So I think I met myself from the future… September 20, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information, sweet eats.5 comments
… not really but totally kind of! Well I didn’t meet her but I know she’s out there! PROOF BELOW:

Bakery owned by my Future Self in Korea
THAT photo above is a shot of the entrance to the Dorothy Ann bakery in Korea!! DOROTHY. ANN. BAKERY. in KOREA.
and its HOT PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe someone beat me to it and opened a hot pink bakery in korea named after myself. I have forever been wanting to open a hot pink bakery named Dorothy Ann!! And I’ve always wanted my bakery to be in Korea because I wish I was Korean! Absolutely cannot believe that there can be another person SO similar to moi but so much more accomplished.
Then I realized it has to be ME from the future!! I mean, that’s the only explanation for the existence of this bakery. It looks exactly like the one that’s been sitting in my head! It IS the one that’s been sitting in my head.
I hope she’s married to a korean pop star.
Dorothy Ann Sandwich
Seoul, Korea
Los Angeles Dessert Tour: Gourmet Churros on the Boardwalk August 3, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, dessert tour, information, sweet eats.Tags: chocolate, churros, gourmet churros, los angeles dessert tour, los angeles desserts, santa monica, third street promenade, xurro
10 comments
Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California, is a sunny wonderland offering blocks of ocean, shops, and most of all, delicious eats. Its the ultimate place for some fun under the sun!

Santa Monica, CA
A recent addition to the overflowing dessert shops lining up and around Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade is Xooro, home to the most exciting premium spanish fritters I have ever encountered. This is a brilliant concept. Bascially, its an ubergourmet churro. A Xooro (pronounced SURE-oh) is a filled (chocolate, caramel, etc) churro that is coated in chocolate, caramel, etc.

Xooro has a wide variety of fillings and coatings to choose from, such as Maple Bacon (churro filled with dulce de leche then dipped in white chocolate and coated in bacon pieces), Raspberry (churro filled with raspberry filling then dipped in white chocolate and coated with white chocolate sprinkles), and the Triple Chocolate (self-explantory). There is also The Original (also available as Chocolate Original), which is a churro filled with custard, and The Original Gluten Free.
We tried three different xooros:

Missippi, Jordan's Special, and Tortoise
Tortoise: The Tortoise is filled with dulce de leche, dipped in chocolate, and then coated with crushed pecans. It was delicious, but not as good as it looks. The dulche de leche filling can definitely be better, but the chocolate is very milk chocolate and the pecans and churro were satisfyingly crunchy.
Missippi: The Missippi is filled with peanut butter filling, dipped in chocolate, and then coated in crushed peanuts. Again, not as good as it looks, but still delicious. The peanut butter filling was more like straight up peanut butter; I think it would be a lot better if it was filled with a sweeter, thinner concoction, like peanut butter frosting. Also satisfyingly crunchy.
Jordan’s Special: This one is my favorite out of the three. Jordan’s Special is filled with Nutella, dipped in white chocolate, and drizzled with dark chocolate. I really liked the white chocolate here; the sweetness really balanced the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the Nutella. And the Nutella filling added the perfect hint of hazelnut flavor to complement the churro.

And don’t feel guilty about eating these! These churros are fried in rice bran oil, so they are slightly healthier than other churros. If you’re not in the mood for a Xooro, there are also a variety of cold and hot drinks, like Spanish Hot Chocolate or Dulce de Leche.

All in all, a very fun place to visit for dessert in Los Angeles. And its right next to the beach! Xooro has two locations:
Xooro
125 Broadway
Santa Monica, California 90401
(310) 260-2919
8360 Melrose Avenue
West Hollywood, California 90069
(323) 951-9592
Los Angeles Dessert Tour: First Stop, Sweet Hart Sweets June 27, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in dessert tour, ice cream, information, sweet eats.Tags: los angeles bakery, los angeles candy shop, los angeles desserts, melissa joan hart candy shop, melissa joan hart shop, sweet hart sweets
21 comments

Sorry everyone, I haven’t really been floating around the blogosphere since I’ve been catching up over here. But I have been working hard on my new project for Dessert Obsessed:
I have decided to do a Dessert Tour of Los Angeles, since my Dessert Tour of New York City was so popular! This tour will definitely take more time and each review will be more detailed, as I actually live in L.A. and have more time to spend at each place, instead of cramming six dessert restaurants into each (of my four) days and trying to sample as many sweets as possible without feeling like I was commiting Cavity Suicide in NYC.

