Disappoint of Cupcakes

(Sweet Box Cupcake Food Truck)

The perfect cupcake is a moist cake with a sweet and smooth buttercream icing on top. The flavor of the cupcake should be tasted in the cupcake and the name should be appropriate. I checked out Sweet Box Cupcakes which is a Cupcake food truck. It was a disappointing cupcake. The flavors I tried were supposed to be were Tiramisu, Red Velvet, and Chocolate Peanut Butter and it was lacking. The cake part was very dry and the cake just crumbled apart when you bit into it. The buttercream they use is just off. The buttercream isn’t smooth and is dried out on top of the cupcake like it’s been sitting or refrigerated for a while. It was kind of a disappointing because I love cupcakes. The service that you got from them wasn’t good either. The girl was sitting in the truck on a chair on her cell phone it took her a couple of minutes to notice we were standing there waiting to order. Total Disappointment!

(From left to right, Tiramisu, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Red Velvet)

Sweet Box Cupcakes

https://iheartsweetphilly.com/

Emeril’s Italian Table

(Outside the Restaurant)

On a recent trip to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem I looked up what restaurants they had and was hoping to try the Carnegie Deli but they are closed on Wednesday which was the day I visited. So I got try Emeril’s Italian Table which was good. I always loved watching Emeril on television when I was little. During the summer my grandmother and I watched the Food Network and back in the day he was one of the starts. That is one of my fondest memories from when I was a child. It was pretty awesome to get to try one of his restaurants, finally. The idea of this restaurant is Italian and it makes you feel that you were at home with just how the restaurant was set up. They offer some rustic ciabetta bread when you first sit down with some regular butter and some garlic butter. The garlic butter is to die for. It has that nice roasted garlic taste to it like the garlic was roasted for hours. The bread was nice and crispy on the outside.  I ordered a classic Caesar salad. I love when Caesar Salads have the long romaine leaves on the plate verses being cut up. The best part was the whole anchovies on it which is an essential part of a real classic Caesar salad. The main entrée that I got was of course a pasta dish because I was in a Italian restaurant (Duh!). I ordered the linguine, sausage, clam and rapini pasta which was really good. The sausage was nice and crispy which I love. The linguine was lightly coated in an olive oil and spices sauce which was nice because it wasn’t so heavy. It had a nice balance of heat to it with the sausage and the spices. But the pasta dish was so big that it could have definitely been split between two people.  The atmosphere inside is so rustic you feel that you are escaping the everyday flashing lights of a casino. They have a wood oven pizza that is huge which is pretty cool to check out. The other cool part is that they a bar where they slice their cured meats and cheeses.

(Inside Emeril's Italian Table)

(Ciabetta with regular butter and garlic butter)

(Caesar Salad)

(Linguine, Sausage, Clam and Rapini Pasta )

Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem

77 Sands Boulevard

Bethlehem, PA

www.pasands.com

Where Ingredients matter

(The Lucky Old Souls Food Truck )

On a recent trip to Love Park to check out some food trucks, I got to try food from Lucky Old Souls.  The first thing that attracted me to their truck is that they list on the menu where they get all their ingredients from. You can tell where they get their ice cream from, where they get their vegetables from, and where they get their burger buns from. This really struck me as awesomeness and where menus are going. Their menu lists how you can build on your own burger or you could go for the LOS Burger. They use Lancaster County Grass Fed Beef for their burger and they have a veggie burger for vegans. They offer different cheeses, sauces, and veggies. The one thing I love about the veggie part is for tomato and in parenthesis it says “if in season” which is funny because tomatoes are always on everything year round but most people don’t know they have a short season.  I opt to get the LOS Burger. The LOS Burger is the Lancaster County Grass Fed Beef, with house-made bacon, smoked cheddar pickled tomatoes, sautéed onions, and the LOS Sauce.  All the burgers are served on Wild Flour Bakery Challah Burger Buns which are awesome and have so much flavor. When they are served on them, they soak up their sauces and fat from the burger which makes the burger great. It has that perfect balance. This is one of the best burgers to date I have ever had. I also got the hand cut French fries and Salty Caramel Milkshake. The French fries were so crispy for being hand-cut . That is very rare to find. Their milkshakes are to die for. The Salty Caramel Milkshake combines the perfect balance to salty and sweet. I fell in love with Lucky Old Souls that day. They have the best burgers to date.

