. It was smooth and creamy! A huge scoop in a huge waffle cone as well. I believe it only came to $5.

Oregon Peaches with Toasted Walnuts

K went for the seasonal flavour of Oregon Peaches with Toasted Walnuts. It’s made with freshly pureed peaches and mixed with toasted walnuts. Super refreshing.

Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons

J got the Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons. It uses Fleur de Sel and is topped off by ribboning in hand-burned caramel that is made in house. I loved the salty and sweet flavour!

Overall, Salt & Straw did not disappoint! If you’re an ice cream lover, you won’t be disappointed with all the unique flavours! I’d definitely revisit this ice cream shop again!

Beta5 Chocolates

September 30, 2014September 28, 2014Leave a comment

Milk Chocolate Praline, Blueberry Yuzu, Cherry Cola, 85% Dark Chocolate and Caramel

Cream puffs are one of my guilty pleasures. I’m not always craving for them, but they always make my day when I have one once in a while. There’s the go to place, like Beard Papa, but Beta5 Chocolates is the place to get unique cream puffs! I’ve had one before, and finally, K came home with a box of 4 to share. How could I say no? A box of 4 will come to a price of $16. It’s quite pricey, but they’re also quite large and well worth the splurge! They recently launched the Cherry Cola, which is the one with a red piece of chocolate. I loved the hint of cherry flavour, but it was mostly a cola flavour. Felt a little fizzy actually. The Milk Chocolate Praline, which was dusted with icing sugar, was also quite good, with the milk chocolate being very creamy and smooth. I liked how it wasn’t too sweet.

Blueberry Yuzu

The Blueberry Yuzu had a yellow piece of chocolate on top. Beta5 is very famous for their chocolates, so of course even the piece of chocolate was smooth. The cream puff shell’s texture is a bit different from typical cream puffs. It’s a bit harder, so even when you cut into it, the shape stays.

The Blueberry Yuzu was very refreshing. It was filled mostly with vanilla cream, but you could taste the slightly sour taste of the yuzu. The blueberry jam was great to bring sweetness to the puff.

85% Dark Chocolate and Caramel

The 85% Dark Chocolate and Caramel of course came with a piece of dark chocolate with a speck of gold. The puff itself was chocolate flavoured and filled with dark chocolate cream and caramel, which made it extra smooth and creamy. One of my favourites out of the four I tried!

Overall, Beta5 is a great change to your typical Beard Papa or store bought cream puffs. They are slightly pricey, but a great treat once in a while. I just wish their location wasn’t so far off. Their hours also close when most people get off work…so it’s always hard for me to get more!

Bella Gelateria (Yaletown)

September 29, 2014September 28, 2014Leave a comment

Bella Gelateria is my all time favourite for gelato, and I was excited when they opened their second location in Yaletown. It’s right by the water, so it’s quite nice on a summer evening. K and I decided to go there on the first day it opened, but ended up going pretty late. We were shocked to see a huge line up, but later realized the line was for gelato only. Phew! So we quickly got seated outside and our server was beyond knowledgeable. She was able to explain the menu thoroughly and gave us her personal favourite suggestions.

The indoors is brightly lit with white decor. At the back, you can see the pizza chefs making the Neapolitan pizzas – which are one of their main features. Apparently, it only takes 90 seconds to bake the pizzas since the oven is very hot.

They also have a showcase of desserts. There are ice cream sandwiches that another company sells here, some ice cream macarons, and the famous gelatinis! A very pretty display! There are also baked good in the morning for the brunch menu.

Margherita – San Marzano (D.O.P.*) tomatoes, fior di latte, parmigiano-reggiano, EVOO, & fresh basil

The menu is quite pricey at Bella Gelateria, with our Margherita pizza being $12. It’s extremely thin, so one person could easily finish it. They use San Marzano Tomatoes (Protected Designation of Origin) which are plum tomatoes. The menu claims they are considered to be the best paste tomatoes in the world. I could definitely taste the acidity and freshness of the tomatoes. The parmigiano is aged for 36 months, rather than the typical 12 months and EVOO stands for Italian extra virgin olive oil. They definitely use the top ingredients. However, we were slightly disappointed that our pizzas didn’t come sizzling hot. When we told our server, she explained that they are made to order, so shouldn’t be. Not sure why ours was sort of cold, but she said she would let management know.

