I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

What better way to cool off from the summer heat (hello tropical sun!) than these cold treats?

1. The speckles of spice in this chai coconut ice cream is mesmerizing.
2. I would have ice cream for breakfast or breakfast for ice cream any day, with this blueberry muffin ice cream.
3. A nutritious and fresh blackberry-acai sorbet to keep that beach body looking hot!
4. Super delicious and super guilt-free banana peanut butter soft-serve.
5. This isn't exactly ice cream, but here's another cheat: Avocado chocolate mousse.
6. A super decadent butter pecan ice cream.
7. William Sonoma's sweet and luscious dulce de leche ice cream.
8. A classic vanilla bean ice cream, perfect to top off a pie, cake, cobbler -anything, really.
9. This blueberry graham frozen yogurt is the epitome of a cold summer treat.
10. Tart and creamy rhubarb ice cream.
11. Take a trip to Japan with this matcha ice cream.
12. But a stop at Italy first with my all-time favorite gelato flavor: nutty pistachio!
13. And my dad's favorite: Coconut ice cream.
14. Lastly, top it all off with some of these goodies.

Lunch at Turkuaz

Char grilled prawn & beef, mixed bread & gavurdagi  salatasi

I haven’t really tried Turkish food before, but enjoyed my first time trying it at Turkuaz last weekend with my family. The restaurant was very homey and definitely had a uniquely Ottoman-inspired ambiance with its ocean colored walls and gem-colored chandeliers.

We started off with a few different wood-oven baked breads accompanied with various dips: babaganuc (a luscious mixture of char grilled aubergines, tomato, chili peppers with garlic and olive oil), gavurdagi salatasi (a fresh cucumber, tomato, walnut mixture tossed in pomegranate sauce), and, my favorite, zeytinyangli hummus (a creamy, garlicy hummus topped with pine nuts). We also had some ispankli penyirli borek, a bite-sized crispy triangle pastry filled with spinach and cheese.

For our mains, we ordered a variety of meat dishes to eat with our three different styles of rice: a buttery one sautéed with vermicelli a fragrant one cooked with pine nuts, spices, almonds and raisins; and a hearty village-style one of bourgul wheat with onions and spices. We ate this with char-grilled marinated king prawns and meat cubes, as well as some pan-grilled fillets of marinated fish topped with sliced almonds and paprika.

To finish off the flavorful and hearty meal, we had a creamy, chilled rice pudding and some baklava. The baklava was very sweet and nutty, with layers of filo pastry drizzled with honey on top of crushed pistachios.

Dessert: Rice pudding, baklava, turkish coffee & a turkish delight

Turkuaz
Jalan Gunawarman No. 32,
Kebayoran baru, Jakarta

Chicken + Mushroom Quesadillas

Excuse my nails! In desperate need of some nail polish remover!

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Taco seasoning (see Annie's Eats' version here)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Tortilla wraps

Recipe:

1. Sauté the onions and mushrooms with olive oil in a pan. 
2. Cut up the chicken breast into chunks and add them to the pan once the onions and mushrooms have softened.
3. When the chicken is cooked, add the taco seasoning and a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Move this to a bowl for the quesadilla filling.
4. Spread a bit less than half a cup of the filling onto one side of the tortilla wrap, sprinkle with some shredded cheese. You can add anything in this step, depending on what best suits your filling: corn, salsa, guacamole...
5. Fold the other half of the tortilla over into a quesadilla and grill for 2-3 minutes until the tortilla is slightly warm and crispy.

One Pot Wonder: Sausage + Mixed Veg Pasta

Pasta with 2 types of sausage + mixed veg

Ingredients:

• 4 sausages of your choice (I did 2 veal, 2 smoked brats) 
• 2 bell peppers (I did 1 red, 1 green)
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 6 button mushrooms
• 250g pasta (I did half a box of kamut pasta -high in protein!)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika

Recipe: (Serves 4)

