ice cream Archives - Curiously Carmen

Candle 79, New York City

May 18, 2016

While looking up places to eat in New York, I came across Candle 79. Even though I am not vegan, I wanted to try a vegan place because it’s really nice and relaxing to walk in to a restaurant and not have to stress over whether something contains dairy in it or not. As well, Candle 79 had really great reviews, so how could I pass it up?
So, after an afternoon of exploring Central Park and The Met museum, we explored the Upper East Side and went to Candle 79!

As mentioned above, Candle 79 is a completely vegan restaurant. None of their menus or signage advertise this, but I had found it under the vegan section on Yelp and the server confirmed that everything here is vegan. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge meat lover, so vegan or vegetarian food takes a lot to impress me. Let’s see how they did!
We were still pretty full from our lunch at Blue Dog, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to try this place. Since we already had plans for the rest of the trip and wouldn’t be in this area of NYC again, we decided on just having a small snack to at least try something!

Angel’s nachos, $16: Made with corn chips, ‘mozarella’, chili beans, tofu sour cream, and guacamole. The mozarella is the dairy & soy alternative from Daiya, which you may have seen in grocery stores. For nachos that don’t have real cheese, this was delicious. The tofu sour cream tasted like real sour cream, while there was a very generous portion of guacamole. The corn chips were really crunchy and thick as well.

The one thing I didn’t really like was the chipotle seitan. Seitan is a vegetarian meat alternative, made from wheat. I found it have the texture of tofu puffs, and didn’t really match the taste or texture of meat to me. So, I ate everything else which was delicious!
Housemade ice cream sampler, $9: The nachos were already really filling considering we weren’t hungry to begin with, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to have ICE CREAM. I was already sold when our server told us it was made with rich coconut milk. I’ve been deprived of ice cream for soooo long.

The chef’s selection that day was the strawberry coconut soy, mango, and vanilla chocolate. THEY WERE SO GOOD. Seriously guys, it was soo creamy from the coconut milk that you can’t even tell it’s dairy free. To this day, I am still thinking and wishing that I had Candle 79’s ice cream again.

My favourite was the strawberry, and I found myself savouring every creamy bite. The mango, although it was called a ‘sorbet’, was really creamy and tasted deliciously creamy as well. I found the vanilla chocolate to be too sweet, and that one melted quite fast, while the other two didn’t melt.

Whether you are vegan or not, Candle 79 is a delicious restaurant and worth trying out. I will continue to think about their vegan ice cream over and over again, especially since the weather is getting hotter now.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Richmond Night Market 2015 – Part 1/2

June 24, 2015

Hi everyone!

Last year, I wrote a post on the Richmond Night Market so I thought I would do one again this year. That post received quite a few views, so I figured that you readers like to hear what’s good/bad at the nightmarket!

There are two nightmarkets in Richmond, this is the one by River Rock Casino (the more popular one to go to). There is free parking, but the lot was apparently ‘full’ so we drove around the area for a good 15-20 minutes looking for parking. But when we actually walked across the parking lot, half the lot was empty so I’m not sure why they said it was ‘full’. =.=”

Admission to enter the nightmarket is $2.75 per person. You can buy a booklet with 10 entry stamps and skip the long line ups if you think you’ll be coming here often though! Even though the line was long, we waited under ten minutes.

I took a picture of the booth at the top, followed by what we ordered underneath. All the food here is cash only! Although it is street food, it’s not exactly cheap.
The boyfriend loves his takoyaki, and quickly set off looking for a takoyaki stand! While I was in line for squid, he came back with this!

We enjoyed the flavours of the takoyaki. It was well seasoned, tasted fresh, and came with a generous amount of flakes and sauce on top!
While he is obsessed with takoyaki, I am obsessed with squid and a trip to the nightmarket is not complete without some grilled squid.

I ordered the ‘signature’ squid, which had a salty but sweet aftertaste. The squid was nice and crunchy, with a hint of smokiness from the grill.

My friend ordered the ‘garlic lovers’ squid, which I liked more than the signature. The flavours felt more rounded and I liked the strong garlic taste, compared to the sweet aftertaste that I had with the signature. They were both delicious, but my personal preference was the garlic lovers.

My friend, who came here a few weeks before us, said not to get the bubble waffle from the ‘orange stand’, so we went to this place instead LOL.

Although the wait time was pretty long, it was worth it. The bubble waffle was nice and puffy, with a crisp exterior and soft interior.

Thanks for reading! I felt that this would be too long of a post if I included all the food we tried, so stay tuned for part 2 =)

-Carmen

Nero Belgian Waffle Bar

May 31, 2015

Hi everyone!

After a satisfying brunch a few months ago, Naomi from Constant Cravings and I decided to go grab dessert at Nero! No, we weren’t hungry still… but I told her that Nero has been on my dining list for probably 2 years now, and I still haven’t gotten the opportunity. Since Forage was a mere few blocks away, we decided to walk there after and share a waffle.

Naomi had already been here before, so she led the way. To be honest, I was a bit surprised when we got there as I was not expecting their design and branding to look like this! Judging from the pictures I saw, the place looked a lot brighter and less rustic/wooden than it actually was. Not that I minded though, but that was just my first opinion=)

It’s smart that they have their menu on a chalkboard outside. Naomi told me that it lines up pretty quickly here during the summer, so this is an efficient way to speed up the wait!

Yep, I was still surprised at how wooden and cozy it was inside Nero. I honestly thought it would look like a bubble tea or Asian dessert cafe, LOL!

Nonetheless, I did like the interior and here is a picture of a bicycle on their wall. The seating area is quite small and there is no way that all their customers are able to get a seat right away. Which is unfortunate, because their specialty waffles aren’t something that can be easily packed and taken to go.

