Sprinkles Ice Cream opens today!

First there were Sprinkles Cupcakes, then they put in a 24-hour Cupcake ATM and now, the sugar mogul behind Sprinkles is opening an Ice Cream Shoppe. Hooray! Located next door to their now-iconic brown storefront in Beverly Hills, the design of the sleek, new Sprinkles Ice Cream looks to be just as simple and elegant as its predecessor.

I’m sure people are already lining up for the grand opening today, but, I think we’ll wait a while on this one. I mean, as tempting as a red velvet waffle cone sounds…the idea of waiting that long in line sounds a little intense. Besides, who needs an actual store anyway? I’ll just wait for the Sprinkles Ice Cream ATM!

Sprinkles Cupcake ATM Machine

Hello, again. Wondering where we’ve been all this time? Or why I haven’t blogged about this year’s Cannes Film Festival even once this whole month when it ends in like, four days? Well, the answer, amigos, is twofold.

Part one of the reason I’ve been away is that I’ve been working (a lot) on a couple of writing projects that actually, you know, pay. So, sadly, that leaves little time for blogging here. Sorry…

And the other reason we’ve been away for so long is that we’ve spending entirely too much time thinking about the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM Machine. Actually, we’ve been doing a lot more than “thinking about it”, we’ve cheated on our diet exactly three times to get our hands on some tasty Sprinkles Cupcakes, and every time has been better than the last.

Seriously, our last visit at 1:30AM might have been the best yet…or maybe that was the pumpkin cupcake talking. Either way, this freaking cupcake ATM is a revelation. The way it works is pretty simple, step up to the touch-screen monitor, scroll through the cupcakes pictured till you find one you like, click on the image and then swipe your credit card. And $4.00 later your selection appears in a cute little Sprinkles box. Just like a real ATM, only sweeter!

There’s always a line (even at 3:30AM!) but it moves quickly and everyone is so happy to be there that the camaraderie only adds to the whole cupcake-to-go experience. The funniest thing we noticed lately is how many straight single men are in line for this thing. Women, tourists and city-savvy gays you’d expect, but burly straight dudes on their way home from a bar or the gym? Wow…I guess cupcakes really are the great equalizer.

Anyway, back to my daydreaming about that sweet-ass pumpkin cupcake. Happy ATM-ing everyone!

Sorry for the reblog again, but, come on, it’s about donuts…how could I not share it with you? Now grab a glass of milk for dunking and enjoy a reblog of our first annual L.A. Donut Tour…yay!

Stay-at-home-Yeti

A good friend of ours is staying with us this week and seeing as we are both between jobs, we decided to have some good cheap fun this visit. No movies at the Arclight, no expensive theme parks or museums, no shopping…just good, old-fashioned donut worship. And what better place to explore the magic of cheap fried dough than in the car-centric Southland? So, without further ado, I give you our first ever L.A. Donut Tour! Yay!

Despite talking about it for years, neither of us had ever been to the world-famous Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood, so, naturally, we started there. We tried a cake donut, a chocolate frosted and a sprinkled and despite the giant, iconic donut on the roof of the building and the appropriately seedy, LAX-adjacent vibe in the parking lot (like all the best donut joints in Los Angeles, Randy’s does not have a…

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Voodoo Doughnut, Portland, OR

There are two reasons I’ve put off blogging about the now-legendary Voodoo Doughnut in Portland for so long. One is because, well, they are kind of legendary now and it seems like everyone blogs about them. And two is because I knew the minute I started writing about them, I’d want to eat donuts (or doughnuts, whatever!). And guess what I’m craving right now…Voodoo’s finest, the Maple Bacon bar. Mmm…

I know it’s been covered on TV and everything, but, trust me, there is a reason this delicious maple bar topped with two thick-ass strips of crispy bacon is famous. And that’s because it is seriously, out-of-this-world amazing. You never had such yumminess in your mouth at the same time…wow!

Another favorite were the various cereal-covered donuts. We sampled the Captain Crunch, which was a bit odd. The cereal itself was kinda moist, from being exposed to the air I suppose, but the thing that really made the donut work for me was the fact that the white icing tasted exactly like milk. Yep, you got it, milk and cereal on a donut. I don’t know how they did it, but it worked.

Also very good was the devil’s food cake donut with the pentagram frosting, but for sheer drama, I think my favorite donut of the day was the one shaped like a tiny Voodoo doll. Covered in chocolate frosting, each little Voodoo man has a tiny pretzel stake jammed into his heart and actually bleeds red berry filling when you remove the stake. So weird and awesome!!

