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!

Edible Flours

September 8, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Cookie Crumble – chocolate ganache dipped vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and chocolate chip cookie crumbles

Cookie Sandwich

Caramel Donut

Continuation of adventure time with K and J! After grabbing lunch at Tera V Burgers, we continued along Broadway to our next destination – Edible Flours! Edible Flours is claimed to be an organic vegan bakery, and the ratings and comments I have seen are above exceptional. The store was modern and clean-looking and we were greeted by a young man. All the baked goods looked dainty and were presented nicely. Taste wise – we were extremely disappointed…

I got the Cookie Crumble Cupcake, which looked so delicious! After my first bite, I was like, “oh, this is just alright”. But after taking a few more bites, it was too much to take. It was the sweetest cupcake I’ve ever had, and I already have a sweet tooth. But no – this was like SWEET. The icing tasted like I was just eating sugar, and I always thought the icing was sweet at Cupcakes, but no! These were beyond sweet. My cupcake batter also tasted extremely weird, having a weird flour taste to it. I swear the cupcakes I made in foods class were better than this. So I thought to myself that maybe it was because these were vegan cupcakes, and clearly as a non-vegan, I probably had a different liking to the taste of food…Maybe I just wasn’t used to the no egg or dairy baked goods. But K, who is also a vegan, thought her Cookie Sandwich was terrible. The filling between her cookies was also extremely sweet, and she ended up just eating the cookie. If K admitted it wasn’t good, I guess it wasn’t just my own problem! J also didn’t really like his Caramel Donut and thought it was too sweet as well. It was such a disappointment that I barely even finished half my cupcake, and I always finish my desserts! It was so sweet, it made me feel sick. Definitely not going back again.

Kit Kat Craze!

September 5, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Not a restaurant post today! Just sharing some crazy Kit Kat flavours with you thanks to K who brought them back from Japan 🙂 I don’t even remember all the flavours, but some were Green Tea, Cinnamon, Honeydew Blueberry, Apple, and Cookies and Cream. Some of them were exclusive to Japan I believe. Green Tea is my all time favourite, and you can get them in Vancouver as well at places such as Candyland. Honeydew was also surprisingly pretty good. A bite in, and you were literally filled with honeydew madness. The flavour was so strong! Another flavour that really struck me was the Cinnamon flavour. It was…spicy. Not too good!

Bottega Italiana

September 3, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Pistachio Gelato, Watermelon & Pineapple Gelato

Last food stop for the Seattle adventure! Of course dessert, and it’s my favourite – ice cream! We actually walked by Bottega Italiana on our way to Thoa’s, and we had a look around the market for other ice cream shops, but we decided this one was the one. Well actually, Bottega Italiana isn’t an ice cream shop, since it’s a gelato shop! Gelato has around 60% less fat and calories than American ice cream, so I like to think of it as a pretty healthy dessert…

Anyways, they let us try flavours, but I was mostly interested in the Pistachio Gelato, so I got a sample, and decided to get it right away. It was smooth and very strong in pistachio flavour. Maybe a little too strong actually. J got two scoops and got Watermelon and Pineapple. These were amazing! The Pineapple flavoured gelato was especially good. They were totally opposite from the creamy gelato I had, and was not at all creamy or milky. It was almost like eating pineapple slush, but not to that extent of iciness. It was still gelato, but without the cream. They were also made with fresh fruit since there were pieces of pineapple pulp inside. The watermelon flavoured gelato was also great, but not as good as the pineapple. I kind of regretted not getting one of the fresh fruit gelatos instead, since they had a variety of flavours.

Overall, great place to grab gelato around the market place, and the fresh fruit gelatos are a must try! Forget the normal gelato!

Leisure Tea & Coffee

August 23, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Shaved Ice with caramel pudding, tapioca pearls, red bean, peanuts, raisins and much more..I don’t remember!

Strawberry Crepe

Revisit for Leisure again! I swear I revisit this place too often… But that’s cause the food and drinks are so good! This time, I decided to try their crepes. I got the Strawberry Crepe and it was presented really nicely. The middle was filled with lots of strawberries, and then it was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I found the strawberries a little sour, but the ice cream helped add some sweetness to it. Not 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!

