Flavor Boulevard

This past June, I spent 10 days in Seoul to do some research and to present my paper at a conference. But of course, I didn’t stop with my food exploration while abroad. I’ll be writing several posts over the next few weeks to document the food adventures that I had in Seoul!

For this first Seoul post, I’ll cover the street foods that I ate! I regretted not trying as much street food as I could but I’ll profile the foods that I did try! Any suggestions for next time as well are welcome!

The first street food that I had in Seoul were these delicious chestnuts right outside of the Anguk Station (I think it was Exit #3). I love roasted chestnuts and these were flavorful and meaty – they have a texture similar to that of a baked potato and are deceptively filling.

Here’s a close-up of the chestnut! Yum! They were a little pricey at 5,000 won (a little less than $5 USD) and I heard from my friend that it was because chestnuts are in season during winter and they’re not a very popular summer food. So I’m guessing this was a tourist trap, but a very delicious one!

This is technically not street food, but I did buy it from a vendor inside the Coex Mall. That counts, right? Anyways, I was dying of thirst and I saw this drink: “아이스 초콜릿” or “Iced Chocolate.” It sounded interesting so I wanted to try it! I was quite horrified when I saw the cashier take instant hot chocolate powder and slowly stirred it into cold water…I was having horrible visions of drinking water flavored with grainy bits of chocolate powder!!! But she did an amazing job and somehow all of that powder blended into the drink and I didn’t have to worry about residual chocolate powder in my teeth. The final result tasted exactly like Nesquik and brought me back to my childhood; plus, it was quite refreshing!

While I was sightseeing in the Gwanghawmun area (where all the palaces are), I came across a street vendor that was selling these little red bean pastries. I had eaten breakfast earlier that day, but when I came across this vendor I had already been through a palace tour (Changdoekgung) and a museum tour (The National Folk Museum), so I was super hungry!

After taking a bite, I realized that these tasted very similar to a Chinese-style red bean paste bun that I love! They also taste very similar to taiyaki – the Japanese red bean paste pastry in the shape of a fish – because of the dough that was used. For 2,000 won (a little less than $2 USD), I got about 10 pieces and before I knew it, they were all gone! For a ravenous tourist walking around in 90 degrees hot and humid weather, these are the perfect snack to tide you over until the next meal (unless you’re like me and eat all of them in one sitting in which case you’ll be too full to eat anything else).

While walking around in Ssamziegil and the surrounding area (a shopping area close to Anguk Station), I came across this vendor selling these deep-fried rice cakes. The smell was so delicious that I couldn’t resist! She had a variety of different flavors ranging from somewhat savory to sweet. From left to right: autumn squash, curry cheese, bulgogi, sweet potato, and pizza. I wanted ALL of them, but my stomach doesn’t take too kindly to fried foods, so I ended up only trying one.

While in Seoul, I’ve been indulging my cravings and love for sweet potatoes, so I chose the sweet potato flavor. The outside was super greasy so it wasn’t the most pleasant of meals but the inside was perfectly tasty! The sweetness of the potatoes goes along perfectly with the stickiness of the outside. I should have been a little bit more adventurous though and tried that pizza flavor…

Admittedly I didn’t do too much research on food before leaving for Seoul, but I have heard about this famous street food: the tornado potato! Essentially it’s deep-fried potato spiraled around a long stick and by long, I mean that this stick was about the full length of my torso. It’s very difficult to eat this and walk at the same time without looking stupid, but the potato was so tasty I didn’t really care! Before handing the stick over to me, the vendor dipped it in what looked like powdered cheese seasoning like the kind that you would put on popcorn. The powder had a slight artificial cheesy flavor like Cheetoes and was just about as addicting as eating Cheetoes! The potatoes tasted like kettle potato chips – instead of being in a bag, they were on a stick! Maybe this is a tourist novelty, but at 2,000 won these were definitely worth it! There are about 10 different carts in Myeondong offering this treat at pretty much the same prices!

Along with the trend of long street foods, this is the loooong ice cream that I’ve also read about! Think typical frozen soft serve ice cream and this is it – I had this after a long day of sight-seeing and it was perfectly refreshing for a hot and humid Seoul night. Unfortunately though, I should have just gone with a regular-sized ice cream because this ice cream while crunchy and cold at first, melts FAST. My hands ended up getting completely covered in melted ice cream and I felt like I was fighting a losing battle while trying to lick the melting ice cream as fast as possible. Delicious but a little impractical unless you’re a fast eater! I ate this while also in Myeondong, but I’ve seen prices vary from 2,000 won to 5,000 among the vendors – I got mine for 2,000 won after scouring around the area for a bit.

