taiwan madness: airplane food

I apologize for neglecting to post. But I have come back bearing many food adventures from Taiwan!

Of course we cannot go to Taiwan without going on the airplane so...you guys all get to see what digustingness we ate on our flight there and back. Actually, I didn't really eat. The smell of food on the plane makes me want to throw up. Luckily, I'm getting better and better at controlling my reflexes. Haha, okay you didn't need to know that...

Flight there:
Dinner: Chicken and mashed potatoes:

Breakfast: Eggs and sausage

Porridge:

Flight back:

Dinner: Pork and cabbage

Or chicken and spaghetti...

Breakfast: porridge

Mmm, didn't that seem delicious?! You guys really missed out.

I really hate airplanes and flying.

berkeley bowl cafe

Okay I promise this is the last post for today.

So remember two posts ago (I know, soooo long ago), I said I was craving Sprinkles? Well at Berkeley Bowl Cafe where a bunch of us went for lunch, they had these smore cupcakes on display. Smore cupcakes! You bet I was thinking of Cupkates.

Unfortunately, they were dry and the frosting was not marshmallow...I was sorely disappointed. I remembered before I discovered Sprinkles how I hated cupcakes.

Sigh.

I will not be craving cupcakes for a while, thank you very much.

Disclaimer!! This is not to say that Berkeley Bowl Cafe is bad! Their food is, in fact, quite good! But I'll save that for a future post.

restaurant letter grades

Okay, so that last post was so self-effacing and pointless, I decided to put this up too.

New York restaurants are now required to put up restaurant letter grades for cleanliness. Some people are happy about this--less food poisoning! Some are not--restaurants that serve genuinely good food, but don't necessarily meet Health Department requirements may lose business with the endowment of a lower grade.

Now, being from California, this idea is not foreign nor surprising, and I find that the letters don't really hinder my patronage of certain C (Asian) restaurants. Of course, that being said, I am Asian, and we all know that dirty Asian food is much tastier and much more authentic than "fine dining" "clean" Asian food, right? Right?!

Just some food for thought.

kind of a pointless post...

When I went home to LA this weekend, N and I watched Food Network's new Cupcake Wars show, where they featured Kara from Kara's Cupcakes! While I rooted for her for being a Bay Area business, it just made me think of how much I wanted Sprinkles.

Sigh.

Really, it's a good thing I don't live closer to Palo Alto.

/end pointless post. Thank you for reading.

noodle theory

Isn't that a great name? The tiny store itself is just as cute. Floor length windows, a bar seating area overlooking the kitchen, and outdoor seating. They specialize in, of course, noodles with a fusion twist. They combine different Asian flavors and concepts to create their dishes.

The first time we went, we got the dishes recommended by yelp, the Grilled Niman Ranch Spicy Loin of Pork Ramen in a Peanut Lime Cilantro Broth (11), and the Grilled Niman Ranch Beef Udon in a Coconut Lime Curry Broth (12). Neither disappointed. This time, we got Grilled Portobello Mushroom over Spinach Noodles in a Vegetarian Miso Broth with White Truffle Oil (13) and the special, which was a Korean short rib chow mein.

This is the spinach noodle dish--the noodles were slippery, delicate, and thin, but I think I prefer noodles with a bit more bite and chew. So that's my fault, but the broth was fragrant and the mushrooms seasoned beautifully.

This is the Korean chow mein. I liked the beef; it was fatty and flavored really well, but the noodles seriously resembled American chow mein, so I disliked that. Also, there wasn't enough kimchi in the dish.

I do like this place, and I would go back, but I think I'd stick with the two we've ordered before. I am curious about their stir fried/saucy noodles, so maybe I'll give that a try next time!

Noodle Theory
http://www.noodletheory.com/

6099 Claremont Avenue, Oakland

more cupcake love

I know what you're thinking--for a person who doesn't like cupcakes, she sure eats cupcakes a lot!

I won't deny it, but I'll say this: I've yet to find a cupcake that I like better than Sprinkles.

That being said, today's cupcake is from Cupkate's, Berkeley's own cupcake truck! Following the trend of food trucks/carts that divulge their locations via Twitter, Cupkate's sells unique cupcakes and (the occasional) creme brulee.

We (me, Thomas, and Dan) got two flavors between the three of us: salted caramel and s'more. Jess Riady had raved about the s'more cupcake, and it didn't disappoint. It has a graham cracker crust on the bottom, the moistest chocolate cake in the middle, and toasted marshmallow for frosting. Now, being the frosting hater that I am, I LOVED the toasted marshmallow on top. It just adds a lovely, whimsical feel to the cupcake, added with the graham cracker bottom, it was seriously a worthy tribute to its namesake!

I'm a little disappointed in the salted caramel, I think just because the s'more was so good. It seems to use the same chocolate cake as the s'more with a light caramel frosting sprinkled with salt. It was good...just not as good as the s'more.

Also, the cupcakes (including the s'more) were quite oily. I don't know if they used more oil so that the cupcakes won't dry out in the truck, but it did leave an unpleasant residue. Is there such thing as too moist a cupcake? Let me tell you, this cupcake glistened with oil, it was that moist.

So yes, I do prefer Sprinkles, where the cake is moist without being oily, and the frosting a lovely thin layer. That being said, I also think that Cupkate's s'more cupcake is worth trying! What a wonderful and well executed concept for a cupcake!

Follow them on Twitter for where they'll be next!