Trip to New Orleans

I went to New Orleans for my birthday and had cake every single night.  This Baked Alaska from Antoine's was by far my favorite dessert of the trip! I wish I took photos of the inside but it was so perfectly sweet, fluffy and creamy.

Antoines in the oldest restaurant in the city, and completely haunted.  It has so many beautiful rooms each with their own stories.  This emerald green room was my favorite. 

My last meal in New Orleans was at the famous Commanders Palace, where we ate an amazing three course brunch while Jazz musicians played in the courtyard.   This Pecan Pie was my favorite!

Their strawberry short cake was pretty great too.



You can't go to New Orleans without eating at Cafe du Monde.
I had their begneits almost everyday. They are my favorite! 

The Bun Shop

Last week I went to The Bun Shop where the desserts are a big part of the experience.  The on the left is the Custard Bun, which is a sweet version of the standard bun, filled with custard and topped with salted caramel sauce, sitting on popcorn. It was delicious, but I could do without the popcorn.  On the right is their Fried Oreos with green tea ice cream.  Its impossible to go wrong with oreos, they're amazing, but I would have paired them with vanilla ice cream. 

Salt & Straw

This Summer I have been craving ice cream more than ever and have discovered so many new companies!  The most exciting one so far has been Salt & Straw, a Portland based artisan ice cream shop. I love the homemade look of the packaging and the changing seasonal flavor options, they are so unique.  Most importantly, the quality of this ice cream is SO amazing.  The flavor shown above is the Sea Salt w/ Caramel Ribbons. So good.

 Clockwise: Ricotta Honey Lemon w/ Walnut Lace Cookies,  Pear w/ Blue Cheese, Freckled Woodblock Chocolate,  Olive Oil.

This flavor was my favorite! Almond Brittle w/ Salted Ganache. It's the perfect combo of creamy and crunchy.

Arlington Club

 

While in New York for the holidays I stopped by the recently opened Arlington Club for some drinks and desserts.  I love ALL of the restaurants by the Tao Group so I was extremely excited to see their new steakhouse.  The space was so beautiful and the food looked amazing, I definitely have to go back for dinner.  This was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar which was served with milk popcorn ice cream.  It was so good!  It was like a Reese's version of the ABC Kitchen sundae. 

This Sticky Date Pudding was to die for!! It's not something I would normally order, but it was exceptional.  This blurry photo doesn't do it any justice.  It was served with ginger ice cream, kumquat toffee, and was topped with amazing crunchy candied nuts. 

Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich

 Milk is one of my favorite dessert spots in LA, and definitely one of the best (if not THE best) for real ice cream.  I've been a few too many times, and every time I have to make by own ice cream sandwich because their cookies are insanely good. 

This one was made of two walnut chocolate chip cookies and Nutella flavored ice cream.  I'm not exaggerating when I say this was hands down the creamiest ice cream I've ever had.  Theres no way to describe it other than perfection.

I also had to try this Ooey Gooey cookie because, well, look at it.

This might be in the lead for my favorite LA cookie.  It tasted like a dark brownie batter with a hint of cinnamon.  I could have eaten twelve. 

Deluca's Coppa Stracciatella

I recently stopped in to Deluca's in Glendale and was instantly mesmerized by their desserts. I had never had a Coppa Stracciatella before so I wasn't sure what to expect - I was greatly surprised. 

This frozen dessert was like a fancy ice cream sundae.  The vanilla cream was cold but not solid like ice cream, it was an amazing consistency.  The bottom layer was a thick chocolate sauce, and the top layer was coco powder and praline hazelnuts.  Overall it was incredible, smooth and crunch always wins!

Little Buddha

The desserts at Little Buddah in Las Vegas were all amazing! This chocolate lava cake was perfect, warm, dark and oozing with filling.

This was their twist on bananas foster, which was incredible.  Anything deep fried is always that much better.  The spring roll design was a great touch.

Tate's Ice Cream Sandwich

While in Southampton I had to stop in Tate's bakery and grab a fresh bag of my all time favorite cookies.

While there I discovered some new treats - ice cream and ice cream sandwiches!

The sandwich was amazing! The cookies were super fresh and a little gooey, which is unusual since the cookies are usually crisp.  It was so flavorful and super refreshing on this 90 degree day.

While I was roaming around the bakery I caught a glimpse of Kathleen King, the creator of Tate's.  I panicked and instantly chased her around the cookie table to introduce myself.  She was so sweet, exactly how I imagined her to be.  My hero.

Big Gay Ice Cream

I have been following the Big Gay Ice Cream truck on Twitter for a while so I was super excited when I actually made it down to their store.

Everyone who knows me knows that Mister Softee is my absolute favorite soft serve of all time.  BREAKING NEWS: This might have replaced it. 

I ordered a Salty Pimp which was freshly made in front of me with vanilla soft serve, dulce de leche sauce, sea salt, chocolate shell... AND...

... a NUTELLA filled cone.  Perfectly perfect in every way.

Sprinkles Ice Cream

The famous Sprinkles Cupcakes opened their new Ice Cream parlor this week, and obviously it has been packed everyday. Unfortunately I allowed myself to wait in the TWO HOUR line to see what all the fuss was about. Sadly, I was not impressed.

