Showing posts with label Foodie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foodie. Show all posts
Anyone else feel like January is like... the trial version of the New Year Resolutions? We get so hyped up on our goals and super inspired... yet next thing we know it's mid January and we feel like epic failures for not "staying on track".
I know I struggled A LOT with this, especially since I'm so fixated on doing the things I didn't get to do in 2019 because of all the postpartum depression and general depression that happened and robbed me of my time. But I'm trying really hard to remind myself that any step forward is still a step forward. No matter how many things I do or don't tick off my "to-do" list for that day/week/month.
I have to remind myself that this is a progress, not a destination.
I know I struggled A LOT with this, especially since I'm so fixated on doing the things I didn't get to do in 2019 because of all the postpartum depression and general depression that happened and robbed me of my time. But I'm trying really hard to remind myself that any step forward is still a step forward. No matter how many things I do or don't tick off my "to-do" list for that day/week/month.
I have to remind myself that this is a progress, not a destination.
Happy year of The Pig!
This year we went and joined the Lunar New Year celebration like we did last year.
Granted it had been a few months since we were last at Olive Garden but I figure: I've never actually expressed my love for Olive Garden on this blog before!
I guess long background short is I use to take myself in lunch dates here when I lived in Cali and wanted time to be alone. It's always been my comfort place and my comfort food. So OG holds a bit of meaning for me.
Earlier in March we took a trip to Dallas cause I wanted to check out the Easter collection at LUSH and we were planning on heading to the Dallas Farmers Market but ended up going to another mall instead. Whomp. Some day I'll make it to that Farmers Market!
Tbh I wish I could spend more time in Dallas, there's so much to see and do and discover there!
We did head to my favorite mall and I saw that Sugarfina had successfully finished moving into their bigger store. So I made a small haul purchase.
But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about the Bunny Bark!
I'm not Chinese, even though most people who see/meet me think I am. Especially when my hair is long and dyed. Sorry to disappoint, I'm full Filipino!
But my mom has always had a habit of giving us red envelops for Chinese New Year growing up and I even have my own money tree from when I was a kid that she made for me and my brother.
I've never actually celebrated Chinese New Year or saw any real life celebrations because I was in Florida for 5 years and pffft they have ZERO diversity or any notion to welcome other cultures. Surprisingly not even the China Pavilion in EPCOT celebrated! Though I saw this year DisneyLAND did throw a celebration party and it looked epic.
I was scrolling through IG (as I do, a lot --- #shamelessplug follow our IG @pxa.hxj) and I saw an Asian Market plaza we recently discovered was doing weekend celebrations and Sunday was the last day.
So, we went!
I love Boba/Bubble Tea.
It took me a few years to figure out which ones were "safe" and a few more years for me to be brave enough to venture into new flavors and combinations.
And through out the almost 2 years Bubba and I have been together we've tried a number of new places in our area, I think this is the 6th one. And now I haven't written about all of them --- though I probably should.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the menu but I came across this place while looking for Boba in a lightbulb, like the kinds you see all over Instagram from LA. And it turns out this place has a selection of Snow Ice and Eggette Sundae's as well! I've never tried an Eggette but have always wanted to and I've tried Snow Ice about 3 times when I lived in NorCal but I don't really remember much of it. Just that it was soft and refreshing.
I saw this place had a special Boba flavor and special heart shaped as well as pink colored Boba and Jellies for Valentine's Day. The special flavor was a type of Rose and last time I tried that it turned out to taste more like perfume so I skipped it; instead I opted for the Strawberry Mango Lime Refresher with the heart shaped Jelly.
Bubba got his usual go to --- Coconut Smoothie which is always so freakin refreshing no matter where we get it from. I just wish there was a jelly or something that would go well with it.
It's hard to see, but there really were heart shaped Jellies in my drink! They didn't have any particular flavor and after the drink was almost finished they were harder to suck up through the straw. I ended up having to rip open the top part and scoop them out.
This place also had a number of snacks that I'm really looking forward to trying! I got the Coconut Shrimp this time and it was amaaaazing! I don't remember how much these were but they were much less than what you'd pay at a steakhouse, that's for sure! And they were just as, if not better.
Looking forward to the next time we get to pop by here to try more of their snacks and drinks!
There's also a cute Ramen shop it's attached to though I don't remember the name now, but I'm also looking forward to trying that place out as well!
Royal Tea4654 S Cooper St
It took me a few years to figure out which ones were "safe" and a few more years for me to be brave enough to venture into new flavors and combinations.
And through out the almost 2 years Bubba and I have been together we've tried a number of new places in our area, I think this is the 6th one. And now I haven't written about all of them --- though I probably should.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the menu but I came across this place while looking for Boba in a lightbulb, like the kinds you see all over Instagram from LA. And it turns out this place has a selection of Snow Ice and Eggette Sundae's as well! I've never tried an Eggette but have always wanted to and I've tried Snow Ice about 3 times when I lived in NorCal but I don't really remember much of it. Just that it was soft and refreshing.