1. Fill up your pan with water, add a generous amount of salt and bring it up to a boil. Whenever you cook pasta, the water should be as salty as the sea.
2. While waiting for the water to boil, slice up all the vegetables and sausages, and mince the garlic.
3. Put the pasta into the boiling water and cook it al dente (I cooked mine for just about 8-9 minutes, but keep checking for its firmness every 30 seconds or so after the 7 minute mark).
4. Drain the pasta and save a small cup of the starchy, salty water for later in case the pasta is too dry.
5. Empty the pan and, in the same pan, pour a bit of olive oil in and sauté the minced garlic.
6. Add the onions, peppers and mushrooms and keep mixing it around until it wilts and lets out some moisture.
7. Add the sausages and keep mixing around until everything is cooked through.
8. Add a pinch of salt, some freshly cracked black pepper and a few spoons of paprika. I also like to add a lot of chili flakes for some heat. Mix through.
9. Put the pasta back into the pot and mix until everything is evenly combined.
10. Serve it up!

Perfection In A Cone

Lomelinos glass (Lomelino´s Ice cream) from Linda Lomelino on Vimeo.

A hint for an upcoming post!

The Easiest Breakfast You'll Ever Make: Scrambled Eggs

Spinach scrambled egg with freshly cracked black pepper and garlic rubbed toast encrusted with sea salt

Scrambled eggs make a simple and nutritious breakfast that only takes seconds to whip up! The recipe itself is super obvious, but I attached a few tips below to get them perfect every time -not too dry, not too runny, just the right fluffiness and everything in between.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of water
• Handful of spinach
• 1 slice of toast
• Olive oil
• A few pinches of salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 1 clove of garlic

Recipe:

1. Coat a pan with some olive oil and put it on low heat.
2. Once the pan is hot, cut the spinach (and any other vegetables of your liking) up into chunks and toss it in. 
3. Crack the two eggs into a bowl and add a tablespoon of water (to make the eggs fluffier) and whisk together.
4. When the spinach has wilted, pour in the egg mixture and lightly scramble. The key is to go low and slow. Use the spatula to slowly and continuously keep pulling the eggs from the sides of the pan into the center of the pan so that it gradually scrambles.
5. Once the eggs have just cooked (no longer runny, not yet dry), add a pinch of sea salt and plate it up. Crack some black pepper on top.
6. Pour another tablespoon of olive oil into the pan and rub the toast in it so that it's evenly coated.
7. Let the toast heat up on both sides until slightly golden. 
8. Cut a garlic clove in the middle and rub the cut side over one side of the toast and sprinkle with some sea salt.

Modified version for Michael: 3 eggs with milk & cheese, 2 toasts and a glass of OJ!

Tips for the perfect scrambled eggs every time:

• Go low and slow so that you get a nicely soft curd.
• Stir often for smaller curds, or less often for larger curds.
• DO NOT use high heat -your eggs will quickly overcook and get hard. Pull the pan off the heat if the eggs start cooking too quickly.
• Be careful about overcooking! Take the eggs off the heat just a bit before they're complete set because they keep cooking through with the residual heat.
• Use a silicone spatula/wooden spoon (or better yet, chopsticks) to curdle the eggs.
• Add a tiny splash of water to make them fluffier, or milk/cream to make them creamier.
• When whisking the eggs, whisk hard to incorporate more air, making the lighter.
• Don't add the salt until the eggs are almost done cooking so that it doesn't make the eggs watery.
• Use more eggs and spinach than you'd expect because they all shrink up when scrambling.

Who Stole The Cookie From The Cookie Jar?

...I did.

Need I say more?

1. This cookie gallery. I have no words.
2. A take on my favorite cookie (the snickerdoodle!!) with brown butter salted caramel.
3. Not a cookie, but speaking of salted caramel: Salted caramel skillet brownie.
4. There's no such thing as too much sugar. Especially with these chocolate chip cookie peanut butter s'mores!
5. Speaking of s'mores, you can't say no to these s'mores macarons.
6. And while we're on the topic of macarons, Beth gives a lot of tips for a foolproof macaron.
7. Last macaron recipe (I know, I'm obsessed!): Sea salt caramel macarons (my personal favorite).
8. These Momofuku blueberries and cream cookies make me want to go to New York...
9. Sweetly refreshing lemon crinkle cookies for summer.
10. This Australian treat brings me back to my childhood: Anzacs.
11. A bit of sweet and salty in this peanut butter chocolate cookie.
12. And lastly, this super soft and chewy peanut butter cookie.
13. My favorite sandwich spreads in a cookie sandwich.

