New Frappuccinos!

Yesterday, Starbucks announced the immediate arrival of two new frappuccinos: 'blackberries & creme' and 'strawberry shortcake'.

I have already tried both of them. The strawberry shortcake is identical to the strawberries & creme frappuccino except for its buttery aftertaste and less-sweet undertone.

The blackberries & creme on the other hand, was simply delicious and is easily the best frappuccino I have ever had! It's beautifully crafted tasting like a blackberry milkshake with micro blackberry bits, plentiful whipped cream, and topped with a dusting of cinnamon! (Bonus if your Starbucks has a decent frappuccino machine, because no kidding- I have had frappuccinos without any iciness. The effect was drinking fat through a straw.)

Thank you Starbucks for this magical treat,

------Temo 

I'm Alive! (a.k.a. "Food Porn #6")

One of the perks of life, ironically is when a friend calls or texts you and asks:

"What's up?" 

Oh no. Holy heck no. Do you tell them? Some of the most random things happen and get interrogated at the wrong time. I could tell them "The huge science nerd in me is reading up on chemistry terms, wearing pure red lipstick, craving who-knows-what, and listening to Avril Lavigne." 

Uh, no. It's okay. 

"Nothing. I'm Doing Nothing." 

-.- 
?

(Back to the Food Porn) 

It has been rather difficult to remember exactly WHAT I have eaten that had been out of the ordinary. I do not believe that sausage McMuffins, Doritos, or apples count.


1) Peanut Butter & Jelly Trail Mix (Archer Farms) 

Had a friend try it. They did not look at the label and immediately said it felt like they were eating a PB&J. Awesome. 

2) Best tempura I've ever had!

It was actually homemade!! (*Recipe coming soon, I hope*) 

3) Green tea frappacino from Starbucks

A nostalgic summer drink. Love the way you hit the icy whipped cream at the bottom, and get a slight waxy coating on the roof of your mouth. I usually the lattes, both hot and iced, but this has a different feel! 

4) Coffee beat Japanese candy (Meiji) 

Tried it frozen! One of my favorite 'Meiji' chocolates :) 

5) Key lime cake donut (Dunkin Donuts) 

Obviously seasonal. They also have a filled key lime donut. Honestly, I felt like I was eating a cake donut, with nothing special about it! Forget that! Save the calories! 

6) 'Mrs. Freshley's' chocolate cupcakes 

When I knew the twinkies, cupcakes, and such were coming back, I had to make a run for it! It is never going to be the same without Hostess, but let me just say that after that one cupcake, it Made me happy that I did not spend $100 on a box of Twinkies! No? 


Also, I cannot wait to try Starbuck's new Caramel Ribbon Crunch frappacino! 

With red-stained lip print kisses, 


------Temo 


P.S. Soon there is going to be Starbucks frappacino happy hour! (You did not hear anything from me......) 

P.P.S. I have recently been listening to Jimmy Eat World! Maybe that means a new CD review? Hmmm.........

Chapter 11: 'Right now, I'm obsessed with..... #1'

My Current top 10

1) Detroit Metal City anime!

The anime is really not meant for anyone under 17 and for a very good reason.... But if you dig around for it, here I go:
"After graduating high school, Negishi wanted to use his musical talent to start a pop band. Unfortunately, five years have passed, and guess what? He is now in a heavy metal band. Screaming about insane things--as the dark lead singer, Krauser! The series focuses on how difficult to lead his double life, especially after bumping into a high school sweetheart!" 
Hilarious, but cruel anime. ;p 

2) Pinterest!

So much fun!! I am adding so many new boards! I used to think it was stupid to create anything over 30 boards, but what fun is that? You can check my Pinterest and see my changes!

Some of my new boards include 'Rock the Mullet!' (hair), 'Saucy' (dishes + desserts drenched in sauce), 'My Cherry Blossom Girl' (cherries + cherry blossoms!), & 'Dip-Related' (Dipping your food in yummy dips!).

3) Sushi!

Tempura, Rainbow Roll, Dragon roll...... I even heard of some really cute rolls like the unicorn roll and the lion king roll!

4) Back to Harry Potter!

I am back to the books! My friend will be pleased....... The series is so well written. It is also a shock that the books are over 15 years old! Yet there are huge fan bases (still) hmmmmm. ;)

5) Hoping Avril is releasing a WHOLE CD and not just a single!

Secretly, although Katy Perry is good, I wish Avril would no have just 40 million page-views! She deserves it! Punk-rock princess!

6) Pocky!

One day I missed pocky SO, SO much! So far I have bought a box of chocolate....I googled for the recipe for pocky and think I found a reasonable one to try. So please, please work!

7) MLP Cravings!...