And now for two street foods that I took pictures of, but did not get to try. These are both in the Insadong area right around the Ssamziegil shopping complex. These poopy pastries were super popular and the mascots are adorable! They are called 똥빵…poop bread! I ended up not getting any because the line was ridiculously long so I just snapped a picture. At the top of the Ssamziegil complex is a sit-down cafe/restaurant featuring this poop bread as well!

I saw this also while walking around Insadong. The tubes are actually fried dough and they’re injected with soft-serve ice cream so you eat your ice cream while chewing on these giant tubes! I decided not to get them, but I’m think these are probably a better alternative to the long ice cream in terms of making less of a mess. So many tourists were having fun eating these though that I’m a little bummed out about not buying one now!

I realized I missed out on a ton of street foods, but there’s always next time! What are you favorite street foods in Korea or elsewhere?

In Europe the royalty and the aristocracy used to eat a lot better than the peasants – they weren’t eating the same things at all. It was either partridge or porridge, and each class stuck to its own food. But when Queen Elizabeth came here and President Eisenhower bought her a hot dog I’m sure he felt confident that she couldn’t have had delivered to Buckingham Palace a better hot dog than that one he bought for her for maybe twenty cents at the ballpark. Because there is no better hot dog than a ballpark hot dog. Not for a dollar, not for ten dollars, not for a hundred thousand dollars could she get a better hot dog. She could get one for twenty cents and so could anybody else.
– Andy Warhol

Why is that ballpark hot dog the best hot dog? Because the ballpark hot dog seller sells nothing but hot dogs. You can’t beat someone who does it day in and day out, a thousand times and another thousand times more often than you.

Every time I look at Nancy Togami’s collection of hundreds of kokeshi, I’m reminded of this championship of experience. Each kokeshi artist carves the same shape, paints the same eyebrows, creates the same facial expression for one doll after another. After each doll, he’s one step closer to perfecting it.

After each oden, Nancy is one step closer to perfecting her oden. And umeboshi. And seared tuna with avocado, frisée, enoki, daikon and tobiko.

Three yixing teapots for three kinds of tea.
We started off with Buddha’s Hand and Tung Ting Cold Summit, then finished with Medium Roast Tieguanyin. The Tung Ting was surprisingly long-lasting even after the fifth infusion.

Seaweed salad and Nancy’s homemade umeboshi in the middle. Tsukemono (clockwise from the pink ginger): pickled ginger, pickled cucumber, lotus root, takuan, miso-pickled garlic, and salt-cured garlic (also pink).

More side dishes. “Red and White” carrot and daikon (salted and seasoned with sweet rice vinegar), abalone salad with tobiko, burdock root and carrot kimpira, and black beans.
The Buddha’s Hand oolong made a nice pairing with the pickled vegetables, as it emphasizes the vegetal freshness and floralized the aroma.

Seared tuna salad, with frisee, enoki, avocado, daikon, yuzu tobiko (yellow) and wasabi tobiko (green)

Oden – with spiral kamaboko and satsuma age (balls and rectangles), shrimp, chicken thighs, quail eggs, lotus roots, green onions, carrots, kombu, tofu, konnyaku, and Nancy’s years of making oden.
Among the three teas that we tried, Tung Ting was the best match with this soup. “Comforting” sums up everything.

Rice by Kenji san, i.e., Mr. Togami. Perfect with a sprinkle of furikake.

Lychee gelato, mango and ginger cookie to pair with anonymous but delicious oolong.

Cheesecake from La Farine, Fiorello’s raspberry gelato and balsamic caramel ice cream. Paired with the dry Medium Roast Tieguanyin, this dessert combination gives an intense finish that Nancy describes as citrus like grapefruit, while I find it more nutty and cocoa-y. 
Per Nancy’s advice, we sprinkled our balsamic caramel ice cream with some Iburi Jyo cherry-wood-smoked sea salt from Oga Peninsula of the Akita Prefecture, Japan.
The salt’s aroma is smoky yet sweet. It tastes as expensive as it costs.

The pictures speak for themselves better than I can. This American lady embraces Japanese tradition, cuisine and visual art and incorporates them into her daily lifestyle with so much fine details that humble my experience at any Japanese restaurant I have tried in America. Because they are restaurants. Nancy’s homemade oden is the ballpark hot dog that triumphs over any other hot dog, in the same way that our mothers’ homemade dinners are the best ballpark hot dogs, except they’re the hot dogs that only a handful of lucky people can get. 😉

The meal was so inspiring I felt like I could speak Japanese afterwards.

A very small part of Nancy’s kokeshi collection. Click on the image to see better details.

The latest addition to my dream house: a wooden platform to put in the garden where we can sit cross-legged, eat, drink tea, lie down while listening to the birds and wind chime. That platform, we call it phảng |fang|, but I don’t know the Japanese or English word for it :-/

It came about when Kristen and I sat on that wooden thing outside Ippuku tonight. It was outside outside, not a patio sitting, no chairs, no tables, just a platform like a wide bench. We came for their goma ice cream, and the wait for a table was super long so ordering at the bar was the best idea. You’d think it’d be cold, but there was the heater lamp hanging off the roof to warm us. My face was so warm I thought I was gonna get sunburn at 9 pm.

It was so relaxing. Sit cross-legged, savor sesame ice cream, sesame cracker and a mochi, watch the street and the boys goofing off on it, and be watched by people waiting for a table. Come to think of it, we weren’t any less goofy than those boys. 😀

Address: Ippuku
2130 Center Street #101
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 665-1969

I wrote about twenty different Ippuku dishes before. Every time I came here it feels nicer and nicer. The guy at the bar was also so kind, he gave us water and wet towels (one of which is visible in the picture to the right) although we only ordered one bowl of ice cream…

*Photo courtesy of Kristen Sun*

UPDATE: As of November 2013, this dessert is no more. The machine broke down and would cost too much to be fixed, mostly Asians like this dessert while non-Asians don’t, and management doesn’t consider Asians the target audience. I weep (with rage).

Sometimes you just have to cast away all manners and enjoy a day in town like a tourist. After a few cups at Teance, Kristen and I were famished. As student I’ve gone lunch-less almost daily without problems, but drinking oolong without lunch is definitely the quickest way to wake up the hungry beast in you. We planned on gorging down pancakes at Bette’s across the street but we missed it by 6 minutes (why on earth do they close at 2:30 on a Friday?), so we dashed back to the other side of the street to Zut with exclamation mark and chose an appetizer and two entrees before the waitress could ask what kind of drinks we wanted. This, in our book, was record fast. However, despite our effort, the food didn’t come out fast enough. On a normal day, we would say the appetizer indeed got out in a really reasonable time, but one thumb-sized stuffed squid plus our extreme tea-induced hunger plus the lack of bread commonly served at Western restaurants really brought out the best of us: we stared longingly in the direction of the staff and the kitchen. The waitress caught our eyes.

Chorizo-stuffed squid ($9) – too expensive, the spinach is good, the sauce is good, tender squid, but the pepperiness of chorizo offsets the savoriness for me.

The first time she came back: “Do you need something?” Glances exchanged. “No…” *innocent smile* Longing stare continued… The second time she came back: “Would you like some bread with olive oi..” “Yes PLEASE!” *big wide grin* Four slices. Don’t know if they’re good because they’re good or because we were hungry, but they were gone after 2 minutes. More longing stare… This time our waitress intentionally avoided eye contact. We understand, but would we give up? No. Young as we were (we think), we were desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. We waved at another waiter, said, somewhat alarmed at our own temerity: “Could we have some more bread?”

Sausage and egg pizza ($15) – pizza’s okay, runny egg yolk on soggy pizza is waste of brain power

Zut! burger with white cheddar ($14) – the beef patty needs salt, the pickles are fresh, good crunchy fries

We were more fortunate than Oliver Twist because the waiter was much nicer than Mr. Bumble, as evident by the 6 slices following our request. Unfortunately, they arrived at the same time as the burger and the pizza, so instead of devouring them, we devoured the burger and the pizza. To discover that neither had enough salt.

Pear cardamom bread pudding ($8) – couldn’t taste either pear or cardamom. There were some kind of grapes which Kristen thought were fresh grapes and I thought were raisins. Ice cream would have been 56 times better than crème chantilly, but the airy crust on top saved the day.