The decor is also totally rad, with all sorts of funky Voodoo, pop-culture and movie references everywhere you look. I don’t know the significance of the giant velvet Kenny Roger’s portrait over the register area, but, it seemed to be important. And, hey, who doesn’t love, Kenny?

Oh, speaking of old-ass Kenny Rogers, they even had a shrine to recently departed celebrities by the rear side door, complete with Voodoo donuts prayer candles. As you can see from the pic, Peter Falk had just died when we were there. R.I.P. Detective Columbo.

Oh, and if you’re really hungry, an order of three dozen donuts and $100 will buy you a tiny wooden casket donut delivery box. I didn’t get one, but, man alive, if I lived in Portland, that would be the first thing I’d order for my next big birthday party gathering. Donuts in a coffin for everyone…so cool!

Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream @ Baskin Robbins

If you consider yourself a true lover of ice cream, you will stop reading this right now and immediately drive yourself to your local Baskin Robbins. Seriously, I’ve had some great cake ice creams in the past, but this one, well, let’s just say it takes the cake. Pun completely intended!

Rich, creamy, cake-y to the max, the Red Velvet Cake ice cream at 31-Flavors is so good that I don’t know why I even bothered with a second scoop of my usual favorite Chocolate Fudge. I shoulda just got two scoops of Red Velvet Cake, and you know what? Next time I go, I will!

But if you’re interested in this amazingness, you gotta act fast because Red Velvet Cake ice cream is the flavor of the month for December, and, in just a few short days, December will be over. Forever. So, check it out while you can, and in case you’re wondering…that white, creamy stuff swirled throughout the scoop is frosting and it is AH-MAZING!

I’m not kidding, the flavor profile for this rocking ice cream is so subtle and lovely, you’d swear you wear eating a vastly more expensive cone.

This is Christmas for your mouth, amigos…so, start celebrating today!

The Ice Shack, Grants Pass

OK, people who still think global warming is a myth can totally suck it. This has been one of the hottest falls on record and it doesn’t show any signs of letting up. So, it’s official, everybody…the world is totally melting.

And in honor of that utterly depressing sentiment, I thought I’d share with you some pictures of my favorite new hot-weather treat…shaved ice! Traditional snow cones and 7-Eleven Slurpees will still totally do in a pinch (Lord knows they saved my sweaty ass last night!) but for me, the best way to stay cool and blissfully wipe any visions of melting polar ice caps from my head is to suck down a nice cold shaved ice.

And though we recently found a groovy little place near the Americana in Glendale (rock on, Stewie’s Shaved Ice!) that offers some great flavor combos, for me, the best place to find a truly fantastic shaved ice is at The Ice Shack in Christine’s hometown of Grants Pass, Oregon.

Located on the north end of town just off of 7th street, The Ice Shack is, just what it sounds like, a drive-thru shack where all they sell is flavored icy goodness. And let me tell ya, the Shack rocks, yo. We went there almost every day we were in town last summer and it never got old!

The decor is awesome — the bamboo walls and thatched hut roof outside would be cool enough for most places, but the fact that they use an actual surfboard as the drive-up window is just too cool for words! — the ice is shaved to perfection and the place is staffed by the nicest, cutest girls this side of the Rogue River, but the real reason to visit The Ice Shack are the flavored syrups.

I never checked to see what brand they use, but, wow, that shit is amazing. Literally every flavor we tried (except grape, which is hideous) was out-of-this world tasty, but, my favorite combo was the cherry banana pictured above. Not too sweet, not too syrupy, just the perfect blend of flavor and ice. Mmm…

Anyway, I know it’s a schlep for most of you, but, if you do ever find yourself in Grants Pass on a hot day (or hell, even a cold one!) you truly owe it to yourself to stop by The Ice Shack. Oh, and don’t forget to ask for extra napkins because that candy-colored ice melts crazy-fast, baby!

A Mother’s Cookies Christmas…

One of the coolest things about Mother’s Cookies triumphant return from the dead this year was that it meant we would have one more variety of Christmas cookies to plate for our holiday guests…you know, provided we didn’t eat them all first. That’s right, amigos, Mother’s Holiday Circus cookies are back!

We were so excited at this news — thanks for the tip, Santa Fe Sarah! — that we actually bought two bags of the red, green and white Holiday Circus Animal cookies when we found them at the store. I also just now discovered another variety of Mother’s holiday cookies online: the all-white Holiday Frosted Cookies, pictured below. Wow, who knew?

