Lil Pop Shop- Green Tea with Mochi Popsicle

We stopped by a flea market during a hot day and decided to get handmade popsicles from a truck. I know Lil Pop Shop has a brick and mortar store in West Philly (265 S 44th St) and I have seen them around during different events in the city such as festivals; however, I never tried their popsicles. I am glad I finally decided to try it.

Green Tea with Mochi Popsicle

My friend and I both got the Green Tea with Mochi Popsicle. It was the most delicious popsicle I ever had. It was creamy and tasted like matcha green tea. It wasn’t too sweet. It was just perfect. It also had a good amount of mochi inside it. The mocha was tasty, sweet, and chewy. I was very pleased with this purchase and kept telling my friend how good the popsicle was while eating it.  If the Green Tea Mochi popsicle was this good, it makes me want to try all the other flavors. Unfortunately, these popsicles are little pricey for me so I have to control myself.  I am definitely going to patron them again when I see them.

Veggie Cheesesteak (Citi Market)

One day for lunch, I was carving meat and I decided to satisfy this carving with fake meat. I searched yelp for a good place to get good fake meat sandwiches at reasonable prices. Lo and behold I found Citi Market (1318 Walnut Street). Score! They had a selection of veggie sandwiches as well as sandwiches with real meat. I got the veggie cheesesteak on the menu.

Veggie Cheesesteak

The Veggie Cheese Steak came with fried onions, lettuce, tomato, and ketchup. I hadn’t had a veggie cheesesteak for real long time and this tasted like the real thing. You can tell the shredded mock meat was not meat but it similarity to the taste of real meat was exceptional.  I can also tell the meat was premade and they probably heated it up nonetheless I was still very pleased with it. I plan to try more of their veggie sandwiches so please keep an eye out.  


UPDATE: Unfortunately, Citi Market is closed permanently. So long vegetarian hotspot... 

Best Vegan Pizza Ever!- Blackbird Pizzeria

Based on the yelp reviews and the one dollar money sign, my friend suggested we go eat at Blackbird Pizzeria since we were around the area. Food-wise, I think it was one of the best decisions we ever made. It was also crowded, which was good because that meant it must be good. I would estimate about 20 to 30 seating. It was also crowded, which was good because that meant it must be good. It was actually so crowded that we had to ask a couple if we could share their table. So basically at this place, you order and pay at the front. You give them your name and then someone brings it out the food to you when it is done. Also, there is a pitcher of ice water near the register and you self serve yourself water.  Half of us got in line and the other half of us got seated. While we were in line we didn’t know what to get so we referred to the menu written on the chalk board behind the counter and also looked behind the glass counter to see the kind of pizza they had. We were going to order a whole pizza for the table. I wanted to make sure we didn’t get anything with meat on it. Then, the girl in front of us, who overheard us, informed us this establishment is vegan. Score! That means I should be able to eat everything on the menu. It seems kind of silly that we didn’t know it was a vegan place before coming here but you know sometimes that's how we roll. Sometimes we just only look at the stars and $ sign on yelp. Fortunately, yelp has not disappointed me yet.

Also we as we got closer to the register there was a menu. We decided to get the veggie supreme pizza and cheese fries. So apparently, they use daiya cheese for their cheese. I had no clue what that was so I researched it. It is basically vegan cheese that is no made with any soy, gluten, or  diary which can irritate people who have food allergy.  See below of my review.

Vegan Cheese Fries

The cheese fries were fresh. It wasn’t crispy but it was thick and tasty. The daiya cheese tasted awesome. It reminded me of whiz cheese which I like. I got to say I thought the cheese tasted better than real cheese. I also think this is the best cheese fries ever. A plus was that the cheese didn't taste heavy. 

Vegan Viggie Supreme Pizza

The pizza took awhile to come out because they had to make it. On the pizza, was fresh tomato sauce, daiya, and a number of vegetable- pickled artichoke, fresh green peper, onions, olive, and mushrooms. The pizza was very fresh and I think they make their own crust. The crust was thin and somewhat crispy yet some what chewy at the same time. The tomato sauce tasted fresh and had that mildy sour tomato taste. I thought the sour taste of the tomato and the sweetness of the fresh vegetable topping really went well together. I can say I devoured two slice very fast and was constantly praising how good the pizza was. It was one great delicious pizza. I am definitely going to come back for more. I feel like I am going to have dreams and cravings for this pizza and cheese fries. That was how good they were. My non vegetarian friends also enjoy the pizza and fries very much. 

