Bodum milk frother

chocolate chai latte with extra foam! w/mallow and valrhona cocao powder.

A quick post before bed. I finally got myself a milk frother and it's quite awesome. It's small and wonderful. I've been meaning to get one for years.

making stuff up

I've been craving some kind of baked goods since I woke up this morning. Some how I feel I should at least put something in the oven instead of buying a ready to serve pie from the market. At first, I was thinking of getting a box of pre-mixed Betty Crocker, just add milk, pop it in the oven and call it a day. But what's so hard about taking an extra step? I have the same disease with running. I'll go out for a few miles then I'll say, "what's one more?" Before I know it, I've gone from 4 to 10 miles. What's the extra mile? I have plenty of eggs and milk at home, I just needed some flour and when you're at a place like whole foods how could you settle for pre-made? I spotted some almond meal/flour and it was over from there. I attemped to make french macarons years ago and failed badly. oh! how naive! So I decided to try again and...

FAIL!!!

what mine look like....

they turned out just a tiny better than the last time I tried.

what they are supposed to look like...

picture and recipe taken from here

They tasted like thin almond cookies which is still yummy, but I was not satisfied. So I took a simple cupcake recipe, replaced butter with avocados, added valrhona cocoa, chai tea and some spices and voila! mini chocolate chai spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and chocolate to top it off.



and madeleines too cuz the mini cupcake tins were full.

no recipes for these because I literally threw stuff together.

P.S Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Starbucks of Taiwan

85
Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center
2700 Alton Parkway, Suite # 123 Irvine, CA, 92606
Tel : (949) -553 -8585
BUSINESS HOURS :
MON - THUR 7AM - 10PM
FRI - SAT 7AM - MIDNIGHT
SUN 8AM - 10PM

The first 85 Degrees Celcius Bakery opened in Irvine in Sept. I tried the milk tea and it was just the way I like it, not too sweet. Their pastry selection is pretty good as well. It's a shame my stomach isn't bigger. There's so much I want to try, especially the taro flavored ones. oh well, next time. I'll definitely have to come again.

San Diego yummies

Mille Feuille
3896 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92103
This was a very cute place but the food was just okay and the dessert choice didn't satisfy. Seeing as how there are many more options in SD I probably won't return here to try other items.









Chocolat Cremerie
509 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 238-9400
This place was even cuter with more than okay food. I love the cow logo all over the store, on the plates, cups and food tags. I had a chocolate chai latte and it hit the spot. The gelato is quite something too. mmm...yum!

Finishing SF

To finish up my SF post...here's a few more pics. I wasn't going to post the rest, but I have to mention La Note in Berkeley. I heart them very much. French is probably one of my favorite types of food if not the favorite. Everything was tasty. This was my carb load before the big run.






La Note
2377 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

SF

I'm back from SF! Honestly, I wasn't very impressed. I didn't go to the places I was really looking forward to. Mostly we ate at whatever was convenient and close by at the time. My favorite place was probably the farmer's market at the ferry building. They had a blue bottle coffee cart, but I didn't care for it. I dunno what the hype is all about??? I had breakfast at Tartine Bakery because I couldn't wait 10 mins for Delfina to open. was that a mistake? The food at Tartine was just okay. The bread pudding was....good? It tasted more like egg pudding. The open faced turkey sandwhich was uninteresting. My favorite was the au lait. I guess I like drinking out of bowls. On to some pictures...




my bowl of cafe au lait
Tartine Bakery
600 Guerero St. (@18th street)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Ferry Building Farmer's Market.


This was very refreshing. It stayed cold for hours because it was frozen.


Blue Bottle Coffee
My au lait was mediocre. I've had better.





Miette Cakes
Ferry Building Marketplace
San Francisco, CA

I'm a sucker for macarons. This place is really cute and everything looks lovely. It's pricey and probably not the best macarons I've ever had, but I try to go here whenever I am in sf. I can't say much about their cakes because I've never had any, but I'm sure it's worth a try.

nothing really wowed me in SF, but I like the city in general. why have all my travels been disappointing in the food department? I'm really starting to like LA more and more.

Violet's Cakes

http://www.violetscakes.com/
21 East Holly Street
Pasadena, Ca 91103
phone: 626.395.9821
fax: 626.395.9571
Hours:
Tuesday:
10:00am – 3:00pm
Wednesday-Friday:
10:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday:
10:00am – 4:00pm
Sunday & Monday:
Closed

I LOVE these cupcakes! In my opinion, they are better than Sprinkles or Crumbs. Yes, I said it! I love everything about it. They are moist, yummy and cute! Plus they are not far away. That scores extra points. I tried the blackberry and the red velvet. I will definitely be back to try other flavors.

tous les jour

Tous Les Jour Bakery
17861 Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

My sister brought over cake from Tous les Jour. I've always enjoyed their pastries. This is probably the first time I've had their cakes. The first one we had was the sweet potato, it was really good. It was pretty light. We had the tiramisu after dinner. It's pretty rich and indulgent. It's not too sweet, which is good. Definitely something to savor over a nice cup of tea. 12 of us couldn't even finish the cake and it couldn't have been bigger than an 8" or 9". I've been looking forward to something yummy. Since I couldn't have my bday cake from extraordinary desserts in SD, I think Tous Les Jour was a good alternative. Their cakes did not disappoint.

Royal/T

Royal/T cafe and gallery

8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

It's pricey, but their food is not bad. I tried the baked eggs with prosciutto and shitake mushrooms. Chris had the Salmon rice bowl. Portions were small for the price, but just right for my stomach. Both dishes were made well, nothing spectacular but worth going back to for the art. I also tried their Royal milk tea. Again, nothing spectacular but I liked that it wasn't sweet and I could add my own sugar. The maid waitresses didn't do anything for me. Actually, I wish they didn't dress that way. I understand the concept, I just don't think it made my experience any better. The place still feels like a work in progress. Service is slow, but what's the rush? As for the gallery space, it's fairly big. It feels like a nice open space, nothing confusing or confining. That worked for me.

LA Chocolate Salon

http://www.lachocolatesalon.com/






www.cosmicchocolate.com



True to my blog name, I actually ended up with a few chocolate stains on my top today. It's unavoidable.

Out of all the vendors, I only purchased the genmai chocolate from Jadechocolates.com because they've been on my mind since i bought them in SD. It got crowded, stuffy and smelly very quickly. It was like a chocolate equivalent of comic-con. I couldn't look at another piece of chocolate by the end of the day. At one point I spat out a marshmallow into my nespresso sample because it was so disgustingly sweet(picture above). I didn't care for the coffee either. I've become quite a coffee snob. I thought I would be in chocolate heaven, but instead I think I may have to give up chocolate for a while. Don't get me wrong, there were alot of yummy choices, but I just couldn't stomach it all. It all just blurred together. I remember liking the fluer de sel caramels from I forgot who and the ones from cosmic chocolate. They remind me of Ethel's in Vegas. That's all folks. I think I would prefer to review chocolate one at a time. NOT ALL AT ONCE. my stomach is still not happy.