Trader Joe’s has a new snack item: Coconut Bonbons ($3.99). They are evil. After trying a free sample, I couldn’t resist taking home a tub, even though my basket was already full of treats. Once I popped the lid, there was no stopping until every last moist and chewy chocolate covered ball of coconut was gone.
Know what you’re looking at? FREE CUPCAKES. Yep, with no strings attached. Yesterday, the new owners of Heavenly Cupcake hosted a free tasting party, where fans sampled the newest flavors and voted for their favorite. The winning cupcake will become flavor of the month.
Ok, so I know that technically, there’s nothing magical about mochi. As a snacky dessert item, it really couldn’t get more simple. It’s really just sweet rice flour, sugar, water, more sugar (in the form of corn syrup) and whatever is in or on it. The logical part of my brain gets that this basically means it’s a marshmallow, but the magic-loving, 12-year-old lobe is totally enchanted by mochi. I’m always on the hunt for good ones, like these coconut and chocolate versions. Find out more, including where I got them, after the jump.
For me, eating donuts is like time travel. As soon as the glaze hits me, I enter a nostalgic time warp where I experience the same level of joy as I did as a kid, munching on a donut and getting sprinkles all over the back seat of my parents’ car. In San Diego, donuts aren’t nearly as plentiful as my homeland, but there are some gems. And last weekend, I was lucky enough to have a tour guide to one of the longest-standing fried dough emporiums in the county: Star Dust Donuts.
I’ve been on a bit of a pancake kick lately. Typically my increase in pancake consumption coincides with the end of strawberry season (and, with it, crepe-making season). Luckily, there are lots of places to satisfy cravings for pancakes in San Diego, including the circus-big banana chocolate ‘cakes at The Tractor Room, blueberry and lemon-curd topped ricotta pancakes at Whisknladle, and Snooze, which has nine different options, ranging from “plain ol’ buttermilk” to red velvet.
Good ice cream comes down to a few factors: lots of fat, and as little air as possible. Premium ice cream has about 10-15% fat, while Lappert’s has 16-18% fat. Sure, this makes the final product more calorie rich, but if you’re already making the drive out to Poway, you might as well indulge.
One of my favorite perks about my gig at San Diego Magazine is the opportunity to try new restaurants and indulge in sweets. At a recent photo shoot for the Cookie Crazed page in the October issue, several of the bakers who had cookies featured sent over a box full of different flavors, which meant there was a whole lot of taste testing to do.
One such baker was Kuba Kreations, whose top three flavors inspired this Cookie Poll. Recently, I had the good fortune of having a second box of cookies from Erin, the baker behind the cookies, fall into my lap. Along with the tasty lemon lavender cookies, there were some new flavors, the best of which were Chocolate Fleur de Sel and Pina Colada.
Even though I’ve been living in San Diego for over a year, there are still some sweets on my best hits list that I’m looking for. Two such items are my favorite Chinese bakery treats: coconut mochi and coconut buns. In my former home, I was lucky enough to live a short streetcar ride from a bustling Chinatown, with multiple bakeries, offering these items for as little as 3 for $1. I get misty-eyed just thinking about walking out the door with a paper bag stuffed with chewy, buttery, coconutty goodness and have been searching for the SoCal equivalent. So far, the closest contender is Jasmine Express in Kearny Mesa, which I stumbled upon completely by accident.
San Diego’s food truck scene has reached critical mass. It seems like every weekend, there is at least one food truck event, ranging from small gatherings, to full-blown festivals. Hoping to find something in the middle, I headed to 57 Degrees, for their monthly gathering of food trucks, which happens on the third Friday of every month. Fifteen food trucks set up shop in the parking lot, including a few options for sweets.
After gorging myself on savory items from The Gathering Spot, I almost didn’t have enough room for dessert, but leaving without something sweet just wasn’t an option. The Sweet Treats Truck had several tempting options, including peanut butter brownies, red velvet whoopie pies, and eclairs, but once I laid eyes on the German chocolate cupcakes, my dessert dilemma was solved.
Ben and Jerry’s must be reading my mind. On the same day I was hit with an intense craving for macaroon ice cream from Ed’s Real Scoop in Toronto, I spied the next best thing: Fair Goodness Cake, a new ice cream flavor from Ben and Jerry’s that has the same killer combination of chocolate and coconut.