So, although Mother’s classic Gingerbread cookies have gone the way of the Dodo, the good news is that you can still get your Christmas cookie on with Mother’s this year. But you gotta act fast, because this frosted goodness won’t be around for long. They were literally flying off the shelves at the Safeway in Santa Cruz when we bought them, and that was at Thanksgiving. So, the odds may be against you at this late date, but, happy hunting anyway!

Oooo…and even if you can’t find the cookies anymore, you gotta check out the Mother’s gift shop at Kelloggs.com. Mugs, t-shirts and even a magnetic Mother’s Cookies bag clip! Best stocking stuffers ever!

Lunch at San Francisco’s Ferry Building

Christine and I usually visit San Francisco at least once a year for her work and every time we go, one of the first places we hit is the super cool Ferry Building Marketplace at the end of Market Street.

Housed inside the beautiful shell of the historic Ferry Building (which opened it’s doors in 1898), the marketplace can best be described as a gigantic indoor farmer’s market. With offices upstairs, the bustling lower level is home to some of the tastiest gourmet grub in the city.

Artisanal cheeses, chocolates, meats, tea, coffee, breads…there is nothing you can’t find at this place and if you are lucky enough to come on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday between the hours of 10:00AM and 2:00PM, you’ll find a real life farmer’s market camped outside the building as well. And, man alive, is that place amazing!

But even if you can’t make it for the outdoor farmer’s market, the permanent storefronts inside the Ferry Building will more than satisfy you. We’ve eaten at almost every joint in there and aside from the bland, totally overpriced Mexican food at Mijita, everything we’ve eaten there has been excellent.

That said, we are total creatures of habit and almost always eat at the same two places. First stop is usually Charlie Phan’s Out The Door. Located directly behind Phan’s already-legendary The Slanted Door, Out The Door has some of the best Vietnamese “street food” I’ve ever had. Soups, salads, spring rolls, out-of-this-world Vietnamese coffee, this place is probably one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Seriously good food!

And the meal we had the one time we actually managed to score a dinner reservation at The Slanted Door — which is usually booked months in advance — will go down in the record books as one of the finest meals I’ve ever had. I  kid you not, amigos, I have actually had dreams about their world-famous Chicken Claypot with caramel sauce, chilies and fresh ginger. DELICIOUS!

Our second favorite spot in the Ferry Building is Miette Patisserie home of awesome cookies, pastries and the second-best cupcakes in the city (right behind my all-time favorite, Kara’s Cupcakes!). But cookies and other baked yumminess aside, the thing that keeps Christine and I coming back year after year are Miette’s incredibly tasty Chocolate Pots de Creme. Holy crap, these things will totally change your life!

Served in a tiny glass jar (which you get to keep!) the chocolate pot is like the best pudding you ever had topped with a healthy dollop of dreamy, melt-in-your-mouth, creme fraiche. Yum!

And while we were a little sad to learn that they no longer uses the Miette logo glassware for the pots (which make rad tea light holders back home), as long as the chocolate keeps tasting this good, who really cares what it comes in?

Our two favorite stops aside, this past visit we decided to try something different for lunch. So, at the urging of Grandma Wendy, the four of us jumped into the long line outside Boccalone Salumeria to try their Food-Network-famous mortadella hot dogs. And, lemme tell ya, the sign out front, “tasty salted pig parts”, doesn’t even begin to describe how good this fancy hot dog was.

The sight, the smell, even the sound as it popped in your mouth when you bit into it, this was truly a weiner for the ages…delicious!

My only complaint about the Ferry Building Marketplace is the lack of parking. This was our first time driving to SF with Greta (we’re saving her first airplane trip till January!) and the parking really sucked. The dedicated lot they do have is very small and street parking is a nightmare. And when you do find street parking, it’s metered up the wazoo, so, bring your quarters!

Oh, and one more cool thing. The Ferry Building Marketplace has free WiFi, so, bring your laptop and sit a spell at one of the giant wooden tables facing the bay…the view is incredible!

Mother’s Cookies bites the dust…

I know it’s been a while since our last post, and while I could make excuses for why we haven’t written, or where we’ve been, the biggest reason for the lag in posts is that we’ve been in serious cookie mourning, amigos.

Yep, you read the title correctly, Mother’s Cookies, that sugar-coated staple of our grade school lunches has baked their last frosted circus animal cookie.

Apparently Mother’s has been through four different owners in recent years and has been seriously hemorrhaging cash for decades, but still, this is a company that has been in business for 92 years…you’d think some cookie-loving CEO would save them.

