Cap'n Crunch Cereal

Cap'n Crunch is not a cereal I grew up with.  While I was vaguely aware of it, we were a strictly Life cereal family, with some dabbles in Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran, but, definitely never Cap'n Crunch.  And unlike many other sugary kid's cereals, like Fruit Loops or Cocoa Puffs, once I hit adulthood, I didn't find any reason to seek it out.  And thus, I lived 40 years without ever having Cap'n Cruch.

"Cap'n Crunch® is the famed adventurer and breakfast connoisseur bringing adventure to your breakfast table and beyond."

For the unfamiliar, Cap'n Crunch is a figure, a captain, who, um, apparently is an adventurer and breakfast connoisseur.  He's also the namesake of a line of breakfast cereals, all with the original "crunch" pieces, but also available in a slew of spin-offs, including peanut butter, chocolate caramel, cotton candy, and the popular Crunch Berries, along with a line of cereal bars (think: rice krispie treats).

Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries

"Rock your taste buds in a berry crunchy way. Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries® take the original crunch you love, and add in bursts of colorful berry flavor. "

As I said, I'd actually never had Cap'n Crunch in my life.  Just, well, never.  Certainly not the kind of cereal we had in my house growing up, and Quaker brand cereals are rarely found in hotel breakfast buffets, so ... I just haven't encountered it before I guess.

I tried Crunch Berries before the original, as my niece had this, and I, uh, stole a cup?

I first had a dry handful, and my first thought was, "woah, sugar!"  Both the slightly fruity colorful little balls, and the regular crunch pieces, were very, very sweet.  No wonder my mom didn't allow us cereal like this growing up.  It made for a decent enough sweet snack out of the box, but as a breakfast cereal ... wowzer.  That said, I did like digging around for the Kix-like colorful "berries".

It was better with milk, as some of the sweet coating went into the milk, making perfect "cereal milk", and lessening the strong hit of sweetness, but, yeah.  Dessert.  Not breakfast.  Really.

***, it was fine, really, but I wouldn't ever go seek this out.

Cap’n Crunch®.

"Sweet and golden, with a crunch you’ll love, nothing competes with the original Cap’n Crunch®. Grab a bowl or cup for an easy snack that goes great with couch time, anytime.'

Next I went for the original Cap'n Crunch, no Crunch Berries.  It was slightly less exciting as it had no fruity colorful balls strewn throughout, but otherwise, it was still very, very sweet.  Again, perfectly munchable dry, more tempered with milk, and very, very sweet.

I think I preferred the Crunch Berries just because it was a bit more interesting?  But neither are varieties of cereal I'd ever seek out.

***.

Candy's Cakes, Boston

When I recently visited Boston, I of course did a bit of research into where to get great baked goods.  I could of course have gotten the very famous cannoli and goodies from Mike's Pastry (or Modern Pastry), and that would be the most classic Boston experience, but, I wanted something a bit different.  Somehow my searches led me to Candy's Cakes, a very small local bakery, with Asian flair, and very little online presence.  They have a basic website, no Yelp reviews, and just a handful of Google reviews.

"We came all the way from Asia to infuse our culture and tradition into the delicious cakes and pastries we produced for you. Customers will taste our hearty baking when they consume our products, as we constantly debug and innovate in order to be the best. Candy's Cake is a one-stop shop for cakes and pastries, offering a wide range of flavors and styles to suit your needs. We take delight in using fresh ingredients, ensuring high-quality goods, and adding healthy sweetness to our expanding cake and pastry menu. Our recipe is delicious and healthy."

I didn't have much to go on, but, I liked what I saw on the menu, and in their blurb on their DoorDash listing, so, I took a complete gamble and ordered from Candy's Cakes.

The menu that drew me in starts with layer cakes in a box, individual portions of chiffon cake, cream, and fruits and other goodies layered together.  Here you'll find pandan, mango, durian, mochi, taro, matcha, red bean, and the like.  Now you may understand why I was so tempted.  For less adventurous, Candy's makes a tiramisu or chocolate mini lay box cake too.  Then there are basque style cheesecakes, in unique flavors.  Portuguese egg tarts.  Fresh cream and fruit mochi.  Cream puffs filled with goodies like taro, egg yolk sauce, durian, soy custard, mango, strawberries and more.  In the non-cake department, there is also mango pomelo sago pudding.  As a lover of most of these things, I pretty much wanted the entire menu.

