Get Extraordinary BLT Instead at Extraordinary Desserts

Is there ever a ballsy way of bragging than using the adjective "extraordinary"?

Apparently so.

You know only the naysayers and the pessimists would do the extra leg work of trying to debunk any hype. Ever seen restaurants maintaining a five stars rating on Yelp? Never. Because it will abruptly fail whenever people wanting to knock down a few peg.

I guess this was about to be the case at Extraordinary Desserts in Little Italy area of San Diego.

To be straightforward honest, I didn't have high hopes for cake or pastries at this place. A little birdie suggested to me to go for their underrated panini or their BLT. Their cafe supposedly has the perquisite to be a fantastic brunching experience on a warm weekend.

The Tea Set

Arriving hours later than planned was bound to get people riled up. Especially unhappy guests I was with. My colleagues and I were stuck in the 5 freeway for better part of 3 hours where the trip supposedly would be promised 96 minutes according to Google Map. Not their fault, but accidents do happened...... as in like 8 times.

Press "Play" to see the look of the crowd outside

Getting inside, we were looking at different cakes and pastries. For whatever reasons, maybe the cakes get changed quite often or selections are made on the fly, there was a sign posted said there's no printed menu for cakes or pastries. So they suggested you looked around and jotted down in the notes on a clipboard provided by the hostess stand.

Looking at the display for ideas on what to order

Of course, people wandered off like a mad men looking at cakes on the glass display. As we are looking at the name tags in front of each cake or pastries, people are just standing there blocking. No traffic control and no real organization as it was sh!tshow in the worst possible way. Yup, no happy campers in our group by the time we sat down.

Did we ever get calmed down? Fortunately yes. Once we gotten cooler and away from the heat, things started to simmer down a bit. Once we get over the silly things about looking for the cake we wanted, some of us started to enjoy the festive creation.

The famous Strawberry Shortcake

Some of those cakes were nicely presented with an eye for the roses. Thing of the movie "American Beauty" when these things come out. You can take a look at my Strawberry Shortcake to marvel at how it came out.

Oh, I had a running debate with some others when I posted the BLT on Instagram, I still think that was what separate this place from a few dessert places nearby was their cafe offerings. Especially the BLT. It didn't failed and was probably the saving grace for me on this visit.

BLT

In retrospect, looking over things after we got out, I think this place deserved some credit on what they were serving. Beautiful, creative, imaginative desserts. Do they tasted great as it looks? We had a split decision on that, but we did love the coffee, tea, and other sandwich servings.

Yes, the place should have been called "Extraordinary Cafe", just to be on the safe side. As we walked out the door, the chaos still persist on the glass displays and people lounges to block the view.

This place needs to militarized this line. Quick! Someone get the soup nazi from Seinfeld. He can solve this dilemma.

Extraordinary Desserts

1430 Union Street

San Diego, CA 92101

Something New Something Old at Cafe Bora

There is a import to LA of a famous desserts shop that was a rage in southeast Asia, predominantly South Korea.

Now, why do I even cared about gushing on a place that maybe just a trend for most people?

Of course, it's all about the social media! Just kidding, but still..... it's pretty to look at.

Purple Yam Tiramisu with drinks

This is the dilemma of course. Majority of our pics always wound up on Instagram, short captions or bylines wound up on twitter or FaceBook, visual videos wound up on YouTube, and paragraphs worth of words would wound up here on personal blog or get reposted on publications.

The question we all faced was that if the materials or contents are worth posting on different segments of social media? (ie does the pic look instagrammable or if we can rave about this on Yelp or on our blog?). I wound up facing the same exact question sometimes because of deluge of photos of the same place. This is where I was promised there'll be new stuffs to post.

Strawberry and Sweet Potato Tiramisu with extra toppings on the side, Purple Sweet Potato Chips

Digress, I waited. It took me some time to think about it if it is worthy to post on here or on my instagram account.

After a year of doing Instagram, I met quite a few new users who are passionate about food and some older users who are more into competitions than anything else. It's funny because I don't feel the difference between this segment of the group than the blogging world that I pretty much abandoned for a decade vs this new wild wild world of capturing the moments.

I was quite relieve to start over and meet a ton of new friendly faces who are eager to shine on a stage that is more suited to them than getting ones who are moving on to here from previous platform, but yet cannot adapt to the new frontier.

