Lemon Ginger Yogurt

Snowville Creamery's lemon ginger dessert yogurt was extremely popular for several weeks through Fresh Fork Market, so it was unavailable unless special ordered. Perhaps a ton was ordered or many got their fill recently. To my surprise, we were able to procure a 16 oz tub without special ordering.

Lemon ginger yogurt + Ikea lilac Godta bowl

Silky in texture, the lemon ginger yogurt is subtly sweet with a subdued citrus-ginger flavor. The tang is pleasant, not jarring. I can see why this is labeled as a dessert yogurt.

If Snowville Creamery sounds familiar, perhaps you've had Jeni's ice cream? Their sweet cream is sourced through Snowville. 

- Cassaendra

Snowville Creamery
Pomeroy, OH (near Parkersburg, WV)
Available through Fresh Fork Market, Heinen's, Whole Foods, and select Giant Eagle supermarkets.

Bonbon Brunch

This was our second weekend in a row to Bonbon Pastry and Cafe for breakfast/brunch in Ohio City, a bright, bustling patisserie and cafe adjacent to the building that houses Crop Bistro and Penzeys Spices, along Lorain Ave, just off of W 25th St.

Our previous trip took place when only the breakfast menu was available. Bug enjoyed his breakfast nachos with chorizo, eggs, avocado, black beans, peppers, onions, pico de gallo, and cheddar. It was a deceivingly filling platter.

I was impressed with their corned beef hash. The potatoes were crisp, brussels sprouts were not squishy, and there was just the right amount of corned beef and grilled mushrooms for flavor. Hooray for leftover corned beef hash.

Additionally, I almost burnt my tongue on a fried-to-order batch of cinnamon sugar mini-doughnuts with chocolate sauce and mascarpone dip. Who is crazy enough to wait until fresh doughnuts cool off? Hmm, or maybe it was the cup of macchiato?

French dip

With the lunch menu available during this visit, it took only moments to decide upon meals -- Bug got the French dip and I chose the grilled asparagus sandwich. He enjoyed the French dip with gruyere, caramelized onions, and au jus. It's not my thing (the onions). The loaf was wonderfully crusty. His platter also came with am impressive stack of fries. I was enamored with the crispy, tasty slender seasoned potatoes that I probably stole half of them.

Grilled asparagus sandwich

The combination may seem like a difficult jumble to eat; however, the asparagus for the most part cut easily with my teeth. Warm grilled asparagus and meaty mushrooms were enhanced by the oozy-creamy combination of fresh mozzarella and basil pesto. Salad greens and marinated tomatoes provided a cool crunch and piquancy that covered the remaining textural and taste bases. Of course, this wouldn't have worked with tough or dry bread. Loved the crusty baguette.

When entering Bonbon, there is an enticing display of pastries. As the picture shows below, I grabbed the cream-filled choux with dark chocolate and ate more than half...

Eclair

While I adored my sandwich and would like order it on every visit to Bonbon Cafe, I want to try some other dishes like the tofu hash, bubble and squeak, as well as their other pastries. The fries (a barrel of them) alone are enough to return over and over again.

At the time of this post, Bonbon Cafe advertises a breakfast happy hour, where breakfast entrees are $5.00 from 3:00 - 8:00 p.m. Parking, as far as we have seen, is what is available along the street.

- Cassaendra

Bonbon Pastry and Cafe
2549 Lorain Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 458-9225

Breadsmith

We discovered Breadsmith of Lakewood last Saturday and have nearly filled their customer loyalty punchcard of 12 loaves. Their bread is baked in small batches each day. A monthly and weekly calendar denotes the schedule of available loaves. Not only do they have a large variety and great tasting bread, their service is fabulous -- cheerful, personal, knowledgeable, and warm.

Our current favorite is their Greek olive focaccia with cheese -- cheesy on top and  loaded with olives, enough to flavor it but not overwhelming. We're on our 3rd loaf.

Mini-monkey bread

The mini cinnamon monkey bread pictured above is also quite good, lasting less than half a day. We've also tried their sour dough, sun dried tomato and basil, multigrain, and zucchini walnut loaves, as well as the chocolate chip, sugar, and ginger cookies.