Brownie Oreo Ice Cream Cake

Brownie Oreo Ice Cream Cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BRO :)

This morning I finished putting together a brownie Oreo ice cream cake for Michael's birthday. Wanting to feature his favorite and requested ingredient, I chose to do Oreo again (last year I made him Oreo cupcakes).
It was super simple to make and I prepared most of it the night before -I didn't want to wake up way too early to get it done. I baked the brownie base layer the night before using Martha Stewart’s trusty double-chocolate brownie recipe and kept it out on the counter overnight ready for assembly. I also mixed together the Oreo ice cream (just two pints of vanilla ice cream and almost a full three packets of Oreos that I crushed in a ziploc bag) and popped it back into the freezer for the following morning. I also saved a handful of the crushed oreos so that I could use it to top the cake! I didn’t want to pile on and freeze the ice cream layer overnight because I was concerned that the brownies would harden and become rock solid the morning after.

Brunch at Monolog

After my fair share of amazing brunches in Philly, coming home I wanted to try out some places for brunch as well... There were quite a few new places serving brunch since the last time I was here (e.g. Common People, etc.), but I went to have it at Monolog in Plaza Senayan with Vanessa! The restaurant was conveniently tucked across Deluca in the crossing area between the entrance at gerbang palm and the actual mall itself. The place itself was really cozy and very typical of a quirky coffee shop with all the wood, brick and steel. Monolog offered a variety of really interesting drinks -from coffees like orange caramel lattes to chocolatey treats like frozen nutella. They also had a tempting display of pastries, palmiers, croissants, macarons, cakes and many more -we decided to share one for dessert! We started off with a smoked salmon tartine and Vanessa had the eggs benedict. I loved my tartine -it had a hearty slice of toasted bread that was topped with sliced, creamy avocado, a runny poached egg, salty smoked salmon and a dollop of cottage cheese. All the textures and taste blended perfectly and was topped with a few cracks of black pepper. It was a lovely start to the Saturday morning which we ended with Iron Man and some good old boba from Chatime!

Early Birthday Brunch at Russet

CAFFEINE for finals week

I was so bummed that I couldn't be here for my big's actual birthday, but big, gbig and I decided to have an early celebration over Saturday brunch today! We had a great meal, and the place was small and adorable. There were clusters of random trinkets on shelves and along the window sill, and the atmosphere was very russet-y indeed... We started off with orders of black coffee for each one of us -we wanted to pair it up with our scone. The wait for the scone was very much worth it, cause we got it toasty warm, fresh straight out of the oven. Scones + coffee = match made in heaven. They have different scones every week (their brunch menu changes weekly, as do their daily dinner menus), ranging from lemon-blueberry to cranberry, and today's one was blueberry with a side of butter and preserves.

Blueberry scone

We also ordered three entrees to share (as always). We tried out the sformato, choosing it over the omelette because we wanted to explore and try something different. In my opinion, the sformato, a souffle-like Italian dish, was comparable to the inside of a quiche -very custardy and creamy. The richness was complemented well by the sweet, aged balsamic that was drizzled on the plate. Next, we also ordered the salami panini with a sunny side egg on top -a dish highly recommended by our waiter. This was probably my favorite out of all the dishes, because I love anything with runny yolk. The bread was nicely buttered and grilled and sandwiched the restaurant's salty, house cured salami. The fresh bed of arugula and runny egg definitely offset the salty, dry meat. The last dish we got was the rhubarb crepe. The filling was very fruity, the crepe was topped with quite a bit of maple cream. The dish allowed for quite a smooth transition to our surprise dessert!

Green garlic sformato with puntarella stretta, radish and aged balsamic

House cured salami panini with sunny side up egg, asparagus and salsa verde

Rhubarb crepe with strawberries and maple cream

Gbig had called earlier to ask the restaurant to bring out a rhubarb tart for big at the end of our meal to surprise her for her early birthday. I loved the shell -which was very buttery and sweet- and the cream on top of the tart -which had a noticeably hint of sweet honey.

