Check out our other stuff: Yummy Chow | Photo Hutch | Home
Gutenberg's favorite blogs:
|
Check out our other stuff: Yummy Chow | Photo Hutch | Home |
 |
|||||
|
ABOUT ME: Name: Gutenberg Location: Somewhere near the Golden Gate Bridge. Occupation: BRPR (Bunrab public relations.) |
the
BUNRAB blog spot
|
||||
|
Do you need to answer back? You can send me comments if you want to. If I want to, I'll post 'em in this very blog. -Gutenberg |
|||||
 |
|||||
September 1-7, 2007
|
| Friday, September 7, 2007 permalink
... today. Don’t be confused by the name, it’s not a place to grab a chai frappuccino to wash down a Black Forest ham sandwich, the eats are strictly their factory output and the drinks are hot chocolate (either bittersweet or caramelized cinnamon.) They are changing the name of their café to a “chocolate bar”so that there won’t be so many confused visitors expecting a Starbucks-ified experience. We were a little disoriented when we entered since we didn’t know the drill, but you order at this choco-stand:
... pay and take your goods to the long room off to the side. There are plans to expand their seating:
... but in the meanwhile you will find a long counter with tall stools that face the factory floor:
...where you can witness the fabrication of the perfect little chocolate jewels that you are savoring. Keep in mind that they break for lunch and that the café is open after the oompahs loomah out the door, so if you want the full-on treatment, come during their factory hairnet-based activity hours. For our flight of six chocolates ($9.00):
... we chose a A) Yankee blood orange, B) espresso caramel, C) bittersweet fleur de sel, D) Meyer lemon Yankee, E) mojito heart and an F) Earl Grey truffle. All of these were delish, with unique flavors and perfect textures, but if you suffer from decision paralysis, just go with their predetermined flight of the month. A hot chocolate:
... comes with this flight and I chose the bittersweet. Chubby got the caramelized cinnamon hot chocolate ($2.00) the initial sips of both felt a touch grainy in texture, but as we kept going, they both tasted smoother and rich enough that these diminutive cups needed no encore. Our well tempered treats were all the high quality chocolates:
... from Charles Siegel that we have always enjoyed. We avoided ordering some of our favorites (from the Teance collection) in order to try some new items. They plan to get an espresso machine in a couple of weeks (yea!) but in the meanwhile, you can take advantage of their happy hour (4-7 p.m. daily) and you’ll get 2 hot chocolates for the price of one. If you like to set up your own personal office by plugging in your laptop in a public space for hours on end, cross the street and you’ll find a Starbucks. There are no electrical outlets or WiFi for those seeking squatters’ rights in this hunk of Emeryville real estate. It’s also a great place for extremely well behaved or sedated kids, so if your shorties are rambunctious, homicidal maniacs, you might prefer the Jelly Belly Factory tour. Charles Chocolates has factory tour info on their website if you are a serious pod person.
|
| Thursday, September 6, 2007 permalink
When David Lebovitz posted a sugar-free ice cream recipe, I thought that more than a dessert had frozen over. Turns out that he didn’t created a new Jenny Craig mass marketed dessert for Kirstie to push; it is actually a chocolate ice cream that uses cactus goo instead of sugar. “Agave nectar” sounds even more familiar when you drop off the second word and think about your last margarita. We picked up some organic agave nectar:
... at Whole Foods and gave David’s recipe a whirl:
We used his one pan method (rather than dirtying a bunch of dishes) and topped our churned reward with a few Maldon salt flakes. Delish:
Thanks for the bunrab email in support of bloggers after our smackdown, as well as the comment on the shared Taylor’s Automatic salad container frustrations.
|
| Wednesday, September 5, 2007 permalink
Refresher off-course Taylor’s was way too crowed today to be an Automatic Refresher:
It wasn’t that it was packed with tourists, it was mostly local workers grabbing lunch in this noisy Ferry Building eatery. They have always had those chain restaurant, electronic customer surveillance devices, but they now have one that looks as though it can double as a taser:
It even displays advertising for a credit card which seems strange since they give you the device after you pay (rather than the credit card advertising on the check sleeves at restaurants that indicate what card they want you to insert into their plastic pouch.) In the past, we have had some decent chow here, but today’s salad felt a little airporty.
The plastic, lidded bowl was not only impersonal - it was impervious. We worried that we would give this leafy bowl an accidental extra toss as we wrestled with opening this child safe, non-narcotic. A lady at a neighboring table had to ask her gentleman companion to utilize his superior upper body strength to open her veggie lock box. They really should offer them lidless for those eating on site. The Cobb salad ($9.99) had sad, green tinged, hard boiled egg slices on top:
The sight of overcooked eggs makes my heart sink because it shows a lack of care. Organic lettuces, blue cheese, chicken breast, bacon and avocado were all okay, but I wish that the cherry tomatoes weren’t refrigerated which took away some of their flavor. The fish tacos ($9.99):
... were filled with overcooked Mahi, Mahi bits, slaw, sour cream and salsa. I liked the lime juice tang but not enough divert my attention from the deflavorized double named fish. Perhaps we were unlucky on our last couple of visits, but it appears that there are items with which we have had greater success. The cheeseburger and sweet potato fries have been safer selections than veering off the refreshing track (like we did today.) Taylor’s Automatic Refresher
|
| Tuesday, September 4, 2007 permalink
I am convinced that the Custom Burger Lounge is a front for a covert and elaborate psychological study. A beef-haviorist research grant was approved to correlate the relationship between the privately written culinary selections of a subject and the observable process of their public interaction upon its receipt.
Step one of this experiment was filling out individual cards with our meat, cheese, topping and saucing preferences. |
