Erin Alexander/Staff

So I’ve got a new obsession. It’s called cookie butter. Now I’m sure you’re probably thinking to yourself, how could a cookie possibly be transformed into a decadent jar of spreadable goodness? To be honest, I don’t know how Trader Joe’s, the manufacturers and (stop me if I’m going to far) the geniuses behind cookie butter, make it happen. All I can say is that I’m glad they found a way. Since the moment a friend turned me to the product, it’s all I seem to be eating in my spare time, spreading it on slices of toast, brownies, other cookies, or taking a spoonful (or two) straight out of the jar.

What is cookie butter exactly? Cookie butter is very much akin to peanut butter, sharing a similar consistency and color. The rich gingerbread flavor actually comes from the so-called “Speculoos cookie”, a crunchy Belgian cookie that is accented with a hint of caramel. One of the most important, and difficult, decisions you’ll confronted with concerning cookie butter is whether to buy it smooth or crunchy. If you really can’t decide, just do what I did and get both. The smooth is creamier, and in my opinion better for spreading on other foods. The crunchy contains bits of the crushed Speculoos cookie and is ideal to eat on its own.

Take my advice: head over to the Trader Joe’s on University and MLK (or on College) and dish out the $3.69 for a jar of Speculoos cookie butter, a small price to pay for an infinite amount of calorie-induced happiness. Who knows, cookie butter just might replace Nutella as your go-to spreadable indulgence.

Contact Erin Alexander at ealexander@dailycal.org.

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Blackberries, oranges, grapes and walnuts are all in season. Check out these scrumptious treats that you can have for breakfast or during a study break. All of them cost less than $5 and can be found a block from campus!

Mixed berry scone at Babette. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Mixed berry scones at Babette

These gluten-free scones, available on Thursdays at Babette in the Berkeley Art Museum, are rugged and dry on the outside but soft like a cupcake on the inside. Break it in half and you’ll see blotches of strawberries and blackberries that look like confetti.

Cranberry crumb bar at the Berkeley Student Food Collective. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Cranberry crumb bars at the Berkeley Student Food Collective

While pastries by Nabolom Bakery are delivered every morning to the Berkeley Student Food Collective, this treat is made on-site by student volunteers. It goes great with coffee or as a mate for breakfast!

Al Mare gelato. Image courtesy of Simone Arpaio.

Honey and walnut gelato at Al Mare

This cold treat tastes just like it sounds and has the added creaminess of gelato made fresh. Look out for the orange, chocolate and spice gelato and pumpkin flavors next month!

Grape oolong tea at Asha Tea House. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Grape oolong tea at Asha Tea House

Asha Tea House makes this tea with fresh fruits. The bitterness of California red grape peels and oolong tea is balanced with the sweetness of crushed grapes at the bottom of the drink. It’s perfect iced!

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Annie Chang/Staff

There is a huge dilemma for those who walk into Cinnaholic: It is almost impossible to decide which combination of frosting and toppings you want! There are so many: 28 frosting flavors and 25 toppings, including seasonal ones. On top of that, there are eight specialty rolls that are already put together, as if the possibilities are not so overwhelming already.

This little hidden gem is near the corner of Oxford and Center streets. Black-and-white retro tiles enclose a small and cozy room. A mouthwatering aroma of freshly baked vegan cinnamon rolls. Cinnaholic is a treat. In this shop, which received the Best of the East Bay Remixed 2011 award, you cannot go wrong in choosing a dessert.

Every time I’ve gone to Cinnaholic has been a fulfilling occasion, no matter what I chose. The frostings include both unusual flavors (butter pecan, cream soda, pumpkin spice, pina colada, etc.) and the classics (strawberry, banana, caramel and cherry). For toppings, there are chocolate chips, graham crackers, oatmeal pie crumble, pecans and peanut butter.

The mocha almond specialty roll and vanilla frosting roll with raspberries and brownie chunks are delicious, but my all-time favorite is the chocolate-chip-cookie-dough specialty roll.

This roll has the perfect balance of sweetness and texture: The basic vanilla frosting isn’t too sweet, the cookie dough is dense — chewy and a bit grainy with the rockier chocolate chips — and the buttery, soft roll is perfect. The roll’s texture is similar to a fresh-baked dinner roll. As a bonus, the chocolate-chip-cookie-dough roll is fulfilling both while you’re chewing it and after it’s gone. It is not light or meager but rich and bold. It’s made for those with a sweet tooth who list dessert as their favorite course.

