Matcha Man Ice Cream and Taiyaki Black sesame taiyaki ice cream: This taiyaki ice cream shop in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood is the first to serve taiyaki in Seattle and proved popular on a Saturday evening, taking about 25 min from line to ice-cream in hand. They feature classic flavors like matcha and black sesame as well as Thai iced tea and dole whip. Being a big black sesame fan, I had to go for the classic in a fish-shaped waffle cone. The waffle is more western than taiyaki you would get in Japan, which is very crispy. This one instead was mor... (read more) 3.0/5.0
icecream blacksesame seattle matchamanicecreamandtaiyaki black sesame taiyaki ice cream 3.0
Yes! Chips! sweet potato and black sesame chips: Slightly styrofoam texture, faintly tastes of sweet potato but predominantly of honey, traces of black sesame. 2.5/5.0
yeschips sweet potato black sesame chips 2.5
Hongluo honey twist cookies: From Beijing, these wheat cookies have a sticky glaze and a spare scattering of sesame seeds. They're packaged individually and come in a pleasantly ornate twisted shape. Unfortunately, I found the cookie to be dense yet oddly chewy on the exterior, probably due to the glaze. Overall, they were too sweet for my taste. 2.5/5.0
hongluo chinese cookies sesame honey 2.5 twist
Paris Baguette pumpkin and black sesame bread: Thickly cut bread with a hard, bitter crust full of burnt flavor. Bread itself is faintly sweet and very soft, but pumpkin flavor is difficult to discern. Studded with black sesame, which doesn't actually add anything to the taste. 2.0/5.0
bread parisbaguette pumpkin black sesame 2.0
I Mei sesame cream wafers: I was excited to find a black sesame flavored snack, but these wafers are unfortunately lacking. The wafer texture and flavor is not unlike a typical ice cream cone (styrofoam-like), and there is only a small amount of cream. The snack would benefit from more cream and sesame flavor and a little more sweetness (there is 4g sugar in one serving). 2.0/5.0
imei taiwanese wafer blacksesame sesame avoid sweets asian cream wafers 2.0
Golden Gate Bakery Sesame Ball: A dim sum classic, fried glutinous rice balls filled with red bean and tossed in toasted sesame seeds are a rare treat often worth the calories. Instead of choosing the default eggtart at San Francisco Chinatown’s Golden Gate Bakery, I selected their take on the sesame ball, seemingly transmogrified to twice its normal size. Barely fitting in my palm, the ball still had the same thin glutinous rice shell you expect but with double the amount of red bean paste inside. As the red bean paste is... (read more) 2.0/5.0
redbean glutinous chinese sanfrancisco goldengatebakery sesame ball 2.0