I Pledge Allegiance, to the Pies, and All Things Just as Good

It's Summer!

And I am finally back to my blog and finally have free time!

Now what is it that I am going to first write about in my Summer Collection of blog posts? Well, if you know me at all or have noticed a trend in what is I especially like to post about (or if you just so happened to already read the title of this post) then you will know what this is going to be all about...

FOOD!

So Let's Begin...

Yes indeed, this post is about PIES! More specifically though, Republic of Pie, an awesome coffee shop in North Hollywood with So Much Amazingness all concentrated in one area.

On Magnolia Blvd in North Hollywood, CA is quaint but cool cafe carrying a very relaxed and respectable atmosphere filled with scents of fresh coffee and nothing but sweet pastries as the first things you see when you walk through the door.  After you order in the front some coffee, pastries, slices of PIE, or some hearty and delicious breakfast options, you can go ahead and head to the back of the coffee shop and pull yourself a seat.  They have a wide assortment of couches, seats, stools, tables, benches, and other comfortable spaces where you can just have your meal, a cup of coffee, a sweet slice of pie and either have a good conversation with a friend, read a book, or get some work done. 

Similarly to Young Hickory which I wrote about a while ago, this coffee shop has a great atmosphere to it all and although I don't live in the area, if I did, I would definitely spend a lot of time here reading, writing, hanging out, or just indulging myself in delicious pieces of pie.

So by now you're probably DONE with me only mentioning all the delicious food here and not showing you what it looks like, so let me show you what this place is all about.

So as I mentioned before, once you walk in you will see all the savory pastries they have to offer especially since you have to walk past the earlier customers sitting at a the few couches they have in the front and refrain from drooling over them as you see the sweets they had already started enjoying.

To the right is the counter displaying Nutella Turnovers, Almond Danishes, Jam & Cheese Danishes, Apple Turnovers, a Variety of Croissants, Lemon Bars, Macarons, Coconut Bars, Lemon Tarts,  and SO MUCH PIE!

Peach, Apple, Strawberry Rhubard, Marion Berry, Chocolate Cream, Espresso Almond, Chocolate Banana Cream, Key Lime, Cookies & Cream, Banana Cream, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Coconut Cream, Pecan, Pumpkin, and SO MUCH MORE!

And just in case you don't wanna feel TOO guilty starting off your day with something sweet, you can kick off your day with some delicious breakfast plates such as these...

 But please make sure to grab a cup of coffee too because this stuff is good, their drip is fresh and tasty and their specialty drinks are so savory.  And just LOOK AT THEIR LATTE ART!

I went with my sister and because we didn't want to feel like we were just starting off with something sweet, I ordered the GRILLED BREAKFAST WRAP which had egg, bacon, mozzarella, potato, avocado, pico de gallo, and jack sauce... Seriously, this was Delicious!

My sister took the higher road though and ordered the yogurt with fruit and granola which was very tasty too and not absurdly creamy or tart

BUT OF COURSE WE GOT A SLICE OF PIE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!

The two of us after having our individual breakfast plates shared a slice of ooey gooey creamy whipped Cookies & Cream Pie and I say unto you we indulged in such a delectable piece of heaven, And. It. Was. Good.

2.4 seconds later of nothing but me looking like this gif

BOOM

The next time I was in the area my sister and I tried to convince my mom for us to go there again but noooooo we figured it would be good to explore another breakfast place.  Although I was initially bummed because, I mean come on you saw the pies, the other place turned out to be pretty good.  But back to Republic of Pie, if you are in the area, or even just somewhere in LA and willing to make the drive to North Hollywood despite LA traffic, do it! Or if maybe you live in the area and need a study spot or just some good pie go ahead and make your day with some delicious pie.  Maybe you could even bring a book and just kind of listen to the sounds of a real coffee shop.

I miss this place and I miss the coffee shops I came to love in San Diego I can't go to right now during the Summer so hopefully next time I come back to the blog I will have a coffee shop similar to this one I can go to near home

Ugh, me too

Pretty Much Pretty Patties

What do I love almost as much as food you ask? That's easy ... Dessert!

Let's be serious for a moment, dessert is a whole separate category from food because you eat food for meals and for snacks and what not, but you can never be too full for dessert.  Like when you are at a restaurant and you are stuffed full of delicious FOOD ...and then that rapscallion of a waiter/waitress comes over with the dessert menu because they saw into your eyes that you have an on-again-off-again love/hate relationship with sweets and just know you cannot say no.

OR WORSE! When they actually bring the freaking cart around that has the example desserts and you know they have been sitting there for a while because every server uses it to tempt every customer into desserts but yet it all looks so good.

ANYWAY! I am not even talking about desserts at restaurants in this post but that was my rant about sweets/desserts and now to the best part.

1. Macarons are amazing. 2. I think they look like "Pretty Patties" from Spongebob Squarepants. and 3. I think if I ever went to Europe and tried legit macarons I would probably cry, then die, then come back, stuff my face with macarons, cry some more, and then die again - in that order.

[Look at that, these things are so good the gif is bugging out]

I do have one place in particular I must talk about though that sold me some awesome macarons and that is Dolcissimo Bake Shop.

Located at:

13885 City Center Drive, Suite 3010

Chino Hills CA 91709

Ph: 909.591.3646

Store Hours:
Monday to Thursday 10am-8:15pm
Friday & Saturday 10am-9pm
Sunday 11am-7:15pm

At the Shoppes at Chino Hills (North of LA) in California my sister and I were walking around and found this little shop on side of the shopping center, went in, and were super happy with our find.