I am not sure if any one has noticed, but there are just the most random fan bases in America--across the world! (e.g. mustaches, Princess Bubblegum, Gir, bacon......) I am not considering watching the 'My Little Pony' series, but I love collecting the figurines! 

8) Owl City!

Very unhappy with his latest CD (Midsummer Station), I obviously immediately craved his older works! (First 2 albums) As my research unraveled, I found out the Adam Young's song "Fireflies" became a number one hit in TWENTY SEVEN different countries!!

9) Exercise!

Do something that excites you or find a new sport! 

10) Outer Space!

Always ready to amaze! Some starters? Saturn actually is less dense than water!! (So it would float in our ocean!) If you head to my sites tab at the bottom of my blog, you should find the link to the article I have been reading on black holes. 

I love DMC, Pinterest, Sushi, Harry Potter, Avril, Pocky, MLP, Owl City, Exercise, and Space,


------Temo 

Food Porn #5: "More of the Things I Enjoy..."

Yes! Wait no! It's getting too hot again! So here comes the cool-refreshing food cravings! A giant dill pickle (sealed in a bag!) at the convenience store + a large coke zero= 0 calorie happiness!

And when you want to take the calories back, you may go over to Starbucks and customize your own Crunch Berry (it's a cereal) frappacino!

As you can see above, a barista gave me very specific instructions! 

Captain Crunch Frappacino (Secret Recipe):

Order a strawberry creme frappacino.

Ask them to put in a pump of toffee-nut syrup (this will cost slightly extra)

Also ask them to put in chips!

Include the whipped cream for the needed indulgence.

Wait and please be nice to the barista.

Otherwise they will spit in your drink.

(JUST KIDDING!)

It tastes just like it said its supposed to be! 

I also tried a spoonful of 'Trader Joe's' Cookie Butter! I wish this was around when I was a kid! Because obviously eating cookie butter from a spoon is higher class than with the peanut butter stuff we had back when! 

+ 

= Pure Love! 

Also at Sonic, I was able to test out their 'fudge brownie molten cake sundae'! Impressive for $4.50! Includes a whipped cream plus cherry! ;) 

Finally, I had picked up a saran wrapped to-go Spam Musubi! It is now a common Hawaiian snack, and molded into a convenient shape-smiliar as to a rice ball. There's the rice, than the fried slice of spam (lightly fried with sweetened teriyaki sauce), and finally wrapped in the nori! (Sushi seaweed) 

Which one will you try first? ,

------Temo 

P.S.  I forgot another thing! If you have the chance to combine 20 different fruit salads, then no doubt do it! I reached into the fridge unaware of what the bowl was holding and was all like "This fruit salad is really good" did you make it? 
"No, but we all pitched in making it." 
"What do you mean?!" 
"Well, we had like 20 different fruit salads left over, so we combined them all into one bowl to make things easier." 
(Totally works for me by the way. Convenience-driven or not!) 

Chapter 10: 'How my St. Patricks Day Went!'

I apologize for my huge lack of posts this week! School and work is my number one priority right now. The good news is I did not fall off the face of the earth and a few eventful posts should be coming-up! I'm finishing an awesome anime series AND since you guys really seem to like my 'Food Porn' write-ups, there will be another one here as well. 


Despite the fact that I do not drink and I did not make corned beef and cabbage, my St. Patty's day was eventful this year! I wish I can show more pictures!
Hung out with my fam in a park and we had lots of kettle corn, watermelon, and lemonade! We kept feeding our dogs the popcorn! XP
Frisbee was included in the package! I was so terrible at chucking the thing!

would you wear this? 

It wasn't over.
A friend and I then decided to go to a sushi joint! She was all like 'Let's just order a bunch of things!' 
Calamari was one of my favs!!!!  
and so was the lotus roll.....
Diet epic fail!

Then,
We saw the movie "21 and Over"!!!!
I didn't feel guilty for bringing a coffee in because guess what? The pack sitting next to us brought 'In-n-out'!! 

The movie had me edging off my seat! 
My $5 popcorn spilled over the floor, mouth agape, coffee in my hand, my laughing went uncensored!
And a bit of the audience clapped at the end. Another good sign!

A buffalo, a 'few' sorority mobs, crazy (and drunk) Jeff Chang, "Getting Down"? Yeah this movie is the crazy cat lady of randomness. You probably should see the trailer! It's very crude though so I'll leave that to your own devices. 
And I am warning you this is an extremely crude rated-r movie so I wouldn't recommend anyone without their ID card to go see it! 


So far, my favorite movie! It couldn't get any better.

P.S. I kept describing it as funny as "The Hangover" but 3-fold, but ironically, it was from the writers of "The Hangover"! Go figure!

My Dance of the Leprechaun, 

------Temo

Food Porn #4: Just munchin' along!

