Tuesday, September 25, 2012

"Sweet" spots in San Francisco!

As you can tell I have quite a sweet tooth. Sometimes I like to think that baked goods, candy, ice cream, and many more sweets are good for you. Ha-ha I don't have that thought quite too often, but I like to dream that it is true.
My friend Moe visited me this summer and I was able to rediscover San Francisco along with taking him to some of my favorite sweet spots in the city.

Sweet Spot #1: Ciao Bella!
Ciao Bella is located in the Ferry Building right by the Embarcadero Bart exit! This place is an Italian gelato place. They have tons of flavors of gelato and sorbet. When you see all their flavors, it looks so colorful! We tried the Strawberry and Mango gelato. Yummy!

Sweet Spot #2: Bi-Rite Creamery
Walking to Bi-Rite Creamery from Bart is not a very pretty site. You get off at 16th Street and Mission, but I think this ice cream is definitely worth it. I didn't want to stand in line for hours, so I took Moe here on a weekday. It was the perfect wait. When we were walking there I could tell we were getting closer because I saw Bi-Rite Market and Bi-Rite Soft Serve. I was thinking, "YES, ICE CREAM HERE WE COME!" One of my favorite flavors in the world is strawberry, so I always get the Balsamic Strawberry. This time I also tried Coffee Toffee because I always enjoy my cup of coffee. Both were delicious! I'm sticking to those flavors from now on. Yum!

Sweet Spot #3: Tartine Bakery
I wasn't able to take Moe here, but I love Tartine Bakery. It can get busy, but I love to come here for breakfast! Their chocolate croissant is super delicious! It is flaky and chocolaty! They have cookies, pie, cake, bread and coffee. Ha-ha you can see why I love this place! You can't go wrong with pastries and coffee.

Sweet Spot #4: Ghirardelli Ice Cream
I love the scenery at Ghirardelli Square more than the ice cream, but you can't say no to ice cream. This is definitely the tourist spot, but I love it here at night. Everything is lit up and so beautiful! Yay for having ice cream here!! That makes this place super beautifully delicious!

Sweet Spot #5: Beard Papa
Oh man, oh man! Beard Papa cream puffs are so yummy! They are simple, yet so good! These cream puffs can get addicting! 

Sweet Spot #6: Tout Sweet Patisserie
Tout Sweet Patisserie recently opened and I am dying to try it! I put it on the list because I already love it by looking at pictures and looking at the website. I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I really love the colorful decor of the place! And you can't go wrong with sweeeeeets!! Look at those macarons! They're beautiful and colorful! My next trip to the city, some of those will be coming home with me!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Cookies and Oreo Truffles

Gifts are great! Food gifts are just deliciously awesome!! I love baking and making yummy treats for my friends' birthday gifts! It's easier when I'm in town to give it to them, then the goodies won't go bad and stay fresh.
My friend, Allison, had her birthday this past September 12th. As a treat for her birthday I took her out to dinner and gave her the birthday present!! She loved it. Who could not love cookies and Oreo truffles?!
Oreo Truffles freshly dipped. Now into the fridge they go.

The best thing about presents are putting them in cute boxes or wrapping them in awesome wrapping paper. I found my box at Daiso. I call it the $1.50 Japanese store. Ha-ha. I found the box there and the cups for the truffles too. 
The Oreo truffles are super easy to make! Plus you only need three ingredients: chocolate, cream cheese, and Oreos. Here is the recipe.
Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk
Double Chocolate Coconut
Yes! Yes! Cookies! A fattening gift, but so good! I love all of Martha Stewart's cookie recipes!! I bought her Cookies book and Cupcakes book. I made the Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies and the Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies. Those names are mouthful! Mouthful of flavorful yummy goodness!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Red Bean Fix!


Starbuck's Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans

 I feel like I was put under a magical spell after taking a sip of the Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans in Singapore. After I tasted it, I had to try so many different things with red bean. (Well things that I could find). It’s strange to me that I enjoyed the taste so much. When I was a kid and had hot red bean soup dessert, I wouldn’t touch the red beans. I only drank the broth, which made the process of eating/drinking that dessert more difficult than it should have been.
Now, I seem to crave red beans when I go out for dessert. It’s that magical Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans. The next red bean dessert I had was called Hong Kong Red Bean Ice (HK Red Bean Ice). It’s delicious!! The ice is crushed small enough to eat. I guess it’s like shaved ice almost. Then add some milk, red beans and top it off with some ice cream. (Normally it doesn’t have ice cream.) There you have it Hong Kong Red Bean Ice. Sounds so good right now!!
HK Red Bean Ice with Mango Ice Cream
Next, I had something very similar to the HK Red Bean Ice. I specifically had this because they didn’t have HK Red Bean Ice at the dessert place my family and I went to. It was a coconut slush topped with red bean ice cream. The red bean ice cream was delicious! The slushy part was okay, but I still was craving to eat the actually red beans.
Coconut Slush with Red Bean Ice Cream

If dessert wasn’t enough, I got red beans in my milk tea. Ha-ha that actually sounds quite disgusting. It’s really good though! (If you like red beans that is.)
Green Milk Tea with Red Beans

All this writing about red bean drinks and dessert makes me want to get something with red bean to snack on. Yummy!