Ginger cookies are wonderfully soft. Each time we've visited, we've indulged in one. Sugar cookies were fine. The chocolate cookies are soft, thick, and chocolaty, but not as much my preference as the ginger.

For dinner, Bug served up grilled cheese sandwiches using slices of the sun dried tomato and basil loaf with Mayfield Road Creamery's smoked gouda and some American cheese. Lunch tomorrow will be herb roasted turkey on sour dough bread. Can't wait!

By our next purchase, we will have filled our punchcard. It was noted during our most recent visit that the free loaf would be the most expensive. That is a first for me.

- Cassaendra

Breadsmith of Lakewood
18101 Detroit Ave
Lakewood, OH 44107
Tel: (216) 529-8443

Povitica

Walnut povitica

We recently saw a Strawberry Hill display of poppy seed, apple cinnamon, walnut, and chocolate chip cream cheese povitica at Costco. Povitica is traditionally a spiced sweet eastern European pastry roll. I first became familiar with nut rolls several years ago when someone from work brought in a poppy seed roll.

Tasting a morsel of each at the sampling station, the apple cinnamon and poppy seed povitica were delicious, as expected. I was sold on the spiced, honey walnut pastry with its moist, dense center and thin flaked crust. It reminded me a lot of baklava, but not as bitter (from the nuts) nor as sweet.

- Cassaendra

PBJ

~PBJ~

Lately, I've had a serious Goober craving. The women at A Cookie and a Cupcake come to the rescue with a PBJ cupcake! Grape jelly, too!  

The remaining special cupcakes were Mexican hot chocolate (moist, spicy with lovely orange filling); vegan (dense, but not a brick - great for buttercream haters); and vegetarian.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Sweet Mimosa

Mimosa

Today's cupcake of the day at A Cookie and a Cupcake is mimosa. The frosting was a boozy citrus, which mimosa lovers will enjoy. I loved the orange cream filling and vanilla cake combination.

With such fun flavors, how am I going to lose weight? :)

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Superbowl Cupcake?

Buffalo wings with ranch dressing and chips are a couple of dishes I think of when I think of Superbowl grub, aside from pizza, potato salad, beer, and Tums.

The women at A Cookie and a Cupcake thought up a Superbowl themed savory-sweet cupcake that actually works even though I prefer ranch over bleu cheese. Corn chips with spiced barbecue buttercream are tasty in a french fries in your shake or sundae sort of way.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Choco Shiso

Two girls are walking towards each other along a busy sidewalk. One is hungrily munching on a musubi (Japanese rice ball) with ume and shiso and responding to a text. The other finally peels away a stubbornly wrapped bar of chocolate sprinkled with lava salt and is just about to take a bite. Their lives come to a crash when they turn a corner.

Foodie #1: You got ume all over my chocolate!
Foodie #2: You got chocolate on my shiso!

Ume shiso chocolates

When I think of ume and shiso, what immediately comes to mind? Hot tea poured over a bowl of shiny white rice and a pink schmear of jaw clenching sour and mouth watering salty pickled plums (ume). Fresh shiso (intensely herbal in a minty-citrus-licorice sort of way) is exquisite with sashimi dipped in shoyu or in hiyayakko, chilled tofu drizzled with shoyu and sprinkled with katsuobushi - wispy thin shavings of smoked tuna. Better yet, shiso quickly simmered in shoyu, as in Korean cuisine, served with ume, rice, and tea.

Even though I've tried garlic roasted grape ice cream and enjoyed chocolate dipped potato chips, never would I have imagined Big Island Candies' creation of silky ume-shiso filled chocolates. They kept in check the intense sourness of ume and sharpness of shiso, presenting a well-crafted piquant chocolate confection.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

- Cassaendra

Nog!

Nog 'n ginger

I can't get enough of the egg nog cupcakes at a Cookie and a Cupcake -- moist and noggy, nogtastic, nogerrific! The gingerbread cake is spicy and not overly sweet. Just right!

How sad these tasty temptations, just a few things I look forward to this time of year, won't be available for much longer.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Whiskey and Cookies

Cupcakes.

Strawberry cupcake

Cupcakes at a Cookie and a Cupcake are always a treat - from their cupcakes available daily to their special cupcakes available for 1-2 days. I've been thinking about my favorite daily flavors. Strawberry and apple come to mind immediately.

