Berkeley Eats and Sweets

Saturday I went with Katie and Nick to Berkeley to explore College Ave and eat our way over Shattuck.

After a pit-stop in Belmont at Nick's, we drove across the bridge and up the East Bay and in to Berkeley. We parked at the Rockridge BART station (free on weekends!) and began walking towards Cal, stopping in cute shops along the way.

For lunch, we ate at Manpuku (2977 College Ave, Berkeley). We ordered five different rolls, and the total after tax was under $21! Super cheap... and the sushi was good too! We got an imitation crab CA roll, a roll with eel and mango, a shitake mushroom and spinach roll, a spicy white tuna roll, and the fancier one was... um... I forget. But it had lots of avocado on top!

Grabbing hot tea and water

Check out the tuna!



Mixin in the wasabi - a must!



$20 bucks never looked so tasty.

We walked up the street and found this cute candy shop! (Sweet Dreams)

We enjoyed looking at their scocks and tasting fudge!

Next stop was Ici Ice Cream, a must-try in Berkeley's cold dessert arena.

Ici is a self-proclaimed "one of a kind ice cream shop." They make their ice cream, sorbets, candies and cookies in the shop in small batches. They pride themselves on their local/fresh/quality ingredients. (ie. all dairy is certified organic, fruits/nuts/chocolate exceed organic standards, no artificial preservatives, etc). Mary Canales, former pastry chef at Chez Panisse (ONE DAY KATIE!) left her 9-year tenure and opened Ici a little over 4 years ago. We had our choice of 11 flavors of ice creams/sorbets/sherbets: Pear Ginger Sorbet, Earl Grey, Kirsch Cherry-Fudge Swirl, Vanilla, Lemon Vanilla, Meyer Lemon Sherbert, Chocolate, Brown Sugar-Porcini, Brandied Allspice, Coconut-Rum, Candied Cacao Nib.

Ice cream elves in the back of the shop doing their small-batch thang

The three of us decided to enjoy our picks in Ici's hand rolled, chocolate-filled-tip, cones. Seriously, don't even consider going with a cup. The cones were soooooo good. It tasted like a cookie.

After Nick reassured me Candied Cacao Nib would be tasty, I chose a scoop of that!

I ordered one of their peanut butter bon bons too. I thought the inside was deliciously peanut buttery, but the hand-dipped, bittersweet chocolate casing was a little too rich for my tastes. Gimme that milk chocolate haha...

We went into a lot of shops.... Including this Hat Shop ;)

After we went up and down College Avenue we decided to go to Shattuck area, specifically to check out a highly-recommended cupcakery. Apparently Nick and Katie had been here before and remembered that it was sort of in an off-the-beaten path upstairs building thing. It makes sense when you see it. (1510 Walnut Street Suite G, Berkeley).

Such a cute shop! I like how open it is

Chocolates and Vanillas... standard.

Here's the good stuff. What would you choose between Sweet Potato, Cookies and Cream, and Peanut Butter Cup??!?

I went with PB Cup... of course. That frosting is SOO AMMMAZZINNNGG.

We continued walking around and ended up at The Cheeseboard Pizza Collective (1512 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley). So it has 1647 reviews. But why you might ask? From their website I learned that The Cheese Board (not the pizza part - yet) was founded on November 6, 1967 by two people as a privately owned business. In an effort to treat customers in a way that they would want to be treated, the owners decided to let all workers having equal power, as well as equal wages (= pay cut for owners). "The Cheese Board began making pizza on Tuesdays for lunch in 1985. Gradually this expanded to Wednesday lunch and Friday evening. In 1986 the Cheese Board acquired the space vacated by Pig by the Tail Charcuterie... This space was used to create and sell pizza three week day lunches (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and Friday Evening. On Saturdays this space was used as a bread outlet for the main Cheese Board. Some Collective members worked at both sites." They serve one type of (vegetarian) pizza a day. $2.50/slice or $20/whole pie. QUALITY ingredients. "In 1990 six members of the Cheese Board Collective formed a committee to seek out new members to form another collective–The Cheese Board Pizza Collective–which would allow the pizza operation to run full time...Pizza eventually brought in new members, expanded its hours and now is open six lunches and five evenings each week. The Cheese Board Pizza Collective is run as its own business, but Pizza and the Cheese Board are under the same financial umbrella and operate under the identical corporate by-laws." While Katie and Nick went to the bathroom I watched the assembly line. These collective people were fast! One man was handling all the pizza ovens, another was slicing and adding "finishing touches," and a girl was acting as cashier and boxer-upper.