(Lucky Old Souls Menu)

(LOS Burger with Hand Cut French Fries)

(Salty Caramel Milkshake)

Check out Lucky old souls @ www.luckyoldsouls.com for their stops during the week

To get the Challah Burger Buns check out Wild Flour Bakery at :

-Fairmount Farmers Market on Thursdays from 3pm to 7pm

-Rittenhouse Market on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm

-Bryn Mawr Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm

-Collingswood Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8am to 12pm

-Headhouse Farmers Market on Sundays from 10 am to 2pm

Combination of two awesome things together

I will admit it I have an obsession with trying every donut from Federal Donuts. Another thing I support is Art in the Age which was started out of Philadelphia. Art in the Age produces craft spirits that are different that I have never ever seen any other liquor producer produce. Art in the Age produces Root, Snap, and Rhuby. The idea behind Root is the idea of Root beer. The idea behind Snap is ginger snap cookies. The idea behind Rhuby is Rhubarb.  Federal Donuts used these flavors in donuts. I mean how could you go wrong with that? . These donuts were only featured for a week at the end of April. Root was became a Root Beer Float donut. Snap was a great Gingersnap Cookie donut and Rhuby was a sensational Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. The Root Beer Float has a root beer glaze with vanilla ice cream icing. The Gingersnap cookie has a ginger glaze with gingersnap cookie crumb. The Strawberry- Rhubarb Pie has a rhubarb glaze, pie crust crumble and strawberry icing. I will admit all the donuts tasted like you were drinking a root beer float, eating a gingersnap cookie, and have a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie.  My favorites were the Root Beer Float and the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. My mom’s favorite was the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.  I personally have a soft spot for Root Beer Floats and I never think you could go wrong with that. The Strawberry Rhubarb Pie was great.  You really felt that you were eating a pie. The pie crust crumble was so buttery. The one thing I love about Federal Donuts in general is that their donuts are not sweet. They just have that perfect balance of sweetness in each and everyone that they produce.

(Last row on the left is Root Beer Float, next row is

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, next row is Gingersnap Cookie,

and last row on the right is Chocolate Banana)

Best Cupcakes EVER !

On my recent trip to New York City, I got to pick up some of the best cupcakes to date.  The perfect cupcake has a moist cake on the bottom with a flavorful icing on top. The perfect idea for the cake to stay moist was to put a filling inside the cake. These cupcakes came from Crumbs Bakery. They have many locations throughout the United States. Even though they mass produce cupcakes they still put attention into every cupcake that they make.  The flavors that I picked up were Cherry Blossom, Cookie Dough, Dulce de Leche, Apple Cobbler, Blackout, and Cosmo. Cherry Blossom is vanilla cake filled with cherry preserves, topped with their signature vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with cherries and a candied cherry. Cookie Dough is a vanilla cake with chocolate fudge filling covered with their signature vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with soft chocolate chip cookie pieces and topped with a chocolate chip cookie. Dulce de Leche is chocolate cake filled and topped with caramel cream cheese frosting drizzled with caramel and chocolate. Apple Cobbler is an apple cinnamon cake with apple preserves filling topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and covered in streusel crumbs. Blackout is a rich chocolate cake filled with fudge mixed with vanilla custard, topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting and chocolate crumbs drizzled with chocolate. Cosmo is raspberry cake with lime accented cream cheese frosting with pink sanding sugar around the rim. It’s Crumbs Bakery’s form of Sex and the City. I will admit I had no specific one that I liked because I loved them all. Their cupcakes are massive and you definitely share them with a friend. They are definitely worth trying and sharing. The shop is very small and when I walked in there was a long line out the door. It was a place that everyone was stopping in when in New York City. The only sad part about their display was they list how many calories are in each cupcake because they have more than 5 locations. I have heard they are opening a location in Philadelphia which I am super excited about.