I saw this place had a special Boba flavor and special heart shaped as well as pink colored Boba and Jellies for Valentine's Day. The special flavor was a type of Rose and last time I tried that it turned out to taste more like perfume so I skipped it; instead I opted for the Strawberry Mango Lime Refresher with the heart shaped Jelly.
Bubba got his usual go to --- Coconut Smoothie which is always so freakin refreshing no matter where we get it from. I just wish there was a jelly or something that would go well with it.
It's hard to see, but there really were heart shaped Jellies in my drink! They didn't have any particular flavor and after the drink was almost finished they were harder to suck up through the straw. I ended up having to rip open the top part and scoop them out.
This place also had a number of snacks that I'm really looking forward to trying! I got the Coconut Shrimp this time and it was amaaaazing! I don't remember how much these were but they were much less than what you'd pay at a steakhouse, that's for sure! And they were just as, if not better.
Looking forward to the next time we get to pop by here to try more of their snacks and drinks!
There's also a cute Ramen shop it's attached to though I don't remember the name now, but I'm also looking forward to trying that place out as well!
Royal Tea4654 S Cooper St
Ste 340
Arlington, TX 76017
Instagram; @royaltea_usa
I thought writing this entry would be easy... but as I was (endlessly) scrolling through my photos of food of 2017 I realized... this isn't going to be as easy as I thought.
In my mind 2017 was divided between the last bit of my life in Florida and the beginning bit of my life in Texas; through Ubereats I discovered a lot of food I fell in love with before I left Florida and through DoorDash and adventures with Bubba there's a lot of food I discovered in Texas. But I tried to narrow it down to the foods I would go back to. So while this isn't a complete list of foods I found to be my favs this is a list of foods I loved enough to buy more than twice.
Let's start with what I discovered in Florida:
On a trip to Kohls I couldn't decide what to eat and saw a Sushi place listed somewhere in the plaza we were in and suddenly, I wanted Sushi.
So we set out to find this Sushi Nikko place!
We started with the "Summer Meets Winter" roll which had a lot of really good stuff in it and was topped off with Coconut shavings. Here's the actual description:
Crab Meat, Eel inside, Mango, Avocado, Coconut Sprinkle on Top
And it was goooood! I don't know what that sauce on it was but it was a nice balance for all the different flavors going on in the roll.
I had debated between getting Udon on a Bento Box and ended up getting the Teriyaki Beef Bento Box in the end and I absolutely regret nothing!
The Gyoza's were PERFECT! I'm so sad I only got two and the Ginger Dressing on the salad was so satisfying! It's crazy --- I typically don't like Ginger, at all. But I love love love Ginger Dressing at Sushi places! Everything about this plate was just amazing. I loved it all!
I'm glad my boyfriend enjoyed it as well since Sushi isn't his first choice when it comes to finding a place to eat lol. I hope to go back and try the Udon next!
I don't remember where I came across Dragon's Breath from --- but I'm gonna assume Instagram as that's where I come across 90% of my food discoveries. As far as I know though there were only primarily places in SoCal to get this (as it seems like that's suddenly the hub for getting the newest types of snacks, lucky them!) so when I saw a kiosk at the mall here selling them on Black Friday I didn't waste much time picking one up.
It was actually really hard to snap a photo of the smoke coming off of it! And sadly that effect didn't last too long.
They're dumped into I believe Nitrogen and flash frozen. So touching one is like touching a frozen pole, stuff like that freaks me out so I used the pokey stick. My boyfriend however didn't care too much and just started popping them in his mouth.
The crunch to them was kinda painful in that "tooth freeze" kind of way but you did blow out smoke as you bit down on it. It was a cool effect even if you couldn't yourself see yourself do it. And even if it was just for a short time.
The taste overall for this snack however I didn't care too much for... I thought they were cereal balls and my boyfriend said they were Cheetos. I think I read somewhere they ARE Cheetos of some sort... despite the bright colors?
Strange.
(Also strange, I'm listening to relaxing sounds on YouTube right now that claim to rid you of headaches and anxiety and my headache is slowly fading, uhm has this practice always been a thing?!)
It was a pretty fun experience but not something I'd make a habit of doing. But glad I could cross it off my foodie bucket list!
Have you ever or ever wanted to try Dragon's Breath?
Scrolling through Instagram foodie's feeds can really make you hungry (I have one too @herloveforfood, I need to revive that blog) and can help you stumble on some really cool places.
The idea of liquid nitrogen ice cream making in front of your face has been on floating around and typically I see places like this in LA or Vegas... somewhere along the West Coast so I was surprised to find this (along with other LA like eats) in Texas!
At Sub Zero Ice Cream (can we just take a moment to appreciate the name) you start by picking a base, then a flavor and any additional toppings you want in it. I wish I had taken a pic of the menu because there were a lot of options to choose from!
I went with a non dairy base. Strawberry flavored. Mixed in with Marshmallows, Sprinkles and Gummie Bears.
They also had premade flavors they made up themselves you can choose from or you can make your own. The boyfriend got some kind of Tropical one with Gummie Bears mixed in.
Then the magic happens!
The whole process took less time than I thought so I wasn't really able to catch too many pics. But next time I'll be ready!
