Showing posts with label desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label desserts. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

My Latest Snack Addiction: P.O.P. Candy Co Butter Crunch

It's been a while since I've blogged! How is everyone's quarantine going?
With so much time staying at home, I've been snacking more, of course, and I'm here to tell you about one of the sweet snacks that I've been kind of addicted to lately: the butter crunch from P.O.P. Candy Co in Santa Monica.
Pop candy co
So what is butter crunch anyway?
Butter crunch is kind of like a love child between a toffee and brittle.

According to their website, "Butter crunch is typically toffee that’s got crushed nuts on its chocolate coating." The basic ingredients is basically some sort of nuts, butter, and sugar (and maybe syrup or other special ingredients according to the flavor). The texture is quite different than toffee, though. It's crunchy but softer than regular toffee - not as hard to bite into and or as chewy /sticky, which is usually my issue with toffee. No such problem here. It's a crunchy, nutty sweet treat. Once I started I couldn't stop eating it.

The butter crunch from P.O.P. is handmade in small batches.
They have quite a few flavors with different nuts (no peanuts, though, so don't worry about peanut allergies) and it's hard to pick a favorite. The rosemary almond is interesting as the rosemary adds just a little bit of savoriness. The fire pistachio is pretty spicy thanks to the cayenne pepper! If you've never had any, the best thing to do is to get an assortment box like the one pictured above.
Pop candy co

P.O.P. Candy Co butter crunch is sold at various retail stores in Northern and Southern California, including a number of Whole Foods in the LA area, so give them a try, I think you'd like it!
You can also order online, they're doing free shipping for orders over $50.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Xanh Bistro: A Dessert Stop for the Slightly Adventurous

I've gone to Xanh Bistro almost everytime I'm down in the area, thanks to Wandering Chopsticks taking me and inomthings here. That said, I've never had any of their savory food. At all. It's always been a dessert stop for us.

The dessert menu is small yet offers an interesting, asian take on the "classics." Some of them just involves an unsurprising flavor infusion such as the coconut crème brulée, or a chocolate molten cake served with ginger ice cream.
The coconut crème brulée, albeit the simplest, has now turned out to be our favorite.
The molten cake is also good and goes well with the ginger ice cream, but the shot of sweet hibiscus "tea" that comes with it doesn't complement the dish and was too sweet and wholly unnecessary.

On the more interesting and unexpected side was a sticky rice dessert topped with mocha mousse and spicy chocolate sauce.
This dessert had quite an interesting texture which I enjoyed. The chewy sticky rice with the light mocha mousse worked better than I expected.

Go a step beyond people's comfort zone and you can get their Durian "Parfait" (I put that in quotation mark because it really isn't in any way "parfait"). The strong durian aroma is definitely there, though not all that "bad"/overwhelming. If you're unitiated, I advise you to avoid this dessert. If you love durian, then definitely go for it.
A bit of cake is topped with a light and airy durian mousse, served with passionfruit sauce on the bottom. The dominant flavor and aroma is of course the durian though. You've been warned.

The best part of eating dessert there?
Any of them can be enjoyed with a cup of hot lemongrass tea. Distinctly fragrant and warming, it's the best accompaniment to these desserts.





Xanh Bistro
16161 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 531-2030
www.xanhbistro.com
Xanh Bistro on Urbanspoon
Xanh Bistro in Los Angeles

Monday, May 4, 2009

Reasonable & Chic Sushi at K-Zo

K-Zo's decor can be described as chic. Hip. It seems like there's even a bar in the front, though I do think they only serve shochu cocktails. But unlike what comes to mind when I think of "hip sushi restaurant" (*cough* Katsuya Hollywood, Sushi Roku *cough*) it isn't crowded and loud and, as K-Zo has been known for, the prices are quite reasonable.
But really, my main reason for finally checking K-Zo out is a Yelp review that mentioned their sinful molten chocolate cake. I've long been searching for a good sushi joint that also offers good dessert (I mean, beyond your mochi ice cream and tempura ice cream).

But I'm ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.

