I was ecstatic to participate in the Scharffen Berger Bakery Crawl recently. They took a group of about 30 food bloggers in a cable car trolley to 4 different bakeries in San Francisco. And it ended with a cooking demo by Top Chef Just Desserts winner, Yigit Pura!

The purpose of this event was to promote Elevate a Classic Dessert with Scharffen Berger Chocolate contest.

I didn’t want to go alone so I asked Joanne Boston of Taking Over the World One Bite at a Time to join me. And together we ate our way through San Francisco, one rich chocolate bite at a time!

We met up with other food bloggers at the Scharffen Berger shop at the Ferry Building Marketplace in SF’s Embarcadero. (BTW: If you want to get with the San Francisco lingo, never ever refer to it as “San Fran”. That means y0u aren’t from here! San Franciscans refer to San Francisco as “the city” or “SF”).

Then we loaded into a cable car trolley. Even though I have lived in San Francisco my entire life, I have never been on a cable car trolley. It’s a touristy thing to do. But I’ve secretly always wanted to.

The funny thing is every time we stopped, a tourist would try to board the cable car trolley! It was like that episode of The Office where Michael Scott was driving the Korean church van for the Michael Scott Paper Company. And every time they made a stop, a Korean lady would get in, thinking it was going to church.

Like I said, this cable car trolley is known to tourists as it’s a popular way to see the city.

On the Friday that we rode on the trolley bakery tour, it was fleet week and the Blue Angels were zooming around the city. It was fun to catch glimpses of them during our ride on a gorgeous day in San Francisco.

The bakery crawl destinations were Anthony’s Cookies, Citizen Cake, Kara’s Cupcakes, and Miette. Each bakery designed a special dessert using Scharffen Berger chocolate and we got to try it!

Anthony’s Cookies
1417 Valencia St.
www.anthonyscookies.com

The first stop was Anthony’s Cookies, which is located in the Mission on a street not near too many other businesses. Basically, if you go to that block, you’re there for his cookies.

This was my first time at Anthony’s Cookies so I was super excited to try his cookies.

His special dessert for the bakery crawl was a Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie with Walnuts using Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet baking chunks. OMG, it was amazing! When I bit into the freshly baked cookie, the chocolate was perfectly moist inside, like a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered. And the walnuts that I bit into with every bite, complimented the semisweet chocolate chunks.

Anthony prepared bags of cookies for us to take with us, one cookie in a bag. There were extra bags left so I quietly snuck more bags into the chocolate brown shopping bag that Scharffen Berger provided for us. Shhhh…. don’t tell anyone! When I went home, I savored every last cookie. I wish he would add this on his menu!

Minutes before we had to leave, I quickly bought half a dozen cookies – 3 toffee chips and 3 cookies and cream, as recommended by Joanne. After all, she frequents Anthony’s Cookies so much that Anthony knows her. She even had his cookies at her wedding.

Citizen Cake
2125 Fillmore Street
www.citizencake.com

Next, we piled back into the cable car trolley to go onto Citizen Cake on Fillmore. I had never been to Citizen Cake either but heard so much about it. I’m quite a bakery newb, aren’t I?

When we arrived on the busy Fillmore street, the bright red exterior caught my eye. This is just a hint of owner, Elizabeth Faulkner’s style.

Inside, we were greeted by the award winning chef, Elizabeth Faulkner, who was waiting for us in front of a neat display of masterly crafted cakes and desserts. Right above her was a bright neon sign with the words “Citizen Cake”. Yet, another hint of what was to come and I was unprepared for this!

She put on bright blue gloves to prepare for her demo of Chocolate Gelato Sundae with Chocolate Cake Crumbles and Marshmallow Cream. Elizabeth poured cream, chocolate, and other ingredients into an industrial mixer. And then…. she busted out a can of Nitrogen gas and pours it onto the mixture!

All I could see was smoke like dry ice filling the mixer. Who does that? Elizabeth Faulkner does! She explained how that was the old fashioned way of making gelato. Wow!

As you can imagine, this isn’t something you see every day so all of us food bloggers got our cameras out like the paparazzi and tried to capture this to share with you. This is how she makes ice cream. She loves the little details that go into making dessert.

