Hello, hello from San Francisco

Hello, hello. I’m going to try a new thing. Since all the photos I take on my phone automatically upload to a private album accessible on Google+ (Yay, Android!), I’m going to start grabbing them and putting them up here. We’ll see how this goes. I’m also taking photos on my regular camera so those could very well be additional posts for when I get back. I’m in San Francisco on a kind of last-minute work trip. The good thing is I’m here with some really great people, one of which is my work bestie Jackie, who came into town with me a day early so we could do some galavating. We’re already having a blast and we’re already exhausted. Our first meal was at Flour & Water. We got there at 5:30 and had to wait an hour and a half. It was worth it. Above is what was left of our chocolate bundito dessert. Yes.

Here is myself taking a look at things from Coit Tower, in which we had to walk a thousand steps to get to. A thousand steps along different kinds of trees and different kinds of houses of different colors and on different height levels because we were going up a hill. It was really cool. And the view was nice when we were up there. Oh, and yes, I did buy this jacket at Forever 21 because I had no idea San Francisco would be as cold as it would be. My choice of shoes that I brought is really unfortunate.

 

And here is Jackie. You should probably get ready for her to be on this blog a lot because we basically hang out all the time.

And there she is again! We are at the W which I’ve never stayed at before and it is very exciting. The elevator is fascinating.

That’s all for now. Wait to you see the glorious photo I took of some Mexican food we had today in The Mission. Oh yes we did.

P.S. Okay, that’s really not all. I’m excited to be here but there are reasons for which I’ll be really excited to go back to New York. In 10 days! Will I survive?

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Big Gay Ice Cream Store

Hello, hello, hello. The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (one of my favorite things, ever) opened a brick-and-mortar shop in what already seems like years ago (although it was not) and I was finally, finally able to check it out a few weeks back and say hey to my buddies Doug and Bryan. Two cool cats, for sure.

I went with Miss Kelly Purkey, THE partner in crime for these things and there are even more fabulous pictures on the post she put in her blog.

Here she is playing texty with her new unicorn friend:

Unicorns are kind of a thing at The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, naturally:

Look at how pretty this one is! (And look at the slacking employees in the back… Doug!!!)

And if you don’t have the BGICT menu memorized by heart already, the ice cream at the above would be the Salty Pimp: vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, sea salt, and chocolate dip. It’s kind of amazing. I don’t go here enough.

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Hey, Cupcake

So… food trucks are one thing, but food trailers are another. And that’s what Austin’s got. They are cool and my next time in Austin I will eat at every single one.

Another thing you need to know: I was once a designer at The State News, the award-winning (had to throw that in there, we were SERIOUS) student paper and for Valentine’s Day each designer created their own Valentine people could print out of the paper. And mine was a cupcake and above it said, “Hey, cupcake.” I made all my friends guess which one I made and all my friends guessed which one was me.

ANYWAY my Dad surprised me in knowing all cool things Texas and said we were going for a “treat” after our lunch. SOLD. So we went to Hey, Cucake and I got a classic cupcake – vanilla with chocolate frosting. My, my.

I should probably be embarrassed by the amount of cupcakes I have tried over my life but I will tell you that this one was one of the best. Perfect cake, nice and moist, and perfect frosting. Hey, cupcake, I kind of love you.

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Shipley’s Do-Nuts

So… I don’t really like to eat at chains when I’m on vacation (or ever really, with exceptions) but when there’s a regional doughnut chain… yeah, I go there.

Shipley’s! I didn’t know what to get, they were all so beautiful and bright. But I could only have one! So I picked. Devil’s Food. Yeah… go big or go home? Wasn’t really sure what I was in for, but hey.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Chocolate doughnut: check. Glaze: check.

And then…

BAM, chocolate filling. Out of nowhere. It was very sweet and very good. But I do think I almost died. Also, please please ignore my chipped nailpolish, I have said before I hate hate pictures of my nails when they are chipped and you think I could have found 20 minutes before I went to Texas to remedy the situation but ALAS I did not.

Anyway, chocolate on the inside. Now you know.

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Sprinkles Cupcakes

There is cute and then there is cute. If you’re a cupcake, you should probably be cute. Or be surrounded by zebras. Seriously. The one wall of zebras made me really want a pattern wall of some sort of animal in my bedroom. That would be awesome. That is also my reason to have children – so I can decorate their bedrooms for them except really for me. Although I could totally do this zebra thing in any other room as well.

I have a lot to catch up here on City Mitten because I just spent the past five days or so in TEXAS of all places but first I have a couple of updates to finish from when Em Bem and my mommy were in town. Which is where we get this picture:

You see, Em Bem loves cupcakes, perhaps even more than me if that’s possible. And she was dying to go to Sprinkles once she heard they were opening one on the UES. They apparently were the first cupcake-only bakery and started in Beverly Hills and are now in a bunch of major cities.

