Eat. Travel. Eat!

Last Saturday, the first Southern California branch of CREAM (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me) opened in University Gateway, an apartment/shopping complex located adjacent to the University of Southern California's University Park Campus in Los Angeles, California. Based out of Northern California , CREAM aims to provide reasonably cost, proprietary and high quality products with friendly service in a "fun and relaxed atmosphere," and is an extremely popular dessert outlet in Northern California. CREAM happened to offer free ice cream sandwiches (normally 2.99 USD) to all customers on their opening day, so I decided to I checked it out. There was quite a queue outside during opening night (took around 30 minutes!), but music from KXSC radio, a raffle for more free CREAM sandwiches, cheerful and motivated employees, and a complimentary drink holder made the wait doable. Inside , CREAM was bustling, with lots of employees running around, scooping ice cream...

During the summer, in the touristy shopping area of Wangfujing, one will quickly notice two things: 1. Lots of people are enjoying ice cream cones. At least half, or greater, have green tea flavored soft-serve ice cream in them. 2. There is one place that sustains a long line at its storefront throughout the day: Wuyutai Tea. But what is this line for? And more importantly, why are people waiting for about 5 minutes to reach the storefront for? Ice cream! More specifically, soft-serve jasmine tea and matcha ice cream for 6 RMB/CNY/yuan, or approximately 1 USD, with a per person limit of only two cones. That may sound cheap, but you need to compare to its local competitors. McDonald's green tea ice cream (offered as is or with a swirl with vanilla ice cream) cone costs 4 RMB each, and if you get two, the second is currently 50 percent off, making each cone worth only 3 RMB. Or in other words, you could get two McDonald's ice cream cones for the same price as one...

Along with the two Fresh and Easy frozen food products I had bought during one trip , I also took a package of these Van's waffles. After all, the Van's Belgian waffles I had tried from Costco were pretty good, so why not try these out also? Besides, the Belgian waffles post received lots of views and comments; a famous large magazine also tried to interview me about it! And right now with this post, after I had posted the pictures for a day on Flickr, there were already more than 11 views per image. Everyone likes waffles! (to quote a friend) As you could see by the first image and the title of the post, these waffles are directed for the health conscious crowd. Six grams of fiber, five grams of protein, and made from whole wheat! Those are some great stats. Now I know what you are thinking: can something that is a healthier variation of a food taste as good or better? I felt that these were pretty good. Like any toaster waffle, these had a nice crisp after heating up....

Happy Thanksgiving folks! I know I have not posted in quite a while, and I am thankful to your continuing readership.  But getting back on topic, do you remember last year's post on Trader Joe's Plain Non-fat Frozen Yogurt ? Well, recently Fresh and Easy decided to also offer their version of the Trader Joe's product, and thus I went to pick one of them up to fill the dollar amount for their 5 dollar coupon. The cost, if I remember correctly is about the same as Trader Joe's, plus or minus 50 cents. The taste is also very similar to Trader Joe's version. I would assume both were made by the same factory. Both are "pleasantly tart" and sweet enough (with the use of corn syrup) so that you do not need any extra sweetener. I did find this less firm compared to Trade Joe's version and a bit creamier in taste. Otherwise, they are all the same. So, need ideas for dessert while you are waiting for your turkey to bake today? Get a quart of this Fresh and ...

One of my mentors who reads the blog said to me, "Why do you never eat at Sinbala?", as he buys food there from time to time. Well, the last time I did was takeout. Eating in? Probably more than 4 years ago. One of my dining companions thought it would be a better idea if we did not buy those frozen dumplings at the supermarket but rather buy frozen dumplings at restaurants. After all, the fillings would not be so factory like or filled with ingredients that were of unknown quality. So, we headed off to Sinbala, a Taiwanese shop filled with people almost all the time and notably famous for their "Xiang Chang" or Taiwanese Sausage(6.50 for a package). You probably remember my Sinbala Sausage Fried Rice recipe where I bought Sinbala's fresh Taiwanese Sausage for the fried rice. Well, Sinbala offers more than just sausage for home preparation. They have a list of items including dumplings and Xiao Long Bao on their Frozen food menu, which is only written in Chine...

Since the most read blog post on Eat. Travel. Eat! is a Trader Joe's product , I thought that it would be nice to show you a box of gifts that our friends gave us which were from Trader Joe's. Fits the season of giving too, and all of these products are great for an afternoon tea or party- all things that are perfect to do during the holiday season(no, Trader Joe's has never paid my friend or I to write a review :). They should after getting 1600 pageviews just on one single product and being able to get their product ranked up high in the Google Search Engine thanks to me! ). Our friends gave us a package of produce including exceedingly diminutive but extremely flavorful organic tomatoes, berries, pomegranate green tea, and then these desserts that I will be talking about today. So, how about we start off with something made in Belgium? Both Belgian Butter Waffle Cookies and the Belgian Butter Almond Thins are actually made in Belgium, and each of cookies are quite simpl...