Persimmons Patbingsoo (shaved ice)

To see the excitement and enthusiasm was the sole reason it bought me here to Cafe Bora. I can get the feeling of the trend of making something excitable from this newer class of "influencers". We called the previous class "media". Both the words of "media" and "influencers" are now met with funny smirk these days. This is a label being used as though you can differentiate the age group with one of those words. haha

As you can see some of the popular and colorful tiramisu, shaved ice, and soft serve are being presented here from the original location that was made popular in South Korea. This brings up to me is what the current trend is calling for... enticement for the younger generation with visual eye-catcher, while making it classy for the elder crowd.

Which asked another harder question: who better to do it? A "Media" with old style ways or the younger crowd with the new "influencing" ways.

The funny thing was, I can tell the marketing efforts on both are a tad different, but it's something both can strive for and still works out in the end for both of them.

The reason I'm here: Sweet Potato Brick Toast

If you ever visited Cafe Bora in heart of Koreatown on the 3rd floor of a shopping center, you will see the divide on the old vs the youth. With that, there's one thing that can combine them together in the ever popular trend of food halls, expansions of aesthetically pleasing background set for selfies, and other dubious creation of glorify colorful food... 

.... something they can all agree on: As long the food is good, it doesn't matter how beautiful or ugly it looks.

For one afternoon, it was glorious.

Cafe Bora (on 3rd Floor of California Market)
450 S Western Ave #308
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Like a Soufflé Rising to the Top at Cafe D.er

Being frank about this, I rarely do a boba tea shop or cafe.

Ahh who am I kidding? I loathed to do it only because you can only showed a one or maybe at best 2 things about these places. You would have totally have nothing to write about after you show cased the whoopedoo ice cream or rainbow cake.

Frankly, there's just not really an attraction to do this.

Lo behold, I do have a reason to dedicate a post about this place. It's not for some weird concoction of a milk tea or Instagram-esque ice cream that anyone can make with different coloring. Nope, it's a dessert I craved for a very long time.... Soufflé pancakes!

Matcha Soufflé pancakes with Green Tea Ice Cream and Mochi

What are those exactly? Try to imagine pancakes are flat like a dinner plate, in a shape of a Frisbee. Usually these flatjacks are being flatten, but comes out thick like coasters for your cocktail drinks. Imagine if you will that these Soufflé pancakes are now revitalized into a fluffy chiffon like angel cake. Pump up like a big bulging angel cake, but soft as a marshmallow.

How do you get those exactly? I found out it was extremely popular in Japan, more so than the actual Soufflé dessert. In all estimate, they are likely to be made to order when you want to about to crave it. If that was the case, you can bet all made to order Soufflé will take time... as in like half a hour or longer.

Hence, you don't see too many establishments attempt to make it because it's just too long. Many posh restaurants wouldn't even bother with putting it on the menu because between the final course of a meal to dessert, when you make diners wait too long, desserts are just going to get skipped. There goes the extra income of a likely $12 to $15 worth of revenue.

Chocolate Soufflé pancakes with Strawberry Ice Cream and Caramelized Bananas

Try asking people to wait 30 minutes for their desserts to come out while awkward conversations at dinner table ensues. If you are on a lousy date, this will cut to the discontent right away for a bad tip. Yup, no server or wait staff will ever recommend this for dessert.

Luckily, I was able to find a dessert place in border between LA and Orange County that would dare to make people wait. In an aesthetics pleasing atmosphere with the burgeoning leon lights of a catchy slogan, this unassuming place started out as foam cheese tea seller. 

The array of Cheese foam tea and two of their popular coolers

Yeah, I don't know how foam cheese tea will sell, but they decided to be more focused and do more offering of latte and other mix drinks. That plaza apparently has two other boba tea shops with 4 more within a mile radius. Milk tea and smoothie shops in this town was fierce as there is a mentality of take no prisoners. With no luck, maybe the Soufflé pancakes can be the difference maker for this place.

In my case, I was just thrilled I can tried 4 different flavors of pancakes where it offers Matcha (with fillings), Chocolate, Earl Grey, and Original. Each comes with condiments of syrup, ice cream, caramelized bananas, mochi, or red beans on the platter.

I so look forward to other drinks as well besides the coffee and mixed drinks. Let's hope this place can set something new before copycats replicate because this is an unique shop with strong coffee presence. Desserts like this should be cherished. 

Like all Soufflé, it rises. You will only be disappointed when it flattens like a normal pancake.

