Chocolatier Blue

Yes--I bought all of those. $15-something. No--I'm not eating them all myself. I'm going home next weekend so I thought I'd share con mi familia. And roomies and neighbor. So excited. I LOVE EATING AND SHARING FOOD. Anyways, I went there today with Alex and Sam because we had all heard about it in this Daily Cal article and before that too. Yelp ratings here. Aaaand...Chocolatier Blue's website is here. SO GOOD. I'm definitely going back.

I only took pics of the pistachio and peanut butter & jelly ones (see below), but they also let us try the passion fruit & caramel one. I had to try the peanut butter & jelly one because the one I got from Ethel's in Chicago was amazing and I wanted to compare them. The pistachio and the passion fruit ones were FREE samples. Mr. Blue was so nice...I was telling the lady that I wanted all of them but the passion fruit one, and when he asked why, I told him I didn't like the flavor of passion fruit, and he told me a little about it and they gave all three of us samples. Awesome. Didn't taste like the typical passion fruit flavor...and passion fruit + caramel are surprisingly good together!

NOTES: Thin chocolate shell, melty, delicious centers, unique flavors, cute shapes and colors.

This one differs from Ethel's in that the pb & j aren't separate in Chocolatier Blue's. Both are delicious though.





Just have a pic of the right side because I didn't want to be rude and take a picture of the other side while the employee was there.

La Val's Chicken Roma (pasta)

Website here.

Steve and I met Xavier here because we were going to see a play at Impact Theatre, which is inside and below La Val's.

Chicken Roma ($5.59) = Linguine with grilled chicken and Roma tomatoes in a garlic caper sauce (wanted to try something other than their pizza this time):


This was good. Steve and I think they included some kinda wine sauce even though the menu didn't say so. My only complaint is that the chicken didn't taste fresh for some reason. It was kinda like fake chicken but not nearly as bad.

Ice Cream @ Ici - Berkeley, CA

Last Thursday. Ate here after dinner at La Med. Decided on a non-exotic-sounding flavor: Peanut Butter Chocolate or something like that (soo good!). They also DO sell Baked Alaskas!!

Baked Alaskas and other things:

More of La Med (La Mediterranee)

Last Thursday I think. Eric and Joan liked this place too.

Website here.

The Mediterranean Plate (Chicken Pomegranite, Chicken Silicia,...and some other things).


Pita bread & hummus:

King Dong's Double Mushroom Chicken

On Haste & Shattuck right by the Crystal Massage place. Haha! Pretty good. I love chicken and mushrooms. It was $7-something, but it was more than what's pictured below. I added the noodles on the bottom. I refused to buy their $1 rice.

More Solano Stroll Food

I didn't eat this, but I wanted to!

The Xocolate Bar

@ Solano Stroll
9.14.08

Hm...I'm not a fan of eating fancy edible art like SOME of the stuff they had here. They use special mix-ins that produce what look like gold and silver. Grosses me out. I hate those little edible decorative silver balls people use on some cakes and stuff too (I dunno if they had that here though). NASTY. Anyways, apparently I didn't take pics of the cool things they made at this place. The artwork was cool; I just wouldn't eat it. The little chocolate things looked good enough to eat though!

I WAS a fan of their drinking chocolate though! Soo rich and chocolatey. They were giving away free samples. The lady said they don't add sugar, but it was sweet so maybe she was saying they didn't add sugar to the already-sweetened chocolate this is made of. ::shrugs:: Anyways, it wasn't chocolate milk. The girl looks a little confused.

Tay Tah Cafe's Green Tea Slush Boba

@ Solano Stroll
9.14.08

1182 Solano Ave
(between Cornell Ave & Stannage Ave)
Albany, CA 94706
Yelp review here.


Good! I don't know why I had such low expectations. I'd definitely go there again...if I were up in Albany/on Solano Ave and I wanted some boba. Green tea boba drinks are so good.

The Killer Baking Co.'s Triple Chocolate Heaven Brownie

From their booth/table at Solano Stroll last Sunday (9/14/08).
Here is the website.
$2.75 online, but $3 at Solano Stroll

Split this with Minh-Chau. Wayy chocolatey and good. Had chocolate chips in it too. I liked their Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip brownie better, but they were both really good.

Little Mandarin's Lemon Chicken & Fried Rice

On that island north of Center & Shattuck
$2.75

For some reason it didn't taste as good as it normally does, and I think the woman gave me a little less than usual. Or maybe the guy is more generous with his serving sizes. Still very fast and good.

Yam

Sooo good. Baked red yam with butter and brown sugar:

Ichiban's Sushi

Ichiban: Saturday, 9.13.08
2017 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704
Website here.

*Scroll down for the funny part*

The Ichiban Roll (pictured first - hamachi, avocado, topped w/ eel & tobiko) was really good. My family and Stacy N's family (they went separately at different times) seemed to love this place, but the Yelp reviews are awful. Maybe they've changed owners or something since two years ago. Actally, I went last year, and I didn't have any problems then. Hm...I'm thinking their crab shouldn't have been imitation, but I'm not complaining much because I hate real crab.


Kurtis and I shared a Rainbow Roll (top one - California Roll topped w/ diff kinds of raw fish)...and I got the Ichiban Roll (bottom one). I don't like the empty space on this dish, but maybe that has some aesthetic purpose that I don't appreciate at this point. I don't think those sauce dots were intentional.

Kurtis and I agreed that they have really good green tea, but, like Sushi House (the Alameda one), this place's cups aren't appropriate for the tea's heat.

