Petitpot Salted Caramel Pot De Creme: Since I found this jar in the yogurt aisle, I picked it up on sale expecting it was yogurt and only discovered that it was pudding when I got home. By now, I have a bit of an allergic reaction when I see "California cuisine" on packaging, which essentially translates to organic ingredients, high marketing / branding expenditures, and consequently high prices. But I am guilty of purchasing it, and I blame that on the cute mascot. The dessert itself is made of simple ingredients: milk, crea... (read more) 3.0/5.0
desserts pudding berkeleybowl petitpot salted caramel pot de creme 3.0
Rabbit Rabbit Tea Japanese buckwheat milk tea with almond pudding: A caffeine-free option at bubble tea shop Rabbit Rabbit Tea, located at the edge of Union Square. It tasted more of milk than buckwheat, but it did have a familiar Asian breakfast porridge vibe to it, reminiscent of powdered grain packs you mix with hot water. The tea was so so, but the almond pudding was quite good - it had a distinctly non-dairy-milk nutty quality and a soft, slick texture. Overall, though, I probably wouldn't come back to Rabbit Rabbit gven the quality of this drink alone. 3.0/5.0
drinks milktea nyc rabbitrabbittea japanese buckwheat milk tea almond pudding 3.0
Snow Brand Mango Pudding: The texture of this Japanese pudding is really something else - it's just set, so much lighter than American puddings and buckles a bit under the pressure of a normal-weight spoon. It's definitely the best store-bought pudding texture I've had, but I have a feeling as I try more things in Japan, that may change. The flavor of the pudding is very similar to Chinese mango-flavored gelatin cups, which is very sweet and kind of artificial tasting. I mostly like it because of the texture. 3.0/5.0
japanese snowbrand mango pudding 3.0
Morinaga Annin Tofu: Morinaga is a common Japanese brand that can be found in the supermarket for all sorts of things, probably most popularly in the US for their Japanese instant pancake mix. Recently I've been trying their pudding sets, which are overall decent and affordable. This was their version of almond jello (called annin tofu, though it doesn't contain tofu but just resembles it in its look), the type you get in asian restaurants with canned fruit or goji berries. It has a familiar concentrated almo... (read more) 3.0/5.0
inegaya pudding japanese almond morinaga annin tofu 3.0 dessert sweets
Kiki Bakery Baked Lucky Pudding: This Japanese-style cheesecake combines a milky pudding base, with a caramelized bottom, with a cheesecake top. Denser than expected, the cake nonetheless has a light eggy flavor. The combination of moist pudding with cake should combine the best of both worlds in theory, but here the pudding outshines the cake, which eats a bit dry. Purchased at a small Asian bakery called Kiki’s, with its own black cat mascot (a nod to the Ghibli film). 3.0/5.0
seattle cheesecake pudding kikibakery baked lucky 3.0
Wat Mongkolratanaram Khanom Krok: My first exposure to this Thai street food was at Wat Mongkolratanaram, a buddhist temple in Berkeley right around the corner from Berkeley Bowl. Every Sunday, they host an outdoor market serving a variety of dishes, including pad thai, thai iced tea, curry, and beef noodle soup (a non-vegetarian buddhist meal). Along with these entrees are two desserts: mango sticky rice and khanom krok, the latter of which is $6 for 8 pieces. Khanom krok are a mash up of pancakes and rice pudding served... (read more) 2.5/5.0
thai pudding coconut berkeley watmongkolratanaram khanom krok 2.5