It’s cute inside and has tables to sit at (as well as outside) and there’s a big case of ice cream to choose from. It feels very neighborhoody and friendly. I got old trusty mint chocolate chip, my favorite flavor of all! It was good, green, and minty. This ice cream has the fresh minty flavor that you usually find in the white mint chocolate chip flavors… usually the green mint chocolate chip has a more subdued warmer mint flavor than the sharpness of fresh mint flavor, if you know what I mean.

Double Rainbow
860 4th St
San Rafael, CA 94901
website

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Tara’s Organic Ice Cream is a little ice cream shop on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland (next to Burma Superstar). We stopped by for a cone after lunch.

It’s very small inside…

Here’s the ice cream selection.

I ordered white pepper chocolate chip.  Originally I ordered it in a cup but then I saw the waffle cones… the SESAME waffle cone.

Here’s my cone! As you can see, my cone is pretty well-done…

White pepper and chocolate chips aren’t really two things I would ever consider putting together, but for some really weird reason these flavors work together. I’m not a pepper person. I don’t add pepper to my food and I rarely eat anything that is peppery.  The first lick of this ice cream was very strong. The flavor is white pepper but it was just as strong if not stronger than any black pepper I’ve ever had. Imagine putting a frozen spoon full of pepper into your mouth and then toss in a chocolate chip. Cold and peppery with sprinkle of chocolate.

So much pepper… in a way I was just eating it so I could get to the chocolate chips… it hard for me to finish but I did all the way down to the last bite of cone. It was interesting to say the least. Who can toss an ice cream cone? Not me.

There’s a lot of art hanging on the wall.

Tara’s Organic Ice Cream
4731 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.tarasorganic.com

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I stopped by after dinner with a friend so it was dark out… here’s what the outside looks like.

Some shots of the inside… as you can see, it’s bright and happy.

Here’s the main ice cream freezer.  If you decide to forego looking at the main menu on the wall, make sure you note which flavors are marked with a (V) in the case because those are VEGAN, and they’re made with NUT MILK.

Here’s the main wall that lists all of the flavors. Again, pay attention to which flavors are marked with a (V), because those are vegan.

I’m not a vegan, but I’m not opposed to trying vegan things. I think if you’re a vegan you definitely lose your taste for non-vegan things and acquire a specific taste for vegan things, so for vegans, these flavors are probably very delicious, but for a non-vegan like myself, I just can’t do it.  The first time I visited Curbside I accidentally ordered a vegan flavor (peanut butter) and didn’t realize it at the time, until I tasted it, and something was just not right… just a little weird, like, not creamy and rich, but a strange bland weird non-dairy flavor. Then I realized I ordered the vegan flavor, and everything made sense.

My regular flavor here (and everywhere) is mint chocolate chip. Hard to go wrong with a good mint chocolate chip, and this one definitely does not disappoint. It’s minty – the fresh kind of minty, and the chocolate chips are very small (shaved). It’s really good!

I like how they serve sugar cones too, classic!

Curbside Creamery
482 49th St, Oakland, CA 94609 (Temescal Alley)
www.curbsideoakland.com

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When I finally opened my eyes, we were in Rita’s! OMG, dreams do come true! A Rita’s in California (Castro Valley, to be exact)! I couldn’t believe it, I think I cried.

I remember when the first Rita’s came to the Lehigh Valley, PA a looong time ago. It’s always been one of my favorite reasons to go home to visit during the summer, since it’s only open during the summer months.

If you don’t know Rita’s it’s an Italian ice place that serves italian ice, frozen custard and blended ice/custard drinks. It is so good! My favorite thing to order is a lemon and chocolate gelati – which is frozen custard layered with italian ice.

This is exactly what I saw when I opened my eyes…

Yay Rita’s in Castro Valley!

Here’s the freezer…

Vanilla custard cone with rainbow sprinkles.

And here’s mine! It’s a Florida orange and chocolate gelati.  I usually get lemon and chocolate, but they didn’t have lemon (which kind of blew my mind, ugh!). The orange was really good but I still like lemon best…

If you’ve never had custard before, it’s a little lighter and denser than traditional ice cream. It’s sooooo good!

I’m so happy that Rita’s is only 20 minutes away, it’s really weird to have it out west because it’s my east coast nostalgia but it’s so awesome and I’m so happy!

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If you haven’t been to Homeroom yet, it is a mac and cheese restaurant. It’s really good and you should definitely go!

Here’s the outside. There’s usually a line, even on really hot days. I’m always surprised because it can be in the 70s and sweltering hot, yet people are still waiting around to stuff their gullets with creamy mac n cheese… I don’t get it, but whatever lol!

I start off with an iced tea. It’s house-brewed and has a floral essence to it… really good.

Ahhhhh the TRAILER MAC, my FAVORITE. Mac and Cheese mixed with hot dogs and topped with a generous handful of potato chips. BEST. In the spirit of my fat kid soul, I usually start inhaling this by the forkful – a few chews, but mostly so good I end up swallowing it whole before the heat wears off. I don’t suggest doing this – if you can, try to slow down and enjoy it.

OMG, the homemade oreo cookie. I don’t usually crave baked goods, but this cookie is too good to be true! It is NOT a cookie for sharing, get one of your own!