Kurtis and his little feast (no...there are just a lot of dishes, which makes me think that instead of depriving customers of drinking water to reduce their water use during our drought, why don't they reduce the number of dishes they use so that they use less water to clean all of these dishes? Or give us water instead of tea? Not that I'm complaining about the tea or the cute Japanesey dishes; I'm just trying to figure out how they could be more efficient):

Hmm...I'm pretty sure you can't spell "oyako" with a "u" at the end because the entire meaning of the word would change. They also had another spelling error, but I can't remember what it was, and I didn't take a picture. You might know by now that spelling errors (especially on menus!!!) make me mad.


FUNNY:

They thought they could get away with turning these upside down, but I could see the print through the back! Nice try. The waitress laughed when she saw that we had noticed the mistake. Apparently they accidentally ordered the wrong design. I wonder how that happened. lol I'm glad they're not just throwing these out, but it was a little weird--and hilarious--seeing this design:

Biryani House's Chicken Biryani

@ University & Shattuck
* Southeast corner of east branch of Shattuck

I had to try their biryani 'cause of their name. SO GOOD. Not as flavorful as House of Curries' was, but not as spicy either (which is a good thing for me). This was perfectly spicy. Tender meat like last time's. Would definitely get again. Chai was good, as usual.

Note: Steve's goat dish wasn't as spicy as he had hoped. Maybe they don't believe him when he says he wants his dishes crazy spicy. It was definitely spicier than mine, but it wasn't killer.

Peet's Pumpkin Spice Latte

2257 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704

Too big (they only sell mediums and larges), but pretty good. Still too sweet, but it was still enjoyable and tasty...and I don't think many places are going to sell a drink like this that's not too sweet. Constance tried and liked it too. It was like $4 something though too. :/

I <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKY6nAfzcsjnFl7h5oewArJnGbSbfnaRDT0dJ1MYtbdI-twIAeevmjpOPmyr0Xx4FORCUD4ny8XaGKA_lVRZ3vGJdQKQvcQxle2_ediPkrYPnsOXsHEAlHiYqjZBSCtRSIXEvWAakscWKo/s1600-h/Ichiban+007.JPG">Almost gone:

El Sombrero has Indian & Pakistani food now!

Wednesday, 9.10.08
2101 University Ave. (the northeast corner of the west branch of Shattuck @ University)
Berkeley, CA 94704
$2.99

I'd never actually eaten at this place before it started serving Indian food, but I've passed by it place so many times. Anyways, I LOVED THEIR KEEMA NAAN (naan/bread stuffed with ground beef/minced meat)! I'd never had it before anywhere else ... so I don't know what it's supposed to look or taste like, but this was so good I don't even care. Freshly made...steaming hot...just the right amounts of bread and ground beef. Slightly crispy, slightly fluffy. It was like an Indian bierock.
The inside:

The bottom (when I took this, the guy at the register got nervous and asked why I was taking a picture lol I explained that I have a food website and that me taking pictures would help him because I really liked the naan...haha so here I am promoting his/their food!):

Really good sauces! The first one is a sweet tamarind sauce, and the second is made of yogurt and mint.


Definitely going back. I'm curious about their Mexican food too.

Okra

For those of you who aren't familiar with okra:


It's pretty weird...so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of you hate it. It's hairy, slimy, and nothing like any other vegetable I know of. I'm sure you're really eager to try it now if you haven't already. lol

I just stir-fried this in olive oil with a few spices and a TINY bit of soy sauce.

L&A's Blueberry Cranberry Delight Juice

Needed some Vitamin C. Got this (inevitably sweet, but good!) at Berkeley Bowl because it was reasonably priced and it doesn't have added preservatives or sugar:

La Val's Pizza

I thought I made a post about La Val's earlier from last summer, but I can't find it. Oh well. This is my favorite pizza place so far in Berkeley (tied with or close to Cheeseboard and Zachary's). Last night (9.6.08) at our little AI/Cranium party, we ordered one pizza with mushrooms, olives, and artichokes, and another with chicken, fresh tomatoes, and spinach (this latter one is Rodolfo's favorite kinda pizza). So good!

AllRecipes.com's To-Die-For Blueberry Muffins

Baked Thursday, 9.4.08

This was an experiment because I'd never used this recipe before and I wasn't sure how these would turn out with applesauce instead of oil.

I am aware that this picture is not the best, but I think the muffin itself looks good (look at those blueberries!). The only thing I didn't like about this recipe (er...my version of it) was that it stuck to the muffin liners too much. Made these and those peanut butter chocolate chip muffins for Mina's back-to-school party/get-together.


This recipe only made 10 regular-sized muffins. It's a jumbo muffin recipe though so it wasn't the recipe's fault. Oh well...you just have to fill the empty compartments with water.


These started getting really thick really fast in the oven! I was worried they'd overflow into each other:


RECIPE (original recipe here).

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar (a little less)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (i used applesauce 'cause i don't have veg oil)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk (i used non-fat)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar (i used a lot less than this)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (i used a lot less)
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed (i used a lot less)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (i used a lot less)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease cups or line w. muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. For Crumb Topping: Mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

NOTES: I didn't want to make too much of the topping...so I just sorta guessed how much of each ingredient to put in and then globbed it on (I couldn't sprinkle it 'cause of its thickness), hoping it would be okay.

If you can get away with using applesauce instead of oil, why not? I'd make these again. I wouldn't make the topping for myself though...just extra unnecessary sugar and fat.