The line might be reeeeally long, but it moves quickly!

Our time in Berkeley was really fun! Usually I avoid Berkeley because I got lost driving there once and the East Bay really confuses me. I hate being lost. However, I'm glad I gave it another shot because after all the walking around we did, I definitely saw spots that I want to come back too... Ici that means you. (And Chez Panisse - for a known-in-advance (?) special occasion OBVIOUSLY).

We headed back to the car and drove south to San Jose. We split for about 45 mins to prepare for a pretty amazing, quickly thrown together, Harry Potter Party (watched the 6th movie in anticipation for the 7th on 11/19!)

Carmel Bakery and Coffee Co.

Yelp!

Since 1906 or 1911, this bakery has been shelling out cannolis, biscottis, and pretzels galore. As we walked back up to our car from the Cottage of Sweets, we passed by this cute little bakery and decided it was high time for coffee. Sarah mentioned that when visiting her grandma back in the day, she'd duck in to this bakery and gobble up one of their -at least I think- iconic pastry pretzels. The website for Carmel Bakery and Coffee Co. (Ocean Ave & Lincoln, Carmel) is currently under construction, but it did offer the following info:

Since 1911, Carmel Bakery has been a Carmel tradition... equal parts bakery, deli, Starbucks coffee bar, and neighborhood hangout, Carmel Bakery specializes in Scottish shortbread, English scones, Italian biscotti, and giant soft Bavarian pretzels.

WOW. Got the whole Europe thing covered now, don't ya?

As you walk by, there is a wide window that just cannot be avoided. The caramel apples strike first, followed by the gingerbread men whisper hello, and then you see them - a mountainous stack of glazed, salted, crispy, crumbly pretzel pastries. Oh heaven. Yes, I would like to go inside...

Sarah ordered one of those scrumptious, knotted, sweet baked dough beings and thankfully let us all try. It provoked a conversation about the nature of pretzels. This was a sweet pretzel, but most people think only in terms of savory (salty) pretzels. Wikipedia helps clarify (as always) "The pretzel shape is used for a variety of sweet pastries made of different kinds of dough (flaky, brittle, soft, crispy) with a variety of toppings (icing, nuts, seeds, cinnamon)." I also learned that the phrase "tying the knot" originated when a pretzel was used to tie the knot between two prominent families. The loops were symbolic of everlasting love. How funny! The article is actually extremely interesting believe it or not. Read more here (at least open it in a new tab - you might want to read it sometime).

They offer sandwiches for ($6.95) including Turkey & Swiss, Baked Ham & Swiss, Roast Beef & jack, Chicken Salad & Jack, Tuna Salad & Jack, HOT French Dip Tri Tip with Jack Cheese, and a HOT Meatball sub. Other lunch items include, homemade soups, salads (mixed greens, tuna salad, chicken salad, Caesar), and garden wraps (steak Caesar, chicken Caesar, turkey & jack).

Tyler was pleased to see that they offer a Bakery Breakfast Burrito for $5.50 (two other types Arturo's for $0.50 more and Grande for $1.50 more). If you'd like to read about his breakfast burrito experience at Carmel Bakery, click here (when he posts I'll link to it). Last weekend I was able to join him on his trek to Baldemiros to try their breakfast burrito. I'll let you know my thoughts in an upcoming post.

As for drinks, this place has DUN DUN DUN Starbucks! Everyone on Yelp was freaking out about that. OH Heavens! Starbucks is in one of OURRR Carmel shops?? ... But we reject big businesses for the mom & pop variety. Oh wait! The businesses lining Ocean Avenue still manage to sell everything ridiculously over priced so why does it matter?? Sheesh. I like Starbucks.

Anyways. Drinks include all the iced drinks you can think of. Prices are steep with a 16 oz. frappe at $4.65, an iced vanilla latte at $3.95, a grande americano at $2.50 and a grande cappuccino at $3.50. Their coffe of the day will run you $1.60 - $2.10. They offer teas, chai, cider, hot chocolate (MMM sounds good right now, I'm cold in my house). They also have the cutest doggie cookies!

Here's an idea, grab a yummy treat for yourself and trot down to the beach (photo from Yelp):

We just sat around and talked for a few hours, it wasn't that busy on a Wednesday night. Eventually they dimmed the lights and we knew that we had to leave. They were polite though and didn't yell at us about closing hours.

Blog Swap! Katie's visit, LALLAgrill, and a royal crepe!