Whiskey maple bacon and cookie dough cupcakes

Whiskey maple bacon and cookie dough cupcakes were specials of the day. Cookie dough was delicious, but the whiskey maple bacon was superb with its salty bacon and a large scoop of sweet whiskey maple buttercream. It's no wonder this is one of their best selling cupcakes! 

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Goat Banana Oreo Carrot

Goat cheese and fig, banana, Oreo, and carrot cupcakes

The special cupcakes of the day at a Cookie and a Cupcake were Oreo and goat cheese and fig. Second to their date pudding cupcake, the goat cheese and fig is one of my favorites. Goat cheese (chevre), not feta, works marvelously as a cupcake topping with its slightly sour and satiny texture. Slightly sweetened, I would eat mounds of this. Moist figs top off an already delicious cake.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Gifted

Kinako dango

Received a gift (thank you!) of freshly made kinako dango from Japan, nonexistent in Cleveland. While I can procure mochi here, it's usually shipped from China or Korea so they are made to last for many months and oftentimes frozen.

This mochi was incredibly soft, not very sweet, with generous portions of kinako. I could eat this every day!

- Cassaendra

Sweet Moses

After seeing "Iron Sky" at the Capitol Theater, we stopped by nearby Sweet Moses, a beautiful soda fountain shop right out of the 1950s located in the Gordon Square district of Cleveland.  The parlor is brightly lit and polished to a sparkly shine.

There are so many treats to drool over offering ice cream churned on-site, malts, phosphate sodas, milkshakes, egg cream, sundaes, floats, egg shakes, candies, and sweet snacks.

Temptress behind the counter

We shared a Temptress egg shake made with egg, milk, orange syrup, raspberry syrup, and cherry bitters. This isn't like a "milk" shake, thick and icy, but a deliciously complex, eggy, creamy, crisp, effervescent, and sweet elixir with a foamy head.

Egg shake

On our first visit, we ordered a blackberry phosphate soda. Phosphate soda is made with phosphoric acid, which contributes a tangy flavor. The skill of the soda jerks make these drinks addictive. It has taken a lot of willpower to keep us from visiting more often.

This was our second time here and our second time devouring a Gordon Square sundae. Made with Bananas Foster ice cream, caramel, and hot fudge served over a brownie. Each time, the brownie has been fantastic. The dense, rich chocolate retains its texture to the last bite.

Gordon Square

"Iron Sky" is an outrageously funny movie about Nazis having fled Earth in 1945, built a base on the dark side of the moon, then attempting to take over the world in 2018. While this is a comedy science fiction, this isn't a flat, cheap looking film. It has a great steampunk art deco feel. Also, one of my favorite bands from Ljubljana, Laibach, worked on the soundtrack.

- Cassaendra

Sweet Moses Soda Fountain and Treat Shop
6800 Detroit Ave
Cleveland, OH 44102
Tel: (216) 651-2202

Vero

I feel like a sham in my quest for "great pizza" because it's not in my blood, so to speak. I've only begun to willingly eat pizza in the past few years and I'm not Italian.

We need to start with what my ideal pizza is and see if it matches yours to glean whether or not reading further will be a waste of time. There are millions of blogs out there, thousands talking about pizza, and hundreds talking about your favorite style.

My ideal pizza has a very thin crust, crisp on the bottom, but not like a cracker, with a bit of char and a slight chew on top. I prefer a dry bottom (anyone lose their appetite?) and crust with a touch of flavor that separates it from cardboard. Margherita ($9.00) is my favorite.

Margherita

Vero's sauce has a fresh tomato flavor without an acerbic bite. Mozzerella is dense. I love basil, so I would have preferred more! The degree of smoky char was spot on. Crust flavor was all right. I would have preferred a touch sweeter bread.

Margherita upskirt

My one gripe is soggy bottom towards the middle. The only way slices could be consumed without using a fork and knife was to fold slices in half horizontally.

Bug decided on their carne pizza ($13.00) -- a  meaty combination of tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami, prosciutto, and chorizo. The pie was meaty-delicious and stuffed a bit more than I expected.

Carne

Again, the center was a bit soupy. I don't have a solution. If I did, I'd sell my own! It is, at least, consistent.