Okay, my Starbucks thrill for the week. I got a passion iced tea lemonade. Before I got that though, I got a VERY chipper employee! She was so cool! She told me that replacing the normal pumps of sugar syrup for RASPBERRY syrup is much better! THAT IS WAY GENIUS!!
So I had mine and it was, well you know! ;P (AWESOME)
The passion tea lemonade hold a lot of nostalgia for me! I remember hating it at first because 'it tastes of cinnamon' lol
And when Starbucks first came out with the 'petites' pastries, they had these mini 'Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes' and NOW THEY'RE GONE! I was so pissed! They had a irresistible peanut butter icing and topped with a mini peanut butter cup. HOW CUTE!
These two things I had on my last big vacation and I will never forget.

Rest in Peace Litte Man! :'(

*Ends Flashback*

Also, I had a little Special K Chocolate cereal fit! I paired it with this new soy milk brand. The soy milk was much, much better than the normal brands floating 'round in the store aisles! Has a more natural, nutty, and smooth-sweet taste!

And for the chocolate.......

"Chocolove's" Almonds & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate bar is AMAZING!! I would have to say it felt like the best chocolate bar I had when I tried it! 
And here's a shocker for me 'Birthday cake batter milk chocolate truffle bar with confetti cake mix ALL NATURAL'? I bought it. 
It's by 'Seattle Chocolates'. And it is very sweet! I love how it's not sickening though and there are addicting unidentified crunchies in this chocolate. I forgot all about milk chocolate for awhile! It melted so easily! :'( 
I do have to be honest though. My mind and stomach would never splurge on this bar! I could take a nibble here and there, but for the 40% of the saturated fat for HALF of the TINY bar, I would be sick. 

Also this week, there was a lot of sushi! I will talk about that later. 

Tata for now,


------Temo


P.S. I should have told you this before, but I tried Lindt's new wasabi-infused dark chocolate bar. Whatever you do, DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!! It tastes worse than what wasabi tastes like if that's even possible! It probably will serve well though for a prank! "Dad just try this chocolate! It's so good!" It looks like a normal Lindt square so he shouldn't know the difference XD 

Food Porn #3: Gimme some Starbucks!

Okay, I'm a returning regular at Starbucks. (tsk-tsk!) But lately, I've had so many yum-yum-a-yummy new treats! Can I help it? No.

Here are the GREAT ones: 


  1.) The Vanilla spice Latte (hot):

Starbuck's new seasonal drink. It is likely to hibernate in the coffee world soon :'( I first tried it and felt a bit strange to me. Most likely because I never went for their vanilla lattes. Suddenly it clicked. It's really good! The spices mix perfectly and is an change-up when you are bored with their other drinks. If you are a wimp (like I was), you can ask to do 50-50 on Cinnamon Dolce and the Vanilla spice lattes. You can also get an iced version if you like their drinks iced. Personally I detest any of Starbucks iced espresso drinks, but hey, do whatever floats you boat!

  2.) The chocolate cinnamon bread:

"Do You want breakfast with your drink?" (normally no) 'Sure! Why not?! I'll have 'that thing' there," I said (pointing). "What this thing?" "Yeah." She laughed because she said her husband should open a café where the names of the pastries would be like "whatcha-call-it', 'that thing'..... We laughed. So I took the bread and it was scrumptious! It was just a sugar & spice flaked crust with moist deep chocolate dessert bread! I came back the next day. 

3.) Raspberry mocha frappacino (extra shot of espresso + whipped cream)

This might be a secret recipe ending up not being mine on one of the Starbucks Secret Menus. (Seriously google it!) I just thought. That frappacinos are good. And that a raspberry mocha one would be GENIUS! It took a couple of sips to get used to its unique taste. It made my morning happier! If it were in Cafe Temo's world, she would also put a large drizzle of raspberry sauce on top ;) 

4.) Cheesecake Brownie 

It is just like it says Cheesecake! And if you did not like cheesecake, you would probably not be ordering it. There's not anything really differentiating with the pastry, but it tastes good? I might reconsider paying food Starbucks pastries though..... Everyone knows they're over-priced! 


......and the not-so-great ones: 


1.) Starbuck's bottled 'iced vanilla latte':

"They released a new line of bottled to-go latte drinks. I chose vanilla. Labeled 120 calories and lightly sweetened. Really bad stuff. Took a sip. And it is still sitting in the fridge as I am speaking ready to be poured out. Bottled drink failed again!

Better option? There isn't all bottled coffees kinda suck. 

2.) (the new) Hazelnut Macchiato (hot):

"IT WAS REALLY GROSS! Everyone loves hazelnut coffee but it tasted like fake syrup, cheap quality and tasted mostly of warm milk to me....not a hot combination. And the $5.00 (+ tax :p) was not so cute!" I like to check the nutritional info on the Starbucks site. It is just as fattening, sugary, and calorie-ific as its caramel partner. 

