Showing posts with label gelato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gelato. Show all posts
Comfort Carbs - Sweets
I'd like to end this comfort carb series with my favorite sweet treats in the neighborhood.
This gingerbread at Starbucks Coffee Company should be ubiquitous, but actually shows up during the end of year holiday season. Once in awhile I find it during the year.
It's very moist, nicely spiced gingerbread with a sweet, slightly tart icing and candied ginger.
The simplistic appearance of this cookie masks the taste explosion once you bite into it. I found this little darling at Four Cafe in Eagle Rock, in their bakery case. And they sell out fast, as this cookie is insanely popular.
This beautifully white, shortbread cookie comes in Brown Butter Lavender flavor. It's all at once buttery, floral, sweet, salty with a perfectly crumbly texture. Outstanding!
Once again, it's a shortbread base with a perfect blend of sweet and tart. It's another treat that tells me it's summer (and makes me happy it's summer).
No sweet list for me would be complete without ice cream, the ultimate comfort sweet treat. Once again I am very, very fortunate to live near both Fosselman's Ice Cream shop, the Fair Oaks Pharmacy & Soda Fountain and Buster's Ice Cream & Coffee Stop - all serve Fosselman's fluffy ice cream.
They rotate in unique flavors like ube, young coconut, horchata and others. My standby is the chocolate dipped strawberry to the right on this adorable double cone.
And finally for gelato, and the non-dairy version of those flavors, Pazzo Gelato in Silver Lake usually carries a gorgeous red, strawberry dark chocolate chip sorbetto. Last time I went, they served up this gorgeously pink raspberry chocolate chip sorbetto.
So whether you are in the mood for a baked or frozen treat, wonderful choices abound in the neighborhood.
Popping Boba and Other Cool Summer Treats
Recently we've had a couple of really hot summer days. A couple of friends came down to San Gabriel in order to have some shaved ice, Taiwanese style, a foot massage and dinner. |
| Mango Snowy at Pa Pa Walk |
I'd heard about Pa Pa Walk and their enormous shaved ices quite some time ago, but when I had enough people to share it with, it always got too late or we were too full.
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| Pa Pa Walk's fantastic sign |
After the long wait, it did not disappoint. The Taiwanese style ice is shaved finer than usual, giving it that "snow" consistency. It's drizzled with condensed milk and surrounded by sweet and tart mango cubes. The fluffy, creamy, fruity concoction is a home run.
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| Strawberry Chip Sorbetto |
Another summer favorite is Pazzo Gelato's strawberry chip sorbetto. So fragrant of fresh strawberries, gorgeously red and flavorful.
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| Coconut Water Slushy |
It washes down their spice food really well too.
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| SinBala - shaved ice |
SinBala offers the less finely grained shaved ice where you can choose 5 flavors to add in. In this case we chose: lychees, boba, almond tofu, small red beans, condensed milk.
It's a harmonious and multi-textured combination. The shaved ice also contains sprinkles of brown sugar to sweeten it.
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| Bin Bin Konjac - Popping Boba poster |
But there's more to the Mango Snowy story. After our snowy and foot massages, we put our names down for a table at Sin Bala, one of my Chinese food favorites in Arcadia.
At Bin Bin Konjac, the coffee/tea/dessert shop next door, we saw this poster for popping boba. I ran in to get a cup, but saw a sign at Sin Bala saying no outside food and drink were allowed.
So I planned to come back for popping boba.
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| Bin Bin Konjac - mango green tea with yogurt popping boba |
My initial thought was the boba would have Pop Rock candy in them or something crazy.
But actually, I ended up ordering a mango green tea with yogurt popping boba. The choices are any beverages on their menu with either orange or yogurt popping boba.
Yogurt boba was supposed to work better with milk teas and orange with clear teas. But I broke the rules and got yogurt with non-milk tea, fearing orange would be too sweet.
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| Bobas in dish |
When I got home, two pearly bobas were taken out with the big boba straw and placed into a dish for investigation.
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| Boba elasticity |
Chewiness is the quality I most enjoy in boba, rather than the soft and mushy type which abounds. These had a lot of elasticity but they burst in my mouth before I could chew.
You can see some of that give when I pressed down on it with a straw.
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| Burst boba |
Finally, after enough pressure is applied, the boba collapses and out squirts its filling, yogurty in this case.
The "skin" or casing has a slightly bitter taste which can be strange but once I got used to it, it sort of tempered the sweet mango.
Overall regular, firm boba will remain my boba of choice. This was still a fun and refreshing summer beverage experience.
Try it out and see how you enjoy popping boba.
Maui Series: Island Foods
Today is the 1-month anniversary for Tiffin unBoxed. So in order to round out the month, here is the last in my Maui Series and it is, of course, about the food. As much as I adore Hawaii, it hasn't been the most exciting food destination for me. In any case, I tend to focus on some of the food items unique to the islands, and in doing so, found some exciting options.
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| Papaya with lilikoi (passion fruit) in center |
The Hawaiian papaya is native to the American tropics. When they are ripe they feel like a ripe avocado and are orange to pink in flesh. There was a little craft market in Kihei from where we bought fruits and fresh coconut water. This papaya was served with the seeds removed and a scoop of fresh lilikoi (Hawaiian passion fruit) in the center. Papaya is often served in tropical countries with a squeeze of lime, which enhances its tropical flavor. This tart lilikoi provided the same flavor enhancer, but tasted and looked better.
