Travel Adventure: San Francisco Highlights 2013 (Part 1)

Back in July, I took a weekend roadtrip with some of my friends to visit my former college roommate, N, in San Francisco. We did some of the major touristy things like going to Fisherman's Wharf and watching a Giants game, but I wanted to highlight some of my favorite sights and bites. There were quite a few places I wanted to mention so I split this post into two parts.

GILROY, CA

Garlic Braids from Gilroy, CA

On our way up to San Fran, we stopped in Gilroy, CA to get gas and stretch our legs. Gilroy is famous for their summer Garlic Festival, which features everything garlic including...

Garlic Ice Cream from Gilroy, CA

GARLIC ICE CREAM! The gas station we stopped at had a fresh produce stand so we explored a little and found vanilla and chocolate garlic ice cream in the back (along with a bazillion other garlic-flavored snacks, sauces, and marinades).

Garlic Ice Cream from Gilroy, CA

We opted to try the vanilla garlic ice cream, which had a distinct roasted garlic flavor that was actually quite mellow. None of that astringent fresh garlic tang. It was interesting combined with the sweet creaminess of the ice cream. A spoonful was good enough for me, but my supertaster friend really liked it and finished it off after we all sampled it.

IKE'S PLACE
3489 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94114

Ike's Place

If you've seen my previous post on San Francisco Eats, you know how much I love, love, love Ike's Place. Seriously. It's my all-time favorite sandwich place.

Ike's Place - Spiffy Tiffy

This time, I tried a "Spiffy Tiffy," which contains pesto halal chicken, avocado, mushrooms, provolone cheese, pepperjack cheese, tomato, and lettuce. I highly, highly recommend it - especially on Dutch Crunch bread. The creaminess of the avocado mixed with the pesto and mushrooms was just an explosion of flavor in my mouth and the texture contrast with the Dutch Crunch bread was just perfection. The sandwich was too large for me so N and I split it.

TARTINE BAKERY & CAFE
600 Guerrero St
San Francisco, CA 94110

A long line for Tartine Bakery

Located a few blocks away from Ike's Place is the famous Tartine Bakery, one of my friends' favorite bakeries. As you can see from the photo above, Tartine is quite popular. We waited a good 20-30 minutes in line before we got to the counter to order.

Tartine Bakery Case

I ended up ordering a Morning Bun and a Double Pain Au Chocolat, two of Tartine's most popular items.

Tartine's Morning Bun ($3.95)

I liked that the Morning Bun wasn't too sweet due to the light cinnamon sugar coating but thought it was a little pricey for $4.

Tartine's Double Pain au Chocolat ($4.75)

I ate the Double Pain au Chocolat (aka chocolate croissant) for breakfast the next day. I'm not sure if it was because the croissant was day-old, but I didn't like it. It seemed dense and greasy. (Though that might be because it got a bit squished in my bag. Oops!) I'll have to try it fresh to make a final judgment call, but my friend still thought it tasted really good. At almost $5, this pastry was way more expensive than I thought it'd be.

Despite being so well known, Tartine didn't live up to my expectations. Perhaps my expectations were set unrealistically high from all the praise I've heard, but overall, I thought the pastries was too expensive and the final products didn't quite justify the cost and long wait time.

SAN TUNG CHINESE RESTAURANT
1031 Irving St
San Francisco, CA 94122

San Tung Chinese Restaurant

N introduced us to San Tung's chicken wings during game night, where we snacked on "Original Dry Fried Chicken (Dry) (Glazed)" while playing a vicious game of Texas Hold'em.

San Tung's Glazed Chicken Wings ($10 for 12 wings)

These tasty wings were seasoned with garlic, ginger, and roasted whole red chili pepper in a sweet glaze. When fresh, they're crisp on the outside but still juicy. Absolutely delicious! We all loved them so much that we each bought a box for the road before heading on the long drive home. (They cost $10 for 12 wings.) Once they get cold, they're no longer crispy (obviously) but the flavor is still good. If you're just getting the wings, be sure to call San Tung ahead of time to place your order to save time, but the wings are so good that they're worth the wait.

I hope you found some of this information helpful and piqued some curious tastebuds. Stay tuned for San Francisco Highlights 2013 (Part 2)! If you have any recommendations for food or sights in SF, feel free to comment below.

Cooking Adventure: Team Fortress 2 Sandvich

Hey everyone! I did a guest post over at Kitchen Overlord for my video game food re-creation of Team Fortress 2's sandvich! If you've never checked out Kitchen Overlord's blog before, it's filled with creative, geeky foods. Some of my favorite recipes are her Transformers Bread Loaves and her 1-UP Mushroom Pizza Rolls. Definitely go take a look!

Source: Team Fortress 2 Sandvich

Here's my version of the sandvich from Team Fortress 2:

Baking Adventure: Harvest Moon Festival Mooncakes 2013

Happy Harvest Moon Festival!

This year, I made my own mooncakes! I actually tried making mooncakes a few years ago, but they didn't turn out so well. Fortunately, they came out great this year and I was really pleased. These little babies are a lot of work and are very time-consuming (No wonder they cost $30-40 for a box of 4!), but the end result was totally worth it.

Here's how mine turned out. They almost look like legit bakery or store-bought ones!

Mooncake

Here's a side view:

Mooncake (Side View)

I even made mini mooncakes with some of my favorite cartoon characters!

Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty Mini Mooncakes

Doraemon and Mickey Mouse Mini Mooncakes

I made several different fillings too. One of my favorites was my Mixed Nut (五仁) Mooncake made with almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds.

Mixed Nut (五仁) Mooncake

The Lotus Seed with Egg Yolk Mooncake was made with store-bought lotus seed paste and egg yolks. (I tried making homemade lotus seed paste last time and it didn't turn out to my liking so I opted for store-bought paste this year. :S )

Lotus Seed Paste and Egg Yolk Mooncake

And here's a cross-section of my mini mooncake with homemade red bean paste. The flavor of the red bean paste was really good, but it was a little too dry and needed more oil.

Red Bean Paste Hello Kitty Mooncake

In addition to the mooncakes above, I also made Mixed Nut with Candied Ginger Mooncakes, Lotus Seed Paste with Pine Nut Mooncakes, and Red Bean Paste with Egg Yolk Mooncakes, but don't have cross-section pictures just yet.

In total, I made 31 regular-sized mooncakes and 22 mini mooncakes! (Yikes! That's a lot!) For now, I'm not ready to post any recipes since there's still some kinks I need to work out and I don't want to give you recipes that aren't 100%.

However, below are recipes from other blogs that gave me inspiration and what I based my mooncakes on. I didn't follow these recipes completely because my mooncake molds were a different size and I couldn't find all the ingredients, but you can check them out and see if they work for you.
Aunty Yochana's Mixed Nut Mooncakes
Lynara Cakes' Traditional Lotus Mooncakes

(Sorta) Anime Food Re-creation: Lucky Star's Chocolate Cornet

Ever since my cousin showed me Lucky Star, I've been on a quest for chocolate cornets. Today's Anime Food Re-creation is a *sorta* re-creation because I didn't make it, unfortunately. Chocolate cornets are still on my list of anime foods to make, but I won't be able to make them until I find metal cornet horn molds.

Lucky Star - Chocolate Cornet

For now, here is a chocolate cornet from Paris Baguette, an Asian bakery near where I live.

Snack Attack: Hello Kitty Snacks

If you guys couldn't tell from some of my previous posts, I'm a HUGE fan of Hello Kitty. (My all-time favorite character is still Pochacco though. I miss seeing a section for him at Sanrio. :S ) Every so often, I come across Hello Kitty's face in the form of snacks. Seriously, if you slap her face on almost anything, I'm tempted to get it. No joke!

Hello Kitty Rice Crackers

Hello Kitty Rice Crackers

I came across these at my local Asian supermarket and thought they were too cute to pass up. They were only $1.99.

Hello Kitty Rice Cracker Packets

I loved how each little packet had a picture of Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty Rice Cracker

The rice crackers were light and crunchy with a hint of sweetness and the slightly salty taste of soy sauce - much like regular rice crackers. My brother claimed they tasted "just like [his] childhood." (We used to eat rice crackers a lot growing up.)

Hello Kitty Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Treats

Hello Kitty Cookie Dough Candy

I am across these at Big Lots and wanted to try them simply because Hello Kitty was on the package. (If she weren't on the box, I wouldn't have even given these treats a second glance. My Hello Kitty addiction strikes again!)

Hello Kitty Cookie Dough Candy Pieces

These were chocolate-covered cookie dough pieces. I was surprised these were actually soft like actual cookie dough. For some reason, I imagined they were going to be harder like baked cookies. The package said they're egg-free so there's no risk of salmonella poisoning and no need to refrigerate this candy. There's actually tiny chocolate chips mixed in with the cookie dough even though you can't see any in the cross section. I thought the first few candies I ate were good, but quickly got tired of them because they're pretty sweet. They seem like they'd make a good Yogurtland topping though.

Hello Kitty Pez

Hello Kitty Pez

Growing up, I wasn't a big fan of Pez. I knew it existed but actually didn't get to try it until middle school. Interestingly, that was the first and last time I ate Pez. The candy itself vaguely reminded me of Smarties and the dispenser freaked me out a little because you have to bend the character's head backwards for the candy to come out. Despite all this, I couldn't resist these Hello Kitty Pez dispensers at Big Lots. There were a few other designs in the set, but there were some paint imperfections so I didn't get them.

I know Hello Kitty snacks are everywhere. There's a Hello Kitty version of Yan Yan and even Hello Kitty Choco Pie. What interesting Hello Kitty snacks have you come across?

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Disclaimer: All products were purchased by me with my own money. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.
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Cooking Adventure: Hello Kitty Panna Cotta with Blueberry Compote

A few Anime Expos ago, I bought a set of plastic Hello Kitty pudding cup molds from J-List's booth. (Unfortunately, J-List no longer sells these molds on their website, but you can still find them on sites like eBay.) Using the molds, I made Hello Kitty Panna Cotta with Blueberry Compote.

Hello Kitty Panna Cotta with Blueberry Compote

Panna cotta is basically a sweet milk pudding made from cream, sugar, and gelatin. The panna cotta recipe I used can be found on Allrecipes.com.

Blueberry compote, on the other hand, is a simple blueberry sauce made from blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. It's easy to make and complements the panna cotta really well. The blueberry compote recipe I used came from Food Network. Any leftover blueberry compote can be used on pancakes, waffles, and ice cream. It's delicious!

Even if you don't have Hello Kitty pudding cup molds, you can still make panna cotta with regular cups or ramekins. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

I'll see you in the next adventure! :)