Royal/T Cafe

Is there anything more glorious than having tea and cupcakes in the afternoon at a Japanese/French fusion cafe and being served by waitresses dressed in maid outfits?? I think not!! Strolling into Royal/T Cafe for an afternoon snack is quite the think to do in Culver City, CA. If you're looking for a little pub grub meets sophistication, Royal/T Cafe has the food, sweets and the drinks perfected. Not to mention it's also an art gallery and a cute gift shop too where you can buy the art, or their famous tea. Although we didn't stop by for the food, I here it's delicious and well worth the trip (even if you're not getting a cupcake..but why wouldn't you??). I was told the Sat/Sun brunch is awesome and the dinner/lunch menu (when its not crowded with events) is good also. Check out their menu.


You definitely have to try the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cupcake. It looks so scrumptious, we couldn't resist. The cake was nice and chocolatey but the mousse was excellent!! It was velvety smooth and very sweet! Perfect!

The stawberry had a nice flavor as well. I'm not a big fan of strawberry, but this one is pretty good. I find that most strawberry cupcakes have to be overly sweet to compensate for the subtle taste, but I was very satisfied with this one-just sweet enough, especially with my tea.



I had the Kyoto Sunset Tea-hot. It's a black tea with apricots. We liked it so much we purchased a 3 oz bag of loose leaf. It's a very fruity mix. The best thing about the teas here is that they recommend adding flavored syrups to the teas, such as vanilla or peach. Later at home, we made this tea iced...and it's very refreshing!



We also tried the Royal/T Milk tea-brewed in soymilk-Iced. This one is another black tea with rose leaves. I love adding milk to my teas! And this one was great too!




Definitely need to try the food here! But I can always count on sweets and tea! And I heard Tea Parties here are fun too!

The Cupcakery-Las Vegas, NV

Ooo, I'm so excited to blog about the new cupcake place I went to! I know I'm biased because I think Sprinkles are the best thing since fro-yo, but I have to say, The Cupcakery in Las Vegas, NV is right behind Sprinkles in taste and flavors.

Here's the DL, The Cupcakery is located just a couple miles off the the strip and easily accessible. I just had to stop by! I love the fact that they have so many flavors and that the decorations and names are adorable! The quality of these cupcakes were very surprising. In fact, the chocolate cakes were the moistest of all of the flavors, and normally I find chocolate to be dry. I was also VERY impressed by the presentation of the frosting. There's always some cute sprinkles or swirls that make the cupcake look so inviting. So, here's what flavors we got (couldn't remember some of the flavors..sorry..and I couldn't find them on the website either):

Southern Belle-red velvet

Coco Frauline(dark choc. cake with creamy coconut and pecans) and vanilla with pink coconut

Lemon (with vanilla/lemon buttercream)

Hazelnut...i think??-with coconut and almonds

Grasshopper (mint chip dark choc. with mint choc. frosting) and Cherrylicious (stuffed choc cherry mousse inside a dark choc cake and topped with ganache)..hmmmm! my favorite!!

Sharon and me..holding our fab cupcakes! I was sssoo happy! I even wore my Johnny cupcake tee..I planned this! haha If you loved this post, check out www.johnnycupcakes.com/blog for more cupcake propoganda!

SushiSamba-Las Vegas, NV

My girlfriends and I headed over to Las Vegas for a birthday and I just happened to be capturing the blog-worthy food we ate there!...it's the only pictures I can show from the trip! ha!

To celebrate my friend's birthday, we ate at the super hip, SushiSamba, located in the Palazzo hotel. SushiSamba is a blend of Brazilian, Peruvian and Japanese inspired cuisine. The dishes are made for sharing so the sushi rolls and churrasco plates are perfect. And the drinks are good too! Some of the mentionable drinks were an acai blackberry vodka cocktail and the watermelon martini.



We ordered 3 rolls: BoBo Brazil roll- seared kobe beef, avocado, kaiware, shiso, red onion, and chimichurri. This came with 2 side sauces: soy sauce infused with avocado puree and chimichurri. The sauces gave a spicy and sweet hint to the rolls. Not to mention the kobe beef was delicious. Green Envy roll- tuna, salmon, asparagus, wasabi pea crust, aji amarillo-key lime mayo. This one was my favorite!! The key lime mayo was the defining flavor. And we also ordered a shrimp tempura roll, always a crowd pleaser!


We decided to take advantage of the Brazilian part of the menu which was a 5 meat churrascuria plate. It was definitely a plate to share! Our 5 meats included grilled hanger steak, ribeye, pork tenderloin, chorizo, lingüiça with malagueta pepper oil and chimichurri. And......it also came with a side of white rice, black beans, collard greens and farofa. So delicious! The favorite was the chorizo and the hanger steak. The seasonings were salty and smokey!





They gave us a complimentary birthday dessert- a 3 chocolate (milk, dark and white) mousse complete with brown sugar crisp at the bottom.


The prices are very spendy ($$$). $15-19 per roll and $46 for the 5 meat plate. Must make reservations for dinner!! The place gets very crowded. But a good place to eat before heading out to club Lavo!

