Tea-Do Philly

132 N 10th St.

Philadelphia, PA 19107

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I went to Tea-Do in their small Chinatown area. 

I ordered: Honey Jasmine Green Tea with Aloe

• Taste: light sweetness and a nice jasmine flavor
• Aloe: nice aloe pieces, but some were too big to fit in the straw
• Price: $3.50 for 16 oz. 

There is a nice dragon mural outside and there is quite a lot of seating inside. My drink was very good. It was refreshing and I liked the lightness of the aloe. I tried my friend's taro milk tea, but it was not that good. It was too watery. So the drinks here may be hit or miss. I'm also not sure how Tea-Do compares to other places in Philly.

3.5 out of 5 Bubbles

Cooking with Boba Panda: Seafood Stew

This is my version of a seafood stew or bouillabaisse  It isn't a traditional bouillabaisse, which calls for fennel and rouille, but it is still delicious.

Ingredients:

• 2-2.5 lbs of seafood, whatever you prefer
• olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• pinch of saffron
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 cups tomato puree or fresh chopped tomatoes 
• 1 cup fish stock
• salt, pepper, and sugar to taste
• handfull of basil leaves
• lemon optional

I used shrimp, squid, and two types of fish. Clams, mussels, or even crab would be delicious.

prepared seafood

The ingredients

Tip: to save extra fresh herbs, you can chop them up and put individual servings in ice cube trays. Just add water, freeze, then store the cubes in a freezer bag. Then you can just throw the herb ice cube into whatever your cooking. You can see my thyme ice cube in the picture above.

Also you can use a store bought fish stock, but I made a simple shrimp stock using the heads and shells of my cleaned shrimp. I just added water and some seasonings.

cooking shrimp stock

1. add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a pot, saute the onion until almost translucent. Add garlic, bay leaf, thyme, and saffron. Saute until garlic in fragrant and season with salt and pepper.

sauteing garlic and onions

2. add white wine and cook until slightly reduced. Add tomato puree and simmer for 15 minutes. Add fish stock and season with salt and pepper. Add sugar if the tomatoes are too acidic, this also brings out the flavor of the tomato.

sauce coming together

3. begin adding the seafood, starting with the types that take longer to cook. I began with the fish. Cook with lid on until fish pieces are opaque and firm. Next, add shrimp. When they turn orange add the squid and cook for only a minute or two more.

Adding seafood

Everything is done

4. Tear up some basil leaves and garnish the stew. You can cut some lemon wedges if you like that too.

I would recommend serving the stew with some bread or even better some garlic croutons. You can make your own croutons by tossing bread chunks with crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper then baking then until toasty. 

Garlic croutons

Enjoy!

Happy Kitchen Time

While at Nijiya market on University Ave in Honolulu, I found the Decorate your Cake Happy Kitchen set.  Happy Kitchen is just like Popin' Cookin', but it has a different name.

The box

The bag inside

The contents of the bag

I already cut up the white plastic piece to get the water measure and molds.

Mixing the cake batter

The cakes after they were cooked in the microwave

Mixing up the jelly candy decorations and putting them in the molds

I stacked the cakes and mixed the white frosting

The iced cake

I mixed the pink icing and put it in the piping bag

I've iced the cake, now I need to take out the candies

I placed the candies

Continue decorating 

The finished product 

 Looks pretty close to the box picture 

Time to enjoy!

I had fun making my cake. The kit cost about $5.00 at Nijiya, I think it was worth it. It tasted pretty good too. The cake was like a light sponge cake, not too sweet.

Thang Bubble Tea

In the courtyard of Mauna Kea Marketplace in Honolulu's Chinatown lies Thang Coffee & Bubble Tea.

Thang specializes in real fruit bubble tea smoothies, specifically in tropical fruit flavors. You can find common fruit flavors such as banana, honeydew,or mango. You can also find more exotic fruit flavors like sour sop, chico, and durian.

I wanted to get sour sop, but it wasn't in season. I got papaya instead.

• Taste: the flavor of fresh ripe papaya is unsurpassed
• Boba: sweet taste, but a little too soft
• Price: A massive 24 oz. was only $3.50

You have to go to Thang if you want the largest selection of real fruit flavors. In fact, you can't really find some of the more exotic flavors anywhere else. Additionally, their price to size ratio is hard to beat. You will easily get your money's worth.

4.5 out of 5 bubbles, it would have been a 5 if their boba was not too soft.

Bubbly Tea

55B Bayard St.
New York, NY 10013
http://www.mybubblytea.com

I tried a new boba place in NYC's Chinatown. Bubbly Tea is just a few storefronts down from my favorite boba place, Vivi.

