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.........

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!) 

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

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