Mars Candy

Continuing my trend of reviewing chocolates that I'd classify more as "candy" rather than "chocolate", I present another American classic: Mars.  They basically make all the Halloween candy that isn't made by Hershey or Nestlé.  Of the bunch, I think they are my favorite, just because I do kinda like the sweet nougat filling in a number of their products.  But "chocolate"?  Not really ...

Milky Way

Milky Way is the first chocolate bar produced by Mars, way back in 1923.  Amusingly, a Milky Way bar in other countries is quite different, as it lacks the caramel layer that makes it different from a 3 Musketeers.  Bars that are most like the Milky Way are actually called Mars Bars elsewhere.  So confusing!

Anyway, apparently it is named after the fact that it is supposed to remind you of a milkshake ... which makes no sense to me, as milkshakes don't have caramel.  Milky Ways are now available in a variety of flavors.

Milky Way.

“Chocolate nougat layer, soft caramel layer, covered in milk chocolate”.

The original, basic Milky Way.

First, there is too much chocolate coating.  I think having mini/snack size makes this worse, as it throws off the ratios.  When the milk chocolate isn't good, even a fairly thin layer overrules.

Milky Way: Inside.

Breaking in, it was just too sweet.  I'd like it better with less caramel.  The caramel layer was the thickest layer, but it was a nice soft, smooth caramel.  But I'd like less chocolate, and less caramel.

So what do I like?  The chocolate nougat.  Funny because I used to hate these when I was younger, as I never, ever liked nougat.  This is basically just a 3 Musketeers, with the caramel layer added.  I prefer the plain 3 Musketeers.

Subsequent tasting notes:

• Crappy "chocolate" coating, way too much flavorless caramel.  I do like the chocolate nougat though.
• Creamy nougat, lots of stringy caramel, fair crappy “chocolate”.  Enjoyable enough as a sweet alongside some coffee. 
• I don't taste chocolate, and the caramel is way too sweet.  Just, sweet, sweet, sweet.

Milk Way: Midnight.

“Vanilla nougat, soft caramel layer, covered in dark chocolate.”

This sounded tastier than the original Milky Way to me.  Dark chocolate is always better than milk, and I actually prefer vanilla nougat.  I learned that Milky Ways used to come as two pieces, one chocolate, and one vanilla.  They separated them, and re-branded the vanilla one "Forever Yours".  Then they discontinued it, and it came back as the Milky Way Midnight.

This one got a bit heat exposed, so the surface looked funny, but I knew that wouldn't impact the taste.

Milky Way Midnight: Inside.

Biting in, it was exactly what I expected; the same as the regular Milky Way, just with vanilla nougat and dark chocolate.  No surprises here.

The dark chocolate lacked any complexity, but it wasn't offensive, better than the milk chocolate.  The caramel was again smooth and soft, very sweet, and I thought there was too much of it.  I almost think it would be better with no caramel at all.  The nougat layer didn't taste like vanilla, more like fluffy marshmallow, but that is good too.  Not earth shattering, but, again, enjoyable enough with a cup of coffee.

Subsequent Tasting Notes:

• Overall pretty decent - the nougat is like a fluffy marshmallow, the caramel is soft and creamy. Super sweet and obviously not high quality stuff, but tasty.
• Dark chocolate is fairly flavorless, but better than Mars' generic milk chocolate. I like the fluffy marshmallow-like nougat. The caramel is kinda crappy, just sweet, and too much of it. I’d like just the dark chocolate covered nougat more!
•  The dark chocolate looked great, but didn't have any flavor. Vanilla nougat was basically just fluffy marshmallow. Caramel was ok, but I'd prefer without. Not bad, but not very good. 
• Basically just a sweet treat, fluffy sweet marshmallow, a bit of soft caramel, dark chocolate that you can't taste. Good enough with a cup of coffee, but not otherwise remarkable

Caramel Apple Milky Way.

"With all the flavor of a red delicious apple dipped in a melted caramel-and-chocolate concoction, this miniature milky way spinoff is a delicious festive treat. Each bite-size bar encases a ribbon of apple-infused caramel laying delicately over a hunk of chocolate-malt nougat in a soft milk chocolate shell."

And finally, a seasonal offering: Caramel Apple!