So that solved the mystery: there’s a thing of salt on every table (not a salt shaker, mind you, but a sort of porcelain cup shape-wise akin to the thing that contains the tea candle, no lid). Without the bread we had no idea why it was there. Anyways they have good fries and good pickles. Dessert menus brought out, the waitress no longer avoided eye contact. Pear cardamom bread pudding looked good. So did grapefruit sorbet. We were really full at this point (Kristen finished only half of her pizza) so we said bread pudding please. Then we thought hey a palate cleanser would be nice because we needed to wash the fries off our palates… what next was only inevitable: “Can we have the grapefruit sorbet before the bread pudding please?” The sorbet dissolved the fullness (maybe it was just an illusion, but it lasted long enough for us to finish the bread pudding). How wonderful is the power of cold citrus things.

Grapefruit sorbet ($8) – with ginger snap. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

On a normal day Zut (exclamation mark or not) wouldn’t make the cut because we’re not into risottos and paninis, and we like our foods well seasoned, but that pink sorbet made our soul glint, an instrumental version of Memory was playing, the dangling lights on the trees were getting brighter as the sun got lower. The holidays drew nearer. We stood outside for a good five minutes just watching the lights. Silly girls. 🙂

Address: Zut! on Fourth 1820 4th Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510-644-0444 www.zutonfourth.com

One very cold Saturday afternoon in Oakland.

Darren: Normally I don’t like fruit flavored stuff, like watermelon candies you know?
Mai: Yeah, like cherry candies…
Darren: But this mango ice cream is really good!
Mai: It is! I like the green tea the most though, it’s so refreshing. What about you, Kristen?
Kristen: I usually don’t like strawberry flavors, but this strawberry one is so good…

Good thing we each had a different favorite.

When the girl took up our empty sushi plates and asked if we wanted dessert, we were already stuffed, which is a given every time Kristen and I go out together. But we asked the girl what’s on anyway, and she listed, if I remember correctly in my post-food stupor, “tempura ice cream, green tea ice cream, red bean ice cream, green tea cheesecake, seven flavors of mochi ice cream, which includes mango, vanilla, strawberry, green tea, red bean, coffee and chocolate”. We looked at each other for two seconds then at her.

– Can we have the seven flavors, please?
– You want all seven?!
*Looks exchanged*
– Uh… it’s not a thing of seven mochis?
– Well we can make a platter of that too. You want that?
– Yes please. *sheepish grin*

Never turn down ice cream.

Zero complaints on the tempura and the rolls too, they’re Americanized of course and we didn’t do any nigiri nor any of us Japanese. But if you’re American, happen to be near the intersection of Piedmont and Echo in Oakland while hungry for sushi, Shimizu is a sure bet.

Address: Shimizu Japanese Cuisine
4290 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 653-7672
shimizucuisine.com

Volcano Scallop ($7.95) – Battered and deep fried scallops with sweet soy sauce

Is it miso season? (Miso has a season?) Berkeley Bowl puts out about 10 different kinds of miso in their “international” aisle, and Nojo advertises a seasonal 5-course miso omakase menu on Black Board Eats. Usually the Black Board Eats emails go straight into the trash, which I kinda feel bad about because I signed up for their newsletter after all, but thank goodness I did read it that morning. That night I got the code, called my friend, and we went to Nojo.

We were seated at the counter, but not the one facing the chefs, that would have been nice, this was a small counter facing the wall near the door. The wall looks pretty cool but we felt kinda weird at first, what with the other customers crowding the tables and here the three of us facing a wall next to a middle-aged man. We felt outcast. But Nojo doesn’t take reservation for party under 6, only a phone call an hour before you arrive to put your name on the waiting list, guess I should have called more than an hour earlier, what was I thinking following the rules? But the servers, inked and all, are really nice, the water was clear and sweet, the sunflowers smelled good, and the middle-aged man left minutes after we sat down.

And the food.

Cucumber salad with shichimi and nori. Shichimi is a chili pepper mix with (supposedly) 6 other spices, but they sprinkled just enough to give the cold thing a kick, not spicy. There’s more shichimi on the counter for the duller tongues people who like spicy food.

Miso Omakase Course 1: a simple salad of Little Gem lettuce and cauliflower with shiromiso (white miso) dressing. The pickled red onion was the real little gem.

Miso Omakase Course 2: miso soup with oyster mushroom and butternut squash. Hearty. San Francisco gets cold at night, so this helps.

Fried eggplant with akamiso (red miso) and peanut sauce, topped with julienned leek. Eggplants have never been my favorite fruit and will never be even if I go vegan, but this miso eggplant was better than the grilled pork jowl and the garlic-barley miso butter chicken (Miso Omakase Course 3), both of which tip-toed on the salty side.

