Heaven's Dog -San Francisco, CA

We made reservations at Heaven's Dog, a Vietnamese inspired menu always featuring organic meats and greens. I knew this was a good place because I heard it's a favorite with the locals (aka. my cuz Sunny!) They also have a complex cocktail menu plus a "freedom from choice" selection which you could choose a favorite alcohol with or without citrus and the bartender would create your very own drink. How cool!

Some of the favorites of the night seemed to be ..anything with pork belly, fish claypot with haddock, eggplant, honshimejis, thai chili and crispy half duck (cured in fragrant spices). We ended up ordering spicy niman lamb skewers, cumin, chili, sweet pickles. The tenderness and flavor of the lamb was excellent and I loved the pickles.



For entrees:
Chicken curry claypot, carrot, potato, coconut milk. This was very good as well. I'm a bit particular about my curry flavors but this was definitely a great flavor.

Heritage berkshire pork chop, lemongrass, pickled chanterelle. Sooooo yummy! The pork had just enough fat and crispy ends and the chanterelles were a great combo.

Kung pao tofu, fresh bamboo, toasted cashew

Having been to Heaven's Dog I now must explore the fusion vietnamese food in Los Angeles. This was a great experience and introducing me to Vietnamese food, other than pho. Like most awesome restaurants in San Francisco, the prices can run high, especially with alcohol, but it makes a perfect place for a special night with friends!

Tee Off Bar and Grill-San Francisco, CA

On our lovely Christmas vacation to Northern Cal we decide to make a detour to San Francisco before heading home. We definitely ate our way through the city! Our first stop was at Tee Off Bar and Grill. We're avid fans of Diners, Dive-in and Dives and this bar was featured for their amazing pork chops and mac & cheese. Tee Off Bar and Grill has a small menu, just the bar basics like buffalo wings and burgers and beer battered mushrooms. We decided to split the mac & cheese (a blend of four cheeses with pancetta on ziti pasta) and ordered some beer. Thankfully, we had ordered the LAST mac & cheese! It was delicious! Bubbling, brown cheese all over with a creamy texture and crunchy bits at the end. I also recommend the grilled double cut pork chops (achiote & apricot relish over garlic mash and deep fried sweet corn). Someone next to us at the bar ordered those and, WOW!..were they huge!


Prices were average, a little spendy for bar food, but the quality was definitely there! If you're near the Outer Richman area in SF, stop by Tee Off Bar and Grill. Oh, and don't forget to check out the neat juke box too!

Pumpkin Dulce De Leche Cupcakes

These cupcakes turned out fabulous! Thanks to http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/ and http://www.thesweetestkitchen.com/ I found this recipe for halloween this year. I was unable to frost the spider web on my cakes, but the dulce inside made up for it! They were sooooo delicious! This recipe definitely goes on my top favs!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha StewartMakes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

7.5 ounces pureed pumpkin

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Once cooled, using the cone method, fill each cupcake with a dollop of dulce de leche and frost with dulce de leche buttercream. If desired, decorate cupcake with spiderweb design using 3 tablespoons chocolate chips melted together with 1/4 teaspoon shortening.

Dulce De Leche

Adapted from Recipe GirlMakes just enough to fill cupcakes and use in frosting

Ingredients

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Open up the can and pour the sweetened-condensed milk into a pie pan. Cover tightly with foil. Place into a larger pan and pour boiling water in larger pan & around pie plate (level of water should be about halfway up the pie plate). Don’t let any water seep up and into the pie plate.
Place in oven and bake for 1 hour. At the one hour point, peel off foil and check for progress. If the mixture has thickened and turned a caramelly color, it’s done. If it doesn’t quite look thick enough or dark enough, cover it up and bake it a little longer (mine took 75 minutes).
When the mixture appears to have turned into a nice, thick caramel, remove from the oven. Let sit for a few minutes, and then beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

Dulce De Leche Buttercream

Adapted from Joy The Baker

Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons prepared dulce de leche

Method

Cream together softened butter and powdered sugar on low using an electric mixer. Add cream and vanilla and beat on medium speed until smooth and no lumps appear. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the prepared dulce de leche and beat to incorporate.

MILK

A truely indulgent place to go!! I L-O-V-E MILK!! The food is tasty and comforting and the desserts are amazing! It's a small shop that sits in front of Beverly Blvd right down the street from the infamous New Beverly Cinema (where I get my dose of exploitation movie education every now and again...thanks to my hubby!). They feature a daily menu aside from the regulars of sandwiches, soups, salads and pastas which is always a crowd pleaser. I suggest the crispy half chicken with a basil risotto cake, oven dried tomatoes, olives, roasted fennel and citrus sauce! YUM! But who am I kidding.....I come for the DESSERT!! I like to sit right in front next to the display case full of cupcakes, blue velvet cakes, cookies, macaroons, muffins, scones, blondies, moon pies...just to name a few.It's deadly! While I wait for my lunch to be prepared I can already fantasize about which desserts I have to have and which ones I want to try. In the end I can't resist the ice cream. This isn't just any old ice cream. MILK makes their ice cream in house and always surprises me with seasonal flavors, such as blood orange sorbet, pumpkin choc. chip, thai tea and banana dulce de leche!

No matter how much I love the desserts here, the food is still on my top list! The hot pressed sandwiches never disapoint! Check these out!!



Prosciutto & Provolone-with arugula, slivered potatoes, pickled onions and cabbage and black pepper cream (all sammies only 9$) The potatoes in the sandwhich defintely bring out the flavors. I had it once before without the potatoes and the mixture of the prosciutto and provolone was just too salty.


Media Noche-roasted pulled pork and ham with manchego cheese, pickles, and roasted garlic mayo. Always a crowd pleaser in my book! I loved the pulled pork and the pickles are the best!




Turkey BLTC-turkey breast, crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, aged cheddar cheese and lemon mayo. It's a good sandwich, but I felt it was lacking a bit of bacon. But the lemon mayo was the highlight!

DESSERTS!!
I think one of the reasons why I always get the ice cream is because there are so many variations of recipes for the ice cream. You can: Make an ice cream sandwhich (choose any ice cream you like and any 2 homemade cookies), Shakes, Malts or Floats (either choose one of the concoctions created by MILK or create your own), Make an ice cream sundae (choose one from MILK or your own; comes with your choice of topping, sauce and with vanilla, chocolate, cookies n' cream or starwberry ice cream), or a Dipping Station (choose either of the 4 ice creams with choice of it dipped in Chocolate,Chocolate Mint Crunch or Butterscotch)...it just goes on and on!!! They call it the Ice Cream Bar! It's fabulous!!


Pumpkin chocolate chip and coconut ice cream


Pumpkin chocolate chip and banana dulce de leche ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce and nuts

If you've got a sweet tooth like me, then definitely hit up this LA favorite!

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!