This was shockingly good!  The nougat is soft and fluffy, the caramel deliciously "apple spice" flavored, soft, and stringy.  The milk chocolate is standard Mars low quality chocolate, but that didn't detract from the sweet goodness of this treat.  One of the best seasonal products I've tried, and very nice alongside a cup of black coffee.

Reception to these was mixed from my co-workers.  One came running out of his office in disgust after he tried on.  But another raved about them.  And Ojan said they were decent.  These clearly are a personal preference sort of item.

Snickers

The second line of candy bars produced by Mars was Snickers, in 1930.  Because they seem to like mixing up product names in each country, these bars were known as "Marathon" bars in the UK (which, was not the same as the "Marathon" bar sold here in the US).  Seriously, I guess they just didn't think information would flow so freely between countries?

Milky Way bars I only ever encountered around Halloween as a child, but for some reason, I have far more memories of Snickers bars.  I'm going to guess my mom had something to do with that.  To me, a Snickers is the ultimate classic candy bar.  I know I used to love them.

They now come in a slew of varieties.

Snickers Original.

"Milk chocolate coating, nougat layer, peanuts & caramel layer."

I'm sure you have had one of these before ...

Snickers: Inside.

Let me just say, I used to love these!  I really did.  But now they seem just sweet, and made with crappy milk chocolate.

Subsequent tasting notes:

• Bad milk chocolate, just sweet nougat, tiny bit of flavorless peanuts, meh
• I really don't know why I used to love these!  Crappy milk chocolate, just sweet filling, peanuts.  Not really interested in ever having another one!
• The chocolate was crappy, but the sweet filling and crunchy nuts were kinda nice
• This is very sweet.  The nougat is sweet, the chocolate is sweet an uninteresting, the caramel is sweet ... meh.  Peanuts were good crunch, but, not particularly interesting nor flavorful.

Snickers Almond.

"Almonds, Milk Chocolate, Caramel and Nougat".

The Snickers Almond is exactly like a regular snickers, except with whole almonds instead of peanuts. So, milk chocolate shell, nougat layer, caramel layer with nuts in it.

Snickers Almond: Inside.

My first impression: so sweet! Nougat + caramel = so sweet! 

Normally I prefer almonds to peanuts, but in this case, I think the classic Snickers is probably the winner.  The chocolate layer was thicker than I'd like, but mostly because it is just crappy chocolate, and in mini size, the chocolate to filling ratio was just too high due to the surface size.

Update: The next time I had one of these, I really enjoyed it.  I absolutely loved the crunch from the large almonds.  The caramel and nougat were sweet, but I paired it with a cup of black coffee, and that seemed like a perfect match.  The nuts also somewhat tricked me into thinking there was something somewhat healthy about it, and made me really want one as a post-workout snack.

Snickers Rockin' Nut Road.

"Almonds, caramel, and marshmallow-flavored nougat wrapped in dark chocolate".

I thought this was going to be awesome.  I like sweet marshmallow flavored things!  But, the primary component, that marshmallow nougat, didn't taste like anything.  And it wasn't fluffy.  And it wasn't even really sweet.  It was just ... there.  I did like the caramel and the nuts, but besides that, there was nothing going on here.  The dark chocolate didn't have any deep chocolate flavor and was pretty boring.  It looked much better than it was!

Snickers Peanut Butter SQUARED.

"Caramel, nougat, milk chocolate, roasted peanuts and peanut butter squished into square-shaped nuggets."

Snickers Peanut Butter SQUARED: Inside.

Ok, so you take a regular Snickers.  You greatly reduce the caramel layer to a very thin layer across the top.  You greatly reduce the nougat to a thin strip on the bottom.  And then you stuff it full of peanut butter and peanuts.  Keep the same milk chocolate shell.  And uh, make it a square.  And you get ... Snickers Peanut Butter SQUARED.

Why change the shape?  I have no idea.

It was the same as a classic Snickers in all the ways you'd expect: same crappy milk chocolate, slightly stale tasting nougat, etc.  I guess it did have a bit of additional peanut butter, but this was not very good at all.

Update: I enjoyed it more another time.  I still did not care for the low end chocolate.  The nougat was just meh.  The caramel a bit too chewy.  And since I never like those components much, I appreciated that they were slimed down.  The peanut butter was fairly creamy, and I liked the crunch from the nuts.  Better than many other lower end chocolate products, mostly just because chocolate and peanut butter are great together, not because there was anything particularly good about this.