                    

Check out their website at www.crumbs.com because they have so many locations you can go to.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives Stop #2

My second stop in Jacksonville, Florida was Metro Diner which was also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. They are a breakfast and lunch place. Their saying is “Where the Locals Eat” which is definitely true.  I tried two times to go there but there was a line out the door and packed  with people waiting outside. We made it in there on Wednesday morning. There are three locations in Jacksonville. My boyfriend who is a local to Jacksonville told me before they were featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives they were packed. So this was a place I was excited to check out

(Yo Hala on the Square)

One of Guy Fieri’s favorites was the Yo Hala on the Square and I was down to try it.  It is thick slices of Challah bread stuffed with bananas, sautéed in Frangelico Hazelnut liqueur and blended with cream cheese then topped with a blueberry and strawberry compote.  The portions are so big there it could have definitely been split between two people. It was one of the best breakfast foods I have ever eaten. The inside of the stuffed French toast was so warm and amazing with so much flavor in the French toast. You definitely taste the hazelnut in the French toast from the Frangelico liqueur. The berry compote on top was so warm and it just melted in your mouth.

The Metro Diner is so simple that it has the feeling that you are at home while you are eating there and feeling comfortable. They have an open kitchen so you can see what they are cooking. It is very welcoming and bright. It makes you feel like one of the locals when you go in there.

Metro Diner 3 Locations

3302 Hendricks Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32207
904.398.370102

12807 San Jose Blvd.
Jacksonville, Florida 32223
904.638.6185

1534 3rd Street North
Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32250
904.853.6817

http://metrodiner.com/

Diners, Drive-In, and Dives Stop #1

(Outside Culhane's Irish Pub)

                One of my favorite shows on television is Diners, Drive- In, and Dives with Guy Fieri. I love to check out places that he features on the show. When I headed down to Jacksonville, Florida there were 4 places that were featured on the show. I got to check out two places that were featured on there which was awesome. One of the places was Culhane’s Irish Pub in Atlantic Beach, FL.  I always get to see the repeats of this episode a lot. I love that they had a spray painted Guy Fieri face with his signature on the wall. That was pretty awesome to see. I love walking into the place and the feeling that you are really in a pub in Ireland.  They have that wood and oak inside just like an old time pub. There are two separate dining areas. They have a dining room and they have a bar area.

(Kaye's Mac N' Cheese)

(Nana's Sausage Roll)

                The food is definitely an Irish pub menu.  We ordered two appetizers to start off the meal. We got Kaye’s Mac N’ Cheese Pasta and Nana’s Sausage Roll. Kaye’s Mac N’ Cheese Pasta was penne pasta tossed in a garlic cream sauce and topped with a mixture of cheddar jack cheese and goat cheese. I love mac n’ cheese but it has to me made right. This one was definitely made right. I like the sauce to not be like a soup and not too dry where you can’t taste the cheese. The garlic cream sauce was soo rich with flavor. The melted cheeses on top were so crispy and melted to perfection. The serving size was big and definitely sharable between people.  Nana’s Sausage Roll is an Irish sausage with onions and spices rolled in pastry then baked. It’s like the idea of a Beef Wellington.  The pastry on the sausage was so crisp and that’s how it should be. The mustard was the killer for this dish since it was deviled mustard. It was made in house for sure. It has this spicy but sweet kick to it. One of my favorite dishes in the world is Fish N Chips. I am like the Fish N Chips expert. I have tasted Fish N Chips from England to Philly. The Fish N Chips were ok.  They were fried perfectly. The batter was Guinness Beer flavored but you could not taste it in the Fish N Chips. I would liked to have seen that here. It needs to have more of a flavor impact.  For dessert we got the Brownie Ice Cream Pie. It was a layered cake with a cookie crust on the bottom, then a layer of chocolate brownie, then a chocolate mousse layer then a ganache chocolate topping. The great debate for dessert that night was it made in house or bought outside.  Still don’t know the answer.

