Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2011

CHOCOLATE!!!

Chocolate Fair Setting Up!

So, every year (for the last three), there has been a chocolate fair at Jeff's work. I have not missed one. How could I?! Some of the same folks and some excellent new ones were there!

Chocolate Fair @ Pixar!

Heart Of Chocolates
Au Coeur des Chocolats - the most heavenly little hearts with a creamy center and a burst of refreshing fruit flavor (lychee I believe). Amazing. These were very quickly gone. I tried for seconds later and no dice.

Go To Chocolates
Go To Chocolate - this table was a MAD HOUSE! I barely snagged a teensy piece of almond bark and then I had to flee for my life.

Barlovento Chocolates
Barlovento Chocolates - I love these. They have such interesting flavors! Really fun and creative. Favorite? The very spicy chocolate and chile truffle.

Toffee Talk Treats
Toffee Talk - not a HUGE toffee fan but, the red walnut? AMAZING! I totally stalked the gal passing out samples.

Cocoa Delice
Coco Delice - Such great truffles. I'm still bummed I didn't buy the Cognac truffle. Instead, I took home two boxes of Peanut Butter Bunnies - just in time for Easter!

Chocolatier Blue
Chocolatier Blue - Oh, how I love them! Peanut Butter truffles, Honey Sage truffles, heavenly caramels. What's not to love about these guys? I visit the shop on 4th street for my chocolate fix so, I didn't buy anything from this table. I just kept dragging my friends over "Eat this!"

Chocolate Haul
My haul of goods - A very decadent box from Vice Chocolates (they had this amazing butterfly with white chocolate ganache, lime and coconut milk. I couldn't walk away from that!!), Claire Square (WHERE have these been all my life?! Shortbread, caramel, and chocolate? Be still my barely beating heart) and a bag of Barbary Brix "The Distinguished Gentleman" caramels (They had the BEST names for their products! And the caramel was divine! Espresso and creamy caramel goodness. Distinguished, indeed!)

Yum

Of course, now I cannot even THINK about eating chocolate for a nice long while.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Emerald City Comic-Con 2011

Pidgeon Toys Booth

This March the Mister and I headed to Seattle for Emerald City Comic-Con. It was our very first showing there! Jeff had ventured to Seattle last year as a attendee and enjoyed it so much, he pre-paid for a booth for this year.

I drove all of our loot to Seattle. It took me two days of white-knuckled driving thru wicked weather. I arrived on thursday just in time for some food fun with the rest of the gang (Derek, Jamie Baker, and Ted. With assists from Julia Lundman, Sho Murase, Brian McDonald, and...well...let's just say we had a excellent posse of hungry folks)! First up: Zig Zag Cafe

Friday opened with breakfast at Lola. Greatest breakfast ever! Made to order donuts, amazing potatoes, & maple sausage. A place so nice, we ate there twice!

Pidgeon Toy Prototypes

The booth set up was pretty smooth. The doors opened at 1:45p. It was the 1st Friday in the history of ECCC..and it was slooooow! The rest of the weekend was much better, sales wise. This convention was the 1st time we used Square for accepting payments via credit card. We actually used it to keep a record of all our sales for the weekend. I LOVE Square! I can't wait to use it again!

Saddest Bar in Seattle

When we weren't all at our booths, we were stuffing our faces with the best food Seattle had to offer:

Palace Kitchen - Clear winner: Pork shank!
The Kingfish Cafe - clear winner: Bread pudding
Smith - clear winner: EVERYTHING!!
Bonus:
Hi-Lo Cafe - I stopped here on the looooong drive home. Great service & really tasty chicken fried steak (Hey! I'm driving for two days! Now is not the time for healthy eating.)

Thx Seattle! Looking forward to next year!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Jaunt to LA: The foodie fun continues!

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The beauty of a Sunday spent eating good food. My friends and I piled into a shared car and trundled off to Dodger's Stadium to take a glance at some goods for sale but, primarily, to stuff our faces full of tasty food.

Trucks!

There were roughly 20 trucks parked in the designated eating zone and we took a quick glance at all of them in the melting heat before starting. Our first stop was the India Jones truck.

