Bake Cheese Tart Original Cheese Tart: While walking through Tokyo station, I came across this small shop with a sizeable, but not intimidatingly-so, line and the aroma of baked goods. They specialize in cheese tarts, some flavored with chocolate or seasonally with strawberry, but I went for the original, which is a little smaller than a typical Portguese / Chinese egg tart. The pastry base is twice baked, and the interior is largely cream cheese that has a baked browned crust of brueleed cheese. The texture of the cheese unde... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Utopia Bagels Mini Everything Bagel with Lox Spread: I never once had a decent bagel when I lived in the Bay Area, so I'm relieved to now have an abundance of options back in NYC. One popular bagel shop I had yet to try was Utopia Bagels, located all the way in Whitestone Queens. Arriving at around 11:30am, the queue to order snaked around the entryway, and for a New York institution, the pace was extremely slow; from getting in line to leaving with food in-hand took about 45 minutes. Not being too hungry, I ordered their snackable mini bag... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Haitai honey cheese snack: This snack was an impulse buy solely based on the unique honey and cheese flavor; I honestly didn't look closely at what exactly it was, so I was surprised to find four individual snack packs containing biscuit sticks that resemble coating-less pocky or salt-less pretzel sticks. The sweet flavor has a distinct funky undertone, which, according to the ingredients list, may come from cream cheese. It had a dessert-like vibe but also a savory bite. It's actually fairly good and definitely a fla... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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