Vegeterian Chicken Nuggets and Fries- HipCityVeg

HipCityVeg actually has two locations in Philly. The original restaurant is located at Rittenhouse Square (127 S. 18^th Street) while the more recently opened one is in University City (214 S. 40^th St). I have heard great things about this establishment especially their chicken ranch sandwich. For lunch one day, I went to the restaurant at Rittenhouse Square. The place was very busy during lunchtime, but the line went by really fast. I felt like everyone in front of me ordered a salad, but I was being fat and got the Chick'n Nuggets and Fries.  I didn’t try their chicken sandwich even though people suggested that I should because I have a bagel for breakfast and didn’t think I should eat any more bread like carbs. I will definitely come back for their awesome food so don't be surprise when you see a review for their chicken sandwich.

Chick'n Nuggets and Fries with Ketchup

Chick’n Nuggets and Fries came in a compostable box. There were 5 pieces of chicken and a hand full of sweet potato fries in the box. The “chicken” looked like real chicken tenders, tasted like real chicken, and had a comparable texture to chicken but just not as firm. I kept thinking to myself “is this real meat” the whole time when I was eating the “chicken nuggets” and  second-guessing myself.  I think if you didn’t tell someone this was not really chicken they might actually mistaken it for real chicken. The “nuggets” were well seasoned and delicious.  The sweet potato fries were okay. They were not crispy. They were kind of soggy but they were not oily soggy if that made sense. They were good but didn’t taste different or spectacularly better than other sweet potato fries I had before.

Green Lemonade

The Kale Green Lemonade is made with freshly squeezed lemons & organic kale juice, lightly sweetened with raw organic agave nectar.  The lemonade was very refreshing. It tasted like sweet lemonade with possibly a hint of kale. To tell you the truth I don’t really know what kale juice taste like. Is it mostly tasteless? The green lemonade tasted more like lemonade. Nonetheless it was good. 

Jack's Philly Catering

At work one day, a rep bought in lunch from Jacks Philly Catering (8500 Bustleton Ave). There was an assortment of sandwiches and wraps- Chicken salad, Turkey, Tuna, imitation crabmeat, veggie, etc. To accompany the sandwiches/wrap, there were mayonnaise, mustard, Russian dressing, and pickles. There was a garden salad with either creamy Italian dressing or thousand French dressing as well as cole slaw and potato salad. Lastly, the star of the lunch were the tray of assorted cookies. Below are pictures of mostly what I ate.

Garden Salad, Veggie Wrap, Imitation Crabmeat, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw

I felt like being fat so I got a veggie wrap, an imitation crabmeat sandwich, some garden salad with Italian dressing, some potato salad, and some cole salad.  In the veggie wrap were steamed carrots, steam broccoli, steam string beans, and sautéed onions.  The veggies were tender, but it was a little too bland for me and the wrap was kind of stale. I guess that’s why there were condiments on the side----to make it less bland. The imitation crabmeat was not bad. It was just a little dry. The crabmeat sandwich had a little mayo mixed with the imitation crabmeat that was probably store bought. The salad was just a plain garden salad with iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, shredded purple cabbage, and chopped cucumbers. The salad dressing tasted like it was store bought. The potato salad and cole slaw tasted great. I think they were made with similar dressings. The favors were well balanced. It was creamy, sweet, and mildly tangy. As you can probably tell by now beside the potato salad and cole slaw I was not impressed.

Assort Cookie Dessert Tray

There were no descriptions that came with the cookies. Sometimes this is the downside of these catered luncheon. You don’t know what you are eating. So these are my guesses of the possible favors- chocolate cookie with white morsels, peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips, and peanut butter and raisins. I tried what presumably were the peanut butter and raisins and the peanut butter and chocolate chips. So apparently what I thought was peanut butter was not. I cannot totally tell what it was but it didn’t taste like peanut butter. I am going to say it was some kind of preserve. Both cookies were chewy, delicious, and addictive. The so call peanut butter with raisin one was actually an oatmeal cookie. I tried to go on their website to find out that the cookies were but had no luck. It just said a dessert cookie tray. I guess I will never know. Nonetheless, these were some yummy cookies.

Red Velvet Brick Toast & Green Tea Mousse Cake

When the brick toast favored changed to red velvet, we decided to pop in Audabon Bakeshop (145 N. 11th Street). This time, in addition to brick toast, we got a Green Tea Matcha Mouse cake. See below for pictures and reviews of the dessert.

Green Matcha Mousse Cake

The Green Tea Mousse Cake looked visually appealing and appetizing. The mousse was very smooth and tasted well balanced. The matcha tea taste was not strong and the dessert wasn’t too sweet. There was even a surprise in the center. Not sure, if it was a brownie or oreo truffle, but it was a pleasant surprise. I thought the dessert was very addictive. Amongst four of us, we devoured this thing.