When you want a twist on a classic pastry, Cinnaholic is the place for you.

Cinnaholic is located at 2132 Oxford St., Berkeley, CA 94704.

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Annie Chang/Staff

Going through old photos of friends and family celebrating the Chinese New Year, I yearn to go back to Taiwan more and more everyday. I crave Taiwanese pastries and breads, and since many cannot be found fresh here in Berkeley, I decided that writing about them would help.

Sesame bun. Image by snowpea& bokchoi under Creative Commons.

1. Black sesame bun.

I haven’t found this one in the Bay Area. It looks like your everyday Chinese bun: white with some filling in the middle, but actually, it’s unique. The first time I saw it, I was a little taken aback by the black filling that seemed to resemble dirt and sand. When I finally took a bite, I realized the flavor was unparallel. Although it’s not obvious what’s in the filling besides black sesame seeds, I know that some people use honey and others use peanut oil to achieve that slightly sticky, barely sandy, but otherwise pasty consistency. The most perfect black sesame buns have a very high ratio of filling to bun, and the filling is not liquidy so that it doesn’t immediately seep out as soon as you take a bite. The bun tastes sweet, but it’s an Asian sweet, like the sweetness of peanuts dusted with sugar.

Pepper bread. Image courtesy of mahe0099.

2. Pepper bread.

A breakfast item. I have not been able to find a formal English translation and name for it, so this is the literal translation. The Chinese name is 胡椒餅, pronounced hújiāo bǐng. It is a soft fluffy rectangular bread with chopped onions and white pepper. The outside, covered in sesame seeds, is a little bit crunchier than the inside, which is as soft as a cloud. Unlike American and some European bread, which are dry and often porous, the pepper bread is completely smooth with no holes. The dough inside has the sponginess of fresh hand-kneaded dough: you bite down on it, and it slowly rises back up, almost like a sponge cake. The onions are dispersed throughout the bread, and the white pepper is invisible. The bread is a bit salty, a bit peppery with just the right amount of onions, making it perfect for breakfast.

Mung bean cake. Image courtesy of MonPetitCuisine.com

3. Mung bean cake

I like mung bean cakes with dates for dessert. It is a greenish yellow bite-size cake, smooth and slightly crumbly, filled with mung bean or azuki bean paste, and ranging from circular to floral shapes. Some of the ingredients are coconut milk, cow’s milk, mung bean, and sugar. The cake is smooth, with a sweetness somewhere between peanut sweet and red bean paste sweet. When you pick up the dessert, the oil that makes it slightly crumbly may cause your hand to become oily, just like eating very buttery shortbread cookies. Ttaking a bite, the dessert is the perfect amount of sandy texture. The slight sandiness prevents it from being too gooey. Lucky for me, I can find this dessert at Sheng Kee Bakery.

Sun cake. Image by Annie Chang.

4. Sun cake

A dessert that originated from the city of Taichung in Taiwan. Some stores make sun cakes for a living, and they are so popular that people line up on the streets to buy them. Sun cake is a white flaky dessert filled with maltose, which people usually eat with tea. Made of multiple paper-thin layers of phyllo dough, the flaky pastry is rolled into the shape of the sun. With each bite, pieces flake off, so make sure you have a plate or a napkin. The taste is slightly sweet, similar to honey but a little sweeter mixed with a malt sugar taste. The texture is a little bit sticky, as if a very thin layer of caramel was sitting inside the pastry. The dry flakiness of the outside perfectly contrasts the denser stickiness of the inside.

As I finish writing about these delicious bakery and pastry items, the craving has only increased. Some of these can be found in the Bay Area, and although they are just not the same as the freshly made ones in Taiwan, I’m glad Chinatown and Sheng Kee Bakery are there.

The post Four Taiwanese pastries to look for appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Josh Escobar/Staff

Student group meetings are not the only place to get free food on campus. Out in the Berkeley hills the Indian summer is unraveling, making it a sweet time to forage wild bay leaves and blackberries.