Tempura tree oyster mushroom, squash blossom and lemon, to be dipped in a zesty ponzu mayonnaise.

We didn’t expect a fried thing when we ordered the rice balls with tare and nori, but the surprise was welcome.

If I was skeptical about anything in the Miso Omakase menu, it was the shiromiso-glazed trout. But its sweet creamy sauce blew my doubt away, the rice ball was great for sweeping up every last drop.

Miso Omakase Course 5: buckwheat & beer crepe, a drizzle of ginger-muscovado syrup, blueberry compote on top and shiromiso ice cream. We thought muscovado was a cross between muscat the grape and avocado (weird, I know, but possible, right?), but we asked, it’s a brown sugar.

And of course, kurogoma (black sesame) ice cream with roasted strawberries on a bed of “peanut thunder crackers”, which is like peanut brittle and caramel popcorn intertwined, multiplied the goodness by 85.

You know how people can just tell that something’s good when they see it, for no reason at all? That’s how it was with Nojo for me. Every izakaya in the Bay has the same kind of yakitori on the stick, the same expensive price, the same raves on Yelp, and I don’t know why I wanted to go to Nojo, but now I’m recommending it to everyone I talk to. Was it the kikubari exuding from the friendly staff, inked and all and warmly smiling as they strode between tables? Was it the simple but flawless food? But I didn’t know any of that before I came.

Somewhere in me, I just knew. Miso is in.

Address: Nojo (which means “farm” in Japanese)
231 Franklin St.
San Francisco, CA
(415) 896-4587

Dinner for three: $99.82

Thank you, Kristen Sun, my dear friend who has shared many great meals with me in Berkeley and definitely many more in the future, for sharing a post here with us today 🙂

Halfway through our meal, Mai and I turned to each other and we agreed, “I’m not that full yet” and “I can still eat more.” This was after a small plate of charcuterie (which wasn’t that small) and two small plates, which again, were not that small. It solved, however, the main question that had been bugging us since we arrived at the restaurant: which entrees should we get? And if we get more than one entree, could we still do dessert? Turns out indecision works very well at this restaurant; sampling the diverse offerings of the menu is definitely the way to go! Eating with Mai is always a treat – for the mind and for the stomach! Thank you Mai for the great honor of being a guest blogger for Flavor Bouvelard!

Simply put, Revival Bar & Kitchen, located right in the middle of Downtown Berkeley, is gorgeous. The tall ceiling, the rustic decor, the feeling of open space, and best of all, a bookshelf tucked away in the corner, give Revival a unique feel. The tables were just the appropriate width apart when it comes to having good conversation with two women who bonded with Mai over their travels to Vietnam, and perhaps a tad bit too close when we overheard a man speaking unkindly about his (absent) girlfriend to another friend. But let’s speak of the food…

When we received our menus, right away our eyes landed on the charcuterie section, which consisted of fresh ham, duck liver mousse, coppa di testa (headcheese), and smoked duck breast ($8 for an individual plate, $18 for a small plate of all charcuterie, and $26 for a large plate of all charcuterie). The fresh ham and the smoked duck, while delicious, were not particularly unique in any way. The coppa di testa… now this is something interesting. It was my first taste of headcheese, so I went in without any expectations. It’s sour and leaves a slight fizzy aftertaste like a soda. It also is very fragile; it is not quite a cold cut but not quite a pate either… it had a very weird “saucy” consistency, which Mai found to be weird as well compared to the headcheese that she is accustomed to! The duck liver mousse was our favorite meat on the plate; the texture is rich and smooth and the taste just strong enough without being overpowering. This plate was definitely fun, as we could combine all the different meats with the sides (raspberry jelly, pickles, and mustard) in as many different combinations as we wished, each bite yielding a new combination of flavors. We both agreed that the real standout on the plate, however, was the raspberry marmalade. In fact, as we would soon discover, the one thing that Revival really excels
at are its fruit jellies.

Next on our list are the two small plates: tempura fried squash blossoms ($13) and bone marrow ($11). The tempura fried squash blossoms, stuffed with ricotta and goat cheese, were delicious and light and the pieces of fried zucchini that garnish the plate were also good. Mai, however, found that the squash blossoms had a stronger goat cheese flavor than she would have liked. The sauce, a cilantro mint coulis, paired well with the fried vegetables, but was forgettable.

