Category Archives: Sweets/Bakeries/Desserts

Zanze’s Cheesecake

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/z…e-san-francisco

Ron picked up a cheesecake from Zanze’s for us to try since he happened to be in area. He heard that they sell the best cheesecake in San Francisco and is very unique.

It’s boxed up with a bit of fishing line to portion out the cake (top left corner).

He ordered the plain but apparently they also have flavored cheesecakes, blueberry will be my next pick.

The cake was very light and airy, a very light graham cracker dusting on top. I ate two small slices and I was stuffed, it’s deceiving how filling it is.

Zanze’s Cheesecake
2405 Ocean Avenue
San Francisco

Kara’s Cupcakes

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http://www.karascupcakes.com/

I was in the Marina with some friends for The Warehouse Sale, I was able to find some good deals on dresses for $20 each. You really have to be in the mood to dig around and find your size and also the accept some flaws on the dresses like stains or threads. But overall, it was a good shopping day.

Since we were in the area, we stopped by Kara’s Cupcakes since I’ve heard such rave reviews but have never had one myself. They all ended up sounding so yummy that I got five of them.

From top left to right: passion fruit, strawberry cream, meyer lemon
From bottom left to right: banana caramel, peanut butter milk chocolate ganache

I liked them, the filled ones are better. But there really is a lot of frosting on the cupcake, I wanted a bit more cake to go with the frosting. I still ended up eating all the frosting since I didn’t want it to go to waste, for $3.25 each, the frosting is like $1.

Crown & Crumpet in Ghirardelli Square

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http://www.ghirardellisq….llisq/index.htm

Spent a nice afternoon at Ghirardelli Square at Crown & Crumpet for a bridal shower. Sorry no pictures of the tea party of my own since one of the bridesmaids took all the pictures.

Crown & Crumpet is a very cute tea house, the third I’ve been to in SF. First was Secret Garden and second time at Samovar Tea Lounge. Their scones were delicious and they had this really nice strawberry fields green tea, light with a hint of strawberry flavor.

It was a beautiful day in SF so I walked down to the water while I waited for Ron to pick me up.

I didn’t get up early enough to walk the Bay to Breakers but I heard it was quite the event.

Girls Day Out

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Had a lovely day downtown with the girls today. We first started with breakfast at Amoura which is mostly a salad/sandwich place but they serve breakfast until noon on weekends. There were three of us so we ordered two breakfasts.

On the left is the Amoura special (two eggs, potatoes, sausage, and toast) and on the right is their pancake meal (two pancakes, two eggs, potatoes, and bacon).

After breakfast we headed to the Burke Williams Spa as we wanted to try their new Harmony spa treatment since they are having a special price. It was an interesting treatment. They use a Chinese herb scrub then use a hot stone and a cold stone to massage with. They also use a tuning fork on pressure points on your feet and lower back. It was a weird sensation with the hot stone then a cold stone right after… not unpleasant but just a bit strange at first. Though, it felt really good at my shoulder and neck. My only real complaint about the massage was that there was too much going on in the room when the masseuse had to go to the towel warmer, to put the cold stone in the ice water, to put the hot stone in the crock pot, the pour more ice water into the cold stone bowl, etc… there was just too much movement in the room while I was trying to relax.

We had a nice comforting tea that was so cute.

and it ended with a chocolate truffle when we left. I really like Burke Williams Spa, I wish I could go more often. They have really nice facilities and it is just so relaxing. Sigh.

Since we were inside the spa from 12-3pm, we didn’t have lunch so went for a snack at CeFiore. We ordered the FroYo Waffle which is a freshly made (literally, took 7 minutes to cook) waffle with your choice of frozen yogurt and three toppings. A bit expensive at $6.25 but tasty because we were starving. We chose the raspberry pomegranate frozen yogurt topped with mango, kiwi, and granola.

A day like this is just what the doctor ordered after the week we had last week… I can only be optimistic that this week will be better.