But those aren’t the only things in season, and you don’t need to go too far to find fruit in the wild. Along Centennial Drive we spotted red, yellow and orange fruits on the strawberry trees — the reds being ripe and edible. They are juicy and white on in the inside. Their texture is soft and sweetness mild. Since the trees don’t grow very high they are ideal for parks meant for small children, such as South Park in San Francisco. They are also colorful and easy to maintain. They were probably planted along Centennial Drive since their roots wouldn’t interfere with the roads as much. American robins like them. While they might be tricky to bake with they are perfect for eating right on the spot.

Know of any good fruits to harvest in the wild? Got any tips for foraging? Share them in the comments below!

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Annie Chang/Staff

I never thought that I could find another Ici in Berkeley that was closer to where I lived, but it’s possible. Walking around the Gourmet Ghetto last weekend, I decided to check out that small food-courtlike area, where I’d been before but somehow failed to notice the gelato shop in the back. I glanced through the flavors and realized how unique they were — somewhat like Ici’s flavors except that Lush Gelato had more.

Among a whole range of flavors, from “honey and rosemary” to “cowgirl creamery fromage blanc,” I opted for the cardamom blood orange and the honey and rosemary. Both were so different from normal gelato flavors, and both were lovely. The cardamom blood orange tasted naturally citrus, with tiny bright chunks of orange draped in a subtly spicy cardamom taste, and the gelato was not too heavy. The honey and rosemary combination was just as delicious. It is not at all a gross herbal taste with a strange addition of honey to sweeten, but it is a nice blend of subtle honey and the sweet part of rosemary. The rosemary, with its delicate pine flavor, freshened up the gelato.

Lush Gelato makes all of its gelato from scratch in small batches using organic and local ingredients, and it uses local farms in Petaluma, Oakland and Palo Alto. The cones are made fresh every day, giving me even more incentive to go there frequently.

Lush Gelato is located at 1511 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709 (inside the Epicurious Garden food court).

Contact Annie Chang at achang@dailycal.org.

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Annie Chang/Staff

I have fallen in love with my fair share of baked goods. Everyone has a favorite local bakery, and the place I’m about to talk about is unquestionably one of my top two favorites in Berkeley. The cupcakes there taste like no cupcake I’ve ever had before. A hidden gem in the Gourmet Ghetto of Shattuck Avenue, Love At First Bite is a quaint shop housed in a small, cozy, hidden plaza. The owner, Patricia Powell, perfects each cupcake flavor and makes them from scratch with premium ingredients, such as Mexican vanillas, Saigon cinnamon and butter, milk and eggs from the local dairies.

Unique names like “Bunny Love” and “Pretty in Pink” always attract me. In Bunny Love’s cream cheese frosting, I could taste the Philadelphia cream cheese that complemented the lighter pineapple-flavored cake with carrot and pecan pieces. Pretty in Pink, the bakery’s famous strawberry cupcake, released an intense aroma of fresh strawberries, which were strongly sweet with a sour hint. The cupcake may be a little too sweet, but the cake part was moist. The frosting was so smooth and lush that it just melted in my mouth.

As one of the best gourmet cupcake shops in Berkeley, Love At First Bite, with its sensually named cupcakes, is one of a kind. There is something for everyone here, from the real cupcake purists who want to indulge in a “Lemon Kiss” or get their hands on a “PB Affair” to all dessert lovers who want to spoil themselves with different types of sweets, such as puddings, cookies and standard cakes. Whether it be Monkey Love (banana cupcakes with vanilla frosting), Hummingbird (banana, pineapple and pecan cake with cream cheese frosting), Razzle Dazzle (vanilla cupcakes with raspberry butter cream) or Lemon Pistachio (lemon cupcakes with pistachio butter cream), these perfectly made cupcakes will always continue to surprise and gratify.

Love At First Bite is located at 1510 Walnut St., Suite G, Berkeley, CA 94709.

Contact Annie Chang at achang@dailycal.org

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The Sheng Kee Bakery on Telegraph has delighted people for months with its beautifully crafted Taiwanese breads, treats and desserts. I remember how I waited months for Sheng Kee to open. I was studying in a cafe when I heard that it was finally going to open, and I almost screamed. The opening day, I got there at 7:30 a.m. For the first two weeks, I visited Sheng Kee at least five or six times, and over the months, I have narrowed down a few favorites.