(Arthur's Fish & Chips)

(Brownie Ice Cream Pie)

Culhane’s Irish Pub

967 Atlantic Blvd.

Atlantic Beach, FL

http://www.culhanesirishpub.com/

Have to Try their Buttercream!

(Outside Cupcake Gourmet)

I love cupcakes! I love eating them, making them, and seeing new exciting flavors. The display when you walk into Cupcakes Gourmet is so appealing. There are so many choices to make. They had a mixture of flavors to choice from Carrot, Lovely Lemon, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate Raspberry, Cinnamon Spice, Coconut, Red Velvet, Classic Vanilla, Vanilla Chocolate and a bunch more flavors. They offer two sizes of minis and regular size cupcakes. When judging cupcakes you have a base which is the cake part and the icing on top. Their cake base ia so moist and have a great crumb to them. The flavor of their regular buttercream is not sweet but just melts in your mouth and is just plain good. Each month they have a flavor of the month. The flavor of the month in February is Pink Champagne. It was chocolate based cupcake with a pink champagne buttercream icing. You can taste the champagne in the buttercream icing.  I love their cupcakes because you can really taste the flavors of what they are. My other favorite from there was their Cinnamon Spice cupcake. It is a spice cake base with a cinnamon buttercream icing.

(Cupcake Display in Cupcake Gourmet)

(Cupcakes we got and brought home)

Cupcakes Gourmet

Gateway Shopping Center

279 East Swedesford Road

Wayne, PA 19087

610-688-3144

www.cupcakesgourmet.com

McKenzie Brew House

(Outside McKenzie Brew House)

I have never heard of McKenzie Brew House until I saw it pop up in Devon.  I wanted to check it out because it looked like a fun place to try. When I first walked into the place I was surprised how big and open it was. They have a separation of rooms from the bar to the dining room. I was shocked they have an open kitchen that you can see into from the dining room.  The place is so clean and bright inside and the service matched it. I haven’t had that kind of great service for a while. The server was on top of things with refills of drinks, checking on us constantly, and always predicting what was going to come next.

(Inside McKenzie Brew House)

I love potato skins and it is one of my favorite foods to eat. On the menu under appetizers they had retro potato skins. They had Penobscot bay potato skins, Cabot cheddar, bacon, sour cream, and chives. Penobscot bay potatoes are not the regular potatoes you would find at a grocery store. They are a full round ball. They are shaped like a cup when cut in half.  The Cabot cheddar is a white cheddar cheese and is a sweet and tangy cheese.  Each potato skin is loaded with crispy bacon. These are the best potato skins I have ever had. I ordered the Key West Salad with Spicy Tuna for my entrée. I liked the salad it was loaded with flavor. It was fresh greens with fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, mango salsa, mandarin oranges, candied walnuts and with honey lime dressing. The honey lime dressing was tangy and sweet. The dressing was served on the side which I like because you can add as much dressing as you want. The spicy tuna served on top is cooked to your choice of wellness. I asked for medium rare. The tuna is spicy and it just melted in my mouth.  The person I was with ordered the Marguerita pizza and everything on top of it was good. The crust is not sensational. It’s just too doughy of a crust for any pizza. The crust of the pizza has no flavor either. It was a little disappointing for a pizza.

(Retro Skins)

(Key West Salad with Spicy Tuna)

McKenzie Brew House

324 West Swedesford Road

Berwyn, PA 19312

610-407-4300

www.mckenziebrewhouse.com

Hidden Place!