Since I was the newbie, I let Naomi decide for the both of us. We shared the liege au chocolat waffle, which came with a dark chocolate drizzle, fresh raspberries, and a big ol’ scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The waffle was nice and light, with a sweetness to it and served warm. The dark chocolate and tart raspberries counterbalanced the sweetness of the waffle and vanilla ice cream.

I would love to come back and try more of their different flavours, but I especially hate standing and waiting in lines for restaurants.. that’s a big pet peeve for me and probably one of the biggest reasons I haven’t tried a couple of well known, yummy establishments. I should also mention Nero was empty when we came in around 2pm on a Saturday, but as we got ready to leave, we saw a line that was already out the door!

I saw another customer with a huge fruit assortment on her waffle, I am definitely trying that one next time I come back!

Is Nero worth the hype? For me personally, yes!

-Carmen

Soft Peaks Ice Cream

March 4, 2015

Hi hi!

What type of food blogger would I be if I didn’t talk about the latest ice cream shop that has been taking Vancouver’s social media by storm? Can you guess which place I’m talking about? Yep, Soft Peaks Ice Cream! Soft Peaks is located in the cobblestone streets of Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood.
After hearing many stories of people waiting upwards of one hour for a cup of organic ice cream, I did not want to partake in that so we decided to not go on a weekend, which is probably when it’ll be the most busy. Finally, the boyfriend and I found time to go one weekday evening. There wasn’t much parking available and it’s probably easier to commute there, we paid for parking three blocks away.

Soft Peaks has very high walls, which gives it a spacious appearance. There is also a small alcove on the second floor where customers can enjoy their ice cream. Overall, I would say seating is pretty limited if the place was packed but it doesn’t feel cramped.
The girl at the counter was very friendly and had great service. We waited approximately 7-10 minutes for our soft serve, but it seemed a lot longer than that because I was really anticipating my order.

I was a bit surprised when I saw the size, I thought that for $7 it would be a bit bigger. But, quality over quantity?
The boyfriend ordered the rocky mountain with his choice of chocolate syrup. I was secretly hoping he would order the caramel syrup so that I could try it =P

Being the milk lover he is, he really, really, REALLY loved his soft serve. He emphasized how creamy and smooth it was, and how delicious the Avalon milk was. He would be back again in a heart beat. But what about those who don’t have a “soft” spot for dairy?
I ordered the mudslide, which came with crushed tim tam flakes. Unlike the boyfriend, I was not in love at first bite. I didn’t think it was amazing, but it wasn’t bad either as what seems to be the general consensus around this place.

Since the soft serve is made with organic Avalon milk instead of cream, the good thing meaning that it is lower in fat, but the negative thing might be that people aren’t used to this taste. When eating soft serve, people are accustomed to super sweet soft serve like at Dairy Queen or McDonalds.

Without the chocolate syrup and tim tam flakes, I would have found this very plain. I’m really glad that I had the chocolate and flakes which gave more excitement to an otherwise plain soft serve.

Another thing I noticed while reading reviews were that people were angry and felt ripped off because the soft serve had a giant hole in the middle! If I was paying $7 for a small sized soft serve, I would be angry too. I think they have since corrected the problem since my soft serve only had a slight hole and the boyfriend’s didn’t.

Soft Peaks had a great idea by re-inventing the soft serve with organic and high quality Avalon milk. The quality of the soft serve is definitely there, and it is very smooth but it is not the sweet soft serve that people are accustomed to.

-Carmen

PS. If you haven’t bought a bottle of Avalon milk before, you must try it on its own – the quality and smoothness of it is undeniable.

*Media sample provided by Soft Peaks. Opinions and thoughts are my own, and are not altered by the requests of the company.

Earnest Ice Cream – Two visits

February 24, 2015

Hi everyone,

FINALLY! I am so happy to be able to write a post on Earnest… because that means I finally tried it! The reason why I waited so long to try it is because of my pet peeve in lining up at eating establishments. If you’ve been reading my blog already, you know that I hate waiting in line for food.
I actually sucked it up and attempted to go to Earnest twice in the summer. Both times, we drove around the store and surrounding blocks looking for parking, for a good ten minutes before giving up.

Needless to say, Earnest seemed like a faraway, dreamy and distant land that I’ll never be able to go to =( Until now! Their new location had opened up this month right on the outskirts of Olympic Village.
Although I haven’t been to the original location, I’ve driven past it many times and know how small it is. This location is a major upgrade in terms of size, featuring high ceilings and almost floor to ceiling windows. It feels very roomy and spacious due to the high ceilings.

For our first visit, the boyfriend ordered a scoop of the whiskey hazelnut. It was very rich, creamy, and smooth…the epitome of what great ice cream should taste like. There were small chunks of hazelnut in his ice cream as well. The only regret he had was to order the waffle cone instead, he thought that it costed extra!
This was my heavenly scoop of salted caramel. Again, it was very rich and creamy… the caramel taste was perfect. I enjoyed every bite of this and the waffle cone tasted fresh and was crunchy.
I was craving Earnest so much after our first visit that we went back the next day…. whatever! #hatersgonnahate. I ordered the same salted caramel ice cream with a waffle cone, so I won’t talk about how delicious it was again!

The boyfriend ordered the cookies and cream, with a waffle cone this time! Again, it did not disappoint.

Earnest was seriously amazing, and definitely lived up to the hype. At least, I think so, but I would love to hear about those who didn’t like the ice cream here. Friendly, fast service combined with quality, rich, and smooth ice cream… I’m not sure what more you could ask for.

-Carmen

PS. Since both stores are the same and carry the same flavours, here are spoon backs to both locations: