dessert Archives - Curiously Carmen

Rocky Point Ice Cream

April 10, 2019 Leave a Comment

Rocky Point is such an underrated park, but I love it here! This park has many good memories for me, from family BBQ gatherings, to picnics with friends, or Ribfest. One of the most popular places in the park is Rocky Point Ice Cream!

On the way home from Coquitlam, the boyfriend and I stopped here because it’s been awhile. I was also craving some dessert.

It was not that busy on the night that we came by, but in the summer it can get really busy here. Rocky Point Ice Cream has that classic, ice cream shop scent… you know, the very sweet/rich dairy scent. Or is that just me who smells it?

Berry sorbet: I had my eye on the vegan chocolate, but that only vegan chocolate flavour was a chocolate blueberry fig and it was not good. So, I settled on the berry sorbet even though I didn’t really want sorbet because there wasn’t anything else.

I found the sorbet to be disappointing, but that’s because I was craving something richer with a coconut milk base. But that is in no fault of Rocky Point, just my personal preference that day.

Brown butter pecan: The boyfriend enjoyed his flavour unlike moi. It was their spin on the pralines and cream flavour.

I would recommend Rocky Point Ice Cream for their dairy desserts, but not their vegan/dairy free/sorbet things. Their prices are also a bit cheaper than the popular ice cream shops in Vancouver which is great!

Cartems Donuts

April 2, 2019 Leave a Comment

I remember having Cartems donuts maybe like 6-7 years ago when a friend brought them to an university club event. They were delicious! Since then, I haven’t had Cartems so Latte and I went to go check out the Main Street location one evening!

The Main Street location was quite spacious, with very high ceilings. There was a friendly, good vibe going on in there and it would be a nice place to study or get some work done.

The bottom row of donuts are always vegan, so they do have a large selection of vegan donuts (one of the reasons I wanted to come back since I currently can’t have dairy). I was surprised that Latte wanted a vegan donut, but that’s better for me because it meant we could share!

Tea: We both ordered a tea with our donut. I had the herbal strawberry mint which was fragrant and warming.

Citrus glaze donut: This was my favourite out of the 3 that we ordered! The donut was thick and fluffy. The citrus glaze was subtle and gave it a nice, sweet tang. I’ve never had a citrus donut before but the flavours worked well with each other.

Maple walnut donut: This one was good too, but it was more of a savoury donut. It was topped with crushed walnuts and I tasted a hint of black pepper.

Vanilla bean donut: This donut was also good! It was the simplest one out of the 3, so we really tasted the quality of the donut. The donut was delightfully fluffy and moist.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that citrus glaze donut, so I took the boyfriend here a few days later! We ordered 1/2 dozen to bring back and tried more flavours.

The funny thing was that I decided to keep it a secret that it was vegan, so that he wasn’t bias in his opinions!!! MUAHAHA!!!

From left to right:

Vanilla bean: Reviewed above

Citrus glaze: Reviewed above

Chocolate donut: A classic donut, you can’t really go wrong with chocolate. The boyfriend loved it!

Forgot to take a separate photo of it, so this will do!

Tropical mint: The only donut that we did not like that day. The taste was just odd… it was a bit sweet but you get this minty aftertaste. We ended up scraping off the tropical glaze on top so we could eat it as a plain donut.

Salted caramel: This was the only ‘regular’ donut we had (aka not vegan). Since it contained dairy, I couldn’t eat it. He found it to be a lot more dense and not as fluffy, so he didn’t like it as much.

At this point, I was laughing inside and couldn’t wait to tell him this was the only dairy donut – MUAHAHA!!!

Berry hibiscus: This one was just alright…. it was filled with jam inside. The berry hibiscus donut wasn’t as fluffy as the other ones.

After the boyfriend ate all the donuts, I mischievously told him that they were all vegan except for the salted caramel! He was quite shocked and never would have guessed.

Cartems Donuts are amazing and they have very creative flavours! I would definitely recommend stopping by. They have a huge selection of vegan flavours which are arguably better than the regular, non-vegan ones!

Brown Bites – Boba Essence

March 17, 2019 Leave a Comment

Brown Bites is a mini series on my blog featuring places the boyfriend has tried without me, so it wouldn’t be my own review. Why the name Brown, you ask? It is named after the Japanese LINE character, Brown. Brown is a cute, shy, emotionless cartoon bear but secretly full of love, and we adore him to pieces!

One night while hanging out with Maki, Nigiri, and Burger, we were craving bubble tea (what else is new? bubble tea is life) so we decided to order delivery.

My stomach was acting up (again, what else is new?) so I opted out that evening. I didn’t miss out on much because they were all quite disappointed with this place!