Matcha Smash Gelatini

We couldn’t come to opening night without giving their gelatini a try. The Gelatini is something owner, James, invented, which is martini + gelato. Our server described it as sort of like an island, with the gelato being the island, and the martini being the ocean. We went for the Matcha Smash, which combined matcha powder with vodka and a tcouh of herbal Chartreuse. It was topped with a bit of lemon juice and a slice of lemon peel. Honestly, I thought it was really boozy! And our server said there was one that was way stronger. The vodka was almost too strong for me. I had to take a scoop of gelato before drinking the liquid to balance it off.

The Wonka Coppetta

We also wanted to try their other desserts, so we got The Wonka Coppetta. Coppetta really just means a cup in Italian. The Wonka had Tahitan vanilla gelato, and was topped with a blueberry orange compote and a chocolate drizzle. I liked the balance of sweet and sourt from the blueberries. However, it’s quite pricey – coming at a price of $8. Would I get it again? Probably not. It reminded me of a sundae with fruits and chocolate sauce.

If you go into the restaurant, you can see the kitchen where they make the gelatos. James is here as well!

I love how they incorporated the famous gelato truck inside. If you want gelato after your dinner, you can simply skip the line and order your gelato. I like how they’ve made the line begin outside the restaurant, so it doesn’t disturb the diners. Therefore, the line may look longer than it really is. To be honest, the lines at their original location are even longer since they start inside! Overall, I thought the pizza was mediocre. The gelatinis are interesting, but a little too boozy for myself personally. I’d love to give some of their other desserts a try. Still my favourite spot for gelato though! Now I have another location to visit if I want some of Bella’s gelato!

Forty Ninth Parallel Café & Lucky’s Doughnuts (Main St.)

September 28, 2014September 28, 2014Leave a comment

Since Shishinori closed pretty early, and we wanted to get some sort of desserts so we could continue our conversations, we ended up driving a few blocks down to 49th Parallel Cafe & Lucky’s Doughnuts on Main St. I believe they have a second location, but this one opens later. Free parking down in the residential areas so that’s always a plus!

The cafe is actually quite big, and there are tons of people studying or on their laptops here. There is also a patio outside, which is great for the summer. Good choice of seating as well, from communal tables to two seaters.

The cafe is famous for their coffee, but they also launched Lucky’s Doughnuts, because I mean, coffee and doughnuts do sound like a good pairing right? Since we came pretty late, we were disappointed to see that most of the unique doughnuts were all sold out. The lady said they wouldn’t be baking any new ones soon, so we had to just settle with what there was. The doughnuts are supposed to be made fresh everyday throughout the day. S said that if you come here in the morning, you can get the freshest and best choice of doughnuts!

Coconut Bismark

The only more unique doughnut left was the Coconut Bismark, which had a coconut cream filled inside and vanilla glaze on top. It was then topped off with a Swiss meringue and some toasted coconut flakes. It was very creamy and sweet. Very strong in coconut flavour for sure.

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice was more like a cake-based doughnut. It was dusted with sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom, so it tasted quite like your typical mini doughnuts at the fair but not as soft.

Since I’m not a coffee drinker, I went for the teas instead. I chose the Organic Fujian Bohea Black Tea, which had a fruity and honey aroma. I love how you get your own teacup and their signature mug.

Overall, Forty Ninth Parallel Café & Lucky’s Doughnuts is a great place to have late night conversations, or to even study. I wish there was a closer one to Richmond, so we have more choices other than the typical chain stores.

Shishinori

September 27, 2014Leave a comment

Shishinori opened up quite recently and is located near Broadway and Cambie. S recommended to go here after seeing all the pictures on Instagram. You order first inside, and can take a seat anywhere. We ended up sitting outside sine it was a beautiful sunny day. Their menu consists mainly of salad rice bowls, and although I’m not a salad girl, I was quite impressed.

Ahi Tuna Carpaccio Bowl, Iced Acai Berry Tea, Matcha Jello

The bowls range from $9 up to $12. By adding an extra $2.50, you can turn it into a meal. The meal consists of your choice of beverage and dessert or soup. S got the Ahi Tuna Carpaccio Bowl, which came with thinly sliced ahi tuna carpaccio. I was suprised that there were so few pieces. She said it was more like eating tuna sashimi. Her bowl came with a large amount of veggies – it looked like a lot more than mine. She made it into a meal by adding the Iced Acai Berry Tea and the Matcha Jello. Her acai berry tea was super sweet though. It definitely looked better than it tasted. You would think that the iced teas would be rather strong in tea flavour instead. The Matcha Jello was also really odd… They added something similar to condensed milk on top, and the jello itself was barely sweetened. Quite disappointed with the jello for sure.