Now we unfortunately did not get a chance to try everything since we had just eaten BUT if you understood what I was ranting about earlier, we did buy some macarons without too much guilt. 

YEP, YOU READ THAT RIGHT, NUTELLA & FRUITY PEBBLE FLAVORED MACARONS

and not only were the Nutella macarons flavored like nutella, the insides were creamy nutella spread

... you know, maybe it wasn't even nutella flavored... but I just know that they were delicious.  At that moment I really wished I had not eaten lunch and rather we had just gone straight to Dolcissimo and filled ourselves with macarons and cupcakes.

So if you are around the area or visiting LA or maybe even just in some part of California... Go to Dolcissimo and you will not be disappointed.

Twisting Your Tongue for Ice Cream

Try saying this 5x fast: Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous

For some it is easy, but for me it is terribly difficult mainly because I cannot get through the first two times saying it without starting to drool because Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous is probably my new favorite place to get ice cream in San Francisco.

Me every time I go there

Located at 699 22nd St. somewhat near the SF Giants Ballpark is a small corner shop that changed my life.  I was introduced to this place by my good friend who actually took me to the french sandwich shop I had posted about before.  Even though I was really full and completely satisfied with my meal, she urged me to go with her to get just one scoop.  HOLY CRAP am I glad that I did so.

Those are some shots of the inside of the ice cream place.  Not only do they sell amazing ice cream, but they also have chocolate malt balls, cookies, and all sorts of other goodies that make you loosen your belt just by looking at them all.

So the way it works, is everyday they have different flavors and most of those flavors are definitely a little more different than your typical ice cream shop.  So far I have gone twice and have been really happy with every flavor I have tried.  They make it there themselves and once they run out of a certain flavor, they simply erase that flavor from the chalkboard and don't serve it again until the next day you find it on the menu.

In case you can't read the flavors in those two pictures, here are the flavors that I have seen so far

• Banana with Sesame Brittle
• Sweet Cream
• White Russian (Kahlua, Cream, Vodka)
• Bourbon & Caramel
• Pink Squirrel (Chocolate with Almond Liquer)
• Sassafras (Root Beer)
• Cookies n' Cream
• Vanilla Bean
• Sour Cream Cheesecake
• Fruity Pebbles
• Cinnamon Chip (like the 'hot/spicy' cinnamon)
• Molasses Ginger
• Butterscotch & Butterfinger
• Salted Mango
• Fig & Marscapone
• Ovaltine
• Frosted Flakes
• Crema Cataline (Lime Custard with Burnt Orange Caramel

So far I have yet to be disappointed with any of the flavors.  I haven't necessarily gotten a scoop of every flavor but I do have the tendency to sample just about every single one of them.

(From Left to Right) Fig & Marscapone, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles with Cookies n' Cream

Another thing I love about this place is that they are not at all stingy when it comes to serving you and when you order anything to go and take home, they fill these little containers (they have bigger sizes too) all the way up to the brim... and then squish it down to fit more.  Both times now I have brought some home and made sure to bring home flavors that I did not already get served in a cone so I could enjoy something different.

So if you are in San Francisco and want to try something other than the typical Ghirardelli Chocolate Ice Cream (I am not bashing, I love Ghirardelli, just sometimes you need something different), go over to Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous and get some amazing ice cream before it runs out!

Milkshakes Make Me Too Lazy to Go Out to the Yard

Why fight the urge? Milkshakes are delicious and you know it and I have never heard of someone having a disappointing experience while drinking a milkshake.  I apologize for the hint of aggression behind this post its just that this year I really learned what it meant to have a really delicious milkshake.

It was when I went to my first improv festival which was held at USC that I realized you don't have to only put ice cream and milk in a blender to have an awesome milkshake and the more sugary products you blend the better.

[I hired John Travolta to reenact me drinking milkshakes all weekend]

GROUND ZERO is the name of this student-run cafe at USC which is better known for its milkshakes than it's coffee (and I don't mind, I like coffee but damn those milkshakes are good) and you should really go check it out if you're in the area.  They're open weekdays from 8:30am-Midnight and weekends from 1:00pm-Midnight by the way, I looked it up.

 

LOOK AT THIS MENU!

Well, if you can zoom in somehow, look at it... there's a bunch of different mixtures where they'll mix in bananas, oreos, brownies, oreos, chai, marshmallows, snickers, peppermint, and/or twix... not all in one though of course, but you get the point.

Also, when we went they had specials based off of superheroes and holy crap were those amazing and I WAS SO HAPPY BECAUSE THERE WAS A BATMAN THEMED SHAKE AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.... Even if it wasn't my type of milkshake I most likely would have forced myself to like the shake because it was a Batman milkshake but that's besides the point. - It was banana, chocolate syrup, and Oreo cookies by the way so you can totally make it at home and feel just like Bruce Wayne when he orders Alfred to make some shakes for him.

But this was all a while ago, and actually a few days ago I told my friends about this place and we decided to recreate some of these milkshakes.  We didn't look up the actual milkshakes but we ran over to Target and followed our hungry stomachs to whatever we wanted.  We bought some vanilla ice cream, Twix, peppermint patties, chocolate syrup, and unfortunately lactose-free milk because my friend is lactose intolerant but hey they were still good.

[Hard at Work]

The milkshakes were great and we only got a little bit of the concoction on the ceiling (not joking) and we may have made a mess on the kitchen counter but it was awesome.  So whether you're still at home, at college, or just plain hungry, I recommend you get your blender and mix in whatever you want and I promise you will not regret it.

.