Posted by Katie of Happy Hour Honeys:

Follow HappyHourHoneys for drink how-to's, happy hour reviews, restaurant recaps, and more!

I run my blog, Happy Hour Honeys, with my good friend Kelly and while we originally started the blog as an excuse to go to happy hours together, it has since become a way for us to stay connected now that we live across the country from each other.

Similarly, 32 Above provides me with a good dose of Lauren every time I read a post and I love that she has decided to share her observations and explorations of her new town on her blog. Lauren and I decided it would be fun to guest post on each other's blogs so hopefully our readers will enjoy it too! You can read Lo's HHH post here. Throughout our time in college, I made it a regular practice to drive down to SLO and visit Lauren during my school breaks. Things are a little different now that she’s living and working in Seaside and I’m in grad school in Boston, but when I found out I would be returning home to San Jose for my spring break, I thought why mess with tradition?

Also, I have to admit I was curious to find out for myself what the Seaside/Monterey area has to offer. Lauren’s blog has definitely showed me that there’s more going on than I thought, so I was excited to find out what Lauren had planned for my visit.

After I arrived in Seaside and got a quick tour of Lo’s duplex, we headed off to dinner with Lauren’s roommate Sarah. Lauren kept our destination a secret so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we pulled into Monterey's Del Monte Shopping Center. Turned out we were headed for LALLAgrill, a restaurant that is focused on bringing “freshness” to its customers in every way possible.

The moment we walked into LALLA, I knew we were in for a good night. The interior design was amazing, chic and fun at the same time. And I loved the bar setup. It reminded me of the library in Beauty and the Beast, but with bottles instead of books. The outside patio was gorgeous as well and seemed like it would be a great place to relax with a drink on a warm night.

Speaking of drinks, LALLA has lots and lots of drink choices which is great but also makes it difficult to decide what to get. Sarah went for the LALLAjito which is a traditional mojito but with vanilla rum.

I tried out the MOD mojito which incorporated house-infused pineapple rum and a sprinkle of cinnamon into the usual mojito formula. Lauren charged me with the task of picking her drink too so I recommended that she try the Paloma, a tequila and grapefruit juice-based drink. All our drinks looked great and tasted good too. The Paloma had a much stronger alcohol taste than the mojitos so while it was good, I would only suggest ordering it if you are a big tequila fan.

As far as food, LALLA serves California cuisine and offers a variety of dishes that feature local ingredients. Just like the drink menu, the food menu is expansive and can be a little overwhelming because everything sounds so good. We decided to share 3 dishes off the small plate menu so we could try as much as possible.

Lauren’s favorite was the Goat Cheese Ravioli with crushed tomato sauce. We all agreed that you could tell the pasta was homemade and I especially loved the creaminess of the goat cheese. We also tried the Strawberry Salad which was made up of mixed organic greens with feta, candied pecans, roasted corn, cherry tomatoes, sweet onions, and dried cherries served with raspberry vinaigrette. It was a great combo of fresh ingredients and the contrast of the red strawberries against the greens and the white feta made for a very pretty dish.

My favorite plate was the Crab Cakes with mango salza (their spelling, not mine) and wild rice. I love the idea of adding fresh mango to cut the fried-ness of the crab cakes. The wild rice was a great complement to the cakes as well.

We also ordered a side of their delicious garlic bread. It's crispy with the perfect amount of saltiness. Definitely a great appetizer to munch on while you wait for your dinner to arrive.

Since dinner was so tasty, I’m sure dessert at LALLA would have been good too, but we decided to try our luck at Whole Foods (only partly because it’s supposed to be a favorite hangout of Clint Eastwood’s). Unfortunately, Whole Foods closed at 9 so we were about 30 minutes too late. Lauren and Sarah agreed that there would probably be some kind of dessert place open downtown and they were right.

An open parking space out front was all the convincing we needed to try out Monterey Crepe Company. We decided to split one crepe since we were still pretty full from dinner. We went with the King Zakara, a crepe with nutella, strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream. You really can’t go wrong with warm, melty nutella and strawberries and bananas. So, so good! I have a feeling Lauren might become a regular, especially since they’re open so late on weeknights.

Picture from Yelp - this King Z had caramel added.... perfect without it though!

If LALLAgrill and Monterey Crepe Company are any indication of what the Monterey area has to offer, I think my trips to Seaside might have to become as much of a tradition as my SLO trips were.
Thanks so much to Lauren for a great introduction to her new town and for letting me post on her ever interesting and always informative blog!

9 Days!

Can't wait to be in Sin City with this girl!!! Good luck writing your essay! See you soon :)