Curried Chicken Bowl, Iced Strawberry & Orange Tea, Matcha Jello

For myself, I chose the Curried Chicken Bowl. I was actually surprised how quickly our food came out. My curry wasn’t sizzling hot, so I have a feeling that the hot portions of the food are pre-made. It came with loads of potatoes, carrots, and not as much chicken as I would’ve liked. On top, there was also half a soft-boiled egg. There was also brown rice underneath, so even though it was only salad on the side, it filled me up well. The salad was actually really good. It consisted of different greens, onions, carrots, edamame beans, lotus root and a light soy dressing. The way they put everything together was just visually appealing. I also made it into a meal by adding the Iced Strawberry & Orange Tea. Again, it wasn’t as great as it looked. I found mine to be quite diluted this time. And of course, the jello wasn’t great.

Overall, Shishinori is a great place to grab a healthy meal. I guess eating salads don’t have to be so boring anymore. I would stick with their bowls however, and skip making it into a meal. The drink just looked pretty in the Mason jars, but the flavour needs work. The only downside about Shishinori is that they close relatively early – at 8:00pm. I wish we could sit around and order their desserts as well, but they already started cleaning up.

Icy Bar 利源冰店

September 24, 20142 Comments

K had been to Icy Bar before and said its a great deal for large portions of shaved ice. We decided to go since we had just finished doing some shopping at Metrotown. They have several locations, including the night market, but their stores are usually at food courts. This is their first sit in restaurant located on Kingsway.

We arrived at an odd time in the middle of the day, so there weren’t too many customers. However, shortly after, there were around 3 more tables.

Mango Ice Cream Icy

We shared the Mango Ice Cream Icy, which is huge! It’s a huge pile of ice, but they don’t cheap out on the mangoes either. There was probably a two mangoes used here. On top, there is a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with mango syrup. It’s seriously perfect for anyone who loves mangoes. Plus, the whole dish after tax and tips was under $6! Such a great deal! The mangoes were fresh and sweet, and by the end of this, we were having a bit of a brainfreeze.

They also provide you with a whole bottle of condensed milk, so you can go crazy with this sweetener. Usually, other restaurants only give you a small cup. The great thing about Icy Bar is that there isn’t a minimum order per person. That way, you can share these dishes with many people. They also have a bunch of other shaved ice, including ones where you can choose 8 ingredients. We also saw they had mango and durian pancakes. A chill place to hang out. Service wasn’t bad either.

Japanese Snacks

September 17, 2014Leave a comment

Last post to wrap up my trip in Japan is going to be about all the random snacks I had along the way. First up, was MOS Burger near the Shibuya station. We grabbed a quick bite here while waiting for our Airbnb host. MOS Burger is a fast food chain and the second largest in Japan after McDonald’s. I got the beef, onion and cheese melt. Tons of flavour from the onions and the cheese was really good.

In the mornings, we would sometimes go down to Family Mart to grab a quick snack. Family Mart is a convenience store, similar to 7-Eleven. We got the onigiris, which are rice shaped like triangles and wrapped with seaweed. Inside, they are filled with different ingredients, but ume or pickled plum is probably the most common. I chose the Spicy Tuna Onigiri, which was super delicious! It’s under 200 yen for one as well! Such a steal.

At Family Mart, we also found many alcoholic beverages. We got this lychee cider, which was so good! Wish we have this in Vancouver. Only 4% of alcohol content, so the lychee fruity flavour really comes through.

We also checked out Tokyu Food Show, which is connected to the Shibuya station. It’s located inside the Tokyu Toyoko Department store and offers many different stalls with food. We decided to get some nigiris at one of the stall. Here is the Tuna Nigiri, which was slightly disappointing. It wasn’t as fresh as the ones we had in restaurants and slightly overpriced.

We also got the Geoduck Nigiri, but it was only alright as well. All the ingredients didn’t seem very fresh for the price we paid.