Better option? Go to a Dunkin Donuts and get their hazelnut flavored (latte). Cheaper and likely quite a bit better, I can imagine.



Sorry that there are no pictures this time :( Use your imagination ;p ,


------Temo 

Food Porn #2: Things are getting a little perfumey!

I love perfumey treats! The infusion suits my taste. Here are a bunch of the things I had this week! ^^ 

Left to Right: Ghirardelli Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee Chocolate, Lindt Excellence Passion Fruit dark chocolate, & Noosa Passionfruit yoghurt.

Wildflower Bread Co. has a wicked 'Georgia Peach' smoothie! It has a hint of lavender and precious whipped cream on top! Best part is the bottom where the whipped cream and lavender meet! 

Um, who doesn't love Red Bulls & Sparkling Blackberry Izzes?! 

Not to mention I had some peach-flavored black tea with some creamer and sugar in it! Amazing! You need to have a few shortbread cookie squares on hand with it though! I'm going to make it a bit more classy sometime (not use creamer) and serve it in a teapot. And make my own buttery shortbread cookies. Yeah. Sounds like a great plan! 

Many people and cultures adore perfume-like foods. Are there any somebody is willing to share that is relevant to their culture? Anyone have a favorite indulgence? 

Perfume Infusion! , 

------Temo

Chapter 4: 'A Summer day, In the Middle of Winter!'

Today just kept reminding me of Summer! The breeze, air of clouds, and warmer temp. felt great! I am very fond of clouds and each kind has a different feeling to me. Today's clouds told me "we are happiest at sea with the wind where people can be relaxed and at a happy state of mind."

It did not stop there. Through out the day I saw things like "Roxy" clothing (the beach), lush green grass, and in the car, I heard the song "Ships in the Night"!!! <3

There was even 'summer' reading and I stopped to get a mocha frappe! Coincidentally, they are advertising their new Fillet Fish Bites (might have to try?) 

......."What I'm Reading Is a Secret :)"

For a game night, I made a really awesome munch-dessert--Heath Bar Dip (with several things to dip in it :P) For the 'dippers' I used cookie crisp cereal, sliced strawberries & apples, mini chips a hoy cookies, circus animal cookies, and strawberry pocky sticks!

ALMOST DONE!!!

SO MUCH BETTER!! :) 

Thank you DixieCaviar for this Heath Bar Dip recipe! :) 

I cannot wait for game night tonight! I hope it'll be cards or something competitive! 

"What Reminds ya all of Summer?!"

A Summer day in the middle of Winter, 

------Temo

P.S. This song....... <3

Chapter 3: 'Vermont......Curry?!'

Ringo is a character from the anime "Penguin Drum" I happened to be watching today. She's in love with her professor and wants to confess to him. How? By making him curry! She goes on and on about how the 20th of every month is curry day & that curry is best when eaten with people you love. It's her own tradition since she was little. Anyway, the episode was cute.

Then my thoughts headed toward the remnants of my pantry.
"I still have some Vermont Curry Roux!"
(And some vegetables, and milk...and a chicken breast, perfect!)

These days I do not like to cook. I usually believe that food always tastes better at places other than my own home. (My cooking sucks!) BUT tonight was an exception!

You can find several sites that will give you instructions on how to make curry, but as for me I did not have any tonight. So I had to wing it! In my cooking pot, I put butter, curry roux, milk, sliced zucchini, sliced carrot, sliced onion, cubed & peeled potatoes, a few drops of honey, and a few chunks of chicken breast.

People always question "It's strange that Japanese people love curry in the first place, but why do they also have a curry that's named after a State?!"
Answer: Vermont region is known for their apples. There are hints of apple and honey in the roux. Don't question its power!

I'm beginning to learn as a cook that cooking is not just an Art and Science, but is HEART!
When you 'get a feel' for what you are doing, have an intention, and are excited to eat, you get something awesome in return! 

And here's mine: 

And I'm going for seconds!!!!!!

Curry Connoisseur!


------Temo

Food Porn Post #1: Where it Starts

Thank you Meripihka for this image! 

I HAD TO try Dunkin Donuts Dark Chocolate
Mocha! It was very good! 

So DON'T get confused with FOOD PORN and pornography. Food porn is just a term for 'food styling'! This means that I get to break-out my camera and take pictures of food! How cool is that?! Some people debate whether it's strange or not. 

Well to me that doesn't matter. Now that I'm starting my mini industry, I wanted to show you the fruits of my labor for this week :) 

Simple AND adorable recipe?! 1 petite scoop of
ice cream + a split in half fortune cookie!
Doesn't it look like a cat?! :D

Kiwis are beautiful creatures of fruit! :')

This is my fav convenience store bento.
The best part? The rice balls!! Especially the furikake and plum leaf one :)

I LOVE FOOD,

------Temo