Always cutting into 3 ^_^

Rhubarb brown butter tart with almond florentine, honey cream, lavender syrup 

After

My gbig is so talented ahh... 

So gorgeoussss 

The birthday girl/princess !

SO lucky to have them :) Thank you for making my freshman year so amazing <3

Russet
1521 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 546-1521

Brunch at Matyson

Reading days = Eating days

We've been planning to go on our brunch outing for weeks and finally the day has come for us to go to Matyson. After cabbing over (too hungry to walk), we reached there and and were seated inside the cozy little restaurant. The place was pretty small, understated and lit only by the sun through the windows on the street-side of the restaurant. As soon as we were seated and given our menus, we all had the same thing in mind: chicken and waffles. After all, they were famous for it, and Shani loves her poultry & carbs ;) Nobody would budge choosing anything else (even though there were some other pretty good options like mushroom-asparagus skillet with sunny-side eggs and goat cheese, or brioche french toast with caramelized banana and strawberries). So we all settled with the same old dish :D Which we wouldn't regret a single bite of!

Chicken & waffle with Korean chili sauce, scallion waffle and fried egg

Before our walk back :)

Matyson
37 S 19th St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 564-2925

Last Day of Classes At Beau Monde

Spinach, mushroom, swiss cheese crepe

It's finally the last day of classes -calling for a celebratory meal with my favorite! But what started out being a quick stop for a long awaited visit to this creperie before studying for finals turned out to be a full out day of nonstop eating from lunch to dinner. We started our gastronomical marathon at Beau Monde, a quirky little creperie with a distinctly French flair.

Naturally, Roopa and I both had been eyeing the same thing on the menu. We wanted savory crepes with a combination of any of the following ingredients: mushrooms, spinach, cheese, tomatoes, olives, etc. Rather than ordering two overly similar crepes, we decided to share one custom crepe between the two of us. We ordered the buckwheat crepe with swiss cheese, sautéed mushroom, and sautéed spinach (as you can see from the trio of toppings atop the crepe). The size was just perfect -not too much for you to be eating the same thing for, but not too little for you to still be needing more. Or was it? ;)

Dessert was also delicious. We were considering to get the banana, nutella crepe with hazelnut ice cream, but thought that it wouldn’t be worth going all the way there for something classic we could easily get at Houston. So we ended up getting the crepe with apples, toasted almonds, brown sugar, caramel and vanilla ice cream. The apples were sliced up, and the perfect level of cooked –they still had their shape, but were soft and warm throughout. The creamy vanilla ice cream and mound of whipped cream complemented the warm, cinnamony filling, and the toasted almond gave a nice crunch.

Sweet crepe with apples, toasted almonds, brown sugar, caramel and vanilla ice cream

Overall, we had a great meal. The service was very fast and the ambiance was super cozy. Definitely a recommended place for crepe lovers! (Who isn’t?!)

Cozy French-inspired interior

Beau Monde
624 S 6th St,
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 592-0656

Dessert Pt.1 at Yogorino

Medium frozen yogurt with chopped hazelnut + chocolate-hazelnut-nougat sauce

There's definitely something up with Roopa and I. I think our appetites are irrepressible, and our stomachs endless. After dessert at Beau Monde, we wanted to go try out some froyo places on our way back to campus. We decided to walk back so that we could stop by at random shops to pick up some things and run some errands.

 

The walk down for froyo

We couldn't decide between Yogorino and Igloo -so obviously, why not try both? We decided to go to Yogorino first, because it was right across of Anju threads, so we could go right after eyebrow threading. Roopa had never gone before, so I told her it was a classic that she had to try. She said she wasn't a huge fan of just plain, tart froyo, but the toppings and sauces got her hooked. We got one with chocolate-hazelnut-nougat sauce, which hardened instantly. I loved how they hardened up into chunks of toffee-like bits. Personally, I think that the frozen yogurt itself is a bit overrated. It was very creamy and almost had the consistency of vanilla soft serve. The taste was a bit bland, not sweet like Kiwi, but not tart like Pinkberry or Sweetgreen.