Address: 2-24-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Hokkaido Milk is very popular, so we had to give it a try. Hokkaido milk has a very unique taste and is very creamy, but light at the same time. It has to do with what they feed the cows. You could definitely immediately taste a distinct flavour, which was very good!

While in the Harajuku area, we got hungry and spotted a crepe kiosk. It’s called Cafe Crepe Harajuku, and offers many pretty looking crepes. We chose the Matcha Tiramisu Crepe. The crepe was thin and filled with a slice of matcha tiramisu, topped with whipped cream and matcha powder. It was actually very good! Not too sweet!

While in Yokohama, I picked up this super cute bag of ramen at a shop in World Potters. It features the Sapporo Maruyama Zoo Bear. So cute! I have yet to try it, but hopefully it’s as good as how the package looks!

At the Cup Noodle Museum, we purchased this cute box of ramen. You add eggs on top of it, and it’s supposed to be sort of like a ramen pancake. However, we made it the other day, and it kind of failed. Definitely did not look as good as the picture. Perhaps it was because we couldn’t read the instructions properly. It wasn’t bad though.

At the Narita International Airport, we did some Duty Free shopping. We picked up this bottle of Sparkling Ume Wine. The packaging definitely caught our attention. We had it on the plane and it was really good! Sweet and fizzy!

We also picked up a box of the Yubari Melon Pocky. They were the giant Pockys, so they are individually packed inside. It actually had a very strong cantaloupe flavour. Yummy!

At the Narita International Airport, after you pass security and customs, there isn’t much to eat in our terminal. We ended up having a last meal of Japanese food. K got the Soba Noodles which came with a side of fried potato croquettes.

For myself, I got the Shoyu Ramen. It was quite salty and very oily! Not good at all…

This probably shouldn’t be in this post, since it was a Korean snack we bought, but I’ll throw it in here anyways. These were banana puffs! Crispy and light chips with a strong banana flavour. It’s weird how Koreans make banana flavoured everything… So weird, but so good. We found it at Walmart in Vancouver!

And here were our suitcase filled with our goodies. Just some of them actually… A trip to Asia isn’t complete if you don’t bring back tons of goodies!

Cafe Est! Est! (MyLord Shinjuku) – Tokyo

September 7, 2014September 5, 20142 Comments

Mille Crepe Cake Parfait

After lunch at Tamago to Watashi, we found a dessert shop on the same floor. It was called Cafe Est! Est! and the plastic models of the desserts presented in a display outside their store definitely lured us in. They had a large selection of parfaits, crepes and sundaes. Other than desserts, they also have actual main entrees, but we were here for the desserts! After sitting down, we realized that again, each person had to order at least one item. Seeing that the drinks were roughly the same price as the desserts, we ended up each ordering one dessert. For myself, I chose the Mille Crepe Cake Parfait. After having the Mille Crepe from Lady M in Korea, I had to try it again! Unfortunately, this was nothing close to as good as the one from Lady M. It did have the layers of crepe, but it was hard rather than light and fluffy. It didn’t seem like a fresh cake. Underneath, there was a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some corn flakes, and the rest were whipped cream! After eating the cake, I didn’t even end up finishing the rest of it. It was overly sweet and eating pure whipped cream was nasty. It wasn’t even good whipped cream. Super disappointed!

Black Sugar Mochi Crepe

K went for the Black Sugar Mochi Crepe. It was filled with mostly whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. On top, there were also mochi that was covered with black sugar. Some sprinkles were added to make it look cute and pretty. I actually enjoyed her crepe much more than my parfait. The black sugar mochi were very yummy!

Cheesecake Parfait

C got the Cheesecake Parfait, which had the same problem as mine. Way too much cream at the bottom! The cheesecake was decent, but it wasn’t the best I’ve had. It was smooth, but again, it didn’t taste fresh. Overall, I wasn’t too pleased with the parfaits at Cafe Est! Est! They are also quite pricey, at around 800 to 1,000 yen for a basic parfait. If you are interested in crazy looking parfaits, then this may be the place for you. They have a famous parfait called EST 48, which has ice cream sundae cones stacked on top of another and reaches 48 centimeters. high. But honestly, I doubt that it tastes that great. It’s more for the looks.

Address: 160-0023 Tokyo, Shinjuku, Nishishinjuku, 1−1−3, 新宿ミロード7階

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Dessert