Thursday, September 6, 2012

A Foodie's Vacation: Part 1


It's taken me a while to sort through all the pictures, all 2,489 of them, from my trip to America a few months ago but I've finally gotten around to it.

2,489! And that's excluding cell phone pictures from four devices! Remember when there were no digital cameras and you had to be economical with photography because you only had so much film?

Anyway, it's high time I shared them here, before I put it off too long and my post starts with, "Hey guys! Here are some photos of when I went to America two years ago..."

I sifted through them to separate all the food-related pictures and I realized they don't give an accurate picture of all that I ate and sampled.

I ate much more!

There was so much to do. Sight-seeing, meeting family and friends, travelling from one state to another, one city to another. And we had a few days in each city so I had to squeeze in my 'food tourism' where I could, when I could.

My first stop was Magnolia Bakery. I've been here before but you kind of have to go to Magnolia if you can when in New York. 



I don't have a lot of pictures of the bakery shown above (1240 6th Ave) because we were distracted by Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig filming "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" across the road...


... as close a close-up as we could get from where the police and the production assistants had us standing...


... but here are some photos from Magnolia Bakery at Grand Central Terminal...



Next up was Crumbs Bake Shop in Times Square. This wasn't the same day as Magnolia, just so you know. Not that you should be surprised if I had eaten cupcakes twice in one day, but I didn't.


It was so hard to choose what to get...


... but we finally decided on a Milkshake cupcake and a Carrot cupcake. The Crumbs cupcakes are huge!


After New York, we headed to Florida for a few days. I don't have many pictures from the Florida Keys but we did have some delicious Key Lime Pie there...


Next, it was on to Texas for a good 10 days to visit family. We stayed with my aunt in Irving and below are some pictures from our trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards. I love going there, it's so 'Old West'! It's a great place to visit if you're in or around the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. I've been to the Stockyards before but this time we got to see the Texas Longhorns cattle drive (top photo) too...


I hadn't baked in days and I needed to get  back to it, so I baked a lot while there, with the help of my cousins: some not-so-perfect but delicious brownies (left), coffee cupcakes (top right) and mini strawberry cheesecake cupcakes (bottom right).


A few days later we threw my sister a surprise birthday party and I took over cake-baking duties, while my cousin Manall cooked us an amazing dinner of scallops and spaghetti with bruschetta.


My cousin Hebah helped me bake two vanilla layer cakes, which we filled with macerated strawberries and covered in cream cheese frosting (We were still in a strawberry kinda mood).


I can take no credit for how pretty the table looks, that was all my cousins...


After Texas, we flew to California. I'd never been before and I really loved it, especially San Francisco. The city has such character and it's a really unique interesting place...


At the Fisherman's Wharf we had some amazing clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl...


... and nearby is Ghirardelli Square which used to house a chocolate factory but when the chocolate manufacturing was moved to a different location in the 1960s the square was restored as a retail and dining complex... 


The chocolate shop and cafe pictured above has some of the old factory equipment (below) on display...


... and lots of Ghirardelli goodies to buy. It's kind of hard to walk out of there empty-handed...


... and you really shouldn't leave without sampling an ice-cream sundae...


There's a Kara's Cupcakes outlet in Ghirardelli Square and I think these were the best cupcakes I ate during my trip. I bought a Key Lime Pie cupcake and an Organic Strawberry Cream cupcake. They were perfectly sized (not too big, not too small), were moist and light, and each had a delicious filling in the centre... 


I thought I could cover the entire trip in one post but that would have been way too long so I decided it was better to make two posts of it.

In part two, I'll share photos from the Yum Festival in Ontario and the Farmer's Market in Los Angeles, as well as a few from Chicago.

Stay tuned!

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