Service was awkward. While it wasn't particularly poor, it was not good. After we ordered, several suggestions to order additional dishes were made. When we declined, there was a moment where we stared at each other. The restaurant was empty, so there was no reason to make us uncomfortable and chase us out.

Carne upskirt

When you walk into the restaurant, it is impossible to ignore the gelato case of 18 flavors at the center of the space. For dessert, I debated between espresso and gelato. The description for affogato sounded perfect - espresso poured atop gelato ($5.50).

The gelato is apparently made by the same people who made gelato when the space was La Gelateria. I regret not stopping in when they were still in that space. Even though we drive by the area fairly regularly, it is not a destination for us.

Pistachio gelato affogato

Sultry tiramisu, smooth hazelnut, comforting vanilla, ...with seventeen other flavors available, I would eat/drink a mug of nutty and creamy pistachio affogato every day.

I look forward to returning in a few months to see if there are any changes. At this point, however, Scott's Fire and Ice continues to serve my favorite pizza in the city despite the variability in doneness over weeks.

- Cassaendra

Vero
12421 Cedar Rd
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106
Tel: 216 229-8383

Cleveland Jeni's

Jeni's, the ice cream boutique based in Columbus popular for creative seasonal flavors and locally sourced ingredients, has a store in Northeast Ohio. With a couple of detours, it took less than an hour to drive to Chagrin Falls; shorter than the 2-1/2 hour drive to Columbus. Like the Short North location, the store is in a skinny long space and brightly lit with clean lines.

Bug ordered their Chocomole, a sensory playground gone haywire - in a good way. Queen City cayenne ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, a sprinkle of crunchy cinnamon sugar, peanuts, a salty-sweet chocolate disc with crunchy crushed Fritos, a waffle cone wedge, and a luscious cherry covered in chocolate.

Chocomole

After several spoonfuls of the ice cream, one cannot ignore the delightful peppery tingle folded into the rich Mexican spiced chocolate. According to Jeni's website, this flavor was originally called Mexican chocolate until it was renamed Queen City, a nod to nearby Cincinnati's chili, with its Greek flair (allspice, cinnamon, cloves).

I ordered a scoop of juniper lemon and a scoop of sweet corn with blackberries. The herbal, almost pine-like, clean flavor of juniper leaped out from the more subtle lemon. Sweet corn augmented the very berry blackberries by providing a rounded sweetness.

Juniper lemon and sweet corn with blackberries

We are very pleased that Jeni's is finally in the area. However, I am still torturing myself over the one that got away - the earl grey ice cream sandwich that I saw while we were at their Short North store in Columbus. (Obviously, I checked and didn't find it during this trip.)

- Cassaendra

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
67 North Main St
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
Tel: (440) 247-2064

Half Baked?

Tomato soup and grilled cheese baked into a cupcake. Yes, it really exists and it wasn't just tomato cake with a wedge of grilled cheese on top nor a gimmick like dirt Jelly Bellys from 10 years ago.

Tomato soup and grilled cheese cupcake

Wendy and SynDee of A Cookie and a Cupcake phenomenally captured the essence of the savory-sweetness of tomato soup, dialing up the latter, into a moist, tasty, and memorable dessert. Oh, and the grilled cheese was crisp and buttery.


- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Drool...Doughnuts

Doughnuts have always been a "meh" thing for me. With the exception of very eggy and airy French crullers, at least in the continental US, I usually skip them when offered unless it is socially inappropriate to decline. This shouldn't to be confused with contempt. I am not a bread lover. As a result, I am very picky when it comes to bread products.

Driving along Pearl Road, we noticed the red glow of the "HOT NOW" neon sign hanging in Krispy Kreme's window. Before I could say anything, Bug had already maneuvered the car into the appropriate lane to enter their parking lot.

Day 356/365

This was my first time walking into a Krispy Kreme store when the doughnuts were being made. There is a window where you can watch the mechanized process of the dough being lifted into place; plopped onto oil to be cooked on one side, floating merrily across like bobbing carnival ducks; flipped; fried on the other side; marching up a ramp where the rows of doughnuts are bathed in a thin sheet of glaze; and finally onto a belt waiting to be picked.

We bought glazed doughnuts (what was being made), key lime creme pie, and glazed blueberry doughnuts. As soon as we sat in the car, we quickly opened the box announcing their 75th anniversary.