We started with a "seafood salad" ($16) - Tuna, yellowtail, salmon, whitefish, shrimp, and albacore on a bed of lettuce with soy mustard dressing
A bit heavy on the dressing, but otherwise good. Fish and green ingredients are good and fresh and the dressing works well for both.

Wakame (seaweed) salad - $8 (hey we wanted our greens and minerals)
Nice, light and healthy. Unlike the previous salad, the dressing here is not heavy and was just perfect.

Besides the standard sushi menu, K-Zo also has a specials menu featuring the rarer/seasonal fishies. I ordered some wild salmon.
The color is much darker than your regular salmon, and as you can probably tell from the lack of thick white stripes, this is a much leaner piece of fish. It was fresh, the fish/rice ratio was just right. The fish cuts are narrow so the portion isn't huge, but it's fair and big enough for a bite. A nice first impression of K-Zo's sushi.

As a comparison we also got the regular salmon sushi ($5/2pc order)
A fattier cut (but I like fatty too). Again, a good and fresh piece.

Speaking of fatty, I of course got my o-toro fix. I was very happy with the prices of toro here, which I think was only ~$10.
That long tail just means more fish for me ... This was a pretty fatty and smooth, melt-in-your-mouth toro. While not the best o-toro I've had, this was definitely one of the good ones, and at this price point, I was perfectly happy.

We like to end our sushi meals with some eel. This time to compare we got both the freshwater and seawater eels.
Freshwater Eel/Unagi ($5/2pc)
Seawater eel/Anago ($6/2pc)
Most Japanese people seem to prefer anago, and it is also higher priced. The unagi tends to be sweeter, which kind of provides a nice end to the meal, IMHO.

The chocolate molten cake I was looking forward to finally came. It was pretty small though! As you can see, it was only the size of an ice cream scoop.
It's small but packs a punch. Definitely rich and sinful. I also like the sesame ice cream quite a bit, but by itself. In this case the whole is less than the sum of the parts ... This small ramekin dish of chocolate cake is definitely enough. For one person, that is. As we were sharing, we're glad we had another dessert coming.

The lychee tart's portion was also pretty small.
Richer and denser than what I was expecting for a lychee tart, as it was a bit eggy. An enjoyable dessert, though I thought the taste and freshness of the lychees got lost in the rich eggy tart base.

Overall a very reasonably-priced sushi dinner with high quality and fresh ingredients. The dessert selections are much more interesting and varied than most of its counterparts (especially with the disappearance of Jinpachi's famous desserts). The dessert portions are on the small side, but might as well ... I shouldn't be eating so much anyway :P
Add on top of that free parking in the public structure right next to the restaurant, K-Zo is winning lots of points with me!

K-Zo
9240 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 202-8890
K-Zo Japanese on Urbanspoon



Bookmark and Share

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Chocolate Dessert Party at Jin Patisserie - Feb 5th

In celebration of Jin Patisserie's newest outpost in Century City, they are throwing a chocolate dessert party on Feb 5, 5-8 PM for $17 per person.

It will be held at their new Century City location:
Pastry & Tea Boutique
at InterContinental

2151 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles CA 90067
310.789.6485



Here's the menu Kristy has prepared:

FINGER SANDWICH
Roast Beef w/Brie Cheese
Egg Salad
Cream Cheese Tomato


SWEET

Spicy Milk Chocolate w/Mango
38% Rondo Felchin

Baked Chocolate Tart w/Pineapple
64% Manjari Valrhona

White Chocolate w/Peach Compote & Yuzu Jelly
29% Weiss

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie
72% Felchin


Served with a glass of wine and a specially blended chocolate drink


$17 per person

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

LA's Best Desserts

Desserts, if done very well, can be the climaxes of my meal. Below are my favorite desserts in Los Angeles, along with links to the original post. Enjoy!
(The orderings vary with mood ...)

1. Passion Fruit Parfait, from Melisse


2. Soy Custard with Tapioca and Mango, from Phoenix Inn Food Boutique


3. Spring Bouquet cake, from Jin Patisserie


4. Coconut Panna Cotta, guava soup, roasted pineapples from Scarpetta.

Scarpetta Coconut Panna Cotta


Bookmark and Share

Gourmet Pigs   © 2008. Template Recipes by Emporium Digital

TOP