The Penny Ice Creamery Lemon Poppy Seed Ice Cream with Blackberry Compote: Waited in line for about 20 minutes to enter this small ice cream shop in downtown Santa Cruz. Entire clientele was student-aged. They make all their ice cream in house, and they had some interesting flavors like celery and raisin sorbet (which I sampled but found did not taste as much of celery as I would like). I got a mini scoop of their lemon poppy seed ice cream with fresh made blackberry compote, which cost a little more than $4. You can tell from the texture of the ice cream that ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended pennyicecreamery santacruz icecream dessert thepennyicecreamery lemon poppy seed ice cream blackberry compote 3.5
Cheerio Melon Cream Soda: Got this bottle from a 100 ¥ vending machine in Tokyo. The flavor is sort of like a fruit-equivalent of Mountain Dew in that the sugar and flavor concentration is shocking, but I actually kind of like it. It strikes a really good balance of fruity and creamy and does taste like (an extremely sweet) version of a fruit soda float. In that way, it's exactly as advertised. But I can't drink much of it in a single sitting because it's so sweet. 3.5/5.0
recommended drinks japanese vendingmachine cheerio melon cream soda 3.5
Tokyo Milk Cheese Strawberry Cream Puff: Catching up on some reviews I never wrote back when shops were still open. This is a cream puff shop right outside of the Akihabara train station in Tokyo. They have regular cream, chocolate, and strawberry flavored cream puffs, as well as some seasonal flavors. I purchased the strawberry one, and it was quite good - the pastry was flaky and dusted in powdered sugar, and the strawberry cream inside was smooth and pleasantly sweet. Definitely decent for a chain shop and a quick snack. 3.5/5.0
akihabara japanese desserts creampuff tokyomilkcheese strawberry cream puff 3.5
Koikeya Strong Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips: These chips taste like the Japanese version of Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion Chips except that the flavor is stronger on tangy sour cream taste, which I enjoy even more. I get the sense that Koikeya is sort of like the Frito Lay's of Japan, since their brands are everywhere and especially prominent in convenience stores. Overall, a familiar but comforting junk food flavor. 3.5/5.0
potatochips recommended Maruetsu japanese junkfood koikeya strong sour cream onion potato chips 3.5
Milk Bar Pie ice cream: Available at Whole Foods, this Milk Bar branded ice cream is strangely slightly smaller than a pint and tastes more like breakfast than pie, thanks to oat-like crumbles throughout. It’s very rich and sweet and reminds me of Friendly’s butter crunch, with a brown butter caramel flavor. The type of dessert you can enjoy a few scoops of before you realize it’s too rich to eat more — but those couple of scoops are pretty enjoyable. 3.5/5.0
recommended whole foods icecream milkbar pie ice cream 3.5