Cafe D.er
17901 Pioneer Blvd
Ste L
Artesia, CA 90701

Tea Master Matcha Cafe & Green Tea Shop

There were things to contemplate now that I am somewhat back.

First, I looked over some of my old...very old...posts I had written years ago. I do admit some were super outdated. For an odder reason, I even have posts "draft" of old places I was going to publish and never did. Now I definitely won't publish those. C'mon 7 years later and majority of those places are dishes were cease to exist.

I even now asked if it is worth putting posts as a musing, straight on review like I did before, or go totally in different format? It's a toughie for me and I still can't shake the rust I had completely.

To be quite fair, I'm a lone wolf now with maybe a few colleagues I kept in touch with. Majority of them venture off to something else altogether. They all seemed to disappear around the same time as I do. Which was quite a bummer for me. Not depressing, but more to a fact of "oh well".

Coming here to this dessert/coffee/tea joint, a very minimal kind of store that probably can probably swapped to a donut shop in a quick hurry if things were going down. The Tea Master as a name gave an indication that they are a tea shop.

Yeah...... good luck with that. 

Tea shops selling tea leafs are going to get really tough as it is, but I realized that that's not what kept this shop going. It's the soft serve matcha ice cream (dairy flavor). With a topping of matcha powder and hint of green tea flavor, this was an online sensation among people looking to share photos. They don't show the latte (no latte art to show off), definitely won't show off any tea (no fancy tea cups to show off), and no pastries to speak off.

No, their attraction is just one simple thing. This matcha soft serve comes only in one size and one flavor. It's a take it or leave it kinda deal and was a sensational phenomenon that gets volume of small foot traffic sporadically throughout the day.

Hence that's why I was thinking of doing something similar to what Tea Master is doing. Going small until you can really grow or expand. If a donut shop type store can make it in an expensive lease plaza in little tokyo with just one minor dessert, it gives me a bit an array of upbeat feel for the day.

Cheers. May the little guy grow!

Match Soft Serve - $3.75

Tea Master Matcha Cafe & Green Tea Shop

450 2nd St

Los Angeles, CA 90012

5x5 Chef Collaboration Dinner @ Providence (Los Angeles)

One of the interesting topic surrounds sports was that if you can form a great team consists of the greatest players of its generation, would that be an easy domination for that great team? That's why there was a concept of "Dream Team" for Olympic Basketball with mixed success. This is a good idea if there is a chemistry that works well together ('92 and '08 Olympics), but disastrous if it was an incoherent mess ('04 Olympics).

Hence, the question relating to the foodie world would be if the kitchen was filled with 5 of the best chefs in town, will you get the best meal of your life? The 5x5 concept was an idea that was put in a bold experiment that was being provided with a beautiful restaurant (such as the Providence on Melrose) served as the Colosseum venue to please the audience. In that sense, it was the diners.

The idea of five different main courses prepared by five different chefs put images of a relay race of an Olympic race instantaneously. In order to have a good start, the first dish need to set a good tone. Then the rest of the dishes need to carry on in a consistent progression and with the final dish end in a spectacular final dash to the finish line. Appetizers and desserts are not required in this 5x5 Olympiad, but all of the five dishes of that 5 (courses) by 5 (chefs) will have to maintain its consistency. Team work and chemistry are essential and keys to that goal of winning that race (in this case, satisfying the whims of the customers who paid $150 thinking it will be the meal of a lifetime).

If you ever watched Top Chef, you will always see contests that required team work in the team competitions where the contestants often were not having communications among each other to carry out the progressions. Each dishes were treated like a baton being handing off from one dish to another. One dish can come off savory, but the next one would come off sweet, you do not want to see a mishap like that in an expensive $150 five course meal. Which was the big intrigue to see if any of the top chefs in this town can worked well together to bring out the best meal for the diners who are paying $150 per head on that night.

To start off, Michael Cimarusti (head chef/owner of the Providence) was providing us with a quartet of Amuse Bouche before the main courses comes out. Chef Cimarusti was sitting this one out as he graciously provided the venue and opened up his kitchen to five different chefs that will showcase their work that night in the fable 5x5 meal.

I don't know if was a tradition, but I guessed the host of the venue would always provide an amuse bouche or a quick starter for the guests to munch on before the dishes arrives. I went back to Providence 6 weeks later and enjoyed a wonderful meal with a different arrangement of edible one-biters as well by Chef Cimarusti.

