On my 22nd birthday, I paid a visit to Little Tokyo’s newest addition Midori Matcha.
ice cream
A Valley Kid’s Guide to: Dessert
First off, I’d like to formally apologize for neglecting this blog as long as I did BUT here’s a sweet treat for you all. I mentioned before that I wanted to do a sort of Valley Kid’s Guide series pertaining to where you can get certain types of food in the San Fernando Valley. This is meant for those who still want to go out with friends but don’t want to drive too far 🙂
IT’S SO FLUFFY
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These fluffy desserts can be found at CottonHi in Koreatown. Located on 6th Street, in the midst of a Korean plaza, you can find this adorable treat.
Good-Zooky
God bless, Chelo Creamery. This wonderful creation was concocted by a new creamery out in Rowland Heights. Each Chelo Roll creation is around $6.50. This one is called the Good-Zooky, consisting of green tea matcha, red bean, and mochi. There are a variety of other flavors, one of which I want to try next time that’s made up of Dragonfruit, Jackfruit, and Chia Seeds; another that is strawberry and cheesecake; and another that is chocolate and oreos!
What sets Chelo apart is that the ice cream is formed into rolls. To make said rolls, they use a liquid form of the ice cream flavor and pour it onto a frozen coldstone. And you can watch this video to watch the magic that is Chelo ice cream (I really thought I could import the video but I was wrong LOL).
The consistency is super creamy and doesn’t melt as fast as you would assume it does. I’ll definitely be back to try more of the flavors 🙂
Can you keep a (Coldstone) secret?
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If you guys follow me on snapchat, you already know that I’ve been working at Coldstone Creamery for quite a while–and in my time there, I’ve learned about and concocted a few delicious signature creations not on the official menu. So really… you’re welcome 😉
ice cream is my religion.
Literally. I’m gonna have to break the news to my mom soon, telling her I’m converting from Catholicism… haha, I’m kidding (not really).
Afters ice cream located in Chino Hills was the victim of one of my past ice cream rendezvous. Afters is widely popular on Instagram due to the exposure it’s gotten from many fashion bloggers and professional foodies, but that doesn’t mean it falls short of quality because of all the hype.
Afters ice cream is the original creator of the milky bun–ice cream inside a glazed donut that I hear tastes just like a Krispy Kreme donut! While I did not have the appetite large enough to try one of those bad boys, when they open their new location in Rowland Heights, YOU BET I’LL BE THERE TO TRY IT. When I visited, I got the Jasmine milk tea (pictured) and the Cookie Butter scoop beneath that one. But honestly, all the flavors were so good, I would’ve gotten a scoop of each to-go if it didn’t make me look like such a fattie. Katrina got the Cookie Monster, which was also really good and very ~aesthetic~. Another very popular flavor is the Milk and Cereal. But really… I’m so set on getting that milky bun next time.
Courtesy of @katrinaolivia’s Instagram.
While yes, I got a double scoop, that only cost me about $6– a single scoop only costing $3.50. For an ice cream connoisseur like myself, that’s a totally reasonable price (I’ve paid $7 for one scoop at Creamistry…). The employees working there were totally patient even though the line was way out the door, and I wanted to sample like literally every flavor.
And another little plus… the Holy Trinity was working… aka… the three guys working the scooping area were so damn cute ok bye with my thirsty ass BYE
*P.S. When the Rowland Heights location opens, that’ll be the closest to all us SFV inhabitants 🙂
more nitrogen ice cream!!!
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For someone who claims to be lactose intolerant, I sure do eat a lot of ice cream (￣。￣)～ｚｚｚAnywhooooo, these lovely creations are from another liquid nitrogen ice cream parlor called Ice Cream Lab. Fortunately there are many different locations! They have locations in Pasadena, Beverly Hills, and in Little Tokyo.
On the left, I purchased the Blue Velvet ice cream which is essentially vanilla bean ice cream with chunks of blue velvet cupcake and cream cheese topping mixed into it. On the right, I purchased the salted caramel which had bits of pretzel and salted caramel mixed in, with a pretzel to top it off. Both were suuuuper creamy since it was made with cream (how redundant…) and the liquid nitrogen. I don’t know what it is, but I’m just not the same after trying liquid nitrogen-made ice cream. The texture is just to die for, ugh.
The sizes I got are considered a medium and they really do pack it in, so if you’re coming on a full stomach and you want to try it, I recommend sharing with someone. It’s so rich that you might get full faster, but it’s definitely one of my favorite places to get ice cream… next to Creamistry, of course.
So there were three twins– wait what?
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Another ice cream post, because frankly, you can never have enough ice cream. I had never really heard about Three Twins Ice Cream before, but Diane and I had made plans to hang out… but with no secure destination in mind. With my handy-dandy friend, Yelp, we found this place. Located on Main Street in Santa Monica, Three Twins is smack dab in the middle of the block, but no worries there was lots of street parking when we went (but we went in the middle of the day, mind you).
Three Twins is famous for their Lemon Cookie ice cream and I was super excited to try it but they were unfortunately out. We both settled on a raspberry sorbet… which says a lot because you’ll never find me getting a sorbet. I got my scoop in a funfetti cone (literally like those funfetti cupcakes we all used to make in middle school) and it was actually so good. I do plan on returning sometime soon to try the Lemon Cookie though!
For those aesthetic/mural Instagrammers, this super cool Buddha mural is located directly across the street on the side of an acupuncture/massage parlor. The mural is literally in the midst of a parking lot, so you may get a few weird looks– but if it’s for the ‘gram, who cares?! After you’ve snapped your pics, take a stroll down Main St., it’s super chill and you’ll rub elbows with a few scurrying businessman, but for the most part, it’s another quick ice cream run~
konnichiwa ≧◡≦
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Little Tokyo, located in downtown LA, has become one of my favorite places to bring friends when we’re in the mood for some bomb green tea ice cream and freshly made mochi. While I mostly go for the green tea ice cream and mochi, there’s a bunch of other attractions here. There’s great ramen, the Japanese American National Museum, and a cool thrift shop located on the back side of Little Tokyo.
Little Tokyo is literally one block of all things Japanese. It’s not as big as Chinatown or Koreatown but I think the quaint plaza is just enough. The Japanese American National Museum is super interesting and you can even get in free on every third Thursday of each month. Outside, there’s this super cool, mirrored Rubix cube– great for some not-so-basic mirror selfies. My friend loves going to Mr. Ramen but I have yet to try it myself!
Not to mention, they have those amazingly delicious green tea Kit Kats, so why not?!
There is now a parking structure to park in, rather than parking in those $8 flat rate lots even though you’ll be in Little Tokyo for a max of 2 hours. You can always try to find parking on the street, but it’s often pretty busy and you don’t want to worry about your meter running out. The ice cream shop and other restaurants in the Little Tokyo plaza will validate your parking structure ticket for you too, so no worries!
It’s definitely a fun little adventure away from the typical Urth Caffe or Americana/the Grove outing~
#TotalFoodieMove 