I ordered: Passion Mango Kumquat Green Tea with Pop Boba

• Taste: very refreshing, fruity & citrusy
• Boba: they pop in your mouth with a yummy yogurt juice inside
• Price: small (16 oz.) $2.75

My Drink

In a neighborhood where there is so much competition, Bubbly Tea is doing its best to standout. They offer many unique offerings that I haven't seen in other boba shops. They have milk tea, fruit tea, slush, hot tea, creamy foam drinks, and bubbly tea drinks. They also offer toppings like pop boba and basil seeds.

Menu

Bubbly Tea also has seasonal real fruit slushes. This is one of the only places I have found that offer real fruit slush bobas. There is a real lack of these in this city.

Their regular price for small drinks is $2.75 which is some of the cheapest best bubble tea in the city. But Bubbly also offers a stamp card where you get a free drink after you buy six. Additionally, on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a $0.99 milk black tea boba special from 11:00 am - 7:00 pm. 

I'll definitely be coming back to try more of their unique options and seasonal real fruit slush.

4.5 out of 5 bubbles

A Delicious Sunday

This Sunday I had an excellent culinary adventure. I started off the day by going to Luke's Lobster Shack.

They have several locations in NYC and I went to the one on the Upper East Side at 242 E. 81st near 2nd Avenue.

This place has a very casual New England maritime style interior. They specialize in typical Maine cuisine of lobster, shrimp, and crab rolls. They also serve Maine Roots Sodas and various Maine microbrews.

Me and my BF got the Noah's Ark for $38

this includes:
2 half lobster rolls
2 half crab rolls
2 half shrimp rolls
2 Maine sodas
2 chips
2 pickles

mostly eaten shrimp roll, lobster roll, crab roll

Each roll is packed with seafood. Only a little bit of mayo, lemon butter, and special spices are added. The roll is also nicely toasted and it compliments the seafood nicely.

My favorite was the crab roll. I think it had the best flavor of all the seafood options.

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Then later in the day we went to Torishin, a Japanese yakitori place at 1193 1st Avenue (bt. 64th & 65th St.)

This has been one of the best meals I've had in the city so far. Torishin has one Michelin star and has been recommended by the Michelin guide for three years. I think this is the first restaurant I have ever tried with this rating and I wasn't disappointed.

We each got the Omakase which is the chef's tasting menu. It is a bit pricey at $55 per person but it is so worth it for a special occasion. I left absolutely stuffed. Everything was delicious.

here is what it includes:

The chef picks the types of meat and veggies so you aren't sure what you'll get exactly.

It was kinda dark in Torishin, so the photo quality isn't very good. Here are some things we ate:

My view of all the skewers

Simmered Shrimp, daikon, and tomato sauce appetizer

Chicken heart and Gizzard  

Special chickem meatball with egg yolk and shoyu dip

mid meal break of radish, quail egg, fish roe, wakame

asparagus and chicken

my rice dish of ume ochazuke

Out of everything I had, I think my favorite yakitori was the chicken hearts. They were tender and had a more robust meaty flavor than other parts of the chicken. I also really like the chicken meatball, and something called a chicken oyster which is part of the thigh. I also really liked the mid meal dish. It had the texture of natto, which my BF wasn't very fond of, but I loved it. I only wish I had more money so I could eat like this every day.

Teado

145 Hester St.
(b/t Chrystie & Bowery)
New York, NY 10002

This tiny shop in NYC's Chinatown is far from the busy touristy areas of the neighborhood. Teado is a cute shop with a great bubble tea menu, delicious onigiri, and thick toast.

Teado counter

They have a great drink menu with milk tea boba, ice slush, traditional tea, and fruity juices.

I ordered: passion fruit slush

• Taste: not the best passion fruit flavor, a bit too artificial
• Boba: Taiwanese style which are smaller than the average boba. Nice soft texture.
• Price: Teado's only size 16oz for $3.25

Passion Fruit Slush

While this wasn't the best passion fruit slush I've ever had, I still really like how you are able to customize your boba. First you can select from Earl Grey, Osmanthus Oolong, Jasmine Oolong, and Jasmine green teas. You can ask for a stronger or lighter tea flavor, less or more ice, and you can choose your level of sweetness. I definitely recommend Teado for those who like a specific taste for their boba.

I also tried Teado's Onigiri. They are made fresh and come in four flavors. The onigiri were warm, fresh, and delicious, but you only get 3 small pieces for $3.25. I thought this was a little expensive for onigiri, but I guess their cheap bubble tea makes up for it.

Onigiri

4 out of 5 Bubbles