Yogorino
1205 Walnut St
Philadelphia
(215) 238-2669

Dessert Pt.2 At Igloo

Greek yogurt froyo with chopped almonds

Roopa and I weren't quite satisfied yet, so we decided to take one final stop at Igloo. After all, I had picked up two 25% off coupons from the Penn Appetit spring issue launching -which we forgot to use because we were so excited for our froyos. It took quite a while to find the place, but we finally did make it there and the froyo was delicious! I've been really looking forward to try out this new froyo joint, ever since Sherry introduced me to it, telling me they had Greek froyo. They were supposedly known for their Greek froyo, as well as a few specialty gelato flavors: dark chocolate hazelnut and salted caramel. Roopa and I got testers for both of the gelato flavors, but decided to skip them because they came in a fixed size, and we were up for some self-serve. The salted-caramel was my favorite between the two gelato flavors, though the dark chocolate had a nice hazelnutty undertone to it. I got the Greek froyo and found it to be very similar to the froyo at Yogorino -it was quite thick, creamy, plain and had a hint of tartness.

Igloo had a lot of flavors (perfect for Roopa's liking, as she prefferred these types of froyo over the plain one that we had earlier at Yogorino). Their tahitian vanilla was one of my favorites. They also had cookies & cream, peanut butter, dark chocolate and a few others. The toppings were good too, ranging from peanut butter chips to chopped nuts. I loved how the nuts were chopped quite coarsely, compared to the nuts at other froyo shops.

Our final treat of the outing

Igloo
2223 Grays Ferry Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(267) 858-4290

Brunch at Garces Trading Co

Brunch with big, g-big, g-big's bf, g-big's bf's little and g-big's bf's g-little ;)

Oil & vinegar heaven...

They had an incredible selection of oils and vinegars, from fruity vinegars to garlicky oils... Some really unique ones included the chili honey balsamic vinegar (one whiff goes straight up your nose with its spicy aroma), peach white vinegar (which tasted like a bellini), maple balsamic vinegar (thick and sweet), black truffle olive oil (super fragrant) and herb olive oil (very earthy). We took a bunch back to our table to try out :)

Gorgeous gbig :)

"We're known for our cheeses and charcuterie" 

All the guys ordered their steak and eggs, and us girls decided to split three dishes. We first decided on the mushroom pizza (using dough made with duck fat). Garces Trading Co was famous for their duck fat fries and pizza dough (both of which were delicious). The pizza was topped with a variety of cheese too, which added an interesting depth... From the shredded parmesan on top, to hints of what I thought to be blue cheese. There was a light truffle oil fragrance that was perfect and not at all overwhelming. We also chose to get the fruity pain perdu as well, balancing out the salty dish with sweetness. The pain  perdu was browned and slightly crispy on the outside, but had the soft and spongy texture of bread pudding inside, which also had bits of cranberry scattered throughout it. The dollop of lemon mascarpone on the side complemented the sweetness with a tangy sourness, and the sprinkled pistachios added a crunchy texture. It was so tasty that the syrup wasn't even necessary, though a drizzle of it did add a lovely sweetness. We decided to get a salad for our last main dish to incorporate our greens into it all ;)

Funghi duck fat pizza with maitakes, royal trumpets, taleggio and black truffle

Cranberry pain perdu with lemon mascarpone and pistachio rum butter

Duck fat fries

Steak & eggs x3 for all the (very original) boys hahaha :D

Dessert was a small slice of the delectable almond joy -a rich chocolate tart in a shell made of grated coconut. The fall-apart coconut shell was very buttery and crunchy -my favorite part of the dessert! The chocolate ganache quite clearly had a gingery undertone. The thing that impressed me most about all the dishes here is that the undertones claimed for all the dishes (e.g. for the oils, vinegars, pizzas, desserts, etc.) were very distinct and creative. Before leaving, gbig also got big and I some macarons (one salted caramel and one hazelnut-nutella). They were delicious!

Almond joy - coconut tart shell with valrhona chocolate & ginger ganache and almonds

My favorite foodie!!! <3

Garces Trading Company
1111 Locust St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 574-1099