I selected three items, trying to order from across the menu to hedge my bets.  I ordered my delivery on DoorDash, no issues there.  It arrived fairly quickly, packaged well.

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I was glad to try these more unique items, and everything was fine, but I likely wouldn't order again.

Crispy Puff

"Cream puff made to crispiness in the outside and softness inside."

I don't generally go for cream puffs.  This is true.  Choux pastry just isn't high on my list. But, I was ordering a variety of items from Candy's Cakes, and the idea of lots of cream really called out.  So, cream puffs, er, "Crispy Puffs", it was.  They come only as a pair.  

Candy's makes a large variety of cream puffs.  For the less adventurous, there is a fruity strawberry cream puff, with fresh strawberries and soy cream, or a mocha Oreo puff, with mocha cream and Oreos.  But my eyes were only on the more interesting ones.  Interesting as in ... durian (with soy custard).  Taro (with egg yolk sauce or pork floss). But since I was order two other taro items, as tempting as both of the taro versions were, I ruled that out.  I also just wasn't in the mood for durian.  I love durian, but, it has a time and a place, and this wasn't it.  And thus, I went for the quasi-boring mango and soy option.

Mango / Soymilk Puff. $10.99.

"Mango, soybean, fresh cream, crispy puff. 芒果豆乳酥皮泡芙."

So, the puffs!  I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the "soymilk" aspect of the name, and the "soybean" element of the ingredients.  The answer seemed to be a bit of a soy pudding inside, along with the fresh whipped cream.

The puff itself was decent, clearly quite fresh.  Light and airy, reasonably crisp on the outside.  And key for me, not too eggy.  Not exciting, but, a good base for fillings.

Inside was quite a generous amount of fresh whipped cream.  It wasn't overly sweetened, which was nice.  It tasted, well, like quality cream.  Just like the choux, clearly pretty fresh.  

Then there was the aforementioned soy pudding, just a little of it.  It didn't taste that clearly of soy, but it was slightly more yellow, and slightly more firm, that then snow white whipped cream.  And of course, the mango.  Fresh cubes of mango.  Not much actually, just a few cubes around the outside.  No mango component inside, and pretty easily lost amongst the cream.

This satisfied my desire for whipped cream, but I did decide to add strawberries and blueberries to it, as it was rather low overall in the fruit, and a bit boring.  That said, it was clearly freshly made, and all well made components.  The $10.99 price for the pair was reasonable.  ***+.

Cheesecake

"Made with high quality cream cheese and customized sweetness to your preference."

Available in two flavors, taro or jasmine.  I of course went for the taro.

Mini Basque Taro Cheesecake. $7.99

I was confused when I received this.  I knew to expect at burnt top, as it was basque style after all, but I was expecting a more traditional cheesecake shape.  But moreover, well, I was expecting something purple-ish .... taro colored.  This looked lightly green.  Was it the jasmine?  Pandan?  Certainly not what I was expecting.

It turned out that it was the taro cheesecake, but, it still let me down pretty badly.  The texture was nothing like a basque cheesecake.  It was grainy, and almost looked like it had been defrosted.  It didn't really taste like cheesecake.  It *did* taste of taro, and, under that top green layer it was purple, but, it mostly was kinda grainy thick set taro pudding.  Certainly not what I'd call cheesecake, and definitely not basque cheesecake, and not particularly enjoyable.  The scorched top did look sorta like basque cheesecake, but, it didn't taste caramelized or anything.

So, taro, yes, but cheesecake, and basque cheesecake, no.  I certainly wouldn't get this again.  *+.

Other

The rest of the menu is rounded out by single items, such as Portuguese egg tarts, mango pomelo sago pudding, and pork floss bites.  I'd gladly consume any of these things, but, it was the later that I went for.

Pork Floss Bite with Taro & Mochi. $8.99.

"Chiffon cake sandwich coated with savory pork floss. Delicious taro paste and mochi fillings in sandwich."