3 Musketeers

3 Musketeers was the 3rd product ever offered by Mars.  They originally came in 3 flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, all in once package (hence the name?), but only the chocolate flavor is offered today.  They have experimented with other flavors over the years (orange, raspberry, cherry, etc), but there is a reason you haven't heard of any of these.  None but the basic chocolate have stuck.

3 Musketeers.

"Delicate, light and fluffy nougat center wrapped in delectable 3 MUSKETEERS® chocolate".

Standard fairly crappy Mars milk chocolate coating on the outside.

3 Musketeers: Inside.

Inside, fluffy chocolate nougat.  Very sweet filling, not balanced out by the sweet chocolate coating.  But I did like the fluffiness of the nougat.

Subsequent Tasting Notes:

• Nice fluffy chocolate nougat.  I liked the nougat quite a bit.  The chocolate coating was very meh, plasticy and not very good, I wish I could just have the nougat!  It reminded me a bit of a marshmallow.
• Love the slightly chocolately, sweet, fluffy inside, like a chocolate marshmallow.  Great with coffee.  But who wants their chocolate coating?
• Meh, just sweet.
• I almost like the chocolate nougat, but, meh.  If only it had decent chocolate on the outside.

Other

Twix.

"Milk chocolate coated caramel and biscuit".

Tasting notes: The flavors in this go together well, but they are just too low quality ingredients.  Flavorless biscuit, crappy caramel, crappy milk chocolate.  Do not like.

Ojan however loves these.  As do most of my co-workers.  To each his own ...

Pretzel M&M's.

Ok, M&Ms may be the most classic chocolate candy that there is.  Who didn't grow up with a candy bowl full of them?  I don't think I ever really thought M&Ms were special, but I know I was partial to the peanut ones.

But now?  Those magical ones are just low quality chocolate with low quality peanuts.  I see how I used to like these, since chocolate and peanuts are so tasty together, but meh.

I also tried out "pretzel" M&M's, which sounded fascinating, and looked a bit like peanut M&M's, except more perfectly round.  They were also completely uninteresting, I expected some pleasant saltiness from the pretzel to mix with the chocolate, but there was none.  Again, dominated by low quality chocolate.  Meh.

Read More...

Alpen Light Bars

As you read last Friday in my review of Eat Natural bars from the UK, I recently spent time in London, and of course tried out the local snack bars while I was there.

Alpen bars are made by Wheatabix, a UK cereal producer, that also makes assorted porridges and other breakfast items, along with grab and go snack foods.  Their signature product is the Wheatabix cereal, but they also produce a line of muesli, Alpen, and cereal bars made from it.

The products I encountered were the Alpen Light bars, presumably lighter versions of the regular Alpen bars.  The light versions are available in several varieties: Apple & sultana, Summer fruits, Chocolate & fudge, Lemon drizzle, Double chocolate,  and Cherry bakewell.  (Yes, that is how they capitalize the names.  Ugh!)

The bars are indeed a light offering, only 70 calories, but they don't exactly offer much nutritionally, with less than a gram of protein each.  And the regular bars are only ~120 calories, so they aren't exactly a heavy choice. Since they are made from cereal, I guess they are designed to be an easy breakfast?

Alpen Light Summer fruits.

"Mixed Cereal bar with Apple, Sweetened Cranberry, Raspberry, Strawberry and a Yogurt Flavour Drizzle."

This reminded me a lot of Special K cereal bars (which, I just realized I haven't reviewed.  Stay tuned!).  The base is a mix of assorted rice puff cereal and wheat based cereal, and it was studded with little bits of dried fruit.  It wasn't as overly sweet as the Kashi version, but, it also wasn't particularly flavorful.  The little bits of fruit inside provided the only little pops of flavor.  The "yogurt flavour drizzle" on top didn't provide much sweetness nor interesting component either.

Overall, very meh, meh, meh.

Read More...

La Copa Loca Artisan Gelato

I've been focusing on bakeries lately on my Thursday reviews, but, the day is intended not only for baked goods, but also for my other favorite sweet: frozen things!  This normally means froyo or ice cream, since they are the most widely available, but every once in a while I do find other treats, like gelato.  La Copa Loca is an "Artisan Gelato" shop in the Mission, and got on my radar as they were named Best Ice Cream in 2008 by SF Weekly magazine (although, not technically ice cream).