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One of our party had sampled a delectable device known as a Frankie (I had mine with CHICKEN!). This little roll of awesome set the very high benchmark for the day. The chicken was perfectly seasoned, the bread rich and light, the onions and sweet chutney in perfect balance with the rest of the dish. A light dusting of fresh herbs to brighten the whole - Oh! Sweet Frankie, I wish I lived nearer to you!

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(Remember, click on the pics for a full view)

We next hit the Slice Truck:

Slice Truck

This was, by far, my favorite piece of pizza since I ate a heavenly pie at Dopo, in Oakland. It hit all the flavor profiles you want in a pizza - it was everything you didn't even know you needed in a slice of pizza; crisp but chewy crust, tart and tangy sauce, perfect oozing slightly caramelized cheese, and a sprinkling of basil to make your mouth sing.

Slice Truck Menu
Cheesy Slice

Next on MY agenda was the Border Grill Truck. I'd read about this one before and was itching to try it out - especially since I've eaten at The Border Grill in Santa Monica (& LOVED it).

Border Grill

The line was very long and very hot but, I persevered - thanks to a very kind patron with a misting backpack that was willing to share. Sweet lady, wherever you are, I love you. I was eager to have the iced Mexican Coffee (cream, coffee, cinnamon, anise..heaven!) but, they had sadly sold out before I got there (and we were EARLY! It was just REALLY hot). Instead, I satisfied myself with the tamal cone.

Tamale Cone

Chiles, creamy corn, crema, and mild fresh salsa all play together in perfect harmony. It was rich and decadent and not at all what I wanted on a very, very hot day. I quickly moved on to meet my friends at the truck I had been waiting ALL day to try:

The Truck Stops Here

That right boys and girls, the Cool Haus truck! ICE CREAM TIME!! The line for this truck was a monster! A slow moving beast that I, thankfully, got to skip, as my friends had stood in this line while I was waiting at The Border Grill truck. The selections were ever changing as the long line had it's way with the truck. By the time we arrived the flavors had undergone a change (they would alter again before the day was out).

Snickerdoodle & Cinnamon Ice Cream Sammich

The relentless sun forced us to find shade ANYWHERE. My eagle-eyed companion found us a shady patch behind the Great Balls On Tires truck. The one truck I didn't get to try out but, was very tempted by. I sat in the cool shade and slurped down my cinnamon and snickerdoodle ice cream sandwich as fast as I could. By this point in the day, I really just wanted the cool ice cream and found the cookie too thick for my stomach (have I mentioned how hot it was?).

Cool Haus

The trucks were selling out of water and my bottle was long emptied. We made one last foray into the truck frenzy to find ONE that still had water for sale. We came away victorious and made our way to the goods for sale in the swap meet part of the show. The sun was truly heinous and we hit just a few aisles. Thankfully, I found the Popshop Popsicle Cart in one of the aisles. He was out of most of his ware but, I managed to snag the very last mint mojito popsicle. It REALLY hit the spot! So cool and refreshing, I didn't even stop to take a picture of it!

We called it a day and headed our separate ways; me to lie by my hotel pool for one more day before venturing to San Diego and my pals back to work!

Thanks, LA (and my LA pals)! I needed that little respite.

LA!

Coming Up; COMIC-Con! The madness begins...

Jaunt to L.A!

"Vintage" LA
(Click on pics to see larger views)

My pre comic-con jaunt to LA was a little treat to myself for all my hard work getting ready for Comic-Con. A BIRTHDAY treat!

Happy Bday Me!

I met up with some pals and we chowed our way through all kinds of foodie fun!

Our first order of business was a stop at the famed Kogi truck!

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I'd never had any of this yummy goodness before! I had the chicken, spicy pork, & rib tacos (yes! all three!). My buds tried the sliders & the black jack quesadilla. The rib was the clear stand out but, the chicken - usually the weak link of any taco truck menu, was a clear surprise. The truly stellar piece was the slider! Creamy mayo and kogi spiced rib meat with crisp lettuce and a soft sweet bun. Heaven I will order this again and again and again (whenever I get the chance!