These sounded fascinating!  I love taro, obviously.  I really like pork floss. I knew they'd have nori too, even though not listed in the ingredients.  I like mochi.  Chiffon cake, well, I could care less about that, but, I didn't mind it being included.  These came two to set, at a very reasonable price of $8.99.

I was thrilled when I opened my package to see my goodies.  SO MUCH PORK FLOSS!  ZOMG.

The pork floss and nori were savory and salty and so very umami.  Excellent coating.  I couldn't wait to get inside the cakes.

Pork Floss Bite: Inside.

Inside was exactly as promised.  Two layers of chiffon cake, filled with taro paste and mochi.  ZOMG.  The cake was light, the taro flavorful and savory-sweet, and the mochi layer added a bit of soft chew.  There was no cream element to this dessert.

This was mostly fairly savory, it had so many textures, and was really as fascinating to eat as I hoped it would be.  It certainly wasn't a sweet dessert, but it also wasn't really a truly savory item too.  Perfect for those who don't want something too sweet.  It paired beautifully with a glass of red wine.  

Such an adventure, and I'd get it again if in the mood, but, not quite sweet enough and dessert-like for mn.  ***+.

Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar, Somerville

Sometimes when I travel, I seek out the top restaurants in an area.  Sometimes I lean in to regional specialities, appreciating cuisine I don't get in San Francisco.  Usually, my meals and orders are well planned out and strategic.  But sometimes ... even I get drawn in by moments of random inspiration and impulse orders.

Which is what happened when I was recently in Boston, and ordered from Rosebud, a diner in nearby Somerville.  Why was Rosebud even on my radar?  I'm not sure.  It is a moderately well regarded classic diner, serving brunch and dinner everyday, with all the classics you'd expect, plus a bit more upscale cuisine at dinner time - alongside the expected burgers and chicken + waffles is an organic brown rice veggie bowl or seared salmon entree.  They also have several specials that change daily, and house made desserts.  

"Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar is a down-to-earth restaurant serving modern American fare. A definitive neighborhood joint in Davis Square, Rosebud offers a laid-back dining experience in a casual setting to guests from all walks of life. Honest food and honest drinks set the foundation of Rosebud’s menu. While dishes have roots from all four corners of the country, we carefully integrate a range of far-flung flavors from across the globe to keep palates guessing."

So, fairly straightforward "American" menu, diner style, that also happens to be open for dinner and serve cocktails.  Again, I was in Boston, city full of excellent seafood restaurants in particular (which I love), and yet, my mind kept drifting back to Rosebud, and their nightly seafood and dessert specials.  In particular, I was craving crab cakes, which yes, sooo many places in Boston offer, and I had a few top choices already picked out from high end seafood restaurants.  And then Rosebud had crab cakes as their nightly special, along with a decadent sounding pie from my childhood, AND a full cocktail list available for delivery, and ... impulse order it was.  Crab cakes, pie, and a cocktail, from a random diner in Somerville it was.

I ordered my delivery on DoorDash, which was quite easy.  

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• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

My meal was prepared quickly, and arrived well packaged.  It was ... ok-ish, but certainly not great, and not somewhere I'd order from again.

Negroni. $13.

"New Amsterdam Gin, House Sweet Vermouth, Campari."

Well, this made me literally lol.  For context, the container is about 1/3 the size of a regular water bottle, and it is ... 25% full?  Um, really.  It looked ridiculous.  They do have an ice/no ice option, and I opted for without (so it wouldn't get diluted during delivery, I could add my own), so maybe it looks less ridiculous with ice, but, wow.

Ok, so, portion size aside, how was it?  Not great.  It honestly didn't taste like booze at all.  I could taste campari, and sweet vermouth, but it truly seemed like perhaps they forgot the gin.  I tasted nothing alcoholic about it.  

Clearly, a letdown, but at least an amusing one?  *+.

Crab Cakes Special.  $18.

"Panko, scallion, fennel apple salad, tartar sauce."

I ordered from Rosebud primarily for the crab cakes.  Yes, from a random diner, that has very little seafood on the menu in general, and certainly isn't known for it.  When I was in a city full of incredible seafood restaurants.  I know ... rookie move on my part.  And sadly, not one that paid off.

The cakes seemed to be a baked style.  They were made with entirely shredded crab meat, not a single lump to be found, and very, very finely shredded.  There seemed to be a lot of binding to it - potato maybe?  Lots panko?  Basically, not a lot of crab flavor, very soft and mushy, and the consistency was a bit odd.  There might have been other white fish in there too?  I'm really not sure.  They sorta seemed like the kind of crab cakes you might get at a cafeteria.  Or on a flight.  That said, they were well seasoned.

The tartar sauce with them was good, and there was plenty of it.  And Rosebud gets a point for including a lemon wedge to squeeze over.

Overall, not bad exactly, just, not the style I was looking for at all.  The portion of two small cakes for $18 was quite reasonable. ***.

Crab Cakes: fennel apple salad side. 

The crab cakes also came with a fennel-apple salad, that was nicely packaged on the side, and had the vinaigrette separate.  The mixed greens seemed fresh, the fennel I enjoyed, and the apple was also clearly fresh and crispy, but not really my kind of thing.  And I never care for vinaigrettes.  

I was impressed that they came with this though, particularly for the price. ***.

Fluffernutter Pie. $12.

"Chocolate ganache, peanut butter mousse, marshmallow fluff, chocolate covered pretzel."

Oh my.  While the portion of the cocktail was laughably small, this was most certainly not.  This was a gigantic slice of pie. Very rich pie.  Very sweet pie.  Wowzer.

So, to step back, for those who are not from the Northeast and are not familiar with a "fluffernutter", it is usually a sandwich.  A kid's sandwich.  A very popular kid's sandwich.  The ingredients?  Basic white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow spread, Fluff brand.  Fluff + peanut butter.  Fluffernutter.  Very little nutritional value, tons of sugar, and yet ... at least where I grew up, a very, very common lunch for kids, far more than pb&j.

The Fluffernutter sandwich is the inspiration for this pie, which had a regular crust and a layer of chocolate ganache, and then the expected peanut butter component (mousse) and Fluff topping.  And chocolate covered pretzels to garnish, because, why not?

The crust was pretty average, just standard pie crust.  A pretzel crust might have been more interesting.  But plain and basic was perhaps needed to balance the rest.

The chocolate ganache was fairly firm, it was fine, light milk chocolate, and of course chocolate and peanut butter go great together, but, a real Fluffernutter has no chocolate component.  They took some liberties here.

The majority of the pie was the peanut butter mousse.  It was creamy.  It was rich.  It was oh so rich.  It was sweetened.  

But speaking of sweetened ... the topping was just pure Fluff, and, wow, I forgot how sweet that is!  Sugar, sugar, sugar.  It oozed Fluff everywhere.

This was good, and very decadent, but a few bites of this was really all you needed. Even for me, the girl who loves sweets and desserts.  So much richness, so much sweetness.  It was an overload really.  This slice could easily be shared with 4 people, just given the intensity of it.  I think it would have been better with perhaps a Fluff whipped cream, something a bit lighter, rather than pure Fluff.  

I'm glad I tried it, and the price was great for the portion, but, wow.  ***+.

Sam Choy's Poke to the Max

Ah, the joys of airport dining.  Grumpy staff.  Frantic other customers.  Food rarely freshly prepared.  Captive audience.  High prices.  Generally, highly unsatisfying on all dimensions: taste, value, service.  And yet, there I was, in SeaTac airport, with a delayed flight, looking for some food.

Of course, I had done my research in advance and knew my options, as I knew such a scenario could arise.  I wasn't planning to be stuck in the airport or to need to get food, but, yup, it happened.  At least I was armed with my list of reasonable choices.

I could have gone to Beecher's for the famous mac and cheese (that I've actually never tried), and I could have checked out the newish bubble tea place, both of which held promise, but instead, I headed to the airport outpost of Sam Choy's Poke to the Max, located in concourse D.  It was extremely far away from my gate at the far end of concourse A, but, I had way too much time to kill before my flight hopefully got to take off (delay caused by delayed inboard aircraft, that was still yet to take off where it was coming from ... sigh).  It was a serious hike and commitment to get there, but, I was fairly excited.