What do they have at The Crazy Cup?  A large selection of gelato, plus soy gelato, sherbet, and sorbet, all made in house.  At any given time, they have about 20 flavors available, although they make hundreds of flavors including interesting selections like port & balsamic vinegar, white chocolate basil, goat cheese & figs, or even dark chocolate with candied jalapeño.  They offer standard toppings, wet or dry, to make sundaes, plus smoothies, shakes, ice cream pies, profiteroles, and crepes.  Unfortunately, I never really cared much for any flavors I tried.

Service has always been friendly, tolerating my desire to taste a few flavors before finally settling on my choice.  The staff clearly are passionate about their products, on one visit the man serving me was very, very proud of a new rose flavor, and had every person who entered the shop taste it.

They take only cash or LevelUp, and one one visit, I was handed my cone, and went to use LevelUp and was told it wasn't working.  Doh.  I had no cash.  And a melting ice cream cone in my hand.  Luckily, I had an ATM card on me, and offered to leave the cone behind and run to get cash nearby, but I was told to just pay them next time.  Such trust, given that I am not a customer they knew!

Kiddie Size Amaretto Gelato, Cake Cone, Rainbow Sprinkles.  $2.

On my first visit, I went for a cone, because it was a hot sunny day, and that just felt right.  I added sprinkles because, well, sprinkles.

The amaretto gelato I picked was the creamiest of all of the gelato I tried, but it still wasn't that creamy.  It definitely didn't seem like premium gelato.  The flavor was decent, a bit nutty.  Not particularly great, but not bad.

The cone was a standard cake cone, but it was very crunchy.  I originally thought it was stale, but flavor-wise, it didn't seem to be.  Strange.  I didn't realize there was such variance in cones.

The sprinkles were also a surprise.  They were very, very hard.  Not that sprinkles are normally soft, but these were like little sugar rocks.  I think they must have been really old.  But again, not actually stale tasting (do sprinkles get stale?)

As you can guess, I didn't really like this much, but it was still a nice frozen treat on a sunny afternoon.

A kiddie size cone is only $1.75, a ridiculously good price for San Francisco.  It actually was much bigger when it was first scooped, until he rolled it in the sprinkles and it got very smushed.  The cone was completely full of gelato, no skimping here.  The rock-sprinkles added on another $0.25, and I'd definitely skip them in the future.

Kiddie Size Banana Sherbet.  $1.75.

On my next visit, I went for a dish.  And, since I wasn't all that impressed with the gelato, I went for a sherbet.

It was very strongly banana flavored.  There were even large chunks of frozen banana in it.  Since it was sherbet, it was not very creamy, kinda icy, and was really just not really that great.

The price was again right though.

[ Not Pictured ]

Other flavors I sampled but choose not to get:

• Sherbet
• Pumpkin (seasonal): Not much flavor, not very creamy.
• Gelato
• Rose: Not very flavorful.  Someone else tasting it said it tasted very floral, but I barely picked up on it at all.  Not very creamy either.
• Rum & Raisin: Very boozy, but I didn't get any raisins, nor raisin flavor.  Again, not very creamy.
• Walnut: Very strange flavor, I wouldn't identify it as walnut at all.
• Sorbet
• Apricot: Very tart, very sweet, incredibly flavorful, quite icy, but it was sorbet after all.

Read More...

Rice Pudding from India Palace

Last week, I reviewed Darbar, an Indian restaurant in San Francisco that I visited only to try their rice pudding.  I've been on a quest to find good rice pudding, so more recently, I swung into the Indian restaurant that the SF Chronicle deems “the best Indian restaurant in town”.  India Palace, located between Pac Heights and Japantown.

India Palace is a fairly nondescript restaurant, with a small buffet in the corner.  The staff were friendly, and offered me a seat while I waited just a few minutes to receive my order.  Unfortunately, their rice pudding was among the worst I've encountered.

Kheer: Basmati Rice Cooked with Milk.  $2.95.

As you can see from the photo, this was very watery rice pudding.

The rice was overcooked, rather mushy.  It was swimming in the sweet liquid, which didn't have much flavor.  There were a few raisins and slivers of nuts, also very mushy.

