Molly Moon's Ice Cream

Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream - where there's always a line out the door!
917 E Pine St (another location at 1622 N. 45th Street & A TRUCK!!!)
Seattle, WA 98122
Website here.

Consumed in August of 2010.


Joy The Baker has had a big influence on my life lately. I think I found her blog while writing my paper on food blogs for Anthropology of Food (one of the best possible classes ever!!). I love her attitude, her humor, her photography, and her FOOD!! Well, the recipes I've tried from her site have been pretty awesome (like her kettle corn, which I actually JUST made for the 10th time a few minutes ago). Anyway, a few days before my family trip to Seattle, she posted about an ice cream place in Seattle! Perfect timing! So I tracked it down and dragged my parent and brother there, and here are my pictures! To be honest, I was not a fan of the salted caramel ice cream (pictured on the right), which was a big let-down because people kept talking about how good it was. Sure, I get the whole sweet-and-salty fad we're in right now (among food bloggers, at least), and I LOVE it, but this ice cream was just toooo salty. If it had been a little sweeter, it woulda been money. Where did that come from? Who says that? At least that "vivace coffee" one was good. Like really good.


Here are more of their crazy flavors. Here were the season and always flavors of that particular day:

A White Pomegranite!

Jenny grows these and gave me some to try for the first time. She said she likes these better than regular pomegranites, but as much as I do like these white ones, I still like the red ones better. The white has a more subtle, less tart and more sweet (but in a soft way) flavor. Will take a picture of the outside next time.

Casey's Cupcakes' Red Velvet Cupcake

Casey's Cupcakes
3649 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA
Website here. Flavors here.

9.16.10

*edit* I went back and re-tried this (3/20/12), and it's better now!The frosting was clearly made with cream cheese. Yay. I approve...BUT I'm convinced that the best red velvet cupcake in the world is from Chiffono's in Fresno, CA. Seriously.

Today Chris and Michelle decided to take me to Mission Inn, a pretty famous (a few presidents have stayed there, and President Nixon got married there), beautiful hotel in Downtown Riverside. Right next to the hotel, we found a cute little cupcake place. We split a regular red velvet cupcake (they have a gluten-free one too), which was moist and yummy on the inside, but it didn't have cream cheese frosting! Whaaat?? :o( Oh well. At least the cake part was really good. Don't get me wrong--the frosting isn't bad; I just get so sad when the frosting doesn't taste like cream cheese. And yes, I am aware that the original red velvet cake did NOT have cream cheese frosting. It had THIS frosting, which I made with my mom on July 3rd, 2011 for a 4th of July lunch.



They had a bunch of different kinds of cupcakes, including a Spock one that Michelle pointed out:

Here's the inside of the "Rockin' Red Velvet" (Sorry you can't see the inside very well):

Ren Ten's Tea Time

Ren Ten's Tea Time
1400 University Ave
Riverside, CA 92507

9.16.10

Michelle F and I got tea in Fresno one of the last times we hung out, and today we ended up at this place near UC Riverside's campus. I wish I hadn't gotten the lychee/lichi green tea because I don't like the strong lychee flavor, but I do like lychee black tea. I explain a little more below. The lychee flavor itself is gross. Anyway, it was Michelle, Chris, and me. :)

First we were given a free wheat germ green milk tea sample:


I got excited about this lichi green tea, BUT I forgot that some teas are flavored after the tea is made. STUPID. I was assuming it was lichi/lychee tea like the kind they sell at Teazer in Fresno, but nope. So this one tasted a lot like lychee, which I don't really like. I just like unflavored lychee tea because it doesn't actually taste like lychee. Kinda confusing.

Compré Sandia Deliciosa a La Taquería Azteca

Taquería Azteca --> $2.06 for a small agua de sandia
Ironwood Plaza
23900 Ironwood Avenue
Moreno Valley, CA 92557

"Moreno" reminds me of Fresno's newscaster, Graciela Moreno. haha! I'm counting this as Riverside because it's right next to it. I found this place because of my stupidity. I drove into this little shopping center on my way home because I saw a Fresh and Easy, but when I got into the parking lot, I found that they haven't finished constructing its insides. Darn! But it's okay because then I found this place that had signs outside announcing its jugos (juices) and other drinks. Mmm!