"Award winning chef, author, and proclaimed, “God Father of Poke” Chef Sam Choy offers a true taste of Hawai’i!  All of our menu dishes represent the various fusions that makes Hawai’i’s food so ONO!  Don’t be fooled by the name, because we serve more than just fresh poke.  Stop in for Spam Musubi, Loco Moco, our famous Garlic Chicken, and much more.  Whether your grabbing a plate at one of our food trucks, dining at our restaurant, or having us cater your event; escape with us and enjoy local style plate lunch, with a little Aloha in every bite.  "

Sam Choy's is relatively well known Hawaiian restaurant, with poke of course, but also a slew of hot dishes like loco moco, garlic chicken, and yup, plenty of spam.  They operate food trucks and restaurants around the west coast, with locations in Seattle, but also in California (and coming soon to SFO too).   I wasn't actually drawn to the poke lineup, as it is only tuna or salmon based, and not really customizable.  Nor was I really drawn to the rice plates, but the fish and chips certainly caught my eye, as did the firecracker shrimp or shrimp tempura, the assorted styles of masubi, and even the loco moco.  But I didn't actually need a full meal, just really something to pass the time, so I opted for one side dish I was really craving (macaroni salad - after having a mediocre version in The Club lounge) and dessert of course, because, zomg, they had local made ice cream in great flavors.

Ordering was done through a tablet (or in advance online on your own phone, they had QR codes all around to scan).  My order was ready promptly.  That said ... eh.  I don't think I'd go back.

Side Macaroni Salad. $4.75.

I was shocked by the portion of the macaroni salad.  I was expecting a small 8 ounce deli container size, maybe a pint, but instead, it was the same size huge bowl they use for poke bowls.  Nearly full to the top.  It was easily more than a quart.  So much macaroni salad!  It weighed a ton.

I couldn't wait to dig in.  I was even more excited as I looked it over, and saw chunks of egg white, and ... potatoes?  It was like a hybrid potato and macaroni salad, although dominantly still pasta.  There was also small bits of green onion.  Very heavily dressed.  No visible seasoning.

I took my first bite and was met with some disappointment.  It had very little flavor.  It tasted like mayo and little else.  Now, I love mayo, but this just fell entirely flat.  No acid.  No seasoning.  Nothing.  I'll admit I also expected maybe some pineapple, furikake, or something to make it Hawaiian-like.  This was beyond bland.

Another bite, more sadness.  The pasta was fairly mushy.  I'd prefer it al dente.  The egg white pieces were kinda hard.  The potato chunks were really the only fine part, well cooked, still skin on.  But overall, soft and mushy pasta, no flavor, and just not very good at all.  I did try adding salt, pepper, and furikake, but it still just needed more, and the textures weren't winners.

For only $4.75, this was ridiculously low priced, especially for an airport, as you'd pay considerably more at the grocery store deli for this quantity.  That said, it really wasn't good at all.  **.

Laina's Homemade Ice Cream - Ube (Vegan). $5.35. 

"Small batch ice cream made in Seattle's Rainier Valley area. Ube flavored ice cream (made w/ coconut milk)."

"(V) Handmade coconut base toasted coconut ice cream."

I didn't actually realize the ube ice cream was vegan when I selected it.  I knew Laina's makes a variety of both vegan and regular ice creams, but I only saw "ube" and grabbed immediately without looking further.  That said, coconut and ube are generally a good pairing, so I didn't mind.  Sam Choy's Poke to the Max also had matcha, lilikoi, toasted coconut (also vegan, coconut milk based), and pineapple whip (vegan) in stock.

When I opened it, the color initially turned me off.  It was so purple.  Too purple.  Barney purple.  Which to me screamed 1) food coloring and 2) unlikely to use real ube.  Still, I gave it a chance.

It was fine.  Not great, not bad, just, fine.  It wasn't as creamy as traditional ice cream, and was quite solid when I got it.  I waited for it to get nicely melty, but it never melted quite like regular ice cream.  It got ... sticky?  Yes, sticky ice cream.  In those ways, it was clear it was vegan.  That all said, the ube flavor was strong, and coconut was a nice backdrop.  It was still a nice treat to have in the airport.  I wouldn't go out of my way for this brand, but, it was fine.  ***.