Red Velvet Brick Toast

The Mini Red Velvet Brick Toast had banana slices and read bean paste sandwiched between two layers of toast. It was topped with ice cream, cream, jam, and red velvet oreos.  I thought the toast was good, but it could have been better. The red bean paste was okay but I thought the toast would probably tasted better with jam like paste. The cream squeezed as a zig zag shape on top was delicious and tasted like buttercream. Although I could not identified the flavor of the ice cream, it complemented the toast really well. However, the red velvet oreo cookies were too sweet for me. I prefer the original oreo cookie. Overall, I would rate this 3.5 out of 5. I definitely liked the Green Tea Brick Toast more. 

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Audabon closed permanently on July 5th, 2015. 

Aki- All You Can Eat Sushi(ayce)

For a friend’s birthday, we decided to do all you can eat sushi for $26.95 at Aki (1210 Walnut Street), which I thought was an awesome deal. I thought Aki’s sushi was good, but I felt that I had better sushi before. See below for a review of the foods I ate. Basically for the sushi buffet, they give you a buffet menu with selected appetizers, sushi, hand rolls, and specialty rolls (for the extra special specialty rolls there is an additional cost of $2.50).

Sashimi

From the appetizer list, I started off with sashimi, mixed salad with ginger dressing, and vegetable tempera.  For the sashimi, it was not unlimited. Only one serving was allowed per buffet patron. I had to get this because sashimi is expensive. I think one order is already like $10. The sashimi was fresh. I ate it will the pink ginger and a tiny amount of wasabi. It tasted good. I ate it slowly to savor it.

Mixed Green Salad with Ginger Dressing

The mixed salad with ginger dressing was very refreshing. The ginger dressing was excellent. The dressing made the salad. The favor was well balanced between sweet and savory. I would like to learn how to make the ginger dressing so I can make it and eat this salad whenever I want to.

Vegetable Tempera

The vegetable tempera was delicious. Even though the tempera was not crisp per se, it was very tasty and the vinegar sauce went well with it. I think I can probably eat ten plates of this if I didn’t consider that it was fattening and deep fried.

Shrimp Tempera Hand Roll

Assorted Sushi and Specialty Sushi

More Sushi and Hand Rolls

Lastly, were the sushi and the hand rolls. I didn’t know which sushi to get. My friend and her boyfriend was going to order everything on the buffet menu so I told them I was just going to eat off what they got. I did order one shrimp tempura hand roll for myself. The hand roll was big and delicious. The shrimp had a crunch to it. I was not sure what else was in the roll but as I ate toward the middle there was some kind of sauce with the rice and it was tasty. All the rolls came on a huge plate so I didn’t know what was what for sure, but I did eat like 10 pieces from the huge platter. I did have the spicy tuna, eel roll, shrimp roll as well as other rolls. They all tasted pretty good. I would come here again to satisfy my sushi cravings. 

Black Sesame Seed Custard

My mother bought me a very large container of black sesame seed powder. She claiming sesame powder it the way to go because it's good for digestion. Well apparently, the seeds do have a quite of number of healthy benefits. I listed some below.

1.  They are a great source of calcium and zinc so it's beneficial to the health of your bones.
2. The minerals it contains is great for your skin. The vitamin e nourishes the skin and the zinc helps produce collagen.
3. It has sesamin and sesamolin which are components of fibers called lignans that aid in lowering cholesterol. The fiber also helps with digestion and constipation.
4. It also contains magnesium which can help control blood pressure.
5. It is also a great source of iron.

With all the great benefits, of course, I will make use of the black sesame seed powder. I looked up recipes with black sesame seeds in it and decided to make custard. Custard is a dessert similar to pudding but it has eggs in it. The amount of sugar I put in the dessert might defeat the purpose of trying to be healthy and reduced the beneficial qualities of the black sesame as compared to maybe eating it without so much sugar. However, I do think the custard which has milk, eggs, and black sesame seed in it is still a calcium and iron enriched treat. Hopefully, that will be make up for the sugar. Below is the recipe. 

Black Sesame Custard

Adapted by Not Eating Out in New York 

Ingredients:

2 cups of whole milk

3 egg yolks

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

½ cp of black sesame seed powder

1 Tbsp of tapioca starch

      

1.  Heat milk in the saucepan. Bring it to an almost boil and reduce the heat before it bubbles.
2. Beat the yolks, sugar, and tapioca starch in bowl until  it is fluffy and lighter in color. Add the powder black sesame seed. Drizzle the hot milk into the egg mixture with a ladle. Whisk while drizzling. When about a cup of milk has been added, transfer the egg mixture into the saucepan with milk.
3. Put on medium and slowly bring it to a boil while constantly stirring.  Continue to stir until it bubbles and the mixture thickens. This will take about 2 minutes.  Then remove from the heat,
4.  Let the mixture cool and then transfer it to bowls or tubberware and let the mixture chill in the refrigerate overnight or at least six hours. Serve cold.