For me, the standout dish of the night is the bone marrow. Rich and fatty, this first taste of bone marrow was just perfect. Best of all, we were allowed to season the meat ourselves, as the dish comes with a side of sea salt. The crunchy baguette, the flavorful meat, the salt, and best of all, the kumquat marmalade worked perfectly together. This dish, for me, was one of the perfect bites of the night. And once again, we were blown away by the fruit – the kumquat marmalade, which really is a standout on its own, tied the flavors of the dish together perfectly.

Despite all of this food, it was at this point that Mai and I decided to go for it and ordered both of the larger plates that we were looking at, which our waitress recommended as the two best as well. The risotto cakes ($21), however, were just okay. The cakes themselves were a bit dry and bland. The porcini mushrooms, while not having the typical “musty” mushroom taste as Mai explains, really did not add any unique flavor to the dish. However, I loved the porcini jus and could not stop dipping into the sauce. I love thick almost puree-like textures and this was no exception. Mai and I both agreed that the vegetables that came on the side were delicious and outshone the risotto cakes.

The pork chop ($25) was good and very well-cooked – juicy, full of flavor, and not dry in the slightest. Both Mai and I found the bourbon butter to be a bit too strong and overpowering of the meat; we ended up scraping most of the butter off. The potatoes and artichokes were well-cooked and flavorful, but not particularly unique.

Overall, the smaller plates succeeded more than the larger plates and the size of the small plates comes at a overall better bargain, as there is not much difference in portion sizes.

Of course, our meal cannot end without dessert. And were we ever glad because the desserts here are amazing! We settled on an apricot mousse ($8), but after asking what the ice cream du jour ($7) was, we had to order that as well. The flavor is apricot pit, which we of course, had to try. Our waiter informed us that it has an almond-like taste, which we agreed on; the flavor is much lighter, however. The nuttiness and creaminess of the ice cream, along with the crunchiness of the pecans, were a perfect combination!

The apricot mousse, likewise, was also delicious. While we couldn’t make out the flavor of the green tea cake at the bottom, the light fluffiness of the apricot mixed with the sourness of the blood orange reduction and the crunch of the bruléed bottom was quite pleasing texturally. As for that blood orange reduction…it had a marmalade texture but it was chilled so it was almost like a sorbet. A clear stand-out!

Overall, Revival made for a great dinner and we had lovely neighbors to chat with as well near the end of our meal. The real standouts here – the raspberry jelly, the kumquat marmalade, and the blood orange reduction – were unexpected but elevated what could have been ordinary or boring dishes into something special. When I think of a perfect dining experience, eating at Revival definitely ranks high: great friends, new acquaintances, and delicious food at a relaxed and leisurely pace.

Address: Revival
2102 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 549-9950

Aside from opening a little bit late on Sunday (11:30 am), the Tokyo One at Westchase is a lovely place. Three things that I have now associated with Tokyo One, although I probably shouldn’t, since they kinda belong to the ukiyo (floating world) more than to the permanents:
1. A beautiful peach-colored water lily in the mini pond creek artificial water thing surrounding the building
2. Perfect silky chawanmushi (pictured)
3. The gentle (the gentlest I’ve ever heard) but persistent recommendation of Sean, our server, for ice cream. We were full to the brim, but I gave in after he asked us for the second time if we would like some ice cream (as if I could ever turn down icecream 8)). I’m happy that he insisted, the plum ice cream with plum bits was great, and green tea ice cream is always good. We finished two scoops, Sean came back and asked if we’d like some more. Honest to goodness, I wanted to say yes.

Address: Tokyo One at Westchase
2938 W Sam Houston Pkwy South
Houston, TX 77042
(713) 785-8899
Buffet lunch for three: $51.93
Ah, food-wise? Good tempura, good gyoza, good fish, good rice, etc.

– 2 scoops Dreyer’s Double Fudge Brownie ice cream
– 1 scoop Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia froyo
– A handful of potato chips
Use the potato chips to scoop the ice cream. They may break, in which case lick your finger and get a spoon.

Who goes to a sushi and donburi house to get dessert? Me. It got it all. Tropical, fried, icecreamy, salty, nutty, fruity. It’s the dessert of Miyuki.

Miyuki sweet: eggroll filled with banana and pine nut to pair with vanilla and mango ice cream. Ah, and a dash of chocolate syrup, of course.

Address: Miyuki
1695 Solano Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 524-1286

More Asian post-rice desserts: banana “ice cream”, bean pudding and bean shaved ice