Quartet of Amuse Bouche (Hokkido Scallop, Sea urchi Roe on Tomato, Greyhound cocktail Spherification, and Tasmanian sea trout over salmon skin)

The first one on the left was the Hokkido Scallop surrounded with puffed rice over bed of Sriracha and mayonnaise. The center two pieces of the amuse bouche were the sea urchin roe on top of tomato and the Greyhound cocktail spherification.

To start off the night in the right tone, sometimes it only takes one bite to realize you will have be in a treat for a wonderful meal. I always have various different amuse bouche at other fine dining places as well. In many ways, I have many one biters that are similar to what chef Cimarusti's amuse, but has always been impressed with his interpretation and playful look on a liquid nitrogen drink. The greyhound cocktail was something I never had before, but love how it held together in the liquid form and dissolved once it reached your taste bud.

Sea urchi Roe on Tomato and Greyhound cocktail Spherification

The last of the starter was the Tasmanian sea trout over salmon skin, with soy sauce crème fraîche. My impression about the sea trout, Hokkido scallop, and the sea urchin roe were wonderfully presented and have a great taste. Nicely throughout in terms of what to add appropriately and each of the seafood specialty was something I can imagine eating as a whole dish at Providence.

Overall, I had a great impression of what Providence was going to offer in the menu. Eventually I would make a visit here in the short immediate future to get some of his offerings in his 9 course tasting menu.

Hamachi Sashimi - Ton buri, Asian pear, red radish and fennel (by David LeFevre of Water Grill)

The first dish of the night was by a talented young chef from Water Grill, David LeFevre who gave us his interpretation of a Hamachi Sashimi. It had a nice little tonburi, which was seeds of fireweed that has texture and taste closely resemble a caviar. Truth to be told, I honestly thought it was caviar until I took good close look of it. The hamachi was fresh and very delicate where it just melt in your mouth once you took a bite. Very delicious from the start where the tempura with slices of sweet Asian pear was paired on the dish as side for contrast against the hamachi.

The tempura had a mixture of Dungeness crab wrapped in shiso leaf with a tart cream on top to give it a crispy bold taste. Adding a sweet pear underneath was an act of counter reduction against a little bitterness of the shiso. It worked well enough as a compliment pair against the hamachi and complete the overall dish much to my surprise as I initially thought the tempura was unnecessary.

Unexpected, but much to my amazement, it was one of the dishes I really liked that night.

Shellfish "Printanière" - Santa Barbara prawns, abalone, Japanese sword squid, clams, lemongrass-shellfish emulsion (by Josiah Citrin of Mélisse)

My favorite dish of the night was from my favorite chef of the moment, Josiah Citrin of the restaurant Melisse. For this shellfish dish to include bits and pieces of albone, a Japanese sword squid, claims, and some Santa Barabara Prawns to go along in one harmonious way, the dish turns out to be a divine classic.

Truly, a remarkable dish that made me a believer and a big fan of chef Citrin. In fact, after the dish, I told chef Citrin I would be visiting him very soon. At this Spring discovery menu dinner that night one month after this 5x5 dinner, he came up to our table and indeed remembered our conversation of about my intended visit to Melisse.

If I have one dish to remember my evening, it would be this dish of chef Citrin's Shellfish Printanière.

Sautéed Wild Striped Bass - white carrot purée, nettles, fava beans, fennel pollen (by Neal Fraser of Grace)

Next dish was very highly anticipated by yours truly was from Grace's Neal Fraser. A beautiful wild striped bass that had a sidekick of a white carrot puree. The thing that bothers at first was the look of the carrot puree because I thought the color was not very pleasing to look at. However, I find it very refreshing to have a carrot puree to have this sweeter taste than the usual potato puree that usually accompanied a fish dish.

The nettles and fava beans that was sided with the striped bass offered an interesting contrast. Not necessary for the benefit of the fish because it didn't enhanced the flavor profile of the bass, but it does a contrast to counter reduce the savory rich complex taste of this bass. Helpful because it made the rich flavor of the fish stands out. Luckily the fish did not have any unnecessary tangy, fishy smell. One of the great ingredient to increase the enhancement was add a Lemon, it increases the smell, but masked the flavor. For us, the big favor the chef did for all of us was let the fish standout by itself with the bass being sauteed enough to give crisper outside and tender inside of the skin.