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| fresh, organic jackfruit at the Maui Swap Meet Farmer's Market |
On Saturday I drove to the weekly Maui Swap Meet, hosted at the Maui Community College. Within the market one can find all kinds of local fruits and vegetables such as this rarely seen jackfruit. They also had Cuban bananas (they are red!), coconut, rambutan, green mangos, bitter melon, Hawaiian avocados, several varietes of eggplants and plenty of other produce and fresh plants.
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| poke at Lulu's |
During the trip, my former college roommate and I had a reunion after more than a decade. We went to a popular restaurant in Kihei called LuLu's. It has a full bar, game room and ocean view with open air seating. She chose this great Hawaiian specialty dish called Ahi Poke. It is cubed raw Ahi fish marinated in soy sauce, onions and other seasonings. It was served atop a bed of wasabi edameme spread with wonton crisps.
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| Mahi Plate at Paia Fish Market |
In our group, the consensus on best meal was this grilled, blackened Mahi served with cole slaw and potato salad or rice. It was juicy, flavorful and flaky. The dark sauce towards the front of the plate is the sweet and vinegary bottled Tiger Sauce, which goes well with seafood. The Paia Fish Market always has a line and limited, communal bench seating. We came and enjoyed this meal more than once during the trip.
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| roadside rotisserie chicken |
While driving home from the swap meet, I was looking for lunch to pick up and take back to the condo. On Kihei Road I found this roadside stall cooking rotiserrie chicken over coals. This chicken made a great lunch along with corn and rice. Of course they had Sriracha hot sauce on the side.
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| sushi counter at Star Market |
Los Angeles is a big sushi town. It's available almost anywhere and is incredibly popular. The Star supermarket in Maui not only had multiple varieties of fresh poke, but had very interesting and colorful packaged sushi along with coordinating side dishes and beverages.
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| jellies and jams |
Many stores in town had these wonderful assortments of jams and jellies, including lilikoi butter, guava butter, Kula strawberry jam, mango chutney, papaya jelly, pineapple jelly, pineapple-coconut jam. We also found coconut syrup for pancakes. Many stores also sell Hawaiin finishing salts, honey and an irresistable coconut candy made with fresh coconuts cooked in sugar cane and water
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| banana cream pie at Stillwell's Bakery |
Banana cream pie is my favorite pie, when made well. Anyone who loves banana and/or pie should high tail it to Kahului and visit Stillwell's Bakery. They are famous for their cream horns and of course, this unforgettable pie. It is served chilled and made of the most delicous cream, layer of custard, slightly tart and sweet Hawaiian bananas and a crispy, buttery crust. It was one of the few things I ate in the car right after buying it (normally my need for tidiness prevents me from doing that).
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| shaved ice with lychee and guava flavors |
Another classic local treat is the ubiquitous Hawaiian shaved ice, which is so refreshing in the island heat and humidity. For mine I chose lychee and guava flavors. These ices are served with tropical fruit syrups. For me it was a bit too sweet. My taste buds have been spoiled by the L.A. Chinese shaved ices served with sweetened, condensed milk and fresh fruits! Nevertheless, it's worth a try at least once.
What's worth more than 1 try is what the rest of this write-up will be devoted to - Ono Gelato. My sweet tooth is not too strong, except for ice cream and gelato. And this unique gelato is made fresh daily from drug-free cow milk, organic fresh fruits and they also use bio-degradable packaging and utensils.
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| Ono Gelato's sorbettos - dairy free |
This photo shows a sampling of Ono Gelato's dairy free sorbettos - dark chocolate, guava, pineapple and Seamist, which is a magical concoction of organic tea, lime, lemongrass and mint. Have you ever seen gelato with fresh lillies, herbs and orchids on top? Lovely.
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| Ono Gelato's milk-based gelatos |
I'm a dairy afficionado. Although I loved the sorbettos, the gelatos really drew me in. Although each one outdid the other, there are a couple of exceptional flavors I gleefully settled on.
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| Ono Gelato's very popular Lilikoi Quark gelato |
Lilikoi Quark - made with Surfing Goat Dairy's award winning goat cheese and passion fruit. For those that love tart and slightly sweet fruit flavors with a rich creaminess, this is IT. It tasted like passion fruit with sour cream with a hint of cheesecake, all rolled into one. Intense flavor. Just look at it!
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| Ono Gelato's Sandy Beach gelato |
Sandy Beach - made from peanut butter, coconut candy (the best) and sea salt. With gelato I am a sucker for textures as well as sweet and salty. This flavor balanced the tart Lilikoi Quark very well. Creamy, sweet, salty, crunchy, peanuty. A winner for sure.
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| Ono Gelato's packaged gelatos |
The S.P.A.M. gelato idea is genius. I believe it stood for strawberry, papaya, apple banana and mango. Another fruity delight.
And with that, we are done with the Maui series, inspired by a great vacation 2 months ago. Aloha and Mahalo!