The doughnuts were hot, puffy, and melted in my mouth. For the next minute, the car was silent with the exception of our ecstatic moans. Each bite was light and perfectly sweet, as if eating puffy clouds plucked from the sky.

I have had many andagi (Okinawan doughnuts) and malasadas (Portuguese-Hawaiian variety) fresh from the fryer, but I've never encountered this degree of doughnut magnificence as I have sitting in the Krispy Kreme parking lot.

- Cassaendra

Krispy Kreme
6907 Pearl Rd
Middleburg Heights, OH 44130
Tel: (440) 845-1111

Beggin' Bits

Friday usually means a trip to Churned for ice cream. The maple bacon ice cream was calling out to me in a grabbing-my-shoulders-and-shaking-me sort of manner, but in a good way. For my second flavor of their single scoop serving ($3.25), I was torn between Capn Crunch [cereal], burnt chocolate, or strawberry rhubarb.

Capn Crunch (bottom scoop) was a fun treat. The ice cream tastes like sweet cream with whole Capn Crunch cereal folded in, not sprinkled atop as an afterthought or crushed into nonexistence. The texture of the frozen cereal is funky at first, firm and cold, but once the ice cream softens, the texture of the cereal softens and is fine thereafter. Please note, I am a fan of letting my cereal soak in milk for a minute before eating it.

Day 354/365

Maple bacon ice cream is one of our favorites. The ice cream has a sweet and smoky flavor with chunks of bacon inside. I don't think I've taken a normal sized bite and not had a bacon piece to munch on.

Akemi figured out half way through the cone that I was not going to give her any, so she stopped looking at me pleadingly and turned her attention to more interesting things like squirrels nibbling on nuts, kids trying to eat their ice cream as neatly as possible (hah!), and dogs following kids licking ice cream drops.

Day 354/365

The weather forecast for next Friday is predicted to be a scorcher. Hopefully it won't be another heatwave like we experienced the past few days. I'm sure ice cream parlors would welcome high temperatures.

- Cassaendra

Churned
1112 Kenilworth Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113

Sweet Friday

Art Walk Friday today in Tremont so even a store selling rubber bands and toilet plungers would be packed. Of course, it didn't really need to be Art Walk or Friday for us to pop in for visits to A Cookie and a Cupcake and Churned to see what was new.

We shared the cupcake of the day, blueberry with lemon frosting. As expected, the cake was moist, the blueberries gushed sweet blue, and the lemon frosting was a fabulous match, sweet and citrus-tart.

Day 340/365

We waddled over to Churned and noticed more new offerings. I can't say enough about how cool this place is with frequently rotating ice cream and sorbet flavors thus far.

Day 340/365

We revisited the smooth and salty-sweet maple bacon ice cream with chunks of French toast. The smoky and salty chunks of bacon still amaze me. Mexican hot chocolate with springy marshmallows was a creamy cold version of the chocolaty cinnamon drink. Smoky chocolate was not too sweet, but not as bitter as the dark chocolate with passion fruit and burnt caramel.

A rather unusual ice cream flavor combination was wasabi ginger with black sesame. This works well because the wasabi flavor is not overwhelming, but comfortably present both flavor and heat. The crisp ginger flavor gave the ice cream a nice finish.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Churned
1112 Kenilworth Ave
Cleveland, OH  44113

Churned More

We popped into Churned again. Surprise! (Riiight)

Day 334/365

With newer flavors added, we have yet to try all the flavors. Today, we indulged in a double scoop ($4.75) of:
- peanut butter and jelly
- carrot cake with cream cheese
- grapefruit sorbet with lime
- maple bacon

Ice cream flavors thus far have been like Willy Wonka meals in a bite. PB&J made me chuckle (a good thing). Any kid knows that ice cream + PB&J = win.  For carrot cake, the spices were just enough but not overwhelming, and the cream cheese bits were delicious. Grapefruit sorbet was like spooning sweetened grapefruit -- dry and pleasantly bitter. Maple bacon will make any bacon aficionado proud. We're talking bites of bacon, not specks, or pondering whether Bac-Os were utilized.

Churned has made the prospect of eating without teeth quite enjoyable!  The waistline may protest soon, however.

- Cassaendra

Churned
1112 Kenilworth Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113