A classic that I have loved since I was a child is the pork sung bun. Pork sung is loosely chopped dried pork with a light and fluffy texture. The bakeries that make outstanding pork sung buns usually fill it to the brim, and Sheng Kee definitely does that. Their pork sung reminded me of a slightly sweet beef jerky but crispier and crunchier. What makes this particular pork sung bun stand out from the others is the puff pastry on top, which is similar to a very flaky croissant but with less of a  buttery taste and more of a slight cheese taste. The bun prompted me to think of potato chips with multiple flavors: the cheesiness of a cheese croissant and the savoriness of barbecued pulled pork, but slightly sweeter.

A new pastry that I recently tried is the peanut butter pineapple bun, which is a traditional pineapple bun with peanut butter and ground peanuts on top. Contrary to their name, pineapple buns don’t actually have any pineapple in them; the surface just has a  pineapple-like texture with its diamond grid-like formation. The slightly crumbly top tastes like milk with a hint of vanilla, similar to a less sweet creme brulee in bread form. The ground peanuts produce a nice contrast in texture against the soft pastry.

Something else that I usually buy there is the Asian version of garlic bread, which comes in a nice rectangular prism shape and doesn’t squish down easily. Somehow, Sheng Kee makes it taste even better than the American kind. The garlic and oil topping is still the same, but the texture of the bread changes everything. Once your teeth sink through the hard outside, they’ll reach the soft texture of Asian buttery white bread.

With Sheng Kee’s many choices, a breakfast stop for my usual peanut butter pineapple bun and pork sung bun always makes me happy. I look forward to trying every single Sheng Kee pastry and cake, and hopefully you will find your favorite here too. Sheng Kee is not only for those of us who are obsessed with Asian baked goods, but also for those who want to try Taiwanese pastries for the first time. So make a quick stop if you haven’t already. You won’t regret it.

Image source: John Loo under Creative Commons

Contact Annie Chang at achang@dailycal.org

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Jillian Wertheim/Senior Staff

On a blustery Friday evening, after a long, mind-numbing day of paper-pushing, I found myself in desperate need of something warm and comforting. And what could satisfy my hankering better than a piping-hot plate of noodles? Above standards like mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese, Asian noodles top my list of favorite comfort foods, and when the weather turns chilly, they’re all I crave. So with friends in tow, I hopped over to Mandarin Garden on Shattuck Avenue for a serving of the vegetable chow fun — a delicious and filling meal for less than $7.

Teeming with carrots, zucchini, broccoli and baby bok choy, Mandarin Garden’s chow fun is a veggie-lover’s dream. Portions are beyond generous, and the noodles themselves are substantive without feeling heavy — the broad rice noodles are pan-fried in a dark soy sauce that isn’t overly salty, a welcome change from the majority of pan-fried noodles out there. For texture variety, water chestnuts and snow peas add a hearty crunch to the dish and stand in dramatic contrast to the silkiness of the noodles.

Carnivores might decry my choice in going veg for this meal, but meaty shiitake mushrooms offer a delicious earthy flavor that is unmatched by chicken, pork or beef. Besides, what the chow fun lacks in protein it makes up for in the wide assortment of textures and tastes. Not even my Mongolian beef-eating buddies could say no to a little chow fun.

When the check came — along with a few take-out boxes for the abundance of leftovers — I was pleased to see that even with a shared appetizer, tax and a generous tip, I could throw down $10 and be just fine. A fortune cookie or two later, I left Mandarin Garden with my wallet as full as a college student’s can be and my stomach fuller yet.

Mandarin Garden is located at 2025 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley.

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The first place I stopped at was La Boulange Bakery in San Francisco. There were many locations, so I just picked the one that was most convenient in the Westfield San Francisco Centre. Looking at all of the yummy flavors, I decided to buy passionfruit-mango and lemon. So far, I had only seen passionfruit-mango macarons at La Boulange, and it was my favorite flavor of them all. Tiny chunks of fruit on the outside of the macaron added a nice crunch, and it was still soft and chewy on the inside. The macaron was much thinner than many others I had tried before and was not as pleasing as a thick and chewy one. This macaron was a beautiful and fresh summery-salmon pink color with a mango yellow filling, and it was not overly sweet. However, I could not say the same about the lemon macaron. The filling was so hard and sticky that I really had to sink my teeth in. The lemon flavor was not very realistic and instead turned out tasting like a badly made lemon-meringue bar. Overall, the macarons here were not horrible, and they had a large selection of flavors, including pistachio, coffee, vanilla and chocolate.