Cartems Donuterie

August 12, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

On our way to Nicli Antica Pizzeria, we drove by Cartems Donuterie, which is said to be one Vancouver’s best donut shops. S and I knew we had to stop by after desserts, and so we did. And of course we had a little adventure while heading over. We left the car at our paid street parking near the pizzeria, and started heading towards the donut pop up shop. It’s literally only 2 blocks away, and short blocks too, but did it ever feel like the longest walk ever… I have to remind you this is on the edge of Gastown, and not to be judgmental, this area is full of homeless people. And so S and I began to speed walk. Or more like run. We were so desperate for these donuts that we sped down that block to avoid all the sketchiness. We were literally panting when we got there, or at least I was. Shows how much I exercise…

Anyways, we were greeted by a friendly man, whom I’m guessing was the owner. S and I were just staring at all those donuts behind the window. So many choices! But we had just ate. So we decided to choose two! The man saw that we were kind of confused staring at all those donuts, so he offered some help. We told him it was our first time, and asked what were the most popular donuts, and he said the Earl Grey and the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. And so we got those two. He was really nice, and actually gave us two Earl Greys. He said that he had made a batch of them that were smaller than usual, and so he gave us two of those instead. But when I looked at them, they were still pretty big! So nice of him. Anyways, I forgot to take pictures of them, since I was too excited to eat them, but you can see what they look like on their website. We basically ran back to the car again…excited to try these donuts.

The Earl Grey was oh so delicious! It’s a cake donut infused with organic earl grey tea, topped with earl grey glaze and a sprinkling of rose petals. I’m a fan of earl grey or green tea when I go for high tea so this was perfect for me! The earl grey wasn’t too strong, and I liked that, and the rose petals on top were perfect with the hint of floral aroma. Floral teas are also one of my favourites, so this was like full of goodness!! Next up was the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. Bacon? Yes Bacon on a donut. (I’m still waiting to try Bacon Gelato by the way…) But yes, bacon on donut is now one of my favourite donuts! The donut was glazed with the Maker’s Mark bourbon glaze and topped with double smoked house cured candied bacon. So delicious! I love how it was sweet and salty at the same time, but it just worked all so well! Another note to keep in mind: these donuts are gourmet and expensive. They use local ingredients, and are priced at $3.00 a donut! Yes, that’s triple the price of the donuts and Tim Horton’s…

So worth the sweat and run to get these donuts though…

Cheesecake Factory (Bellevue)

August 7, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Tropical Iced Tea

Complimentary Bread

Grilled Rib-Eye Steak served with Mashed Potatoes and Onion Rings

Petite Filet served with Fries and Onion Rings– a smaller version of Filet Mignon

Bistro Shrimp Pasta – crispy battered shrimp, fresh mushrooms, tomato and arugula tossed with spaghettini and a basil-garlic lemon cream sauce

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake – raspberry-vanilla cake, creamy lemon cheesecake, raspberry lady fingers and lemon mousse

It seems that my family always ends up going to The Cheesecake Factory whenever we’re in Seattle. Perhaps it’s because it’s the perfect place to go to after a long day of shopping at Bellevue Mall. Cheesecake Factory is always packed around dinner time, so we had to wait for roughly 30 minutes before we got seated. I decided to get the Tropical Iced Tea, but I didn’t realize that American Iced Teas were unsweetened! And so I was left with a rather bland iced tea with hints of fruitiness to it. My parents both got steaks, and the Petit Filet Mignon was exceptional. I stole a bite, and the meat was extremely tender. I also tried an onion ring, and loved the outer batter as it was thin and crispy. And I forgot to mention, that Cheesecake Factory’s portions are absolutely huge, and it is almost impossible for me to finish a plate by myself. And so of course, I decided to share a plate with my sister, who doesn’t eat a lot either. We got the Bistro Shrimp Pasta, which was extremely delicious. I loved the spaghetinni, as it was thinner than normal spaghetti, and the shrimp also had a lovely texture since it was coated with a light batter. The sauce was light and not too creamy, which I liked. My whole family was extremely full by the end of dinner, but who goes to the Cheesecake Factory without getting a slice of cheesecake! Most tables had their cheesecake to go, but since we still had a long ride back to our hotel, and the weather was quite hot, we decided to just stuff ourselves and eat it at the restaurant. We chose a lighter cheesecake since we could not go for something extremely rich at that point, so we got the Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake. The lemon and raspberry gave the cheesecake a lighter taste to it, with its hint of tangy flavour. I especially love their whipped cream, since it’s super light and airy. You can barely even taste the cream in it! So delicious!

I do want to mention, however, that our waitress, Kelly, was one of the worst servers I’ve had. She came by at the beginning to take our orders, dropped off our drinks and food, and asked how our food was tasting once throughout our whole dinner. I’m not the type that likes to be bothered while eating, but it’s a common gesture to come by more than once throughout the dinner. Not to mention, that I asked for a straw for my drink, and she said she would be right back, but no straw ever came back. My parents also had to remind her to bring them steak knives, which was highly unprofessional. It was almost like we had to chase her down to get her attention. But that’s just our server. I’ve definitely had better servers in the past here, so I guess this is just an exception.