One Life Goal Fulfilled: Hello Kitty Sweets May 27, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, information, sweet eats.Tags: cute restaurants, edible hello kitty, hello kitty, hello kitty cake, hello kitty chocolate, hello kitty dessert, hello kitty gourmet, hello kitty meal, hello kitty mmorpg, hello kitty online, hello kitty pasta, hello kitty roller rescue, hello kitty sweets, hello kitty taipei, hello kitty taiwan, hello kitty themed restaurant, hello kitty video game, momoberry, sanrio restaurant, taipei restaurants
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One of the things that the readers of this blog do not know about me is that I am a Huge Hello Kitty Fanatic. I can’t believe I have managed to blog for this long and not mention my Hello Kitty obsession! Hello Kitty is not just an adorable character to me, she is a friend and source of inspiration (do I sound crazy? I hope not). I wrote my college admissions essay on Hello Kitty (she got me into UCLA and every other school I applied to), wrote two term papers in college about Hello Kitty, flew across the country to get my hands on a Hello Kitty Tokidoki, obsessively play Hello Kitty Online (if you’re into gaming, I recommend Hello Kitty Roller Rescue; its superfun), collect everything Hello Kitty; I will buy and overpay for ANYthing with Hello Kitty on it, my bedroom looks like a 4-year-old lives in it… yea, you get the idea. I love Hello Kitty!
And so, ever since it opened its doors January 2008, it has been one of my life goals to go to Hello Kitty Sweets, the official Hello Kitty themed restaurant and bakery in Taipei, Taiwan. I believe this is the only official Hello Kitty themed restaurant in the world! A fantasyland of Hello Kitty AND dessert?! My idea of heaven! And lucky me, I was able to go and now I get to share the fantasy with you!
fantasy decor
Hello Kitty Sweets is AmazinG, even for non-Hello Kitty aficionados. The décor is pure fantasy, and the food has all been “Hello Kitty-ized”, and everything is so adorable you’re afraid to eat it and destroy the fantasy. The entire building is pink, and done up with ribbon trimmings and sparkling chandeliers. The walls are quilted (think faux-Chanel), and even the staff are part of the fantasy, with cute pink aprons and kitty ears. Everything is fit for a princess!
Hello Kitty Puff Pastry
The food is extremely fusion, but very tasty. Everything on the menu is a set meal, aside from the cakes and pastries available in the bakery. We had a baked rice dish with cheese (Taiwanese attempt at risotto), and rice and seafood puff pastry in the shape of Hello Kitty’s head. Each entrée comes with a side of potato salad, an appetizer of sweet corn chowder, and a drink of your choice (we had the mint frappacino and the kiwi smoothie). Every entrée is gorgeously plated with a pretty salad and hello kitty designs made by condiments and spices. Each meal also finishes with a tiny piece of cake and fruit. The dessert was probably my least favorite, as it was light fluffy asian cake that looked like chocolate, but tasted more like vanilla. But the entrees and sides were all delicious!
Hello Kitty "risotto"
kiwi smoothie
The Menu is another source of fun at Hello Kitty Sweets. It comes in the form of a giant book, with full page color photos of Kitty in various outfits and settings, as well as pictures of every entrée and pretty desserts. Everything has detailed complete description so you can make an informed choice. One of my favorite parts of Hello Kitty Sweets is the window where you can watch the bakers making Hello Kitty desserts. All of the desserts are either Hello Kitty shaped, or have impressions of Hello Kitty somewhere, and are just completely Hello Kitty-ed out!
the making of Hello Kitty sweets
Momoberry-esque Dessert Kitty
Hello Kitty Sweets also has its own line of specific Hello Kitty Sweets merchandise. The Hello Kitty Sweets Kitty has eyelashes (somewhat like the Momoberry Kitty), wears stripes, and is always seen holding a cappuccino or slice of cake. Supercute!
If you plan on going to Hello Kitty Sweets, make sure you plan ahead! It is always crowded and there are always multiple groups celebrating their birthdays/baby showers/etc there. The place is usually packed, so make reservations if you can! Also, I was amazed by the amount of men at a Hello Kitty restaurant! There were a lot of couples, husbands and wives, but also bigger parties with quite a few teenage boys. I even saw one party of 10 where 9 women were celebrating the only male at the table’s birthday (I felt kind of embarrassed for him; they brought out a giant Hello Kitty cake with candles and everyone sang to him).