I actually chose sandia (watermelon juice...agua de sandia? watermelon water sounds weird) over horchata! I had wonderful watermelon juice at International House in Berkeley, so ever since then I've been on the lookout for more. I finally found one! I'm sure lots of other Mexican places sell it though (I remember my Uncle Jerry bought a watermelon juice from a Berkeley restaurant called Cancun, where they have a zillion different types of salsa--so cool!). What I love about it is that it has little chunks of watermelon floating in it. Yummy! Taquería Azteca has other drinks too...like the ones pictured below (orange pineapple, lemonade, sandia, horchata, strawberry banana, etc.). I didn't take more pictures because a guy saw me and probably thought I was weird for taking a picture. Next time I'll try another drink maybe but for sure a taco!! :)

Marat's Armenian Coffee & Chicken Kebob

Marat's Restaurant
8961 N Cedar Ave # 103
Fresno, CA 93720-4831

More Marat's food here! We also had dolma, pita, hummus, and borek served on separate plates, and my aunt made cute little colorful bags of Ghirardelli chocolate squares as party favors.

This is the Armenian coffee I had with this strawberry cupcake from Chiffono's. Yummm. Nothing like a delicious sweet with black coffee (I can't normally drink sweetened coffee with something that's already sweet). It was KINDA like the Greek coffee we had at Greek Fest only not as thick and clumpy (well, sandy), and this one tasted less like it was made from an instant coffee packet. Sorry...but I saw them using those instant packets at Greek Fest. haha!



Chicken kebob plate (not sure if this is the kebob plate on the menu; this was for a special party for which we had to choose between chicken, beef, or lamb):

Kogetsu-do's Shave Ice & Mochi Ice Cream - Fresno, CA

Kogetsu-do
920 F St
Fresno, CA 93706

My top favorite foods right now are shaved ice with ice cream, red velvet cupcakes with real cream cheese frosting, dark chocolate, pumpkin-flavored things, green tea-flavored things, Americanos, and cappuccinos. I'm telling you right now that if you're a shaved ice fan like my cousin, Ashley, and me, you will love Kogetsudo's summer-only special: finely shaved ice with homemade lemon and/or strawberry syrup. You can also ask for ice cream in the middle too, which is just AWESOME!! Too bad they forgot my scoop this time. :( Anyway, I believe a small is $2.75. Dunno how much extra ice cream would be.

They also sell manju (the traditional stuff but also interesting combinations like their yummy Nutella + crunchy peanut butter filling), but I'm not a huge manju fan (it's so sweet!) and ice cream mochi. Below is their mocha cappuccino mochi with coffee ice cream filling (they also have plain mochi with coffee ice cream, plain mochi with vanilla ice cream, plain mochi with chocolate ice cream, green tea ice cream with green tea ice cream, etc.):

Chiffono's Strawberry Cupcake (& a chocolate one)

Chiffono's
1512 Champlain Dr., #106 (next to Marble Slab)
Fresno, CA 93720
Website here.

We had Armenian food and Chiffono's cupcakes for my grandma's birthday last weekend! I'll post about the lunch food later.


I LOVE Chiffono's red velvet cupcake, but I didn't take a picture of it because I thought I had already posted about it. Darn! Oh well. You'll have to wait and just look at these chocolate and strawberry cupcakes, which were both REALLY good too. I'm a sucker for cupcakes made with good-quality ingredients and real fruit or real cream cheese or whatever the recipe requires.

I also absolutely love the cupcakes from Love at First Bite in Berkeley (pumpkin cupcakes & banana pudding, green tea cupcakes, etc.). I haven't had one I didn't love.

New See's Candies Flavor: Black Forest Truffle

I love how See's gives you a free sample every time you walk into their stores! I got this at Laguna Hills Mall a few days ago:

Here's the description See's made on its Facebook group wall: "Our Black Forest Truffle has a center containing tart cherries and Kirschwasser and is enrobed in our 62% cacao dark chocolate, making a mouth-watering treat!"

It had tiny, barely noticeable pieces of dried cherries. So yummy! I don't usually like See's choc/fruit truffles, but this one is way better than those regular ones you get in their mixed truffle boxes.

I want to try their Dark Rum Raisin truffle too!

Baskin Robbins's Cappuccino Blast

Sometimes I have a craving that leads to an impulsive purchase. I try not to do it too often, but at least I don't splurge on things like $200 outfits or watches or something!

Anyway, today I was exploring the Riverside area and found a Baskin Robbins, which we have back at home too, but I hadn't been there in forever (I used to get blasts and ice cream from here when I was younger), and I was craving a cappuccino blast since that temperature-hot Saturday. Mom told me about that commercial where the guy's sitting in traffic but is happy and carefree because he has a cappuccino blast. haha! I got a small original flavored one, and it was really satisfying. I just found out that they have a non-fat version. Hmmm. Yikes! The 24-oz one has 65 grams of sugar!! At least I skipped the whipped cream and got the smaller size.

Here's the website's description: "A rich combination of coffee from 100% Arabica coffee beans and vanilla ice cream blended with ice and topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. The ultimate pick-me-up any time of day." I couldn't agree more with that last sentence.

