absolutely delicieuse!

I have been rekindling my friendship with Mae-Lae, one of my best friends from high school who also happens to now live in my neighborhood. For our second outing (yesterday), she suggested that we go to Delicieuse French Ice Cream Artisanale, a Filipino-owned store that serves artisanal French ice cream. Apparently, Mae-Lae had been searching for independently- owned shops in the area, and she found this place. But when she was telling me about it, she actually didn't even know the name; she just knew it was a French ice cream place on Artesia & Inglewood that was only open to the public on weekends. (Later, when the owner asked how we heard about the place, Mae-Lae couldn't even remember what search terms she used to find the place because she wasn't looking for ice cream necessarily.) Fortunately, when I searched for it, I was able to find it right away.

Our plan was to have lunch there and have ice cream for dessert. I pretty much read the whole website, and I was very excited to go there. The cafe menu looked good, and the ice cream menu looked incredible. The place itself looked cute, too. Plus, I was very excited that the owner/ice cream maker is Filipina.

We had a little bit of a late start because I got lost on the way to Mae-Lae's house. We eventually got to the place. This is what it looks like from the outside:

You really have to know this place exists because the storefront doesn't really scream to be noticed. I've actually passed by this area a number of times, and I've certainly never noticed it.

Alas, when we got there, we were immediately disappointed. A note on the window stated that, as of March 2011, they don't serve lunch anymore. And we were both hungry, as it was almost 2pm at that time. Fortunately, there was a Chicken Dijon nearby, so we didn't quite have to die of hunger looking for lunch. We walked over, had lunch, and walked backed to have some much-anticipated ice cream.

No one was in the store when we got there. (As previously mentioned, the store is only open to the public Friday-Sunday; the rest of the week is devoted to wholesale. Without lunch, I imagine that most people just buy their ice cream and go.) Patricia Samson, owner and ice cream maker, was manning the counter.

Mae-Lae, ever the talker, was making lots of conversation, and I was trying to fiddle with my camera. (I couldn't quite get my manual settings correct, so I gave up and went automatic. Also, took pictures with my compact camera.) This is what it looks like inside:

So, though Patricia has a over a hundred original recipes, there are really only about 12 flavors available at a time. (There are other flavors that are available by the pint, though.) However, she mentioned that she had just made a batch of strawberry basil sorbet that morning that should be ready. I think that was the first flavor we tried. It was very strawberry-y, but you can definitely taste the basil. Later, when we actually ordered this as one of our flavors, we decided that the basil brought out & enhanced the strawberry flavor.

Then, we got to tasting the other flavors, which are shown in these pictures.

Being the Filipinos that we are (well, half of Mae-Lae is Filipino anyway), we made a beeline for the avocado sorbet and mango ice cream. While we were tasting, Patricia was talking to us about the ice cream/sorbet--how they are all natural and do not use ice cream bases or syrups, that they contain no artificial coloring or preservatives. An older couple came in while were tasting, and Patricia explained what artisanal French ice cream is -- that it's a designation that you can only use if you meet certain standards (you can find out more about it on the website).

These are all the flavors, as I remembered them, along with some thoughts on them:

Sorbets

• Pear William: We actually didn't taste this until the end of the day, when we came back to buy some pints. It was so full of pear. As Mae-Lae said, you can taste the crunchiness of the pear.
  
• Avocado: This was the first flavor we tried. It was so meaty--like eating the actual avocado, except it's sweet. Filipinos have a dessert where we take the avocado and mix it with ice and condensed milk. This tasted just like that, except this doesn't contain dairy and this contains so much more avocado. Mae-Lae observed that the sorbets were not at all icy, as she expects them to be. And she's right. The sorbets were just as creamy (texturally) as the ice cream.
  
• Lychee (I think it was sorbet): I'm not really big on lychee, so I didn't like this that much. But it did taste like lychee. A bit too sweet for my taste, if you can believe that.
  
• Lemon Basil (I think it was sorbet): We didn't try this. Probably after the strawberry basil, we thought that was enough herbs.
  

Cow's Milk Ice Cream

• Fresh Mint: We didn't try this.
  
• Vietnamese Rice: I actually wasn't sure about this flavor, but Mae-Lae was intrigued by it. This was good. It tastes like sticky rice. Patricia said that that was the idea.
  
• Caramel Fleur de Sel: I'm not a big fan of caramel, so I didn't like this that much. Mae-Lae liked it, though. Patricia mentioned that they make their own caramel.
  