The next stop was YakiniQ Cafe in San Francisco’s Japantown. A friend had informed me that YakiniQ had a unique Earl Grey flavor, so I sought it out. I bought the last Earl Grey macaron along with a rose-flavored one. As soon as I bit down on the rose macaron, I could really feel the proper chewy feel from a thick macaron. It had substance and was dense — the best texture for macarons. The YakiniQ macarons immediately made a better impression than La Boulange’s, and the rose flavor was beautifully crafted. It had a slight aroma that was not too strong, and the floral taste stood out against the sugary base flavor of the macaron. The taste along with the nice light pink color reminded me of a rose perfume.

The Earl Grey macaron was also very pleasing and impressive. The surface was slightly crunchy, and the taste was a union of Earl Grey tea, poppy seeds and coffee. The macaron was light brown on the outside with a white filling, and the surface had small Earl Grey pieces to decorate and add more of a realistic flavor. The texture of this macaron was just as excellent as that of the rose one. Sitting down to have a cup of sweet-potato latte and peacefully eating YakiniQ macarons make for a perfect afternoon.

The third stop was Miette inside the Ferry Building Marketplace near the Embarcadero BART station. I bought rose geranium and grapefruit macarons. The shop also had hazelnut and chocolate, but I wanted to try new flavors that would have been more difficult to find. Both macarons were a light brown color with dark brown speckles. The rose geranium had a purer yet subtler flavor than the YakiniQ rose macaron. The Miette macarons were also chewy and dense but still substantial, similar to the YakiniQ macarons. However, I still preferred the YakiniQ macarons that were slightly chewier. The grapefruit macaron I tasted at Miette featured the best-executed fruit flavor I have ever tasted. As soon as I took a bite, the light, tangy and fresh aroma of grapefruit filled my mouth. I thought of eating pomelos at home on a hot summer day. The taste completely enveloped the taste buds, and I completely forgot about the sugary taste of the macarons because it was not as present. Even after eating the macaron, the aroma stayed in my mouth for a few more minutes, and it was very refreshing.

My next stop was at DeLise Dessert Cafe in San Francisco. I bought date and walnut, pistachio and rose, and lavender-flavored macarons. I was quite excited to try these unique flavors, but I was quickly disappointed by both the texture and taste of the macarons. The date and walnut flavors clashed, so much so I could not even taste the walnut. There was also a small amount of date jelly in the middle, which made it feel like I was eating plain dates. The pistachio and rose macaron tasted refreshing and light, but I could not differentiate between the pistachio macaron and rose fillings. All of the flavors blended together and neither was distinct. The macarons were not chewy and cracked easily, and I left not wanting to return to DeLise.

The last stop was Berkeley’s own Masse’s Pastries. Masse’s Pastries is a regular stop for me on any Gourmet Ghetto trip because it is the closest pastry shop to campus, and their cakes are also quite exquisite. This time, I picked two unique flavors — cassis and pandan-coconut. The main ingredient of cassis is black currant, and pandan-coconut was a special flavor made for the Lunar New Year. I ate the pandan-coconut first and was a little disappointed. It did not taste at all like coconut. Instead, I was reminded of a blend of pistachios and sugar. The texture was also a little crumbly, and when I bit down, other parts of the macaron cracked. The macaron was very thin and not chewy or moist. The cassis was not much better. When I opened my box of desserts, I saw that it was cracked and that the top of the macaron had already come off. This macaron was even more thin and was almost too chewy. I really had to work to chew the macaron rather than being able to lightly bite down. It was also dry, and the sweetness stood out more than the fruit flavor.

YakiniQ Cafe offered the best macarons of the five I tried, even though it does not have an extensive selection of flavors. It only features four or five flavors at a time, but they are all made exquisitely with an excellent chewy texture that is crunchy on the outside and moist and dense on the inside. Coming in a very close second to YakiniQ Cafe is Miette. Macarons here are a little bit more prone to cracking than the YakiniQ ones, hence Miette’s position in the rankings. Third place is definitely La Boulange, because even though the quality of the macarons was not as great as it was at Miette or YakiniQ, La Boulange has a great selection of flavors. I would go there just for their passionfruit-mango macaron. Next up is Masse’s Pastries because the macarons generally have a good flavor, and the shop offers a large selection. Masse’s macarons are satisfying for an everyday macaron. Of course, the Bay Area has more macaron goodness to offer, but that will have to wait until next time.

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