The Cheesecake Factory's Luau Salad

9.3.10 with Alyssa N. and Nicole T.

Oh wait...one more Central Cal food post (although they have Cheesecake Factory locations elsewhere). Yet another sweet-and-salty favorite. I LOVE this salad! I ate all of it, which to me isn't that surprising because I was really hungry and it wasn't an enormous salad. I was deciding between this salad and the pulled pork sandwich (my new favorite sandwich), so I asked the waiter for his advice, and he said that he really likes the luau salad, so I went with it! Glad I did! Here's The Cheesecake Factory's online description:

"Grilled Chicken Breast Layered with Mixed Greens, Cucumbers, Green Onions, Red and Yellow Peppers, Green Beans, Carrots, Mango and Crisp Wontonswith Macadamia Nuts and Sesame Seeds. Tossed in Our Vinaigrette."

Homemade Cobb Salad

This was the last meal I made for the family back at home before I moved to SoCal for grad school. You'll be seeing posts about SoCal food places from now on. :)

I love cobb salad, and summer is hot, so I thought it'd be great to try Smitten Kitchen's recipe. The one mistake I made was getting an avocado that wasn't ripe yet, so we had to do without it. SAD DAY! Seriously! Avocado is one of the best salad ingredients ever. Oh well! It was still good. The dressing was pretty easy and good too. It takes awhile to prep, but then you just throw it all together however you like it. Relatively easy but time-consuming. I excluded the chives and watercress and used feta instead of blue cheese.

Ghirardelli's Intense Dark Sea Salt Soirre

Sea salt is one of those food trends I've noticed on food blogs and on food shows. Sweet-and-salty is in too. My mom and I absolutely LOVE this bar. I already knew I loved Ghirardelli's Intense Dark bars, but this particular kind is new. The thing about sweet-and-salty foods is that you run the risk of sweets being too salty...like how the salted caramel ice cream at Molly Moon's (I'll post about it soon) just failed in my opinion. This chocolate bar is excellent though. Go get it!

Pretzel M&Ms!

I think these are good, but Take 5 and Twix bars are better. I guess I don't care too much for the M&Ms shell because it takes too much away from the chocolate and the pretzel. Plus, because the M&Ms are so big, you get like five per bag. I'm exaggerating, but really...you don't get that many. Also, I think peanut M&Ms and peanut butter M&Ms are better!

Caffe Ladro

Caffe Ladro
Seattle, WA
Website here. Different locations. I went to one of the Queen Anne places.

8.1.10

I heard about this place through Yelp. So glad I did! We got a cappuccino (left) and an Americano (right). My parents and I loved them. So rich and wonderful. My parents kept talking about that cappuccino, and we were tempted to go back again another day.

Red Mango (Froyo)

Red Mango
It's a chain. Here's the website.
Got this in a mall in Seattle.
Pomegranite yogurt with mochi and strawberries. Mmmm.

A Cucumber Plant

I have no idea what this plant is called, but don't those pod things look like cucumber slices? Found them randomly while exploring Seattle.

I Heart Sushi (Restaurant)

I [heart/Love] Sushi
465 W Shaw Ave
Clovis, CA 93612

August something, 2010

Clovis: The hometown of Glee star, Chris Colfer. HECK YEAH! Haha!
A friend of mine quoted a comedian the other day and said something like this: "Clovis: Where the people are white and the street signs are brown." HAHA! Hopefully that doesn't offend any of my readers. It's kinda true--definitely true about the street signs! This friend and I love people of all ethnicities, by the way. It was just a funny joke about a town close to our hometown. Anyway, I went here with Tiffany one time and got a seaweed salad without anything in it, and then I came this time with Tiffany and Kim. Isn't this button cool? I think more American restaurants should have it. I'd only seen it in Japan before this day.

The food is pretty good here, but I've only had one roll, a piece of another roll, and a plain seaweed salad.

Now what did I order? Something with masago (those tiny orange eggs on top), obviously...oh! It was covered with tiny pieces (yea...thumbs down) of salmon, and inside was shrimp tempura and cream cheese? Wow. That doesn't sound right. Well, I usually only get rolls with any of the following in them: unagi, masago, shrimp tempura (not naked shrimp), cooked or raw salmon, spicy tuna (not plain tuna), avocado, cucumber, chicken (yea--some places sell chicken rolls), yellow tail, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. This might have been that cream cheese and salmon roll I took a chance on. I don't really like that combo (I tried it on UC Berkeley's campus, where they sell sushi and all kinds of Asian food in exchange for meal points, Cal1 card credit, and money), but I thought I should give it another try.

Sorry for not being sure about which roll this was. It's harder to remember things and take notes on food when I'm with friends with whom I want to talk!