• Mango: This was one of the first flavors we tried. Mango is my favorite fruit, and this did not disappoint. It was so good. It was like biting into an actual mango. Mae-Lae pointed out that the Vietnamese rice and mango ice cream together was like eating sticky rice with mango.
  

Goat's Milk Ice Cream

• Lavender: This was interesting. The first time Mae-Lae and I had some gelato, and we had tried the lavender flavor. She thought that that was like eating potpourri. This was nothing like that. The flavor was actually very mild, probably because the goat's milk is also a stronger base.
  
• Strawberry: This, too, was strawberry-y, but I think the goat's milk also exerted its own flavor, thus making the berry flavor milder.
  
• Dark Chocolate (I think it was goat's milk): This was excellent. Mae-Lae said she doesn't really like dark chocolate (sacrilege!), but she liked this one. I think she was saying she doesn't like it in ice cream because it usually doesn't capture the real chocolate flavor, but she thought this one did.
  
• Something (vanilla?) with Verbena (I think it was goat's milk): We didn't try this.
  

In addition to these flavors, I think we also tried the vanilla. I don't really care for vanilla that much--I think it's too plain. But I think Mae-Lae liked it. Patricia said that she doesn't use vanilla flavoring like other places do.

All in all, the flavors were very good. Then came the hard part of deciding what to get. We saw that there was a sample platter, where you could get 4 flavors. So, we decided to share that. We got: strawberry basil, avocado, mango, & rice.

We ate at the outside table, and we were in heaven. With every bite, we were basically saying how good it was. We already knew we were going to have to get some pints to go. While we were eating, we were already trying to figure out which flavors we should get for the pints.

However, we had some thrift shopping to do first, so we told Patricia we'd come back. And come back we did. There were actually a number of other flavors available for the pints (such as hibiscus, beer (made with San Miguel beer), and mixed berry), but since we hadn't tried it, we weren't sure about getting the pints. Mae-Lae got the Vietnamese rice ice cream and the mango sorbet. (The mango ice cream was the one we tried, but the sorbet was what was available pre-packed. I tried it later at Mae-Lae's house, and it's just as good, but more mango-ey and less creamy (obviously).) I got the avocado sorbet and the mango ice cream, which Patricia had to pack from the display.

I just cannot stop talking about this ice cream. I have been telling everyone about it on Facebook and even texted my sister about it. I will have to take her and her family there sometime soon.

Every time I think about it, my mouth actually starts watering. I had some yesterday and some today, and they both taste just as good. And they're not icy like other ice cream tend to get. I think this might be the best ice cream I've ever had, or at least in recent memory. And I've had a lot of ice cream, both here and around the world. So, so delicious!

hawaiian food

Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, fellow librarian and APALA Executive Board member, dropped off some kālua pork to me this morning. Her hula hālau, Kaulana Ka Hale Kula ‘O Na Pua ‘O Ka ‘Aina, often makes kālua pork as one of their fundraising activities. I ordered a couple pounds, and Lessa was good enough to deliver.

If you don't know what it is, kālua is a traditional Hawaiian way of cooking that uses an imu or underground oven. The result is a tender, salty, smoky-flavored meat that is served shredded. Kālua pork is usually the main dish at luaus. (Go here for more info.)

When I got my kālua pork, I decided to have it for breakfast with some fried eggs and freshly-cooked rice. I don't know if they made this the traditional way, but it's very onolicious.

kālua pork, fried eggs, and rice

This morning's meal is just the latest in my current semi-obsession with Hawaiian food. (Modern Hawaiian food is a combination of the cuisines of its many immigrants -- e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese. More info about Hawaiian cuisine here.) Quite recently, I discovered that there is an L&L, a Hawaiian food franchise, within walking distance from my house. At first, I just thought that it's something to keep in mind, especially when I want barbecue or noodle soup (saimin).

Well, lately for some reason, I've been really into chicken katsu musubi and can't seem to stop craving it. Musubi is usually made with Spam, but I find Spam too salty. But the chicken katsu version? Fried breaded chicken with a little of the sweet katsu sauce, along with the rice and nori (dried seaweed) -- yum! (I don't have a picture because I never thought I'd write about it. Plus, I eat it right away.) I've been getting the katsu musubi mostly but have also gotten the mixed plate and the saimin once in a while. While this food is delicious, it really is a bad thing that I'm so into it right now because it's not exactly the healthiest of cuisines, and I'm not very good at moderation, especially when it comes to food.