And ... it also contained a metal shard - bonus!

So ... flavorless, poorly executed, and contaminated.  I won't be getting this again.

It was a fairly large serving, much bigger than what I've received at Darbar or Lahore Karahi , but it was also 50% more expensive.  The price seemed reasonable for the portion size.

Read More...

Concorde Room Dining: Lunch

My first visit to the Concorde room in Heathrow was en route to Mallorca, after our overnight flight from San Francisco, before heading on to Barcelona and a final hop to Mallorca.  While the long flight was lovely, I was happy to be on the ground and get a chance to take a real shower before heading onward.  The spa attached to the Concorde room easily met this need, and I was also able to get a massage, but I was still a fairly blurry eyed traveler at this point.

I didn't take excessive notes or photos of the lounge itself (sorry!), but I did of course focus on the meal, served in a formal, full service restaurant.

Overall, the meal was quite disappointing.  Service was nonexistent, the food was poorly executed and boring.  But, the plating was really impressive, so at least it looked good?  Plus, it was free, so I can’t complain, but … meh.  I had higher expectations.  But the lounge itself was lovely.

Living Room Style Seating.

I started by wandering through the space exploring.  I didn't take many photos, as I felt a bit strange doing so.  Everyone was so civilized in there!

There are a variety of seating options, including really comfortable couches.  The fireplace gave a nice ambiance, although it was not running.  The wifi worked well, always appreciated.

Board Room.

I was told to check out the board room, basically a big meeting room, with computers, and seats from the Concorde as the chairs.  I was a little surprised that the room was empty, but then again, who really needs to have a 12 person meeting in the airport?  The chairs were novel though, they even had tray tables on the backs.

Terrace.

I also went to check out the terrace, similarly furnished to the inside area, but open air to the terminal.  While it is obviously still indoors, it did have a more airy, outdoorsey feeling.  It was a nice vantage point to look down on the chaos of the main terminal, and really appreciate my more tranquil environment we were hiding in.

While I was out exploring, and others were still showering, Emil and Levi ordered appetizers from the Concorde room dining menu while they waited for us to return.

They choose to just get starters, and champagne of course, out in the main area, rather than going into the full restaurant, opting to wait for all of us before being seated for main dishes.  You can order from the same menu anywhere inside the Concorde room, to dine as casually as you desire, so they could have certainly ordered their entrees in the bar area as well.

Buffalo Mozzarella Salad.

"Laverstoke buffalo mozzarella, heritage tomatoes and dressed with Mr. Hugh's Norfolk extra virgin rapeseed oil".

Levi picked the mozzarella salad and clearly loved it.  He said the green tomatoes in particular were amazing.  I didn't get to try any, but the produce looked impressively fresh, particularly the basil.

I thought it was funny that they named dropped the mozzarella and oil maker.  I'm used to that in San Francisco, but at an airport, aren't most people travelers and less likely to actually recognize the brand name?  I really have no idea if Mr. Hugh's is a good brand, but since they are pointing it out, it must be?

Smoked Salmon.

"Severn & Wye smoked salmon, caper berries, shallots and rocket leaves lightly dressed with fresh lemon and herb oil."

Emil ordered the smoked salmon, and devoured his just as fast as Levi did his.  He said it was quite good.  He didn’t eat the caper berries, so I enjoyed those.

And again, with the name dropping.  Is Severn & Wye good salmon?  I have no idea.

Place Setting in Restaurant.

After everyone returned from showering, we moved to the main dining room for a meal before our flight.  We had about 45 minutes before we needed to leave for our gate, which seemed like plenty of time.  Or so we thought.

Service was crazy slow.  Once we were seated, no one came to take our order.  We waited and waited, and finally Emil went to track someone down.  When we ordered, we mentioned that we were in a bit of a rush, and asked for everything to come at once, trying to stress not to bring things in a staged manner, since we didn't have tons of time.  It didn't really work.

Menu: First Page.

The menu started with appetizers: the two appetizers that Levi and Emil already ordered, plus a soup of the day.  No other choices, so we moved on.

Next was entrees, ranging from a classic roast, to a simple burger, with sea bream and pork belly somewhere in between.

Menu: Second Page.

The menu concluded with two more entree choices, the most basic chicken club sandwich and the single vegetarian item, risotto.