The actual store is located in Olympic Village. It is one of the only bubble tea shops in this area. Since we ordered delivery, I can’t comment on the store or service.

Roasted milk tea with pearls: The boyfriend ordered this, but was disappointed. While it had a decent tea flavour, it was wayyyy too sweet to enjoy. The straw was too small for the pearls, so he had a hard time getting them.

Oolong milk tea with pearls

Hochija milk tea with pearls

Earl grey milk tea with grass jelly

The rest of them did not enjoy their bubble tea either, commenting that it was way too sweet.

When I asked everyone if they would have it again, everyone said they rather go order from somewhere else. If they were in Olympic Village and happened to walk by, then possibly if the bubble tea craving was strong enough. Otherwise, there are a lot more and better options in Vancouver for bubble tea.

Glad I opted out for once!

ZenQ – Burnaby Location

March 10, 2019 Leave a Comment

ZenQ is a Taiwanese dessert chain that opened in the Vancouver area a bit over a year ago. Since their first store (I believe in Richmond?), a few other locations have opened up around town. I live closest to the Burnaby location and went once last year, but thought it was time I write about it.

This post also contains a delivery order with Maki, Nigiri, and the boyfriend! (my stomach was acting up that night so I didn’t order anything, sad).

The location is clean and new, less than a year old. Surprisingly, there aren’t many bubble tea places along The Heights so they don’t have much competition. Parking is easy to find and free along the streets.

Hot grass jelly pudding with Q balls and pearls: Grass jelly is made from a Chinese plant, with other herbs added inside. The result is a healthy dessert, usually served cold with other toppings such as syrup, pearls, mochi balls, or ice cream.

I ordered the plain one when I had a sore throat, but this time, I ordered one with toppings! My go-to is the hot version with Q-balls, pearls, and red bean. The Q balls are chewy, mochi balls which come in yam, sweet potato, and matcha flavour.

The pearls add a nice sweetness and more chewiness to the grass jelly pudding as well! This is such a guilt free dessert and I am still able to eat it with all my digestive problems, which is a win for me!

Milk tea with pearls: The boyfriend really enjoyed his milk tea. There was a strong black tea flavour and not diluted at all, which is evident of their quality.

Cold grass jelly dessert: This is from a separate delivery order with Maki and Nigiri. It was the cold grass jelly with vanilla ice cream, mochi, and pearls. It looked delicious and they didn’t have complaints about it.

Jasmine green milk tea: While Maki and Nigiri ordered a food item, the boyfriend went with the Jasmine milk tea. He noted the strong Jasmine flavour and quality this time too.

ZenQ has been around for a year now, and I suspect that we will be back more often, whether it’s for dine in or delivery!

The grass jelly is high quality and made in store, while their teas are fragrant and delicious. What’s not to love about it?

Earnest Ice Cream – Revisit

March 1, 2019 Leave a Comment

In Vancouver, it seems like the two most popular ice cream places are Earnest, and Rain or Shine. Both are great choices and worth the hype. It’s been almost 4 years since my last post on Earnest Ice Cream, so I thought I would write a revisit post!

Although it was a cold February night, that did not stop the boyfriend and I from getting our ice cream fix. We were thinking of checking out Roosters but they were closed already, so we drove up Fraser and came to Earnest a few minutes later.

There is free street parking in this area but you may have to drive around the block a few times to find it.

We were surprised to see that the store was relatively full for a cold evening and 15 minutes before closing! I guess you can’t stop Vancouverites from getting their Earnest fix.

Here were the flavours of the night, they rotate daily. I was happy to see that they offered more than 1 vegan option – they had a whopping five! The vegan chocolate is a staple, but I haven’t seen the other flavours during my past visits.

Cookies and cream: The boyfriend went with a single scoop in a cup. It was delicious, creamy, and full of dairy goodness. He loved how it was loaded with cookie chunks too!

Vegan peanut butter chocolate pretzel: I’m not a crazy peanut butter lover, I’ll have some if it’s around… which was surprising that I purposely picked a peanut butter flavour! Who am I?? But it was just that good.

It reminded me of the filling inside a Reese peanut butter cup. There was also generous chunks of dark chocolate chips, and soft pretzels. The pretzels were a bit mushy inside, but I did enjoy biting into the dark chocolate. It kept the cone exciting and there was so many chunks!

I was happy to hear that the waffle cone was vegan/dairy free, so I jumped at the chance to have it. No regrets, the waffle cone was delicious as well.

We both left very satisfied with our ice cream craving. If you asked me, I would pick Earnest over Rain or Shine. Even before when I was able to have dairy, I still preferred Earnest (the salted caramel is so good!).

Location wise, I like the Earnest by Olympic Village/Main Street more because it is more spacious but the ice cream and service is the same so it’s not that big of a deal.