My first stop on my Los Angeles Dessert Tour is Sweet Hart Sweets. I actually found this place while sitting at a traffic light. I was sitting in traffic (this is the annoying part of doing a Dessert Tour in L.A. – you have to deal with traffic everywhere you go), and impatiently waiting for the light to change, when I noticed a sign across the street that boldly declared “the second happiest place on earth!”. Underneath the sign were some of my favorite words: “desserts”, “gelato”, “yogurt” and “candy”. Of course, I absolutely HAD to go! The second happiest place on earth right across the street from me?! It was fate! After finding parking (there is a small parking lot in the back of the store but I didn’t notice so I parked on the street), I made it to “the second happiest place on earth” to find that it was actually a sweets shop, by the name of Sweet Hart Sweets.
The first thing I noticed about Sweet Hart Sweets was the decor. Very, very, VERY cute, and all purple and white. Vintage inspired chairs and walls, but very modern tables. The tables were my favorite; they’re clear but embedded with candy and glitter. So fun! The best part is the giant table and giant chairs in the back of the store which are fun to take pictures with.

Sweet Harts Sweets has a wall of fat free frozen yogurts in various flavors (from peanut butter to raspberry), and a selection of toppings (fruit, chocolate, etc), all yogurtland – style. There is also glass case hosting gelato, which also comes in a variety of flavors (tiramisu to spumoni), and a second glass case boasting cupcakes and cakes. Cookie jars along the counter sport nicely sized cookies. The majority of the wall of the store is dedicated to candy. They have all sorts of candy there, but nothing I haven’t seen before. Hello Kitty candy, Disneyland-esque lollipops, your usual grocery store candy, the usual movie theatre candy, some imported candy, and candy from your (well, my) childhood (Now and Laters and Poprocks!).
All in all, I wasn’t impressed by Sweet Hart Sweets. It was way too mediocre for a sweets shop in Los Angeles. L.A. has too many amazing dessert spots, and its hard to compete. If you want to go to a real candy store, visit It Sugar (to be reviewed as part of the LA Dessert Tour soon!), or Dylan’s Candy Bar. Sweet Hart Sweets has a fraction of the candy offered at It Sugar or Dylan’s Candy Bar. Sweet Hart Sweets also does private parties, like Dylan’s, but I have no idea what those are like. Furthermore, I was actually disappointed by the frozen yogurt and gelato. Both were extremely watery, and I have no idea why. Not melty, the way it should be, watery. Probably the worst gelato I’ve ever had, as the watery texture just made it weird. Also, the worst frozen yogurt I’ve ever had. The taste is artificial, as well as the weird watery texture. Yogurtland (another stop to be reviewed on the Dessert Tour!) is defintely the place to go for fro-yo. Also, the cashier girl charged me for a gelato when I actually got frozen yogurt! (there is a difference: yogurt is 38 cents/oz. while gelato is 75 cents/oz.) And I left so I wasn’t even able to tell her she had it wrong and get my money back! I didn’t try any of the baked goods, but I have a feeling they won’t be amazing. I asked the kids working there if they were baked in the store, and they told me that all the baked goods were baked off-location and brought over in the morning

But the worst part about Sweet Hart Sweets was not the sweets; it was the service. I don’t know if I just went on a bad day or what, but the service was very bad. There were three workers (all kids) that day. One was the manager, but she doesn’t do anything. She spent the majority of her time in the back, and was not available to answer questions or listen to complaints. Arielle, the girl working (the one who overcharged me; do avoid her if you visit) at the time, was extremely rude and unhelpful. She rolled her eyes when customers asked for samples, didn’t know the answers to any questions, and complained when customers took photos, never smiled, and spent her work shift examing her fingernails. On the other hand, Ivan, the boy working with Arielle, was extremely nice and helpful. He gave out heaping samples to every customer, and actually offered samples to everyone who walked through the door. He also answered questions as much as he could, and was very polite. But only 1 good employee out of 3? Not good enough for me.
So why did I include Sweet Hart Sweets on my Los Angeles Dessert Tour? After I got home, I googled the store and found that it is actually the brainchild of Melissa Joan Hart, of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame! Sabrina was quite popular during her time, so there are probably a lot of people out there who would like to visit Melissa’s sweets shop, so I thought it was worthy of a review as part of my LA Dessert Tour. Oh, and the interior makes for really cute photos!

Essentially, Sweet Hart Sweets tried to cram Dylan’s Candy Bar, Yogurtland, Sprinkles, and gelato all into one place… and kind of failed. The second happiest place on earth? Nice try, Melissa. I definitely have some suggestions for the business model of this place, but that’s another blog post for another blog.











