Dessert!

After those delicious dumplings we finished off the evening with dessert at Honeymoon Desserts, again in the mall in Sha Tin.


Black tapioca with green tea ice cream and vanilla sauce. It’s an iced vanilla cream, covered with small flavorless gelatinous seeds and green tea matcha ice cream. A great way to cool down.


Durian and black Thai glutenous rice. The same vanilla ice sauce with a heap of black rice that tasted somewhat like red beans. The durian was stinky as always (though my wife loves it).

High-altitude air fare

How jaded are we that the incredibly avanced technology that lets us hop around the globe in less than a day leaves us complaining about the quality of the food en-route.

  
Remember when airlines used to feed you? Well they still do on international flights. Here’s Cathay Pacific’s LAX to Hong Kong economy plus lunch lineup. A roll, some microwaved veggies, half a grilled potato and a small piece of steak. The beef had decent flavor (if a bit dry and overdone) and the veggies aren’t worth writing about. The shrimp and quinoa salad was different and reminiscent of tabouleh.

  
The Mrs. had a lactose free special meal which was mango chicken over rice with grilled veggies and a side of pineapple. Her salad was a basic one but with more grilled chicken and a vinaigrette. I guess they assembled her meal from others? I think she got the better meal.

  
The best part was real silverware, including this cute little demitasse spoon for our coffee. Oh, I almost forgot. Ice cream! And since the wife is avoiding lactose, I get two individual servings of Haagen-Daz vanilla!

 
7 hours later we picked up with dinner. I had a spicy pork and tofu dish with rice. A side of fruit and a red bean mousse finished it off. Not the most visually appealing dish, but it was tasty.

  
What I didn’t understand was my wife’s meal. Agains it was specially prepared and was items not on the regular menu. An excellently prepared fish dish with a spicy salsa served on mixed rice. What’s weird is that she easily could have had my meal – no dairy except for the desert. Either way it was quite delicious and worthy of being a regular item.

  

SLO isn’t so slow on Thursdays

On Thursdays San Luis Obispo transforms from a quiet rural town to a thriving festival with the weekly Farmers Market. Finally a chance to get some truly local fare.

We’re all adults, so let’s start with desert first. Ice cream sandwiches at Batch! Nice warm peanut butter cookies with a generous scoop of creamy coffee ice cream.

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For dinner I decided on Firestone Grill because everybody swears by their tri-tip sandwich and fries. It was on the corner, just past the end of the market, so easy to step in, but the line was huge! I recommend going on an off night since its apparently fairly crowded at lunch too. The line does move fast though, and food rolls out quickly considering the crowd.

The tri-tip was great. Silky smooth and tender, but not smokey enough for my tastes. Everyone says the fries are laced with crack, but I didn’t care for them. Though they were generous with the seasoning, it was mostly salt. So a lot of seasoning meant a lot of salt, which I guess is good in a college bar hangout. If you’re in town, do stop by for the tri-tip though. You won’t be disappointed.

22 Flavors on the 101

While sitting in traffic waiting to get on the 101 we spotted an ice cream shop, Scoops in Montecito. On entering though, it turned out to be gelatos and sorbets.

I got the espresso gelato, with peanut butter cup gelato in a waffle cone. The scoops were generous, and the flavors good but light. Biggest downside is that they were very icy, and not the rich smooth texture gelato should have. The shop was making fresh cones, and had a chocolate batter version which I haven’t seen before; but I opted for the traditional waffle cone. The cone was slightly sweet, but chewy and could have used more browning. Between the texture and taste, it seemed stale, even though they were clearly making fresh cones. The cones also tasted as if they were made with water rather than dairy, as the flavor was light and missing the butterfat a good cone should have. Scoops had a nice touch of putting a mini marshmallow in the bottom of the cone to prevent drips, but mine was leaking like crazy within a minute or two.

Pearl got coconut and mango sorbets, also in a waffle cone. The coconut was rich and creamy, with loads of coconut flake mixed in. The mango sorbet however was tangy and tasted artificial.

Overall, we wouldn’t recommend it. We probably would have been better off with the shop on Stearns Wharf that was serving Thrifty ice cream and also had fresh-made cones.

coconut and mango sorbets in a waffle cone