And look, you can get some for your dog! How sweet.

So we got two chocolatey ones. One with chocolate sprinkles because my mom loves those and the other one because it was cute as a button. And I also love their wooden cutterly with “Sprinkles” spelled out onto them… such good branding!

Wheee, Sprinkles is good.

 

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Pickles and Pies from New Amsterdam Market

There’s not much to say here except I really like pickles and I really like seeing pickles in a giant, big bucket for sale. These particular ones I found at The New Amsterdam Market and they had some mustard flavor (note the yellowish hue) and a bit of a bite.

If you haven’t been to the New Amsterdam Market yet, there’s only a thousand City Mitten posts already telling you to go. So here’s one more. It’s every Sunday through just before Christmas. And there’s always artisanal ice cream, I can promise you that.

And also, there are pies:

These babes are from Pie Corps in Brooklyn and in the front we have chocolate pudding pies with caramel, and grasshopper pies behind them. They were so so tempting but I think I had already spent five kajillion dollars that weekend on something so I was just at the market to look. And to buy a pickle. Which I did.

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Cheburashka and Alexandra Goes to Russia! (Cakes, Too)

Hello, little guy! This is Cheburashka, a very popular Russian cartoon that I just found out is actually CLAYMATION after a little research on YouTube. Today is a big day for my little sister as she is heading to Russia to study and learn the language for a year! I will miss her, obviously, but I’m very excited for her as well – and also very excited to visit. She’ll be in St. Petersberg and it’s going to be GREAT.

So when I was in Michigan the weekend before last, we had a little going away party for her. And no party with my family is complete without a cake from Patisserie Parmentier. No, sir. We actually had three cakes at this party – one from Parmentier with Cheburashka and two others from Market Fresh in Southfield, Mi. Here is one of those cakes that we thought was going to be chocolate on the inside, but unfortunately was not:

But back to Cheburashka! Look how much Alexandra likes her cake:

And if you’re wondering what it looked like on the inside, here it is:

Oh, yeah. Good luck in Russia, Sambe! See you soon.

 

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The Chocolate Room

Well, hello chocolate layer cake from The Chocolate Room. Also called “The Biggest Piece of Chocolate Cake in My Life.” Sorry (or not sorry) to say I could not eat the entire thing. Miss Jordan introduced me to The Chocolate Room a while back. There are two locations in Brooklyn, one is quite close to me. The one we went to was in Park Slope. Apparently there was a time Jordan went so often she knew every server who worked there. No one was surprised. The dessert menu is pretty good, they have specials every night so there are a thousand options if you like chocolate. If you don’t like chocolate, who are you?

And this is called “Jordan Loves When I Take Pictures of Her.” Actually, she does. I like going places with her because she doesn’t mind playing model for me. And because she’s a good time. Tonight we’re going old-fashioned bowling for our friend Shar’s birthday.

The cake Jordan has here is a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry something or other. For the life of me I cannot figure out why I don’t like raspberry with my chocolate cake. I like chocolate cake and I like raspberry but I do not like them together. But the flourless cake itself was delicious. So take note, head to The Chocolate Room, and tell me what you get.

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Back at the Doughnut Plant

It’s my MOM! Hi, Mom! The Doughnut Plant is her favorite.

It astonishes me when I hear people who have lived in the city for 4+ years and have never been to The Doughnut Plant. Even people who’ve lived here for 4 days, really. What are you waiting for? I am constantly shocked by who has not been there yet. And with their new location on 23rd st, you really have no excuse. Of course, however, we always go to the original location on Grand Street. There used to be this big guy who worked there with lots of personality, but now it appears they’ve hired hipster replacements with zero personality instead, but we’ll still take it.

This is the only picture of us three from the entire weekend. And it was taken at The Doughnut Plant. Of course.

For those wondering, that is a strawberry lemonade in my mom’s hand and for those who like strawberry more than you like lemon (aka, me) that means you will like it a lot.

And here’s a peek of what was in the bag:

Although they have lots of fun flavors, we get the same thing every time: chocolate black out and creme brulee. My, my.

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One Girl Cookies

Yeah… I’m not sure what I was thinking because One Girl Cookies is the CUTEST on the inside and I didn’t take a picture of that. Also – we didn’t get any cookies. BECAUSE they had a four or five cookie minimum or something. Yeah, say wha? So Missy couldn’t get a whoopie pie and one cookie. I get what they’re trying to do, but it seemed absurd. Now I have to buy five cookies sometime I guess and I don’t even know if I’ll like them!

I probably will though since the whoopie pie and the cupcake I got was pretty good. A close up, for your viewing pleasure:

I think the frosting is fun. And it was tasty, too! This is another gem in my new neighborhood, wooooo weeeeeee.

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