                                                              (Ouside Shane Confectionery)

Shane Confectionery is a step back in time when men wore straw hats and women wore long skirts. The inside of it feels like you are stepping back into another era. The workers in Shane’s are dressed like people dressed a  100 years ago. The glassware that the candy is stored in is just like an old candy shop. They have old candies that my mom hasn’t seen for years. They have a mixture of candies that are fun and unusual. Just because the look and feel old don’t let that fool you.  They had chocolate covered bacon. It was so sweet, salty and fun to eat.  They have something called red planet rock. It looks like a pink rice krispy treat from far away. It had the same consistency of a rice krispy treat but it tastes like pop rocks in your mouth. They also have dark chocolate covered peppermint sticks. They were nice and refreshing in your mouth. The thing to die for at Shane’s is the buttercreams. They have a mixture of flavors from strawberry, chocolate, coconut, and plenty more. The flavors inside of the buttercream can either be dipped on the outside with dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate. Shane Confectionery is very subtle on the outside since there is no big sign above the door. They have a little sign on the door and a stand sign on the sidewalk. It’s definitely a hidden gem inside the city of Philadelphia.

(Inside Shane Confectionery)

(Inside Shane Confectionery)

(Inside Shane Confectionery)

(Red Planet Rock)

(Mixture of Buttercreams)

(Chocolate Covered Bacon)

Shane Confectionary

110 Market Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

215-922-1048

www.shanescandies.com

Back to Comfort Food

(Outside Smokin Betty's)

I have always heard great stuff about Smokin Betty’s from everyone I know. They are known to have comfort food with a southern style. The place is very open with 2 floors. When you walk in the bar is to your right in its own room. They have upstairs seating and downstairs seating. They even have seating outside for a warm day. It has a very open feel to it and all the servers have their own recommendations about the food and plus they know their food inside and out that they serve there. I started out with a cocktail for the night which was called Not Your Mama’s Pie. It had Beefeater, strawberry jam, Rhuby liquor, and club soda. It was definitely a fun drink I liked with the strawberry jam in it. It added a little sweetness to the drink which I love.

                                               (Not Your Mama's Pie )

Everyone I was with that night was definitely excited to try this food. We started off with two appetizers which were BBQ sliders and the Cheesesteak Eggrolls.  The BBQ sliders are a trio of sliders which are hickory smoked beef brisket, Carolina pulled pork, and Caribbean pulled chicken served with Carolina slaw. Smokin Betty’s definitely knows how to barbecue.  Their barbecue is sweet, tangy and definitely melts in your mouth. Each of us got to have one to ourselves. I got the hickory smoked beef brisket which was to die for.  The cheesesteak eggrolls were nice and crispy.  They were served perfectly with the cheese nice and gooey inside. The cheese wasn’t too overpowering which was awesome. The tomato jam it was served with was nice and smoky. It was definitely not ketchup it was elevated to the next level.  I had to go for the Betty Burger while I was at Smokin Betty’s. The Betty Burger consists of ½ pound sirloin, confit pork belly, avocado, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, roasted garlic aioli, and fried eggs. The best part about the burgers here is that they cook to your choice of wellness. The burger is so big it’s served with a knife right down the center of it. My two new obsessions are pork belly and fried eggs. Give me a fried egg on anything and I will definitely try it. I think a fried egg is one of the best things in the world when you cut it, it has a taste of yolk and white which you can’t escape. The egg on the burger definitely added a tangy taste to it which definitely helped it. This burger is definitely worth trying. You could also split it between two people since it’s that big.  Everything that is on that burger goes together since there is nothing that doesn’t belong on that burger.  All the ingredients on it are so fresh. For dessert we had to go with the special of the day which was fried whoopie pie with cookies n’ cream ice cream. I am still thinking about that dessert since the whoopie pie was fried perfectly. Tt was so crispy on the outside. The whoopie pie inside just was oozing with melted goodness.  The cookies n’cream ice cream was served with big chucks of cookie pieces in it. The base of the ice cream was so creamy.  That was one of the best desserts I have ever had which was executed perfectly.

(Part of BBQ Sliders)

(Cheesesteak Eggrolls)

(Betty Burger)

(Deep Fried Whoopie Pie with Cookies n'cream ice cream)

Smokin Betty’s

116 South 11^th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

215-922-6500

www.smokinbettys.com

                                                         

Not the Stephen Starr restaurant you would expect !

