Kimbo Sesame Bun: I no longer live close to an Asian grocery store, so on my last day with a rental car, I made a trip to Albany's Ranch 99 and stocked up on frozen asian foods, like dumplings and buns. There were many brands I recognized from my days reviewing frozen buns from Hmart, but I decided to take a risk and purchase one I hadn't seen before named Kimbo. Lucky enough, these Taiwanese buns turned out to be quite good. Steamed in my rice cooker, the bread is soft and fluffy and barely sweetened. Th... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended ranch99 taiwanese bao kimbo sesame bun 3.5
Pop Art Nori Sesame Popcorn: Sprinkled with bits of nori, this unique popcorn faithfully replicates the taste of seaweed strips in a Western form factor. With a minimal palate of ingredients, the product delivers a clear and distinct flavor. Texturally, they aren't the fluffiest or lightest popcorn I've had, but they are tasty and worth trying. 3.5/5.0
recommended popart nori sesame popcorn 3.5 berkeleybowl
Sul & Beans Black sesame bingsu: Different asian countries each have their unique take on shaved ice, though they all seem united by a combination of textures soft and chewy. Korea’s is bingsu, a dessert often topped with red bean, fruit, and condensed milk. I had my first experience trying bingsu today in Los Angeles’s Koreatown at a chain from Korea called Sul & Beans. My sister and I shared an enormous black sesame shaved ice (there is only one size), which was dusted with black sesame powder and topped with red bean, c... (read more) 3.5/5.0
desserts la shavedice sulbeans black sesame bingsu 3.5
Abide Monarch black sesame and matcha bubble tea with boba: In the 9 years I spent in Cambridge, we never had a dependable bubble tea shop. The short-lived bubble tea shop in Kendall was just ok, but since it was close to lab, I’d sometimes find myself there for quick meetings. Upon returning to Cambridge for mystery hunt, I visited a pop up boba shop at the Middlesex lounge with a diverse menu of tea and fruit drinks incorporating ingredients like peppercorn and cloves and with names like Binary and The Monarch. I ordered the latter, a hot milk tea ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
drinks bubbletea recommended cambridge abide monarch black sesame matcha bubble tea boba 3.5
Marukyo Black Sesame Funwariyaki Dorayaki: Dorayaki is a delicious filled pancake dessert from Japan that has no equivalent in American pastry (as far as I know). The closest likeness I can think of is the Whoopie Pie, though dorayaki has a bean paste filling rather than cream, and the ratio of cake to filling is slimmer. Berkeley Bowl sells an assortment of refrigerated cakes in their Asian grocery aisle, though I have normally been wary of these silica-packet-filled packaged snacks. I was intrigued, though, by this black sesame ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended berkeleybowl japanese blacksesame marukyo black sesame funwariyaki dorayaki 3.5
Churro Cone Charcoal black sesame churro ice cream: Like a pop-up version of Chikalicious's Dessert Club (now closed), this standing-room-only shop has a variety of ice cream flavors served in churro cones. The charcoal black sesame (legally referring only to the color rather than the additive, as that is no longer legal in NYC) contains shards of savory black sesame which pairs nicely with the creamy and sweet black sesame soft serve. The churro cone, purchased at the end of the day, was a bit dry and verging on stale, but I appreciated that... (read more) 3.5/5.0
dessert nyc ice cream blacksesame churrocone charcoal black sesame churro ice cream 3.5