 

The store itself is very minimalist, but the flavors and sundaes seemed to be exciting and unique.

However, the exciting flavors like Peanut Butter Cup, or Capt'n Crunch were not offered at this time. Not only was that disappointing but the actual menu was physically in a place that was blocked by the masses of customers so everyone ordering had to have the servers recite all the options. Incase the wait wasn't long enough..

The TWO girls scooping the ice cream had very interesting methods of building the sundaes and sandwiches. Unfortunately I saw them throw out the cupcake bottoms once the tops were pulled off. It was like Seinfeld all over again.

A Red Velvet ice cream sandwich, with two cupcake tops and their Red Velvet ice cream.

A rather flavorless Red Velvet cone with Red Velvet ice cream and Rocky Road.

This mini cone might have been the savior. At just $1 this cone held more flavor than the other, and this portion of Rocky Road was perfect. The flavor was good, but not any better than Ben & Jerry's.

The Sprinkles Sundae

A double chocolate Sprinkles cupcake cut in half with a scoop of Red Velvet ice cream in the middle. This flavor cupcake is usually my favorite, but for some reason it tasted old. The ice cream was fine, but just tasted like vanilla, and not a special vanilla.

I didn't try these other goodies but they looked good. Overall I was completely underwhelmed, and honestly pissed. I expected so much more from Sprinkles! If you're going to eat real ice cream go to Milk or Sweet Rose. Maybe when Sprinkles has all their kinks worked out, like having a visible descriptive menu, serving the unique flavors promised on their website and staffing more than two people on a weekend night, I might give them a second chance.

Little Dom's Ice Cream Sundae

Little Dom's has again proven itself to be superior to Dominick's. This gelato sundae was TO DIE FOR. The vanilla ice cream and whipped cream were both best of quality, but the hazelnut chocolate sauce is what made this so incredible. It was like a dark, hot Nutella. We licked that dish clean.

The Penthouse's Banana Split

I was very excited when I saw a Banana Split on the menu of The Penthouse at The Huntley Hotel, but was very confused when it arrived. I suppose it was a modern take on an old classic. The ice cream flavors were tasty, and the crispies hidden in the chocolate sauce were great, but something was off. Maybe it was the marshmallows that replaced the typical whipped cream, or maybe it was the tiny berries hidden throughout. It was good, but I doubt I'll order this again.

Izakaya's Mochi Ice Cream & Chocolate Molten Cake

I always worry desserts at Japanese restaurants will be subpar, but this Mochi Ice Cream platter from Izakaya was not only super tasty, but beautiful! I loved all the colors and flavors, it felt very tropical.

The Molten Chocolate cake, however, was my favorite. It was perfectly done, warm and rich with vanilla ice cream.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie

This Peanut Butter Cup Brownie from Vinoteque was really great. The brownie itself wasn't anything too special, but the peanut butter ice cream was. It sat on top of whipped cream with caramel sauce and chopped peanuts. Everything at this restaurant was great, I love Tapas, and I will definitely be going back.

Scoops Westside

I love ice cream shops with non-traditional flavors, and thats just what Scoops is! I love their Brown Bread flavor (shown on the top right). I've had this before, and it was just as good as I remembered. It tasted like cereal, has a smooth creamy consistency and crunchy pieces which makes it perfect. I also tried the Hazelnut Tea (top left) which was good, pretty standard hazelnut, and Chocolate Apricot (shown under both scoops) which was dairy free and a little bizarre. I say stick to the Brown Bread, you can't go wrong!

Twinkie Ice Cream

When you see "Twinkie" as an ice cream flavor, you don't turn it down. At Herrell's in Huntington, they had many intriguing flavors to choose from, but I think I picked their best. Twinkies are truly underrated, I think I'll start mixing them into my ice cream more often!

Frosted Cupcakery

I've been wanting to try Frosted Cupcakery forever (mainly because I knew they had cupcakes stuffed with ice cream!) So I was very happy when I finally went, because these cupcakes are really something special.


Red Velvet with Vanilla Ice Cream - The cream cheese frosting was exceptional, the cupcake seemed to have been muted in flavor due to freezing, but it was still so good, and of course, adorable looking.


Hi-Top Mini Cakes - Red Velvet. I Love these! Don't let the small size fool you, these are packed with flavor. This was so good, and would be great to bring to a party.


Chocolate with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - Always my favorite! This was jam packed with fresh flavor, the ice cream itself is great, and the thick ganache icing really took it over the top.

MILK

When I think of Summer, I think of Ice Cream. And when I think of Ice Cream, I think of MILK. They have amazing homemade Ice Cream, Gelato, Bars, Bon Bons and an enormous selection of baked goods. They also have real food, but who cares about that?

This Cupcake Sundae was too cute to pass up. The vanilla/cream cheese icing was delicious...

...and the chocolate cake inside was great!

I love "Make Your Own" Ice Cream Sandwiches, we tried two: Mint Chocolate Chip with Chocolate Cookies, and Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip Cookies. The ice cream is amazing, but the cookies are INSANE.

What I love about MILK is that they are open late! Great to go to after dinner.