Travel – Page 38 – Elsie Hui

November 13, 2014November 13, 2014

Ici Ice Cream – Berkeley, California

We heard about an amazing ice cream place in Berkeley and although I am a little sick, I figured I’m going to have ice cream anyway! 🙂 We ventured and found Ici Ice Cream which is located right on College Avenue. They do have street parking along the sides, and be prepared to wait in line outside as the shop is a small one with tons of customers!

We decided to try their Pumpkin Caramel Swirl flavoured ice cream in a dish and it was amazing. It definitely tasted almost like a pumpkin pie and it almost seems like it can have the texture of a frozen pumpkin pie filling. It was amazing and very enjoyable. You get pieces of frozen caramel swirl within the ice cream so it’s a nice treat when you get some!

We also got the Vanilla Creme Brulee in their home made waffle cone! The cone was really different but it was really tasty. Definitely not too sweet at all, and it had a chocolate nugget at the bottom to stop ice cream from dripping down as it melts. The ice cream was amazing and there was pieces of the broken burnt sugar from the brulee which added nice texture to the ice cream!

We love local shops and stores and we have no problem waiting for a good one. This place was worth the wait! A great treat any day!

Ici Ice Cream

2948 College Ave
Berkeley, CA
(510) 665-6054

November 11, 2014

Feel Good Bakery – Alameda, California

We were looking for a good place to purchase a birthday cake for our nephew where we stumbled across a website for Feel Good Bakery in Alameda, which wasn’t far from where we were. We started our drive to find ourselves looking at a Marketplace, so we figured it was inside. Sure enough, Feel Good Bakery was inside of the marketplace, and there’s parking across the street (Across Park Street)

We found ourselves an 8″ Chocolate cake which we wanted them to draw a dinosaur on. They had no problem doing that, so we just bough ourselves a macaroon each as the display case was beautiful, full of all sorts of wonderful things, but we settled on a little treat each.

I decided I would go for the Pumpkin Macaron as it was fall season, and I love pumpkin anything! The macaron was delicious, not overly sweet and it was delicate but not flaky or dry! It actually tasted like pumpkin so I was impressed.

We also decided to try a Chocolate Macaron as it’s more traditional of a flavour. The chocolate was really amazing and we especially enjoyed the filling inside the macarons!

Overall, we were more than pleased with our experience here. Our birthday cake tasted amazing and looks fantastic! This was worth our little drive over!

Feel Good Bakery

1650 Park St
Alameda, CA
(510) 864-2733

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014

Menyatai Japanese Noodles – Calgary, Alberta

I recently wasn’t feeling too great and all I really wanted was a bowl of noodle soup. I was expecting something a little more bland but we pulled up to Menyatai Japanese Ramen where I couldn’t decline the offer to eat here as I’ve been meaning to try here for awhile now.

Once inside, it’s a small but cute location where the staff is friendly and authentic! We were excited to be here so I ordered their Miso Ramen. I’ve tried a few in the city so it’s fair that I order this to compare! I found that the ramen had a great texture, the soup was fantastic and the piece of pork was amazing! This miso ramen has just found it’s way to the top of my list in Calgary so far! Pretty exciting news!

We also ordered a bowl of Beef Udon which is another one of our favourites to order when at a Japanese restaurant. Although the udon and the beef was excellent, it wasn’t any different that can set itself above anyone. Definitely not a bad bowl though! The beef taste in the broth was amazing, the bee was tender and delicious and the udon texture was really good.

We added an upgrade to one of our meals by having their Inari Set which basically comes with 2 pieces of inari and I love them, so we figured we’d go for it. It was good, no complaints – although we thought it was weird as it didn’t come with wasabi or soy sauce. So, we just ate it plain.

The overall experience was amazing. Even though I was sick the food tasted great and the staff was amazing. The prices seem costly but the portions are massive and the food was perfect. The location is tucked off the main street, but there’s quite a bit of street parking available.

Menyatai Japanese Ramen

24-12 St NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 263-3666

November 10, 2014November 10, 2014

Full House Cafe – Oakland, California

Breakfast will always be my favourite meal of the day and with San Francisco being an hour behind from the time zone difference, it appears I get up really early and is hungry! So, we ventured around where we went to Full House Cafe right on Macarthur Boulevard.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to eat, so we started picking random foods. We had ordered the Denver Omelet with no cheese and the portions was huge! The food was really good and fresh – it’s definitely as good as it looks!

Then, we got an order of Blueberry Pancakes and she asked how many pancakes did I want. I wanted 2 – so that’s what I got! The pancakes were as big as the plate and you can tell they’re made on their flat grill by the taste. It’s not bad although not jammed stuffed pack with blueberries.

Lastly, we got an order of their Corn Beef Hash which came with potato pieces. This was a delicious meal, and not overly greasy.

Overall, this was a perfect breakfast place! The food was really awesome as it was really fresh, and made to order. The prices was awesome and the service was quick and friendly! This is an fantastic way to start any morning!

Full House Cafe

3719 Macarthur Blvd
Oakland, CA 94619
(510) 482-2200

November 10, 2014

Shimizu – Oakland, California

We arrived into San Franciso one evening and by the time we got out of rush hour, 2 hours had gone by and we were starving. We heard about a decent place in Piedmont that wasn’t bad called Shimizu so we went there. The place was still very busy on a late weeknight!

We started with miso soup. As weird as this sounds, I’m not sure if we ordered it. It arrived on to our table and we drank it! It was really quite flavourful and the pieces of tofu was really silky and kind of sweet.

We got an order of Hamachi Kama which is grilled yellowtail fish, but just it’s collar. They did a wonderful job grilling it here and there was actually a lot of meat on our portion! We were pleasantly surprised and we all ate a good piece of it!

Of course when it comes to my favourite, the Hokkigai, once I see it on a menu – I get it! We got 4 pieces and it was wonderful! Usually I’m use to a portion of just half a hokkigai and the restaurant would call it “one piece”. Here, they actually use 1 surf clam for each piece of sushi! I was blown away and I ate it all up (pretty much!) It was sweet and the texture was really nice – plus they cleaned it well!

We then ordered a plate of Assorted Sashimi which was 18 pieces of chef selected sashimi. The pieces were large and fresh and they all tasted great! The selection was pretty good as well.

The last thing we ordered was their Double Salmon Roll which was a salmon and avocado roll, topped with salmon! This roll was spectacular and the salmon was really tasty! Everything was really fresh and the flavours complimented each other with nice taste and textures – and salmon was definitely the highlight of this roll!

Overall, the prices were really good, especially for this area. The atmosphere was really nice and the service was really friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the freshness of the food and the portion sizes. What a great experience!

Shimizu

4290 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA
(510) 653-7622