Coconut-Pecan Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

This recipe was take from yet another recipe from my favorite cupcake book of the year, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Martha's recipes are great, but sometimes they get a little complicated for a novice baker such as myself. So I was definitely pleased with the flavor since I was able to complete her entire recipe. It wasn't your typically sweet cupcake. To me, the cake tasted like a moist muffin and the ganache has a rich, decadent taste. Here's the recipe:

COCONUT PECAN CUPCAKES

1 c. firlmly packed sweetened shredded coconut

3/4 c. pecans (3 oz.), toasted and cooled

2 c. sugar

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 c. creamed coconut (or 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp)

1 tablespoon pure coconut extract

4 large eggs, room temp

1 c. plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk (9 oz.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a food precessor, finely grind shredded coconut; transfer to a bowl. Process pecans with 2 tablespoons sugar until finely ground. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; stir in ground coconut and pecans.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, mix cream butter, creamed coconut, and remaining sugar until pale and fluffy. Add extract and then eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with 2 additions of coconut milk, and beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, 20-22 min (cupcakes will not be domed). Turn out cupakes into wire racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temp or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To finish, dip tops of cupcakes in chocolate glaze, then turn over quickly and garnish with toasted coconut.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted

6 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

2/3 c. heavy cream

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Place chocolate in medium heatproof bowl. Bring cream and corn syrup into just a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; pour mixture over chocolate. Let stand, without stirring, until chocolate begins to melt.

Using a spatula, gently stir chocolate and cream until totally combined; begin near the center of the bowl and gradually work your way toward the edge, pulling in as much chocolate as possible, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. (if any chocolate pieces remain, strain mixture through a fine sieve and discard solids). If not using immediately, glaze can be refridgerated up to 5 days in an airtight container. Reheat gently before using.

Hope you all give this a try!

Orochon Ramen

We were inspired to eat at Orochon Ramen because we had seen an episode (yet another foodie show) of Man v. Food on the Travel Channel with Adam Richman. If you're not familar with the show-I'll explain. Adam travels to different cities in search of local hang-outs and unique menus. The highlight of the show is when Adam "takes on" a menu item from a restaurant, kind of like competative eating. Some previous challanges include: Eat a 72 oz. steak, with sides (bread roll with butter, potato, ranch beans, shrimp cocktail, and salad) in less than one hour or eat 6 "Atomic" chicken wings in a habanero sauce. At Orochon (located in little Tokyo in dowtown Los Angeles), Adam conquered a serving of the "Special No. 2," an incredibly spicy soup made with 10 kinds of chilies in the "Hot Ramen Challenge." If that doesn't sound crazy to you, just check out the menu below. The menu gives you a WARNING!! Specials #1 and 2 are eat at your own risk!

The menu is very simple. You choose the soup base: miso, soy sauce or salt, pick your number of spiciness and choose additions. The ramen ranks from 1-7, with 7 being non-spicy and 1 being VERY spicy. We both ordered #6 (and I could barely finish it!!). The ramen comes with green onions, egg, pork, bamboo and garlic. The ramen was delicious and SPICY! I was sweating while I was eating it! Not only is the ramen cheap and delicious, but the portions are huge!! I took half of my bowl home!
If you can take the heat, make your way over to Orochon. Be sure to arrive early, the place gets packed for lunch and the seating is limited.

The Waffle

For that perfect hang over fixer-upper, head over to The Waffle on sunset blvd for breakfast. Boy, do I love breakfast!! If you're like me, you could eat breakfast all day.. hah! The decor of the restaurant is cute with a 70's vibe with browns, mustard yellows and oranges all around, just like those old coffee shop truck stops. There's also an upstairs part of the restaurant which I think is a bar and a whole separate menu-its called the Big Rig Bar. Seating is available inside or outside on the patio.

The menu also features lunch and dinner..but lets get to the good stuff! I ordered a lemon curd blueberry waffle. Yum, so good! My waffle was perfectly cooked-crisp and golden! And the sauces together were sweet and fruity!
My husband ordered the BAKED-IN apple-wood smoked bacon waffle! This wasn't just bacon ontop of waffles-there were small bits of bacon INSIDE and all over the waffle! It was crazy! It was even better with maple syrup!

Some things to try for next time: Cornmeal Jalapeno Waffle, Baked-In Pecan waffle :)

Fair Oaks Pharmacy

This is a one of a kind trip back to the past. Where in southern California can you still find an old fashioned soda fountain with a real working soda fountain?? --At the Fair Oaks Pharmacy in South Pasadena, CA. It's a ice cream parlor, cafe and gift shop all in one! We luckily stumbled upon it on our way back from the Huntington Library. We recognized not only the line of people outside but the famous sign we has seen on a Diner, Drive-In and Dives (I'm an avid fan of the show) on the Food Network.
We were lucky to get a seat at the counter because the place was extremely busy. The service was frenzied, but friendly. We had the magnificent All American Banana Split! Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry ice cream with hot fudge, strawberry and pineapple sauce and a split banana. Wow! it was awesome! Definitely a place to visit again! And don't forget to check out the gift shop with neat gifts!