Another reason that I've been thinking a lot about Hawaiian food lately is that there's been a number of gatherings at the library in the past couple of weeks, and King's Hawaiian desserts were present at all of them. (Granted, King's is really based in Torrance now, but I still think of it as Hawaiian food.)

A couple of weeks ago, we had a baby shower for one of our medical librarians. I didn't have the energy to make anything (which is usually the case), so I just went to pick up a cake. Though my favorite is the chocolate dobash cake, I thought the colorful paradise cake--a chiffon cake with 3 flavors: guava, passionfruit, and lime--would be more appropriate for a baby shower. Here's a photo taken by one of my library IT/photographer colleagues:

paradise cake, photo by Jonathan Wilson

Beautiful, isn't it? I can tell you that it tastes just as good as it looks. If you don't know chiffon cake, it's a very light & fluffy kind of cake and, with the fruity flavors, it's almost like you're eating something healthy. It turned out that I made the right decision in buying that cake because 1) it is the favorite of our pregnant guest of honor and 2) my colleagues at the Biomedical Library already know about it and love it, and they were very appreciative of my bringing it.

Last Wednesday, for my colleague's retirement party, I again brought stuff from King's. I had intended to buy paradise cake again, but the person serving me made a mistake and gave me a haupia (coconut milk) cake instead. This is not a very good photo, but at least you get the picture (hah!).

haupia cake

I arrived at the party late (had to give an Australian library technician a tour), and that's when I discovered it was the wrong cake. But the guest of honor assured me that it's very good anyway and that she loved it.

I also brought a chocolate haupia pie because I wanted that coconut-y flavor (not knowing, of course, that the other cake was also haupia-flavored). This picture came out much better (I took it, that's why. Haha.)

chocolate haupia pie

Both desserts were very good (as were the other goodies at that party). I was just sad that I couldn't come in the next day to partake of the leftovers. Probably just as well.

On Friday, there was another retirement party. I didn't bring it, but they had paradise cake and paradise bundt cake (no icing) there.

So, as you can see, Hawaiian food has been a big part of my life lately. That's the great thing about living in California: you can pretty much get any kind of cuisine you want. And it helps that I live in the South Bay, where there is a big population (relatively speaking) of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. I usually don't even pay it a second thought, until someone like a fellow librarian from the Midwest mentions on Facebook that she'd probably like Spam musubi, in conjunction with an article she was sharing of a Hawaiian restaurant opening up over there. When I asked her if she'd never had it before, she said she hadn't. So, even though it's bad for my waistline, I should thank my lucky stars that I have access to such good and varied food.

shopping and creativity

Today, I just got some stuff I ordered from Niko Silvester, a friend/classmate from folklore grad school. Niko is a Renaissance woman -- she writes stories, books, and comics, binds books, makes prints, creates jewelry, does photography, etc., as well as reviews video games and gaming equipment.

Last week, I was thinking of a present to get for a colleague, who is retiring after 36 years at the UCLA Library. I happened to be wearing a book necklace I had bought from Niko a couple of years ago and got a compliment on it. Niko's book jewelries are basically very miniature hand-bound books, and I figured that book jewelry is an appropriate present for a librarian. It took me a long to decide which ones to buy, but I finally picked these:


Aren't they wonderful?

Well, since I was buying stuff, I thought I might as well order something for me, too. I have always admired Niko's works, so I bought "Liminal," a black-and-white intaglio print featuring a tree trunk and fairies (I love both!). I have to say that the pictures on her website don't do it justice. I love it--it is gorgeous! And I happen to have a frame that is perfect for it. So, I have put it in the frame and found a space for it on my bedside table.


As you can see, I have sort of created a little nature-themed vignette. In front of it are two huge grey/white conch shells that I collected on one of the uninhabited barrier islands on the Eastern shore of Virginia last summer (I went on a seashell-collecting boat excursion), as well as a Jade iron fairy.

The point of all this, aside from being very happy about my purchases, is that I am inspired to do more creative stuff. I've been feeling this a lot lately anyway, and this is just another source of inspiration. So, I am hoping that writing this post is just the beginning to the rekindling of my creative endeavors (the writing part, at least).

Postscript: I asked Niko for more info about the print, and she ended up writing an entire blog post about it. It's a detailed description of the process of creating the print with some more pictures of the print. Very interesting. Seems like a lot of work! Makes me admire it even more.