It was easy for me to rule out the chicken sandwich, the roast, and pork belly, but I was actually somewhat drawn towards the burger, and of course, I always like seafood.  And ... I do adore wild mushrooms, and a comforting, creamy risotto did also sound pretty good.  Decisions, decisions!

The menu also listed two sweet desserts, and a cheese plate.

Wine Menu: Whites.

We also all ordered drinks when we placed our food order.  The wine list was longer than the food list, and Emil approved.

The drinks, like everything else, took forever to arrive.

Pouilly Fuisse Vieilles Vignes 2001, Domaine Pierre Vessigaud.

Since I ordered seafood, I decided to pick the white burgundy.  It was slightly sweet, nice enough, but not remarkable.

Sea Bream.

"Maldon salt-crusted fillet on creamed potatoes with carrot and honey puree and a jumble of pea shoots and peas".

My seafood tendencies won out, so I ordered the only seafood option, the sea bream.  As did everyone else at the table, except for one.

The dishes all arrived looking pretty good, and beautifully plated.  In the center of the plate, under the fish, was the creamed potatoes.  They were very creamy, decent enough.  Atop the potatoes was the sea bream.  It looked quite good, served skin on.  But looks can be deceiving.  It was very over cooked, dried out, and really not good at all.  It was garnished with the "jumble" of pea shoots, which were fresh and crispy, and quite nice.

On the side was a schemer of carrot and honey puree, which was actually pretty delicious.  Sweet, tasty.

Finally, there were dots of a green substance.  It might have been green pea puree?  I’m not sure, it tasted sorta like green tea, not peas.  It was bitter and strange.

Overall, this looked far better than it tasted.  The fish was the downfall: it was just way too overcooked, not seasoned, and it was questionable quality.  I did enjoy the potato and carrot puree, and the pea shoots, but … meh.

Wild Mushroom Risotto.

"Creamy Arborio rice, flavoured with wild penny bun and portobello mushrooms, finished with truffle oil and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano."

The one person who didn't order the sea bream picked the wild mushroom risotto, which was my second choice.  He was willing to share a few bites.

His dish was much better.  It was creamy, the rice was well cooked, the mushrooms hearty.  But we were not able to taste the promised truffle flavor.

It was not amazing, but better than what you get in many restaurants, and certainly better than the fish.

Burnt Cambridge Cream

"A baked silky vanilla custard originating in Trinity College, Cambridge in the 1600s, our version is finished with lavender sugar."

We also asked for one of every dessert when we ordered our entrees, and asked for all of them to be delivered as soon as possible, since we realized that we were indeed pressed for time.  They arrived soon after our mains.  The dessert menu had the two sweet desserts and a cheese platter, and we thought we were ordering one of each.  But, no cheese platter arrived for us.  I guess they didn’t consider that a dessert?

We started with the custard, which was actually a reasonable serving size.  When does that happen?  I'm so used to American-sized desserts.  The moment I saw it, I immediately wished we had ordered multiples.  How could four of us be expected to split just two normal sized desserts?

This was my first time having burnt Cambridge cream, and although the name doesn't exactly sound amazing, the description certainly drew me in.  You know that pudding is one of my most favorite things, right?

It was a bit like a panna cotta, fairly creamy, with decent texture, but not much flavor.  I’m not sure where the “lavender sugar” was supposed to be.  There was a garnish of sweet candy, that made the whole dish mimic a creme brûlée a bit, although obviously, the caramelized part was the candy on top, not the top of the dessert itself.  But lavender?  Nope.

It was fine, but pretty boring, and not really anything I would get again.  I have no idea if it was a good representation of burnt Cambridge cream or not, but I'd certainly try the dish again elsewhere.

Treacle Tart.

"A traditional English treat served warm with Cornish ice cream."

The other dessert was another British classic: treacle tart.  I think this was my first treacle tart too, but I was familiar with the concept of it.  Plus, you know me and my affinity for warm pie and ice cream.  This sounded great!

The crust was pretty generic, dry, boring.  Basic shortcrust, so not flaky.  The filling was a good consistency, but was really just sweet.  It had nothing else to it, no depth of flavor, just overwhelming sweet.  Perhaps that is how treacle tart is supposed to be?  It somewhat reminded me of pecan pie, just without the pecans.