Since it seems like everyone likes frozen treats these days (e.g. Costco , Trader Joe's , and Yogurtland ) according to my statistics, I'd thought it would be nice to start off this product review section with a frozen treat. Kind of fitting too as it is quite chilly, and for some, having a cold treat on a cold day is well, the perfect experience! Shopping at Fresh and Easy can be quite an adventure, especially after our local Fresh and Easy in Arcadia expanded their ice cream section, bringing new brands to the scene. So Delicious was actually there beforehand, in the top shelf. So, during one visit, we noticed it while wanting to buy some ice cream bars, and decided to go for the So Delicious Fudge Bars. After all, they were made out of soymilk. This would definitely be something interesting. Other benefits included the fact that the bars were certified organic, and they were only 90 calories. That is equal to Quaker's Oatmeal Raisin granola bar...which is in my opinion, ...

What is perfect as a dessert for any meal during a cold frigid day is this: Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls with Sweet Potato and Ginger Sweet Soup. Simple, easy to make, but the results are great! Soothing, sweet, warm, and most certainly, delicious. The sweet sesame filling combined with the chewy glutinous rice exterior along with the sweet potato ginger soup was a great combination of flavors. Perfect for any frigid day! Especially with the ginger :). The ginger warms your body up and is refreshing. Anyway, I never actually meant to post this at all as it involves a frozen product integral to making the dessert possible (unless if you make the glutinous rice balls yourself ( recipe here at Chow Times ). But, when I was looking at Wandering Chopstick's blog and noticed the GINGER was the new ingredient of the month for Weekend Wokking , a monthly food blogging event created by her to bring together people's creations which feature the specific ingredient of the month, ...

Can store bought ice cream be better than some ice cream from an ice cream shop or soft serve? Can it be better than some frozen yogurts which are very popular these days? My opinion? Definitely. Fresh and Easy's Ice Creams are a tasty option in the store-bought category. It's more expensive than the competition at $3.99 a tub (but now it is on sale for the price of 2.99 until May 26) , but there are definitely things that are special about it. Due to the fact it was recently on sale (and even once mistakenly put on sale as 1.99...which they then had to retract), we stocked up, getting the two tubs of ice cream you see above. Previously, we had tried the Neapolitan ice cream which allowed us to sample three flavors. We liked the vanilla and chocolate flavors the best though. Strawberry, the third flavor, actually has real pieces of strawberry in it, but there is only a hint of strawberry flavor in it. I wish they can some more strawberry juice or strawberries into the ice...

Available at your local Asian supermarket, these veggie dumplings are fairly tasty. But something cool about it is that they have a nice packaging, with a clear area so that you can see the product. Obviously, you can do many things with them from their frozen state- either steam them, boil them, or pan fry them like we did. The little bag doesn't have very little dumplings either! These dumplings filled the entire base area of our Analon Ultimate pan, which means it isn't skimpy with the size. This is how it looks in the pan after adding water and letting the water cook away. And then plate and serve! With a bit of green onion these look fantastic. I was happy that I took the photos of them with this nice golden brown bottom. Recently, I made them almost look dark brown. They were ultra crispy of course, but then the people who ate it didn't feel too happy as it almost looked like burnt food. Overall taste of these frozen dumplings? Well, the filling was a bit mushy with c...

Goes the Costco foodservice ladies, "Belgian Waffles! Please try one." "Thank you!" And that is how we got this entire pack of waffles. And obviously, the sample tasted good enough to the fact that we would buy it! Unlike a few years ago where they topped the waffle with whipped cream and pancake syrup, this time they served it by its lone self. And it tasted great. Crisp on the outside, flavorful, lightly sweet, and moist inside. It was lightly thick and well, tasted very good for a mass produced frozen waffle. So plop it went onto the shopping cart. And promptly, the next day, I made them for breakfast, and attempted to do some food styling. Instead of using regular pancake syrup as the only topping, I brought in frozen blueberries and strawberries. I drizzled the pancake syrup. And plus, I attempted to make a strawberry jam line. Did that succeed? Well, no. The taste though was delicious. It was a great NEW combination. NOT. But it certainly changed my way of eat...

If you don't know already, we like eating at California Pizza Kitchen. But how does one get to eat CPK products at home other than eating it in their restaurants or ordering take out? Well, the simple answer is frozen pizza. California Pizza Kitchen has been doing frozen pizzas for quite a while now, and now, they're available at Costco! Do you see the words "3 pack"? That's why. Normally you would just get one pizza if you were at your local supermarket for around $5 dollars. This product was a bit different as it touted the crispy thin crust version, but in BBQ chicken flavor (which is my favorite, but I haven't seen in in this variety before). For your information, the information of "special ingredients" on the top exactly says (yes, with the capitalization too), " Crispy thin pizza topped with White Chicken, BBQ Sauce, Smoked Gouda Cheese, Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese, Red Onions, and Cilantro." So, we baked it up, but NOT according t...

An inspiration can come from many things. Sometimes, it can come from the shapes and looks of an object. Sometimes, it can just come from something you eat outside and really enjoy. Phoenix Inn's Mixed Seafood on Tofu This dish was inspired by something we had before: Mixed Seafood on Tofu from Phoenix Inn . It's very easy to make, and tastes great! So...we made it at home: Our Homecooked version of the same dish A slight boo-boo was made during our process of making the dish though. Actually, there was 2. The first was that there was no egg tofu available at the market, so we had to use regular tofu. The second was that we accidentally added black vinegar instead of soy sauce, but it didn't effect the dish at all! It was nice having a slight vinegary flavor. You pick between soy sauce or vinegar. Or, you can just use some stock for the sauce like what Phoenix Inn probably did. The end result is a great combo of many different flavors of the seafood as well as a nice sweetn...