It was a rich gelato made with Scharffen Berger 41% Extra Rich Milk Chocolate and 82% Extra Dark Chocolate, layered with chocolate cake crumbles made with unsweetened natural cocoa powder and topped with 70$ bittersweet chocolate sauce and made from scratch marshmallow cream. Decadent and heavenly are the only words to describe this special treat. She even threw in some chocolate nibs, which I loved.

Kara’s Cupcakes
Ghiradelli Square, 900 North Point
www.karascupcakes.com

For our third stop, we headed to Kara’s Cupcakes in Ghiradelli Square. Out of all these bakeries, Kara’s Cupcakes was the only one I’ve ever been to before and was familiar with.

The cable car trolley driver dropped us off in the wrong spot, but it was ok since Joanne and I have been here before. We quickly walked to the front of the pack to find the entrance to Ghiradelli Square. Kara was supposed to be there to greet us but sadly, she couldn’t make it. Boo!

We were greeted by an admin assistant who showed us the cupcakes. It was aptly named The Candybar, a chocolate cupcake made with Scharffen Berger Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder filled with caramel and topped with a milk chocolate peanut butter ganache frosting, sprinkled with sea salt.

I loved the peanut butter ganache frosting, a soft delicate way to feature peanut butter. The chocolate part of the cupcake wasn’t too sweet either and went well with the caramel filling and peanut butter ganache.

Miette
Ferry Building Marketplace, Shop 10
www.miette.com

At this point, we were an hour behind schedule so we had to rush back onto the trolley back to the Ferry Building to the last stop, Miette. Again, the owner wasn’t there to greet us, but it was probably because we were late. But they gave us a cute box with a Scharffen Berger Triple Chocolate Cream Cake.

It was a very substantial layer cake made with Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder, 70% Bittersweet Chocolate and 62% Semisweet Chocolate Chantilly cream mixed with Roasted Cacao Nibs in the layers, covered in a rich 62% Semisweet Chocolate ganache.

Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. A chocolate lover’s dream. It was quite a heavy dessert that I considered it a meal! I was put in a food coma from this.

To be continued… Cooking demo with Top Chef Just Desserts winner, Yigit Pura.

Photos courtesy of Scharffen Berger

From now until Sunday, May 15, it’s Frappuccino Happy Hour! That means when you purchase a frappuccino between 3 – 5pm, it’s only half price.

Hello! What a deal! Also, check out their selection of flavors.

Flavor it up (Regular, Light, or Creme)

Caramel
Chai
Coffee
Mocha
Coconut
Java Chip
Mocha Coconut
Vanilla Bean
Vanilla
Strawberry
White Chocolate Mocha
Raspberry
Hazelnut
Cinnamon Dolce
Green Tea
Peppermint
Toffee Nut
Double Chocolaty Chip

Milk it up

Whole, 2%, Nonfat, or Soy

Coffee it up

Extra Coffee, Decaf, or Add Espresso

Top it off

Whipped Cream
Caramel Drizzle
Mocha Drizzle
Coconut Flakes

This post is way overdue. I’ve been pregnant and super busy preparing for the baby. So here it is – my experience at this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January.

I came across Tisano Cacao Tea, almost passing this booth. There are so many booths, it’s difficult to look at every one. The lady at the Tisano booth grabbed me and asked if I’ve ever tried cacao tea. And I was intrigued! This cacao tea (chocolate tea) isn’t artificially flavored like most other chocolate teas.

Tisano Cacao Tea is made from the cacao plant. Cacao is the raw plant which cocoa powder and chocolate comes from. It contains a lot of antioxidants and Theobromine which provides a long lasting boost of energy.

I’ve seen the product labeled both ways, as “Tisano Cacao Tea” and as “Tisano Chocolate Tea”. They are slowly renaming it to “Tisano Chocolate Tea” to avoid confusion.

What does it taste like? Add some cream and it’s a dark, smooth, rich chocolatey dream come true! I love this tea! You can buy it now at Amazon.com or select Whole Foods locations. Try a free sample here!

Sukhi’s is always one of my favorite booths to visit at the Fancy Food Show. They always have a generous sample plate of delicious Indian cuisine. And after visiting their booths after so many years, they know us!