On the side was Cornish ice cream, another first for me.  What is Cornish ice cream?  Apparently just ice cream made with Cornish clotted cream.  It was creamy enough, sweet, but just ice cream.

The top was drizzled with something sweet (probably light treacle?), which I liked with the ice cream.  The whole dish was served over a crumble, which added a good crunch, but it was a bit odd to have a slice of pie on top of a crumble.

No component of this was great on its own, but a bite of ice cream, with some crumble, and a drizzle of sweet syrup wasn’t bad.  But not worth getting again.

Read More...

Dessert from Darbar

Darbar is a Indian restaurant in Nob Hill.  I haven't actually been there for the savory food, I just swung in to pick up a rice pudding to go, when I was seriously craving rice pudding, and found myself nearby.  I was literally just walking by, recognized the name of the restaurant from having read what I recalled to be decent reviews, and decided it was worth a try.   I really wanted rice pudding! (Have I mentioned that I love pudding?)

The restaurant is small, with an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet set up along one side for $7.99.  It was 12:45pm on a Sunday, and there was only one patron in the entire place.  I think that buffet does not see much action, never a good sign.

I ordered my rice pudding from the woman at the register, expecting her to take one out of the cooler next to her, where beverages and pre-packaged rice puddings were waiting.  Instead, she called back for an assistant, who came out with a little container, and proceeded to walk over to the buffet.  There, he scooped rice pudding from the big vat that was sitting on the buffet line.  He put a lid on it, wrapped it in saran wrap, and handed it over in a paper bag.  WAT!

I appreciate that they wrapped it in saran wrap, which helped minimize any mess.  But um ... why didn't I get one of the pre-packaged rice puddings, and instead get one of the contaminated ones from the buffet?  I was too blown away by this move to even say anything.  Buffets are notoriously gross, this one clearly wasn't high throughput, and the rice pudding was just out at room temperature.  Ahhh.  Not cool.  Literally.

The woman behind the counter pointed out to the guy who gave me the rice pudding and bag that he should have included a spoon for me.  So, he included a fork.  At this point, I was still in shock over the buffet antics, so I didn't bother giving him the plastic fork back.

Anyway, the rice pudding was fine, but I won't be going back.

Darbari Kheer.  $2.

I almost didn't eat the rice pudding, as I was so disgusted by the whole buffet thing.  But ... I love rice pudding.  I really wanted it.

It was very simple rice pudding, described as "rice pudding enriched with nuts", but I didn't find any nuts in mine.  Perhaps there was a sprinkling of pistachio bits?  It was just basic rice pudding, short grain rice, a bit al dente, in a thin creamy sauce.  It had some spicing, but I couldn't quite identify it.  It wasn't particularly good nor bad.

$2 was a fine price for a little cup of rice pudding, right in line with the similar portion I had from Lahore Karahi.  In fact, it reminded me a lot of the version from Lahore Karahi, not just in size and price, but also consistency, flavor, everything.  Perhaps they don't make either in house and it comes from somewhere?  I do appreciate restaurants offering small desserts.

While the rice pudding wasn't bad, it wasn't memorable enough to bother going back for, scooped from the buffet or not.  I'm still claiming the packaged stuff from Juan J's is the best I've had around town.

Read More...

Funnel Cake from California's Great America

This past week, my group at work went on an offsite to ... California's Great America.  Now, Great America closed for the season a week or so before, but, somehow we were able to rent out the park just for us.  Only a handful of rides were open, and none of the arcade games or stands, but it was still pretty awesome having the park to ourselves.

But this is not Julie's Theme Park Review Club.  Of course while we were there, we had to eat, but the regular concession stands were also closed.  For lunch, they set up a buffet in a pavilion.  The food was horrible. I didn't bother take photos.

The lunch buffet included chicken, pulled pork, hot dogs, black bean burgers, baked beans, mac and cheese, and mixed salad.  I didn't try any of the meat, nor the salad as the lettuce looked incredibly wilted.  The baked beans were very watery (although fairly spicy), and the mac and cheese wasn't really cheesy.  The mac was the best part of the savory food, but it was mostly just mushy noodles in congealed cheese sauce.  Others recommended generously applying condiments to the food to make it taste like something.