A competent contemporary dish that was aimed to please, was able to handle off the baton of progression to the next dish with comfortable room of lead.

Barley Timbale - peas, artichokes, foie gras, mushroom sauce (Gino Angelini of Angelini Osteria)

The fourth main course of the night was a favorite of a few of my dining mates. Essentially on how this dish is to come out was that it was a barley risotto layered inside of a wrapped spinach with a hint of foie gras and a tomato on top of the spinach.

The main component on this dish to me was the barley layered with the other vegetables. The barley was wonderfully cooked to almost perfection. The vegetables of spinach and tomato complimented the barely very well. The mushroom sauce also helped enhanced the flavor of the dish. The foie gras was the side addition rather the main component of this dish, actually is better off as the supporting cast as the barley was rightfully the highlight of this entire plate.

Roasted Duck "Apicius" - spiced pineapple, rhubarb and celery root (Alex Stratta of Alex)

The hammer of the night and the main guest chef in this 5x5 course was an out of town special guest, Alex Stratta who is the head chef of his namesake restaurant in Las Vegas called "Alex". The much acclaimed chef garnered the impressive Mobil Five Diamonds rating for his restaurant Alex and have won acclaims for Best Chef in Southwest from the James Beard Foundation.

Chef Stratta presented his dish of Roasted Duck "Apicius". The aforementioned word of Apicius was often attributed to classic European fusion cooking that dated all the way back to the Roman times. It was often suggested that Roman Emperor Marcus Apicius were credited for the collection of Greek recipes that would attributed to the fabulous feast that was hosted by the Roman foodie Emperor. Over the centuries, many of the classic cooking and recipes from the Apicius era were the influences of many different types of European fine cuisines.

The roasted duck on that night had some interesting spices and celery roots that gave an arousing aroma that heightened the intricate taste of this well rested roast duck. It was cut at the right time as it was able to maintain the juiciness without drying out the texture of the meat. The sauce with a hint of a few sweet ingredients in the sauce that can offer enhancement in the flavor profile while adding the richness to the juicy duck.

Excellent way to end the main course of this example of a great fine dining. I think it started it off in a fast and ferocious way, maintain in the middle , and ended in a full sprint. Relating to a sport race, it's a blowout race.

Un Café à Bordeaux - canelé ice cream, coffee parfait and toasted hazelnuts (Adrian Vasquez of Providence)

Inside of canelé ice cream

Mignardises

The deserts was an added treat for us later on after this meal. It was often cited that Adrian Vasquez, pastry chef of Providence serves the best deserts in Los Angeles. For many, deserts is often the closer to a fine meal where it could complete tone of any epic meal. On this was no exceptions.

The canele and ice cream parfait were well composed and these delicious sweet creamy deserts that were badly needed to end the parade of fine savory dishes. The mignardises candies were also very welcome as well.

In retrospect, to find out each of these fine dining establishments and asked them to provide you with one of their better dishes to help showcase their work was a great idea. For $150 that was the price tag, it was worth it. Part of the proceeds of the $150 tab goes to the Southern Chapter of the Special Olympics makes it much more worth while.

Even though this meal happened back in April 28, I have very fond memories of each of those dishes. Thanks to kevinEats for organizing this outing for us as Will & Brian from FoodDigger were able to join us, as well Kung Food Panda and Tangbro 1 from Only Eat What Feeds Your Soul!.

5 x 5 Restaurant participants

Providence (Host, amuse bouche, desert)
5955 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
323) 460-4170

Water Grill
544 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 891-0900

Melisse
1104 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-0881

Grace Restaurant
7360 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2501
(323) 934-4400

Angelini Osteria
7313 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2534
(323) 297-0070

Alex
3131 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 248-3463

The Conclusion to the Search for Perfection (Part III) @ The Bazaar By José Andrés (Los Angeles)

Please check out my 1st installment of the Review for Bazaar for the appetizers and starters.
Then check out my 2nd installment of the Review for Bazaar for the seafood and carnes tapas.

We're now in the final stretch run in this saga of a very long review. We have already gone through with the long meal of some very appealing appetizers and enjoyed some of the very tasty tapas there were beautifully presented with creative imagination. Now it's about time for the part of the meal that either sealed the deal of a great evening or left wondering if we should get Dairy Queen's hot fudge: The Desserts.