Hello Kitty seating
But everyone is happy at Hello Kitty Sweets! How can you not be, when surrounded by so much happiness, yumminess, sparkliness, prettiness, and sugar?!
hello kitty dessert
If you are lucky enough to visit, the address is: 90, Da-an Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市大安路一段90號)
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If you like reading about other sweet eats, check out my Dessert Tour of New York City!
Feel Better about American Idol Cookies, aka The Best White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Ever. May 24, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information.14 comments
I can’t believe Kris Allen won American Idol! I absolutely love Kris, but I definitely think that Adam is more talented and more deserving of the title. I don’t know why, but my favorite never ever wins! Katherine McPhee, Blake Lewis, David Archuleta, and now Adam Lambert?!
I was pretty sad that Adam didn’t win, but good thing I had these cookies to cheer me up! I made and baked them during the show, so they were ready to eat right when the show ended. These made me forget all about the disappointing American Idol finale.
The moment I saw these on For the Love of Cooking, I knew they would be the perfect cookies just from the picture. Perfectly wrinkled and moist. It was love at first sight! These are THE BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies I have ever had! SOOOO GOOOD I can’t even vocabularize it. They’re amazing the next day too, if they can last that long! I brought a dozen into the office, and 4 people polished off the entire dozen within the hour. So go make them. NOW! I promise you won’t regret it!
Sorry about the crappy photos; lighting really sucks at midnight 
The Best White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Ever. (very slightly adapted from here)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl then set aside. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla with a mixer until creamy.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just mixed. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand. Drop by the spoonful onto a greased or lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 4-5 minutes (so cookies can set) before moving to a rack. Makes about 24 cookies.
Now excuse me, I need to go make another batch.
Haphazardly Spontaneous Breakfast Party May 19, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, pancakes.Tags: barley, breakfast recipes, brunch, crepe recipe, easy crepe recipe, nutella, porsche, scones, westwood
14 comments
- barley is pretty
S had a big barely used bag of barley on her countertop, and I started wondering what barley tasted like. S claimed barley was just like brown rice. I love brown rice, so I decided I had to try barley! …but it was 1am in the morning, and who has stomach for barley at that hour? Besides, it takes half an hour to slow boil. So S said that she would make it for me for breakfast, but that meant she would have to get up at 7am to make it since she had a breakfast date. And that led to dreaming about crepes and S’s amazing crepe recipe.. so we decided to throw a spontaneous breakfast party! We quickly made a list of everything we needed, spent 10 minutes very carefully manuvering out of a tiny parking space squashed in between a brand new Porsche and an unforgiving cement wall, rushed into the market, picked out chips and then put them back and then picked them up again, debated crepe combinations in the frozen aisle, made friends with the janitor so he would give us free aluminum foil, waited impatiently in line to checkout behind two dozen drunk students, cried over Brad and Angelina’s supposed breakup on National Enquirer, forgot to validate for parking, but then remembered that we had remembered to validate, had trouble getting out of the parking structure, then had even more trouble parking back in the tiny parking spot next to the Porsche and scratch-inducing wall, forgot the code to get into the elevator, finally made it upstairs, got the groceries in the fridge, and set our alarms for an 8 AM wakeup call to start cooking!
The cooking of everything was another haphazard process in its own. We only had 1 pot, 2 bowls, 2 spoons, and 1 knife between the two of us and 4 main dishes, and 30 minutes to do everything (we overslept… a lot).
Iveta's Apricot Scones
Our Haphazard Breakfast Party was a delicious hit, even though the menu was very random and made up of everything we were craving the night before. We had Iveta’s scones, gucamole and jalapeno chips, barley, yogurt, and S’s amazing crepes.
The scones came from an Iveta Gourmet baking mix. They came out great! Really moist and super easy to make. All I had to do was add some cream and mix everything together; perfect for a haphazard breakfast! Iveta has lots of gourmet baking mixes, from scones to muffins and even cupcakes! They also have a lot of all-natural baking mixes. Iveta even has homemade curds and jams to go with your scones! I was able to make the scones and the guacamole and get ready somewhat all within the 20 minutes I had before speeding off to pick up our guest of honor.
