Dessert | fabliss

Whipp’d LA | West Hollywood, CA

so katy. not only is she my best friend, she is also my favorite person to eat dessert with! our common ground: we eat less of our dinner to make sure we had room for dessert. and! we have dessert with every meal. #strong

she introduced me to whipp’d la since it has non-dairy options! (for those who are lactose intolerant and still love to eat ice cream).

the dole pineapple whip and vanilla swirl… one of those things that just changes your life forever. (i’ll give you a moment to absorb that statement)

dole whip (the kind you get at disneyland near indiana jones) is delicious pineapple ice cream/fro-yo with a fluffy, light texture. the vanilla is so good, you wouldn’t realize it’s non dairy. they are so good together. especially in a freshly made waffle cone. the vanilla is a must so that it cuts some of the tartness from the pineapple. trust me on this.

i’ve tried nothing else here. since the pineapple vanilla swirl is such a winner.

service: obviously awesome
parking: small parking lot in the back (entrance off of fairfax)! if there aren’t available spaces, good luck with metered street parking.
overall: a gem in la that i don’t think gets enough attention. i recommend this place to anyone and everyone. enjoy!

Whipp’d LA
7901 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Neighborhood: West Hollywood

By fabliss | November 26th, 2014 | Dessert, Food, Restaurants | 0 Comments

il Laboratorio Del Gelato | New York City

our awesome friend, lauren recommended that we stop by her favorite gelato shop, il laboratorio del gelato (near katz’s). after trying a few samples, we decided to get a scoop of the amaretto crunch and blackberry.

bomb. so bomb. amaretto crunch is so delicious. we got the blackberry since we thought it was a nice balance between creamy and tart.

ice cream: scoops are on the smaller side… but still worth it in my opinion. get the amaretto crunch. you will not regret it.
ambience: very open space. white walls accented with orange and blue. large windows with lots of natural light. limited seating along the windows.
service: staff is good. during peak times, you have to grab a number and wait to be called. they are pretty efficient at servicing people even though everyone is trying to sample different flavors.
overall: great gelato. we will be coming back, fo sho.

il Laboratorio Del Gelato
188 Ludlow St
b/t Houston St & Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

By fabliss | September 23rd, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, New York | 0 Comments

Momofuku Milk Bar | New York City

last time we were in new york city, we tried momofuku’s ramen and pork bun and fell in love. after that experience, we put momofuku milk bar on our must try list!

i will be honest and say that we did not do any homework before walking into the relatively new location in midtown west. first question to our cashier: “sorry, this is our first time here… what is crack pie?” response: “a gooey pie made of butter, sugar, eggs, cream. it is so addicting!” done! we will have one slice please!

second question: besides crack pie, what else do we absolutely need to try right now? soft serve! whaaat?! cereal milk soft serve with cornflake crunch. whaaaaaaat??!

cup of cereal milk soft serve ($4.50) with cornflake crunch ($0.75) – yes, just like everyone else has claimed… its like eating a bowl of cereal. but! imagine, eating the coldest bowl of cereal in your life. sounds good, right?! welp! we were fans and would highly recommend this. if you are a texture person, you will definitely love the cornflake crunch. they top your cup with it and add some to the bottom of your cup. nice touch.
crack pie by the slice ($5.50) – this is pretty darn good. however, it is verrrrrry sweet. (this is coming from a person who loves sweets… take it how you want to) i would recommend coffee. or! get the soft serve… it helps cut the sweet.

milk bar is good. we will definitely be back to try other things on the menu (anyone want to split a whole birthday cake with me? it looks amazing and i have to have it!) if you had to get one thing though, i would get the soft serve… that’s just me though.