What’s new this year is a new line of frozen authentic Thai entrees – red curry vegetables and green curry chicken.

Want gourmet Indian food fast? Try Sukhi’s frozen entrees. Their samosas are so crispy and delicious! You won’t believe they were frozen.

Sukhi’s NaanWiches are great on-the-go. Their NaanWiches are now frozen for better shelf life. Check out flavors like spinach and tofu, chicken kebab, and chicken tikki masala.

WOW Baking Company makes wheat and gluten free baked goods. And boy, their baked cookies and brownies really deserve a wow! They are soooo good!

WOW’s chocolate brownie was my favorite. Moist and chocolatey, you can’t even tell that it’s wheat or gluten free. It’s absolutely delicious!

Ramar Foods International, owned by the Quesada family, has introduced a line of frozen Filipino food entrees named Kusina ni Maria (Maria’s Kitchen), after grandma Maria Quesada. Love Filipino food but don’t want to cook? Check out their frozen lumpia, pancit kit, and chicken adobo entrees. The back of the box even has a Tagalog lesson and a little history of the Quesada family.

Ramar Foods also owns Magnolia ice cream. What’s new? Magnolia tropical milk bars! I’ve been waiting for their Thai tea milk bars to come out.

And they were worth waiting for! Frozen Thai tea on a stick? Love! It’s creamy smooth, rich in flavor, and available at your local Asian grocery store.

Twelve Beverage makes alcohol-free, all natural, sparkling adult beverages. This was perfect for me since I’m pregnant.

Twelve Beverage got its name for a beverage you can drink from “12 noon to midnight”. They have 2 flavors – Original and Rouge, blended with herbs, spices, juices, and organic teas.

Original has citrus, pear, ginger, and fennel notes. Rouge contains notes of pomegranate, black currant, black pepper, and ginger.

SPI West Port, Inc, the company who makes Alo Drinks, has launched a brand new line of fruit-flavored coconut water with aloe (of course), called Coco Exposed. Yum! Coconut water is so refreshing.

The coconut water flavors are Mangosteen and Mango, Peach and Kiwi, Passionfruit and Pineapple, Wheatgrass, and Goji Berry and Lychee.

Xan Confections debuted their Coco Preggers dark chocolate truffles. They saw my pregnant belly and made sure I tried this sumptious chocolate with DHA and folic acid. So good and good for you!

I am in love with their Big Mouth chocolates! They are made of organic crisp brown rice and marshmallow base with a layer of our signature caramel and natural peanut butter covered in dark or milk chocolate.

Every year, I bump into some Food Network celebrity. This year, it was Duff of Charm City Cakes. He has a new line of cake decorating products.

Duff and his team made this cake that represented San Francisco. Pretty awesome, huh?

I missed Zhena of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea last year because she was pregnant. And this year, I’m the one who’s pregnant. She gave me great pregnancy advice, by the way.

This year, she had a contest to win a tea expedition to Sri Lanka. Zhena took winners to organic tea gardens, beautiful Sri Lankan beaches, and an elephant orphanage in January 2011.

She told me the inside scoop for this year – a new line of tea candles and tea-shirts. Check out her wide variety of teas.

Ito-En was also at the show. They have a line of teas called Tea’s Tea, which is marketed to Americans. I tried their apple green tea and it was juicy with a hint of green tea. They also told me they improved their blueberry green tea. But I still like the original flavor better.

I also visited the Brent and Sam’s Cookies booth. Chocolate chip pecan is their most popular flavor. These cookies are bite-sized goodness in a box.

There were 2 guys manning this booth and they wanted to get in this picture. Were they the owners – Brent and Sam? Stay tuned – I’ll find out next year!

With everything else in the economy going up, it is no wonder grocery prices are as well. Anyone who is looking for a way to stretch their dollars when it comes to going grocery shopping should follow a few suggested tips.

Buy in season: It is always wise to buy produce when it is in season. Many newspapers and online coupons will offer discounts for produce that is in season, which often saves a few pennies that add up the more a person buys. Local farmers’ markets also sell produce in season at very reasonable prices, so always check those markets out first and contribute back to your local produce community.