Westfield San Francisco Centre
865 Market Street
Amoura (Level Concourse – Basement)
Burke Williams Spa (Level 5)
CeFiore (Level 2)

Las Vegas Weekend

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http://www.visitlasvegas.com/vegas/index.jsp

I was in Las Vegas this weekend for a bachelorette party, my first in Las Vegas. As the saying goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” but I wanted to share some the meals we had and share some of the not so good experiences.

I left on Friday night and unfortunately my flight got delayed. But at least I had a friend to pass the time with. I was a bit annoyed going through security though. I was chosen to basically get “frisked” or padded down so I had to step into the plastic case to wait for a female security guard. I was standing there without my shoes for a good 5 to 10 minutes while the guard in front of me was yelling something like “female assistance, no alarm”… there were 3 guys who were also called out and they were immediately padded down and let go. My things were sitting on the conveyor belt as everyone else passed through. It’s uncomfortable getting stared at. Finally a male guard got my stuff and I went through the machine that puffs air at you and I was allowed to pass through and put my shoes back on. I guess they might be short staffed but to allow three men to go through while I stood there and waited isn’t right. As people passed through, even they were giving me pitying looks.

When we finally arrived in Vegas, we checked into our hotel and met up with the girls at Blush Lounge at the Wynn. It was a pretty chill place, music I actually recognized, nice outdoor patio, and an older crowd.

On Saturday morning we had brunch at Bouchon in the Venetian.

We had beignets, the ones on the left are raspberry filled and the ones on the right are their classic ones covered with cinnamon sugar and served with peach preserves and nutella. Not as light as I remember beignets are in New Orleans but still yummy.

I had the croque madame, one of my favs. Those fries hit the spot and plenty to share.

A unique thing, chicken and waffles, in that the waffles have chives, sweet and savory. My friends said the chicken breast was really moist. It was served with maple syrup and gravy (mushroom I think).

Saturday evening we went to see Thunder From Down Under and all I can really say is that it was corny but I can see how it can appeal to some people. We also went to XS Nightclub at Encore which I guess is the newest club in Las Vegas and I thought highly overrated. We stayed at the Encore so went to the concierge to get free passes. When we got there, they said we needed one pass for each girl. We only had five passes because the concierge didn’t say we needed one per girl and it also doesn’t say it on the pass itself. So we were a bit irritated that we actually needed to pay to get in ($25 each x 4) when we could’ve just gotten more passes. So that started out the night on a bad note. Although the place is really cool with the outdoor pool area where you can enjoy sitting around (if it wasn’t so cold) but then the music wasn’t very good and the people in general were very rude. One of our friends was trying to leave and as she was walking away, a guy shoved her, she landed hard on her left knee and face (hurting her nose and two front teeth)… the guy just kept on walking and a bouncer was kind enough to stop to help her up. So rude.

We ended the night on a better note by going to Tao in the Venetian where the music was better and a girl in our group ran into people she knew so it was more fun to hang out with friendlier people. Some of the other girls went to gamble and had some good luck.

The weekend ended with a all-you-can-eat/drink mimosa brunch at Envy Steakhouse. Bacon & sausage… yum!

Uncharacteristically for me, I couldn’t have dessert, was too stuffed with the buffet. The piano player at this place was great, very entertaining. The atmosphere was very fun, kind of old school but a good note to end the weekend on.

Back at the Wynn, the hotel is vibrant.

We spent the afternoon shopping at The Palazzo and got my first pair of Jimmy Choo pumps! I swear, they were a good deal, on sale!

The parasols in the Palazzo before you enter the Venetian.

We walked for the 4 hours before our flight so I thought I’d be ready to sleep on the plane but couldn’t really doze off comfortably.

I feel much better today after napping for 3 hrs this evening. It’s highly irregular for me to go to Vegas this often and both were very different experiences. Both were great fun but this might be it for the year.

Congratulations to the bachelorette! The wedding will be June in Honolulu. I just got the confirmation for our tickets (great price, less than $300 per person), can’t wait!