One of our dining companion was an avid reader of Los Angeles Times Restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila's reviews and have followed her review of The Bazaar when she briefly mentioned about the Patisserie. We decided to ask our server if it was possible to have our desserts there at that famed dining table that was mentioned by Ms. SIV. It's usually with reservation, but since no one was using it, we scored that exclusive spots.

Along the way, we were able to pass by some of the beautiful display cases filled with creative decorative pieces. The Mad Hatter Tea party table complete with a King's Throne at the head of the table with the low chair stools for his loyal subjects. Fancy chandeliers was hanging above us as well for that intimate setting for the sweets we are about to receive.

The Tea table complete with the King's throne for a Mad Hatter's Party

In what truly can only to be described as decadent, these are the following treats we have ordered for ourselves. I'll presented these desserts first and let you take a good look at it.

Clementine Sorbet - With roses and black currants ($10)


Hot Chocolate Mousse - With pear sorbet and salty hazelnut praline ($10)


Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta - With apricots and muscat gelatin ($10)


Nitro Coconut Floating Island - With passion fruit and vanilla ($10)


Creamy Chocolate Heart - With coffee and cardamom ($10)


Chilled Berry Soup - With fresh berries, mint and goat’s milk ice cream ($10)


Chocolate Stick - Orange gelatin, fresh citrus segments, chocolate snap and freeze-dried raspberries ($10)

Out of all these delicious treats, only the creamy chocolate heart and chocolate stick were difficult to look at. Yet, all of them were very enjoyable. We shared all of these treats like a communial taste testing like we did with the tapas. The result was that out of all the dishes, everyone was gushing over the Nitro Coconut Floating Island where it was deconstructed into this ominous foam that resembles a big Chinese steamed bun. The presentation was cute and gotten the ladies giggling like a school girls over that little platter.

I personally picked the panna cotta with gelatin which was quite delicious when you are able to dig to the bottom layer of the cup to reach in for that hidden delight. Some of us were treated to a pop rock chocolate that was passed out as a complimentary treat by the staff. Remembered how your parents would say this loud sound is like teeth grinding? Well, I popped into my mouth and devoured it, yet I still hear the crunchy noise of the pop rock even after I took it down.

You can also shop for some their dessert treats that are on sale at this part of the room for take outs. They have delicious gum drops that they made that were quite exquisite and out of this world. The biggest recommendation seemed to be the saffron Candy Drop which one of our dining mate refused to drink water after having that candy because she didn't want to lose the sensation of that wonderful she just insert into her taste bud. That was how good she made Saffron Candy Drop to be.

Whether or not, we had the best meal ever can be debateable. However I think this is one of the truly remarkable place for dining experience in Los Angeles that you will be cherishing for a while until you make your next trip. Service here was impeccable and the food was over all fantastic.

Perfection for this place? Almost.

Oh here's the Bar Centro which is right next door to the restaurant where they have the fancy looking lounge for beautiful people to sit while they are sipping their cocktails waiting for their guest to arrive. I was there for only one minute because most of my guests arrived on time and also I threw it in there because Ms. SIV mentioned it.

OK I'm done. El Fin.

Bar Centro's Lounge - Next door to The Bazzar

Please out check my 1st installment of the Review for Bazaar for the appetizers and starters.
Then check out my 2nd installment of the Review for Bazaar for the seafood and carnes tapas.

The Bazaar by José Andrés
465 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 246-5567

Grade:

A Dessert to forget @ Bon Gelato (Cerritos)

No new info to offer on shaved ice to anyone. However, I just want to show everyone what I got for dessert in my recent trip to my old neighborhood.

After a very dissatisfying meal at a Shabu Shabu place, a couple of my lovely dining companions and I decided to cleanse our tongues from an unfortunate disaster. We hoped that by ordering desserts at an ice cream shoppe that was about 20 steps away will end the night more properly.

Boy, when our luck is bad, it continues to go bad.

Bon Gelato as it was called was more of a tea shop/ice cream/whatever desserts they can come up with for their teenage clientele. Everything from frozen yogurt to shaved ice would be sludge away for our fine young future minds. When I walked inside, a fear hits me that there's a possibilty that I will be the oldest citizen in this establishment. Luckily for me, no one else was here except for our party.

Then it did get me nervous on why we're the only ones here at 8pm when the shop would be closing at 10pm. We will find out why very quickly.