We finished our lunch with a stop at a local and excellent gelato place (which I forgot to write down, sorry). After that we headed in separate directions, half of our group went to a birthday party and the rest of us took a trip to Skylight Books! A truly exceptional indie bookstore. A pal of mine knew letting me loose into that shop would be giving me Christmas in July! Skylight has a really focused selection. I found truly excellent books there. It was incredible to come across so many books I'd never heard of! Bliss!

After loading up on some goodies ("This Is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper, "Look At Me" by Jennifer Egan, and "Signing Their Lives Away" by Denise Kernan & Joseph D'Agnes) we headed out to dinner. We went to Umami Burger.

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Dinner was excellent! A truly epic burger!

For dessert we headed off to Horrible Movie Night for good giggles.

The next day dawned sunny and hot so we silly foodie fools opted to visit a Swap Meet and Food truck extravaganza at Dodger's Stadium. We BARELY strolled through the tents of stuff - too busy stuffing our faces.

Up Next: Foodie Adventure Awaits!

Friday, May 07, 2010

Paris: Day 1

Column top

We arrived very, very early at CDG airport. We purchased our Navigo passes and our RER tickets into Paris. We had quite an adventure getting to our hotel! At the airport we were instructed that the closest stop to our hotel was the Gare Austerlitz. Upon arriving at the stop, we wandered around looking for a map with our street on it. A very kind Metro employee asked us where we were heading, so we showed her our hotel's address. She didn't recognize the street name, so she asked a fellow employee who didn't know it either. Yikes, we thought. This wonderful woman rushed into the office to call a friend and eventually, came out with the stop name. We weren't far! Whew. So we lugged our suitcases up and down several staircases (side note: OMG! There are a LOT of stairs in the Metro! No wonder the Parisians are so thin!).

We checked into the La Manufacture, where the very kind staff gave us a slew of great maps and some advice on what to see first. I love that! They gave us a very sweet and quiet room overlooking the courtyard (thank goodness! As there was some construction going on outside, which would have been insane).

After a nap and unpacking we headed out for our first adventure! First up? Lunch!

Big smile!

The hotel recommended a place called "Au Bon Coin" and it was great!

Crispy cheese starter
My starter plate was camembert cheese, wrapped and fried - on top of lettuce, and covered with berries. Heaven!

Onion Soup
The mister had onion soup. I'm not a HUGE onion fan but, that soup was tasty! I kept dipping my bread into his soup.

Anita's Parisian lunch
My plate: Those potatoes were so creamy and buttery! I shouldn't have eaten any of the salad and saved it ALL for the potatoes! The savory sauce was delish! After every bite, I kept saying I was full but, I kept eating it anyway!

First lunch!
The Mister's plate was going to be my first choice. I try to avoid us both ordering the same thing when we go out (because I am crazy). He got an amazing dish of pork with potato gratin and green beans! So good!

After stuffing our faces, we waddled out the door to attack Paris for the first time! Off to adventure!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe

Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe

Next up was the table for Bittersweet Cafe. I found lots of goodies here.

Bittersweet Chocolate cafe tasting
Yummy samples!

Bittersweet Baking

Bittersweet Candies

Bittersweet Chocolate Shop
They were also passing out this chocolate/coconut beverage called the "Coconut Chill". It's their summer specialty and it'll change ya life! It was so good, I went back for seconds!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Michael Mischer Chocolates

Michael Mischer
(Michael Mischer Chocolates)

This place had a great piece of yummy goodness; a chocolate barrel filled with root beer infused caramel! Such a great treat!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Taco Truck Crawl 2: Electric Boogaloo pt.3

Churros!

Once we finished our tasty tortas, we moved onto dessert - right next to out table! The awesomest churro cart!
Why so awesome, you ask? Simple

Stuffed Churros!

Sliced chocolate stuffed churro
These come in four flavors: Chocolate (above), Straweberry, caramel, and vanilla (the clear favorite). A fantastic finale to our delicious day!

Except that wasn't the finale!

Margaritas for EVERYONE!
Onto MARGARITAS!

Margarita
We also nibbled on yummy guacamole with shrimp and bacon (so good!).

2nd Annual Taco Truck Crawl
All hail the 'Crawl Crew'!