Sadly, that was not to be, and so, Mother’s Cookies abruptly closed their doors last week…forever. Christine and I were so shocked by the news that we hurried over to Von’s to see if they had any Mother’s Cookies left. Luckily for us, they did. And although we didn’t buy the store out on that visit, we just might head back in a couple days to stock up.

Christine was bummed that she couldn’t find a whole bag of her favorite Mother’s Cookies — the pink and white frosted circus animal cookies, above — but she was more than happy to pick them out of the Cookie Parade grab bag we found. And she was even more excited to find a big, beautiful sleeve of the Iced Oatmeal cookies from her childhood just waiting for her on the top shelf. Yum!

Personally, my favorite Mother’s Cookies were the plain old Mini Chocolate Chips. They weren’t as good as homemade chocolate chip cookies, but they were cheap and yummy and you could fit like, twenty of those little bitches in a plastic sandwich baggy…so, needless to say, I kinda loved them.

I think we’re most sad to know that our unborn child will never get to experience the totally processed joy of Mother’s Cookies for themselves. I’m not kidding, we were so distraught that we actually looked for bags with expiration dates of like, two years from now, but they didn’t exist. Every bag we found at Von’s expires sometime around mid-January of next year.

And seeing as there will be no more Mother’s cookies delivered after today (the 20th of October) I guess that’s the end of the line…cookie-wise.

So, for now, we’ll just have to settle for the pictures above and the warm, fuzzy memories of simpler times spent sharing Mother’s Cookies with friends in the school cafeteria. Ha, who am I kidding, I never shared my cookies with anyone.

Either way, vaya con díos, Mother’s…we’ll miss you!

Kara’s Cupcakes, San Francisco

Some folks swear by Sprinkles, and Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank is always great in a pinch, but our favorite cupcakes on God’s green earth come from the crazy good Kara’s Cupcakes in San Francisco.

Christine and I first discovered Kara’s while making our regular pilgrimage to Ghirardelli Square to buy some of their yummy Ghirardelli Drinking Chocolate.

If you haven’t tried this stuff, then you have not had truly incredible hot cocoa, amigos. It’s delicious…and since we first tried it a couple years back, Ghirardelli Drinking Chocolate has become one of the staples of our kitchen: salsa, eggs, tortillas, and Drinking Chocolate. Not necessarily in that order…but, I digress. Back to the cupcakes!

Kara’s has two locations in San Francisco, the one mentioned above at Ghirardelli Square and another storefront in the city’s happening Marina District just off of Chesnut Street. And though we usually frequent the one at Ghirardelli just out of convenience, I gotta say that the Kara’s in the Marina has a much bigger menu to choose from.

And what a menu it is! Even the most basic-sounding cupcake here is out-of-this-world incredible, but we have two favorites that actually start me drooling just thinking about them. Christine’s favorite is Kara’s dark chocolate Fleur de Sel, which is basically a chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting and fleur de sel sprinkled on top.

I’m not kidding, that cupcake is the most perfect union of chocolate and sea salt outside of those dreamy little morsels we had at Todos Santos in Santa Fe. Just incredible! And best of all, it travels well. You know, in case I pick one up for her while she’s busy shopping the Gift Show downtown.

But my favorite is, and always will be, the outrageously-good Banana Caramel. Now, I know not everyone loves bananas like I do, but wow…this banana cupcake with caramel filling and silky cream cheese frosting will change your life, baby! I have never had a cupcake as good as that one…and trust me, I’ve had a lot of cupcakes in my life, yo. This one is cupcake heaven!

Also good are the Coconut and Kara’s Karrot cupcakes, but if you only have time (or money!) for one $3.25 cupcake, I’d say go with the Fleur de Sel or the Banana Caramel. And if you are a true lover of cupcakes, then you have to stop what you’re doing right now and head on up to Kara’s…seriously, you’ll die!

Oh yeah, and I just saw on their website that they recently opened another Kara’s in Palo Alto…so, that’s even less of a drive from L.A.! Yay!

“American Mall” cookies!

Just realized that I never posted my pictures of the amazing “American Mall” cookies that Christine and I had at the post premiere party last week at the Cabana Club. Sorry…

As I think I mentioned more than a couple time, those big-ass sugar cookies were one of the culinary highlights of the evening. And the fact that they tasted as good as they looked made them even more enjoyable.

So, a big shout out to Jedi Master Melody Brandon for creating such beautiful edible art for the bash! You rock, Melody. And if you’re curious to see how Melody made such super cool baked goods, check out her rocking step-by-step photo gallery at mysweetandsaucy.com.

I only wish my jacket had more pockets so we could have smuggled more of those delicious cookies home with us…yum!