Looking at our shaved ice below, you can see that it comes in a Pyrex measurement cup. The monstrosity included Pebble cereal and some chewy candy mixed in with fruits (strawberries, watermelon, melon, kiwi, and mango) and a scoop of ice cream being lavished by slob of condensed milk. You say "yummy", I say "wow".

Actually I was speechless.

It was an utter disaster that lacked creativity in making this shaved ice. Yes, there is creativity involved and some real thought process on constructing a shaved ice with more plausible ingredients than a Pebble cereal that Fred Flintstone would not approved on a shaved ice.

It only cost me $6 to find it very unpleasing. The two lovely gals didn't want to finish that as I was the only trooper that didn't want to waste his $6. One of us also ordered a frozen yogurt that was no way near Tart. That was very forgettable as well.

I can't say this was the worst dessert I ever had in 2008, but it was such a weird concoction that only a picture can speak for itself.

Bon Gelato
13309 Artesia Blvd
Cerritos, CA 90703
(562) 407-2474

Grade:

Exciting flavors of Ice Cream @ Scoops (Hollywood)

One of the great success stories to come out of 2007 was about this little ice cream parlor next to a sleepy community college that came out of nowhere to be recognized as one of the most talk about place in all of 2007.

Recalling back from last year, not quite sure to whom the credit should be given to for creating the buzz for this place. On one hand, the LA Times article got the ball rolling. Then the chows from Chowhound put up a few topic on the board. Next thing you know, reviews starting to pop up on Yelp.com where users are raving about this place. In a fair and impartial way, everyone deserve equal credit for helping Tai Kim to get where he is today.

For those who didn't know about this place, let's try to recap on what it is special about Scoops.

Tai Kim is what you call these days as the Mad Scientist. He told me that when he started the business, he would try to mix different ingredients for a breed of different taste into one flavor. For every two weeks, he would come up with a menu for different flavors that would be in the store until it runs out. To answer the question, yes, flavors had been known to be sold out before closing time.

In the very beginning when the place just got started, he would be working by himself and the shop would closed on Sunday. Now, he hired a few staff members (I'm guessing from the neighboring LACC) and open for business on Sunday because it just gotten too busy. There is one thing that remain constant though. He briefly told me that the most popular flavor in his shop was Brownbread. Just like Potent Portables on Celebrity Jeopardy, Brownbread would be the only constant in that establishment.

When I first started coming here a year and half ago, the most bizarre flavor I ever got was the fig & wasabi. I wish I was kidding about that. It tasted like peppermint and was very "spicy", but yet it worked pretty well as an ice cream flavor. I don't know how it was possible, but it just does. Spicy ice cream? Believe it.

Over some time, there would be more flavors that would also include vegan soy base for the natural tongues who does not want allergic flavors. That would include flavors that does not include nuts or any additives for those looking for natural base desserts.

What brings me around this time was a promotion of 10 flavors for $10 that Scoops was doing for charity for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Here's what I got out of it:

1. Coconut Horchata
2. Vanilla Jasmine
3. Kobacha Japanese Squash
4. Strawberry Tarragon
5. Coconut Lemon Grass (Vegan Soy Base)
6. Salty Chocolate (Vegan Soy Base)
7. Oolong Tea Maple (Vegan Soy Base)
8. Goat Cheese Lavender
9. Lingoberry Basil
10. Greentea Egg Nog

My favorite one out of that whole group was the Lingoberry Basil. That is something you got to try for yourself and let me know how you proceed to tell me how trippy this whole line-up was. The Salty chocolate is a very good description. It was salty, but the chocolate ice cream still have the unmistakable smooth texture of an ice cream. The salt naturally is an appetite killer and should be eaten last. Not every scoop of flavors will work as an ice cream flavor (noticed the Goat Cheese Lavender?) and then something would surprised you (Coconut Horchata & Kobacha Japanese Squash).

Regular price is $2.75 per scoop, but every scoop includes two flavors. Essentially you get two flavor of ice cream for one scoop. It is an experience you must have for an ice cream dessert. Sometimes I feel like Jackson Pollack would walked into the kitchen and put all the fruits in the blender to see what he can make.

Many people have made the pilgrimage to this store every other week just hoping to get an exciting new flavor they hope to try. Since my fig & wasabi flavor, I had been coming back here checking to see what's new. It never ceased to amaze me, even that day with 10 flavors!

Scoops
712 N Heliotrope Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 906-2649

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