Homeroom Oakland
400 40th St
Oakland, CA 94609

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Inside you’ll find an ice cream counter to the right and and desserts straight a head full of pies and cakes. I couldn’t decide what to get so I went for something totally different and ordered an affogato.

See all the old nostalgic toys in the back on the shelves and on the wall? They’re all for sale if you’re looking for some fun vintage goodies.

Cool old rocket gumball machine.

A fun pony!

Here’s my affogato. It was really tasty. We sat in a really cute little booth against the wall which I forgot to take photo of.

If I lived in this neighborhood I could see myself hanging out at this place regularly. It was nice, simple, colorful, not pretentious at all and had really friendly employees. I even got a chance to chat with the owner (whose shirt matched the green walls perfectly) about pizza and eating in general.  Really nice guy!! (Hi if you’re reading this)

Toy Boat Dessert Cafe
401 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118

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I went to Humphry Slocombe again last night, my 2nd time in the past week. Talked some friends into going there who had only a “so-so” first experience. I had to help change their minds!

long story short…

for the love of freaking freakshow, go there NOW and get the red hot banana ice cream!! It is seriously one of the best flavors i have ever had in my entire life.

I’m not normally a banana person. Sometimes I eat bananas, but I’m not bananas for bananas if you know what I mean… but I thought to myself, “hey, since I’m here again I should try something different.”

Well let me tell you, because the photo below does not even begin to tell you how amazing it is… if you like banana, the ice cream is banana flavored. It’s not yellow, it’s kind of an off white color so it doesn’t really look like banana, but it is sweet and creamy and super banana-y! And the red and pink specks… well, those are RED HOTS smashed up and stirred around in the ice cream. So you take a sweet lick of banana, then get a nice little cinnamon kick of red hots, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a crunchy glob of hot cinnamon bits!

Holy crapola, I need to get back to Humphry Slocombe again this week before they run out of this flavor…

I really wasn’t expecting to have my mind completely blown into a billion red hot pieces… I’m still thinking about this ice cream and plotting another trip back there ASAP!

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110
website

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I usually only get over to Humphry Slocombe every few months or when my sister is visiting… haven’t been there in a while. It was awesome because I arrived around 2:30pm and there was NO ONE there. Ahhh the lucky off-hour… nothing better than having the whole freakin place to myself!

I peeped into the ice cream fridge scanning around for the watermelon sorbet… IT WASN’T THERE, ugh! So I tasted and then ordered a delicious cup of Bluebottle Vietnamese Coffee.

Since the place was empty and I was there to fryhole, I started taking some photos… and before I sat down to eat my ice cream I asked the guy when they would have the watermelon sorbet again – and he said they were out of it… ugh! Super disappointed… I came to late and it sold out!

THEN… a guy appeared in the back holding a white tub and said “you want watermelon?” OMG! He had a secret extra tub of it! Holy crapola, it was my lucky day!! So I bought a cup of that too, hehe.

It took me about a half hour to eat both cups of ice cream. The Vietnamese coffee was AMAZING. I would definitely get that again – super smooth, sweet, and just a hint of coffee flavor, not overpowering like some other coffee ice creams out there. Definitely had that condensed milk sweetness that Vietnamese coffee has… super creamy and freaking awesome.

The salted watermelon sorbet was definitely worth it!! It tasted exactly like the watermelon from the salad I make every summer with watermelon, feta, mint and sea salt. OMG. It was crumbling everywhere because it was extra frozen so I kind of made a big mess all over the counter… but I ate the whole cup and boy did I have a huge brain freeze when I was finished with both cups.

If you haven’t gone yet, GO. And if you want to avoid lines, go between 2-3pm.

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110
website

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The cupcake is so moist and flavorful – its so moist that it almost has that dense consistency of flourless cake.. oh, it’s just amazing!  Since it is a sour cream cupcake, the chocolate is rich but it has a very subtle hint of the sour cream which I think is what makes it so moise and awesome…

If you haven’t been to Teacake, GO NOW!! I will defnitely be blogging more items from this yummy bakery, I just love it (and I think you will too)!  In this case, I think I’m safe to say that the photo speaks louder than words…

Teacake Bake Shop
5615 Bay St
(at Shellmound St)
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 655-0865
www.teacakebakeshop.com

The post Teacake Bakery: Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcake w/Choc. Buttercream appeared first on Fryhole.

So on this particular day, we were in Teacake (it was around xmas time) and they had the Chocolate Mint cupcake. This is a seasonal flavor, so you can’t really get it so often.  Notice the mountain of icing sprinkled with baby chocolate chips!  Most of the icings at Teacake are cream cheese/butter cream… just an fyi = amazing.

I’ve had most if not all of the different flavors of cupcakes at Teacake and I will get around to blogging about all of them.  This particular cupcake was good.  It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad.  The reason I am not giving it a rave review is because it was kind of dry.  I think they bake most of their cupcakes in the morning/early afternoon… and we stopped by on this visit in the evening.  The cupcake was not moist anymore… the edges were dry and crumbly and it just didn’t have the sweet moistness that Teacake cupcakes usually have.  I’m not going to completely knock it though, as the icing and mini chocolate chips saved the day, and I ended up eating that instead of the cake.

Teacake Bake Shop
5615 Bay St
(at Shellmound St)
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 655-0865
www.teacakebakeshop.com

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