The weather is (finally) getting a little cooler here, so I’ve been drinking a lot more delicious tea! I had previously mentioned wanting to talk more about tea on the little dish, but that idea got a little sidetracked after a whole lot of business about cake! So, consider this post a renewal of my resolution to feature more tea…
MarieBelle is a chocolatier in New York. I haven’t visited their Cacao Bar & Tea Salon, but it looks so cute and the menu reads like a list of all my favorite things. (Aztec Iced Chocolate? Why, thank you!) Since visiting their store would be expensive, take a long time, and require some vacation hours I can’t spare, I bought the exotic-sounding Dark Obsession Chocolate Rose Tea online.
It’s a black Ceylon tea (which means that it’s from Sri Lanka) scattered with tiny pink rose petals. It’s slightly sweet and really does have a rich, chocolatey quality to it. The whole experience (with the adorable tin, the cute pink roses, the wonderful chocolate smell) was really nice and I liked it a lot! My only concern is that this might not be a naturally-flavored tea. The online description mentions a “chocolate extract” and there weren’t any ingredients listed on the tin. It could be a natural chocolate extract; I’m not sure how they would do that. Does anyone else know? It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but I strongly prefer teas that are all-natural and celebrate the tasty flavors grown from the Earth.
Yay! It’s WALL•E day! I’ve been so excited about WALL•E finally coming to my home and today my wish comes true! In celebration of WALL•E day, I baked this cake that looks just like him. “Eveaaa!”
The WALL•E cake started off really simple. I bought the special Wilton cake pan and whipped up a basic white cake batter. (I went with white because I wanted it to look really perfect without any crumbs showing through.)
After it baked, I shaved off the top of the cake (so it would lay really flat) and let it cool. From there, it became an intensely complicated game of cake paint-by-numbers. The cake pan came with an insert that listed out how many icing colors you would need, what decorating tips to use, and how it all is supposed to come together. I think it listed 26 steps in total. While I worked, I looked at a picture of WALL•E for reference. Following the steps word-for-word, there was only one or two times where I felt they were leading me astray. When there was something sort of weird, I just went with what the picture looked like…
Such a cute WALL•E cake! I can’t wait until tonight when I can go home and watch the movie! Anybody else a WALL•E fan? I think it’s one the best movies to come along in a long while, animated or not. PIXAR is just unstoppable.
If you were banana nut pancakes from Buzzbrew’s, everyone would love you and want to be your friend. They would be really excited to see you and say nice things about you. Trust me.
Cafe Brazil used to be my favorite after-bar, late-night eatery. However, the Greenville and Mockingbird locations have been having some service issues and the waits are getting longer and longer. It seems to be getting more crowded. Basically, it’s just not as easy as it used to be to stop in for a quick bite.
(Note: I mean no disrespect to Cafe Brazil. They are great and their migas are the best. I will gladly dine there, tonight even. I just mean that it has lost its premier spot as the late-night, go-to place for me. We can’t always be on top, you know?)
That coveted place now goes to Buzzbrews. Their food is excellent, their attitude low-key, and I can get one of my new favorites there: banana nut pancakes. Look at that picture! How could people not love that? Delish!
(P.S. The address below is the Buzzbrews I like. There’s another location on Lemmon Ave. that I have yet to visit.)
(P.P.S. They have free wi-fi and self-serve, all-you-can-drink coffee.)
4154 N. Central Expressway | Dallas, TX 75204
214.826.7100
Very, very important week! We’ve been waiting such a long time for it, and it’s finally here. Gingerbread lattes are back at Starbucks! (What did you think I meant?)
I wait every year for the launch of the Christmas drinks because a gingerbread latte is maybe one of the tastiest drinks ever. They’re back this year with a new name: GingerSNAP latte. Same taste, only now they are topping it with pieces of crystalized ginger. They are tasty, but they sink straight to the bottom of the cup. That’s not cool. In honor of the holidays gone by, I have decided to still call it gingerBREAD (and I’m slightly annoyed that a barista tried to correct me on that). It’s my super-tasty coffee and I’ll call it what I like.
My dear friend Melinda loves the gingerbread latte as much as I do. Anyone else feel the same?
(p.s. Sorry about the not-so-pretty image. The usual Little Dish photog. is on vacation!!!)
Poor lil’ dish. Feeling a bit neglected lately? I’m so sorry 
Yes, updates have recently been a little slow, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love you. It’s just that between designing outfits for Dancing with the Stars, coaching presidential candidates on last-minute strategies, and catching up on Mad Men, we’ve been a little busy. No more worries though. We’re back, we’re in full-effect, and we’re ready to eat…
This review is dedicated to another very pathetic character: red meat. Poor lil’ red meat. It always gets a bad rap. People are always cutting it out of their diets, sometimes entirely! Take for example, my sister. She won’t even touch the stuff. To a point, I understand. I could live 360 days a year on chicken, fish, and carbs. But seriously. Every now and then, a beautiful steak is the most beautiful thing on earth. Steak, this is your big moment!
At one of my fav Oak Cliff restaurants, Bolsa, I had juicy, delicious steak medallions topped with a garlic herb sauce. I’m using the term “sauce” in a very general way here… The herbs were rough chopped, very fresh, and almost the consistency of a pesto. Very tasty compliment to the steak that was cooked perfectly and very tender. However, the steak was almost eclipsed by the horseradish mashed potatoes. Creamy, buttery, spicy, amazing!
Bolsa switches up their menu every night, using fresh and local ingredients. That means you might not see this exact dish on the menu next time you’re there. But based on how delicious this was, I’m interested to see what else Bolsa has in store.
614 W. Davis | Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 367-9368