Crepes with raspberries, bananas, and Nutella
S’s Amazing(ly Easy) Crepes
2 eggs
1 c flour
1 c milk
1/8 c melted butter (1/4 stick of butter)
pinch of salt
Whisk eggs and salt together. Whisk flour and milk in bit by bit, alternating. Whisk in butter once all the flour and milk has been added. Whisk until batter is smooth.
To cook the crepes, pour about 1/4 of the batter into your skillet (we used a big one). Swirl around to thinly coat bottom of skillet and heat over medium heat. Once crepe has set, flip over and cook the other side. Once they are completely cooked, fill and enjoy! We filled ours with plenty of Nutella, sliced bananas, and raspberries.
Dorothy Uncooks Vegan Sushi May 13, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information, vegan.Tags: almonds, any phyo, healthy sushi, raw food kitchen, raw food recipe, raw food sushi, raw foodism, raw recipe, sushi, uncooking, vegan sushi, vegan sushi recipe
19 comments
I did it!
Uncooked Vegan Sushi Rolls
I cooked! Well, more like Uncooked, but the point is I made an edible something other than a snack or dessert! I love to bake, but I rarely, rarely ever cook. I just don’t really like dealing with washing things, cutting up produce, and then tasting flavors and heating it all in a big pot. Sugar, flour, and a mixer is so much easier.
Uncooking is pretty simple though, since you don’t cook anything! Just toss all your ingredients into a food processor and then put together . I’ve been really interested in raw foods lately, which is where this vegan sushi comes in. Raw foodies live off uncooked, unprocessed, organic foods and try to consume everything in their natural form and maximize the health benefits. There is no way that I could live off raw food and become a raw foodie (since I hate salad and love processed goodies), but its super interesting.
This recipe is superb! These are the Ginger Almond Nori Rolls from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen (great book, by the way). The sushi “meat” is delicious, especially for someone like me, who doesn’t really enjoy raw fish or regular sushi, unless its been tempura-ed. I definitely encourage everyone, whether raw foodist, vegan, dessert obsessee or junk foodie, to try this recipe. I can’t wait to try more raw recipes, especially for desserts!
I’ve changed the recipe a bit; here’s the original.
Ginger Almond Nori Rolls
for the sushi “meat”:
1.5 C whole, raw, almonds
1 clove garlic, grated
2 tsp ground ginger
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp water
Process ginger, garlic, salt, and almonds until mixed well in a blender or food processor. Add the lemon juice and process more. Add water only as needed for a hummus-like texture.
For the Nori Rolls (Ani’s original recipe calls for mung bean sprouts, burdock root, and spinach):
3 nori sheets
3 c spinach leaves
1 c grated carrots
Lay 1 c spinach leaves on half of one nori sheet. Add 1/3 of the sushi “meat” over the spinach. Add grated carrots. Roll up, cut into 6-8 sushi pieces, and EAT!
Martha’s a Genius. But we already knew that. May 5, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, cupcakes, vegan.21 comments
Who loves Martha Stewart?!
I do! Most Dessert Obsessees I know have a love/hate relationship with Martha and her recipes, but I completely adore her! I believe anyone who can build a successful career and home empire, and then destroy said successful career (by lying and ending up in jail, in Martha’s case), and then rebuild that career and become even more successful after imprisonment and public humiliation is a Genius.
So of course, she came up with these Genius super easy one-bowl chocolate cake recipe! I can’t believe it took me so long to try this recipe, as dessert lovers everywhere have been raving about this recipe for awhile. I’ve been using this vegan recipe as my go-to chocolate cake recipe, but Martha’s are slightly better! (But the vegan ones are healthier!) And Martha’s cupcakes baked up gorgeously, with perfectly domed tops.
This recipe is supereasy and results in moist, chocolatey, cupcakes. Perfect! Top with some Cream Cheese Frosting or Cookies and Cream Frosting and you’re in cupcake heaven!
Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
Martha’s One – Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely and then frost. Makes 24 cupcakes.
Cream Chese Frosting
1 8 0z. package cream cheese
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
2 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Beat all the ingredients together until creamy. Add in 1/2 C crushed Oreos for Cookies and Cream frosting.
And did you know Martha was a teenage model?
Martha the Model
So she’s been a model, chef, tv personality, publisher, author, decorator, actress, homemaker, stock broker, went to college on a scholarship, etc etc etc and still going! She’s done everything! That woman is amazing. If one day I could be even a smidge as successful as her, I would be beyond satisfied with myself.