(Outside Frankford Hall)

A week ago I made a trip to Frankford Hall which is a Stephen Starr Restaurant. The person I brought with me has never been to a Stephen Starr Restaurant. I was really surprised when we walked through the door and saw the ping pong table in the back area with a bunch of games to play. It was a relaxing place to eat with large tables where you can sit next to people you know or be joined by people who you don’t know. There was an outside beer garden with pit fires where you can toast your own s’mores.(Hmm – s’mores are every where!). I would definitely go there if you want a relaxing time and some good beer.

(Inside Frankford Hall)

                When you first arrive in the building you see a host and explain what to do which was really helpful. You order all your food and drinks and they bring it to you. You are given a number on a stand to put at your table. The food is focused around German food with beer.  For our appetizer we ordered the warm Bavarian pretzel with the cheese dip and the spatzle.  I didn’t know too much about German food before going into this but the person I was with filled me in. German pretzels are supposed to be dry and crunchy. I got the pretzel and I fell in love with that cheese dip. That is definitely not your classic cheese dip since it is bumped up a few notches to make it classy. It was tangy with spices and onions and it didn’t taste too cheesy either which I liked. The person I was with ordered the spatzle. That was the best thing in the entire place. It was served with bacon and mushrooms. Spatzle is flour and egged based homemade pasta. The spatzle tasted so good and the bacon inside it was nice and crispy. The spatzle absorbed the taste of the bacon which made it so flavorful.  I ordered the classic frankfurter which is a basic hot dog. I love hot dogs when they are served in a classic potato roll. The roll was toasted which made it crunchy which I love. The frankfurter was pretty good. The spicy mustard that was served with it made it really good. I am not a big fan of sauerkraut but the person I was with loved it. It was a little tangy and sweet.  The desserts here are very simple including cupcakes and s’mores. When you order the s’mores they give you a little bag  with marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. You go roast the marshmallow outside in their fire pit which was fun to do. I was a little bit disappointed in thier cupcakes. They have a German chocolate cupcake and a seasonal cupcake. The seasonal cupcake they were offering then was a strawberry cupcake. The strawberry cupcake was soo dry. The icing was like rock hard on top and the cupcake inside was very dry and crumbly inside. The German chocolate cupcake was a little different. The cake part was very moist but the icing on top was like rock hard. Aren’t German Chocolate Cupcakes suppose to have coconut with them too? I don’t recommend trying the cupcakes but definitely go for the s’mores.

(Warm Bavarian Pretzel with Cheese Dip)

(Spatzle with Bacon and Mushrooms)

(Frankfurter with sauerkraut)

(German Chocolate Cupcake & Strawberry Cupcake)

Frankford Hall

1210 Frankford Hall

Philadelphia, PA

www.frankfordhall.com

215-634-3338

The Newbies !

(First row is pistachio halva, Second row is Smore's, Third row is Raspberry Balsamic,

Fourth row is 2 pina colada and banana caramel  )

I do have a little sweet spot in my heart for Federal Donuts. Their donuts are amazing. I recently saw they released some new donuts. The newbies are pistachio halva, s’mores, and raspberry balsamic. I made a trip down there on a Saturday morning at 7 am and they were packed with a customer line already started.  I had no idea what halva was so I did a little research.  Halva is a sesame paste. The pistachio halva was coated in a sesame seed coating with a crumble of pistachios on top. I liked the halva on it I loved the sesame seeds in it. The S’mores donut is a marshmallow coating on the donut with graham cracker crumble on top with a chocolate drizzle on top.  The Raspberry Balsamic is a donut coated with a raspberry glaze with a white balsamic drizzle. All of these new flavors are good. I love going back to Federal Donuts and checking out new flavors that come and go. The personal reason why I love Federal Donuts is because you can taste the distinct flavors that they say the donuts are.

 Federal Donuts               

1219 South 2^nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147