Momofuku Milk Bar
15 W 56th St
New York, NY 10019

By fabliss | September 21st, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, New York, Travel | 0 Comments

Georgetown Cupcakes | Los Angeles, CA

kyle is not a cupcake guy. he hates sprinkles (the frosting is way too sweet). he doesn’t like magnolia bakery (cupcakes are dry). he’s more of a nothing bundt cakes kinda guy. so when he came home and told me that he had the best cupcake at georgetown cupcakes… i was shocked.

he fell in love with the chocolate ganache cupcake… because it’s uber chocolatey. very chocolatey. (i asked him why since i don’t eat chocolate myself… this was all i got. that it was chocolatey.)

i ordered the vanilla birthday cupcake and coconut cupcake. oh the vanilla birthday… it was everything i wanted it to be. the cake was moist and the buttercream frosting was a nice touch. not too sweet. since i’m not really a frosting kinda person, i had to take half of the frosting off even though i liked it (i think i’m a minority on this one).

the coconut cupcake was okay. cake is still moist and frosting was good. i just wasn’t crazy about it.

ambience: pretty spacious location. white walls. lots of natural light. when we stopped by, there was no line (the opposite of sprinkles… #overhyped). there are a few small tables inside if you would like to eat your cupcakes there.
parking: metered street parking.
service: friendly.
overall: these small cupcakes aren’t cheap. one cupcake will run you $3 (but i guess that is the going rate for gourmet cupcakes these days). i really liked the birthday cupcake. it’s a winner.

Georgetown Cupcakes
143 S Robertson Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048

By fabliss | September 10th, 2014 | Dessert, Food | 2 Comments

Blue Star Donuts | Portland, OR

we put blue star donuts on our list since we wanted to try their blueberry donut! we tried going here three times. first time was on national donut day… nope. they sold out and shut their doors by noon. second time, we couldn’t get into downtown since there was a parade. thank god our final attempt was a success since we stumbled upon their location in hawthorne!

since it was such an ordeal trying to go here, we decided to order a dozen donuts for 3 of us! boom.

good thing you get a little discount when you order a dozen. flavors available that day:

blueberry cake
dulce de leche hazelnut
raspberry cake
original glazed
blueberry bourbon basil
passionfruit with cocoa nib
apple fritter
lemon poppy
cinnamon vanilla sugar
widmer hefe citrus cake
chocolate almond ganache
real maple and bacon

blueberry basil… mmm. get ready for this to melt in your mouth, folks!

passionfruit with cocoa nib (above) was a lot more subtle than we expected. they liked it (i didn’t really eat this one since it was chocolate. i just licked some of the passionfruit glaze).

the polar opposite of the passionfruit one is the chocolate almond ganache since it is on the heavier side.

maple and bacon. this isn’t anything we haven’t had before but we did appreciate bacon bits instead of strips of bacon on our donut. well done.

cinnamon vanilla sugar donut (above) was very fluffy! compared to the rest, it is pretty plain but still a great donut. the blueberry cake is one of the favs. i want one now.

our absolute favorites:

blueberry cake / blueberry basil
raspberry cake

probably my favorite donuts. ever.

our least favorite:

dulce de leche too way too sweet.
widmer hefe citrus cake was meh.
apple fritter. we just weren’t fans. this was extremely heavy and sweet.

raspberry cake is awesome! so awesome.

notable: i’ve had a number of maple and bacon donuts just out of curiosity. this is my favorite. it is just very well done. love bacon bits (over strips of bacon), the donut itself is just great. with that said, it is not something i order on the regs but it is a must try if you haven’t had it already.

food: the donuts in general were awesome. glazed donuts were fluffy and melted in your mouth. the cake donuts were light. just quality donuts.
service: line moves quickly. can’t say any more than that since there was minimal interaction.
ambience: the location in hawthorne is not as cute as the one in downtown. both locations are very bright. clean white walls with a lot of natural light.
parking: pay and park on the street.
overall: we ended up getting donuts from here twice because we had to have the blueberry and raspberry donuts again. make sure you get a cup of coffee.

apple fritter (above) was heavy. lemon poppy (below) was not mind blowing.

i had high hopes for the citrus cake. unfortunately, i wasn’t a fan. dulce leche (below) was way too sweet.

last but not least, the original glazed (below). great donut.

side note. i know voodoo donuts is the famous donut establishment in portland because it has been featured on a number of food network shows etc. however, after looking at some of the donuts (captain crunch on a donut and oddly shaped donuts) and reading some reviews, it seemed like more of a tourist trap than a quality donut shop. so we decided to give blue star a try. if we had more time, we probably would’ve ended up trying voodoo. just wanted to throw that out there.

Blue Star Donuts
3549 SE Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97214

By fabliss | July 7th, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, Photography, Portland, Travel | 0 Comments

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