Scattered around the park they also set up a few bars with beer and wine.  They required photo id to get wine, and, I didn't bring my wallet with me.  Sigh.   I wasn't actually able to get any beverages while out in the park, as they bars didn't even have water, even though it was a hot, sunny day.  Inside the picnic grounds they had regular soda fountains, way-too-sweet lemonade, and tap water.  I made do with the orange soda and Mello Yellow from the soda fountain, somewhat out of nostalgia more than actual desire to drink the stuff.

Also at the lunch buffet were mediocre brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies were really soft, and not bad, although, not really any better than a Soft Batch Chips Ahoy.  I also discovered ice cream freezers near the soda machines that ... yes, had frozen treats!  I'm pretty sure most of my co-workers never noticed this.  You know I can't resist ice cream, so I eagerly dug into the selections: Outshine Bars (just popsicles, I skipped these, they also looked freezer burned), Wonka Push Up Pops (icy, not really creamy, I have no idea if these are "ice cream" or "sorbet" or what, plus it was a really strange flavor ... I think it was supposed to be cherry?), and mini Drumsticks (Lil' Drums).  Now, I haven't been super impressed with Drumsticks in the past, but after all this fairly awful lunch, it was quite welcome.  Plus, the mini ones are adorable!  Sure, the ice cream wasn't that creamy, the cone a bit soggy, the scattering of nuts insufficient, but, I enjoyed it more than anything else in my meal.

But, I wasn't there for the lunch.  Or, perhaps, not even for the rides.  When I say all the concession stands were closed that is a slight lie.  They did have a single popcorn stand open, and really pushed the popcorn on us every single time we'd walk by.  They also brought it around whenever they saw groups standing around.  They really wanted us to eat that popcorn.  Of course we eventually tried it, even though Ojan scoffed at it as he took a box full, "it isn't even freshly popped!".  It was ridiculously salty, not exactly fresh, worse than mass-produced chain movie theater popcorn, yet ... addicting, due to the salt level I guess.  And recall how I had no water?  This didn't leave me the happiest person.

But there was one more stand open: the funnel cake stand.  Our event organizer made sure of it.  I may or may not have been there for the funnel cake alone.

Funnel Cake with "Everything".

Where I grew up, we had fried dough, not funnel cake.  Similar, but different in a few key ways: fried dough has much less surface area exposed to the oil, so you get less fried-ness.  It is also made with yeasted, risen dough rather than batter, so it is doughier.  Which I prefer.  But, a good funnel cake is still good (like the one our pastry chef makes at my office!).  I mean, it is still deep fried dough after all.

But sadly, this was not a good funnel cake.  It was impressive ... in its size.  But it was way too oily, way too fried, and the oil tasted stale.  I really, really did not like the funnel cake.  Luckily for me, there was much more to this funnel cake than just the funnel cake itself.

Where I grew up, fried dough was always topped with butter, cinnamon, and powdered sugar, or perhaps some bavarian cream if you were being crazy.  And at Great America, you can just get powdered sugar.  Or you can add chocolate sauce, caramel, whipped cream, strawberries, or ice cream.  Or all of it, which is how the server suggested it.  I have never heard of ice cream on funnel cake.  That is just ... odd.  But ... why not?

The ice cream was soft serve, offered in vanilla, chocolate, or swirl.  It was classic soft serve, pretty tasty, and my favorite part of this ridiculous creation.  The chocolate sauce was just regular Hershey syrup, from a squirt bottle, thin and watery.  The caramel was totally lost.  The whipped cream came from a can, standard.  And, the strawberries were mostly just gooey syrup, crazy sweet, but actually quite tasty with the whipped cream and ice cream.

Ojan and I shared a funnel cake with "everything", and didn't finish the funnel cake part since neither of us liked it.  But a few hours later, bored with the rides and popcorn, we returned for another ... sans the funnel cake.

I asked for just an ice cream sundae, and was told they didn't have them.  I explained, "just the ice cream, strawberries, chocolate sauce, caramel, and whipped cream", and was again told that they couldn't do that.  I persevered, and ordered "a funnel cake with everything ... except the funnel cake".  Now, that worked.  Our second sundae was less satisfying, I think just because we were a bit sugared out at that point.  But, if you go to Great America, I recommend it that way.  The funnel cake just isn't good on its own.

Read More...