Look for coupons: It is smart to check newspapers for coupons because a week’s worth of meal can be planned out around food that is one sale. Most times Sunday’s newspaper is full of the most coupons, and also provides plenty of coupons that can be applied towards staple items. A person should always stock up on staple items when they are on sale or have coupons to apply towards them; this can save a person several hundred dollars a year on groceries. The most valued coupons and sales are those that are ‘buy one get one free’, but always be careful when purchasing these items to make sure the prices are jacked up before the sale price is applied.

Think of buying frozen food to store: Buying food that is frozen, canned, or dried is always a smart move to make when trying to save money on groceries, and most importantly these types of foods are just as nutritious as fresh foods. Most produce items are frozen, canned, or dried when they are at the peak of their ripeness, which ensures they are full of nutrients. The best thing about frozen foods besides being nutritionally healthy is they can be used in amounts-needed. What is not used can be resealed and put back into the freezer; this assures there is no waste. Foods that are canned should always be rinsed before consumed because they bathe in juices, syrups, or salty water before being opened.

Look for powdered or evaporated milk alternatives: Buying versions of soups, desserts, mashed potatoes, and casseroles with powdered or evaporated milk is also less expensive than buying other versions.

Substitute meats with cheaper alternatives: Instead of purchasing expensive poultry, meats, and fish, substitute these items with inexpensive items such as legumes, beans, tofu, and eggs. This enables a person to save money while at the same time eating more healthy plant foods. When meats are purchased they should be bought in smaller portions that are of lean cuts.

Eat leftovers, buy less: Of course when it comes to saving money on groceries a significant amount can be saved by eating leftovers. There are many dishes that can use leftovers, such as salads, casseroles, soups and stews. Leftovers should also always be used for lunches instead of eating out.

Shop for generic brands: These brands are generally quite a bit less expensive then national brands. It is also wise to buy cereals and oatmeal that consist of fewer additives; these are usually a lot less expensive and healthier than other types of cereals.

Don’t buy processed: Almost all items that are prepackaged, washed, or sliced come with higher price tags than those that are not. While it is possible to buy some washed, sliced or prepackaged items for cheaper than ones that are not if they are on sale or a consumer has a coupon, these items should most times be avoided. Many people also find they save an incredible amount of money by completely avoiding aisles with processed foods and snack foods.

Join a club: Joining a club that allows consumers to buy in bulk is one of the smartest moves to make when it comes to saving money on groceries. Buying in bulk saves both time and money, as well as saves time cooking in the kitchen. Persons who cook in bulk can cook a large amount of food at one time and then store the food appropriately and use it throughout the rest of the week.

Grow your own: Planting a garden has benefits that reach far beyond saving money. Fresh fruits and vegetables always taste wonderful, and better yet, who does not love enjoying being outdoors and growing their own food?

This is a guest post by David who is co-founder of a leading independent balance transfer rate comparison service based just north of Sydney, Australia called Credit Card Compare.

My husband and I were having lunch at Delica, the Japanese deli in San Francisco’s Ferry Building, when we reached for something to quench our thirst. The Ito En Blueberry Green Tea immediately jumped off the shelf and into my hands. Wow, I’ve never seen iced blueberry green tea anywhere else before!

On the first sip, it was like heaven! The sweet, refreshing blueberry taste gently caresses your tongue, with a mild hint of green tea. And it’s made with all natural ingredients, a plus in my book. This is definitely my new favorite drink.

Afterward, we were on the hunt to find another place to buy this delectable drink. After all, we weren’t going to pay $2.50 to buy it from Delica all the time.

The next week, we found Ito En Blueberry Green Tea at 2 Japanese dollar stores – Daiso in Serramonte Mall (Daly City) and Ichibankan in Tanforan Mall (San Bruno). It’s only $1.29 at Ichibankan, which is the best deal.

There are also other flavors like apple, peach, and mango. I’ve only tried apple, which is good, but the blueberry flavor is still the best.

You can also find the Ito En Blueberry Green Tea at Amazon.com. They sell the 16.9 oz. teas in cases of 12 and it includes Free Super Saver Shipping on orders of $25 or more. The blueberry green tea is also eligible for Amazon.com’s Subscribe and Save program. It’s where you can sign up to have this item automatically delivered to you at regular intervals at a discounted price. So worth it and no tax either.