I also got a Strawberry on top :)
I wasn't able to catch a pic of my boyfriend's cause he pretty much ate half of his by the time I was done taking pictures of mine. I couldn't help it, mine just looked so... pretty!
The texture was somewhere between frozen yogurt and custard. The Marshmallows were frozen and so so good. I love frozen mallows!
I'm definitely coming back here again and trying something out of my comfort zone next time!
I usually only post weekly recaps on my personal blog but this week I had a few accomplishments I'm excited about!
The weeks haven't been that exciting since I got back from Texas, the reason being that Bubba and I have a huge Disney World vacation coming up so we're trying to save as much money as we can in the meantime. I'm super excited for this week with him at Disney, especially since he's never been to a Disney park before! Seeing his reaction to everything is what I'm absolutely looking forward to the most!
So on to the things that happened this passed week!
The weeks haven't been that exciting since I got back from Texas, the reason being that Bubba and I have a huge Disney World vacation coming up so we're trying to save as much money as we can in the meantime. I'm super excited for this week with him at Disney, especially since he's never been to a Disney park before! Seeing his reaction to everything is what I'm absolutely looking forward to the most!
So on to the things that happened this passed week!
For starters, I got my Yelp Elite badge back!
I lost it last year... my previous relationship was one that held me back from a lot of different things, one of those things being a lot of my goals and things I worked so hard to accomplish. So for me to rebuild my status and to be accepted back into Yelp Elite this year was a huge deal for me! I'm so happy and proud of myself! Now to take back the rest of my previous accomplishments!
I really hate the way blogger formats these pictures! Ugh.
I fell in love with a few new things this week; one being the Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake snack from Graze and these 3 wax melts from Bath & Body Works! I just noticed these three scents aren't sold on the site, I picked these up at a store when I was in Texas earlier this month so I'm hoping I'll find these in stores at least. The Lavender Vanilla has been my go to jam for both the melt, the bubble bath, candle and pillow mist these last few weeks and has an amazing job of keeping me calm. Which is highly needed as my roommate's cat is driving me freakin nuts.
I started making this salmon over veggies again! This was a favorite dish I would make last year and I forgot all about it recently! So glad I remembered about it cause it's so freakin good! My grocery store has deals sometimes on the veggies or the salmon for buy one get one free so that's always helpful; definitely going to miss those deals when I move to Texas! I actually don't know what grocery stores there are in Texas.
In FFXIV news; I got my Weaver to 60 finally. I also had a friend make me the ilvl190 Ironworks gear for it (which is the highest level gear you can have atm for crafters) and I got all 4 of my books for the craft. I hit 50 on my Culinarian and I'm using Moogle beast tribe quests to take it to 60. After that I'm not sure what else to level as specialist. Bubba has Leatherworker, Alchemy and Goldsmith as his. Our server is pretty small so mats and stuff are hard to find which is why we both level different crafters and gathering classes together. He has Mining and I'm getting my Botany to 60 hopefully by the end of today \o/
I may had not done much this last week but I sure do feel accomplished and I mean, that counts for something... right?
We also got our MagicBand in the mail this week! I'm so excited! I also like the new look of these bands and the fact you can pop out the middle and put them in key chains is cool. I opted for the red one this time and Bubba got the yellow.
I guess this week will be spent leveling things and packing for the trip. Also tidying and purging some stuff because once this trip is over that means moving day is going to be up next!
I'm just gonna put this out there --- I'm not a huge fan of Oreo's. The only Oreo's I'll eat are the Lemon ones; I don't care much for the original. Something about the cookie just makes my mouth feel icky.
But I am a sucker for Limited Edition anything and when it comes to food, I'M THERE! So when I heard that Oreo's was coming out with a Peeps flavored cookie I figured... why not. I'm more likely to eat/try the golden cookies over the chocolate ones and I like marshmallows... haven't decided if I like PEEPS themselves just yet. Working on it!
I'm a sucker for pretty packaging. Pretty packaging + Spring? Utter weakness. I love all things Spring and Easter so just the packaging on this thing alone was enough to catch my attention from like 3 isles over.
I had a bit of expectations going into this --- I was hoping that the creme filling would either taste or have the consistency of Marshmallow. I mean, it can't be hard right? Lots of cool things are done with Marshmallow's these days! I went into this hearing mixed reviews --- some people loved it and others really really hated it.
The size is that of your average cookie, obviously.
Biting into it, I didn't taste anything. Like, I literally tasted nothing. The consistency of the creme filling has that same sort of gritty texture the original cookies have except this layer felt a lot more thin. Maybe it's just the food coloring or maybe something in it cause it to change but the creme filling as far as I could tell didn't really exist. With that said there wasn't a taste to this at all either. It felt like the creme was being over powered by the cookie and the cookie didn't have a strong taste to begin with.
So while everyone is there YAY Or NEY about this I'm kinda just BLAH. I can't form a real opinion on something I don't feel had a taste. I mean I guess I could say it sucks but that's a little unfair since besides saying "I didn't taste anything" I have no other opinion on the matter.
Either way; I'm glad I tried these and gave these a shot but maybe next time I'll just stuff my own PEEPS into the cookie and enjoy it that way instead.
Have any of you tried it? What are your thoughts?
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