This is such a cute cake to make for the 4th! Seems easy enough right? Hmmmm…
Get the recipe and step by step via FOOD52. Flagcake gif via BuzzFeed Food.
Happy 4th everyone! Stay cool, relax, and have fun!!
Category: FOOD
Fake tales of San Francisco
Random bits from SF.
We also had an amazing meal at Top Chef Master winner Chris Consentino’s restaurant, Incanto. I sent my mother and step-father there when they went to SF a few years ago for their anniversary and now it was finally my turn to try it out. Let me tell you the food does not disappoint! We shared a couple of pastas for our appetizers and I had the pig’s trotter special for my entree. Everything was soooo yummy but I have to say the highlight for me was the uni pasta. Gosh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
We started our trip seeing a rainbow and no joke, we saw a double rainbow at the end of our trip. A nice ending to a fun time with my mother and sister.
San Francisco Part 2
I’ve never checked out the farmer’s market at the Ferry Building and luckily for us we were there on the days they were open (Tues, Thurs, and Saturdays). I highly recommend checking it out. We went on Saturday and it was PACKED! There are a lot of cool things to check out but more importantly, lots of good eats inside the building.
We sampled meats at Boccalone, sweets from several chocolate and donut stalls, and of course Miette. I bought my sister the book a couple of years ago and she’s been wanting to visit Miette since. Luckily for us they have a stall inside the ferry building. We tried their macarons and my sister tried a cupcake. Um, omg…the macarons were sooooooo good!!
Delicious Flags
How creative!
The Sydney International Food Festival organized a program at Star City’s Astral restaurant that gather together Sydney’s biggest culinary stars (Peter Gilmore, Kylie Kwong, Mark Best, Neil Perry) as well as big name chefs from some of the finest restaurants in the world (Yoshihiro Murata from Japan, Sebastien Bras, Alvin Leung, and more). The Sydney International Food Festival has something to offer for all everybody: grand dinners, tours, cooking classes and community events. The highlight of the program is the amazing food scene that present some national flag-inspired food designs.
See more flags here.
Weekend Rewind//Vegas Baby
I had a blast with the cousins. My weekend was filled with lots of entertainment, laughter, and food. We saw The Lion King one night and it was AWESOME! It did not disappoint. The production, the costume, the singing…oh my gosh soooo cooool!!!
Unfortunately visiting the Neon Museum is by appointment only. The boneyard is fenced off but we managed to snap some pics over the fence. There’s something sad about seeing these discarded old neon signs, all piled up and illuminated no longer. It gives us a glimpse of what Vegas used to be like, before obnoxious LED & LCD screens took over the strip.
There are also plenty of old signs on display in the Fremont East area.
We managed to make a quick stop at the Pawn Stars shop on our last day. It was busy inside, lots of people and the store is roped off to manage the customers. Things were totally overpriced in the shop. They even sell Pawn Stars water and beach towels, so ridiculous.
Has anyone ever been to the Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in Yermo?? All the times I’ve driven to Vegas I have wondered about this 50’s diner. We mainly stopped here because I wanted pictures of the dinosaurs but when we stepped inside the diner we were pleasantly surprised by its charm. The food is so-so, your typical diner food. The chocolate malt was good but the best part of this diner are all the kitschy decorations inside and the little “dino park” outside.
That last picture is seriously my favorite pic from the whole trip, lofl!! So glad my cousins like to ham it up like me.
We were graced with the most gorgeous sunset on our way back home. Desert skies are really beautiful. What a nice way to end the trip.
Palermo, Sicily
Our time in Sicily was very short and it seemed as though most of the time was spent inside the tour bus as it zipped around the city. It was so short that I only found one small stenciled street art.
We visited Palermo’s Capuchin Crypt and boy was that eerie. Cameras were not allowed in the catacombs and frankly I don’t think I wanted pictures of the dead anyway. Dead bodies of all sorts were lined up against the walls and in glass coffins. Men, women, children, priests, monks, and virgins were divided into categorized halls where some stare down at you as you walk by while some are in posed positions. The bodies are all in different levels of decay where you can still see the skin and hair on them.
Afterwards we were driven more around the city and then stopped at small museum to look at some art. We got back to our ship around late afternoon where my family and I got ready for a yummy dinner. I must say I ate some of the best seafood during this trip than I have ever before. I do go “carnivorous” once in a blue moon and order my steaks nice and rare but I prefer a pescatarian diet.
as we drove by this building I looked up and saw these life-size figurines of turkeys and storks.
the men in Sicily are very friendly. These runners followed our bus for several blocks, waving and smiling as they did their morning jog.
can't say no to gelato!
I set off the alarm to this painting because I was trying to retrieve a water bottle my sister had dropped behind the ropes. I ran away as fast as I could when the alarm went off.
the only street art I was able to find.
escargots. lobster ravioli. delicious trio of desserts (shared of course).
Weekend Rewind
This weekend was nice and lazy for me. The weather was perfect and not too hot. Natty & I met up with Yuri for some bead shopping in downtown and we stumbled into a jewelry-making wonderland of a store. You name it, they have it. Dare I say it is much better than Bohemian Crystals? We could have easily stayed in there for 5 hours but our stomachs were crying for food.
Cole’s is usually yummy but we all found our dips a bit salty. Their garlic fries on the other hand was perfect. On our way back we made a pit-stop in Chinatown where Yuri showed me a fantastic home for sale. 2bd/2bath upstairs, fantastic retail/gallery space below, and a spacious studio in basement. I wished I had the money ‘cos this would be a nice investment. There are art galleries popping up all over Chinatown. Next door to the home was this cute little oriental shop which Natty managed to find a pair of cute earrings.
I took Natty back home to Mummy’s and painted my nails green with the Topshop polish Yuri gave me from her trip to London…all in all, a pleasant weekend.
mmMMmm, nom nom nom
Maaan, these look delish! AND Ming Thompson includes the recipes to her creative cupcakes & cookies, how awesome is that?!
See Ming’s recipes here.
a peak at my weekend…
the best red velvet pancakes I've ever eaten ~ Larchmont Bungalow
good times with my lil' bro & sis & the cousins
My weekend was awesome folks. We had such a fantastic meal at the Larchmont Bungalow on Saturday. The food was sooo yummy plus we had a mini celebrity sighting! I don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy but “McPretty” was there which made Belle extra happy!!
Sunday my friends & I went to the Long Beach Veterans Flea Market. It was such a nice & sunny day. I even bought myself some succulents which I now will have to find a cute pot to plant them in.
Tokyo, Japan
I spent the last of my trip in Japan and it was by far the best part of my trip. Tokyo is so fun, so clean, so stylish, and the people are polite polite polite. I loved everything about Tokyo. I miss Japan immensely and the next time I go back I plan on going to Kyoto and other parts of Japan that’s away from the big city to fully engulf it’s culture & beauty.
Harajuku
Best tofu I had ever eaten, texture like silk and bathed in clam broth
Funny illustration on the menu. We ordered this yummy tempura dish.
they sure do love their arcades
no words can describe how tastey this fish was, mmMMmm
this “pancake” was like a souffle and tasted heavenly!
Roppongi
Roppongi
Voltaire No.6 