Berrynaked - New Richardson Location!

Y'all. You have no idea how freaking EXCITED I am that Berrynaked has opened their 2nd location in Richardson! Not only are they just a short drive from my work, it's also so much close from Rockwall! This could be dangerous!! Berrynaked makes high quality products. I've tasted their popsicles over the past 2 years and continue to see them evolve and improve. I think they have pretty much perfected their craft at this point. Everything is spot on... the right textures, consistency, and flavor. And I never feel guilty after eating one of their pops. :D

I got to have a preview on Wednesday before they have their Grand Opening this Saturday. The space is awesome! It's much larger than their Lovers Ln. location... there's chairs and tables and sofas. Definitely a cool place to hang out. And they have new menu items! Specifically their new Puree Bowls. You can choose between "Soulful" or "Sinful", or be like me and have both. haha. The Soulful selections are healthier... lots of fresh fruit base, topped with more fruit toppings. The Sinful is more fun imo... and definitely more decadent. But yet... it's still healthier than eating ice cream because they use all fresh ingredients and still some with a fruit base. I can eat their bowls instead of ice cream and be completely satisfied!

Their Grand Opening is THIS SATURDAY, JUNE 17th. You better make sure you mark it on your calendars! This is the full info on the event. It's gonna be super fun, yummy, and benefits the American Heart Association too! My favorite way to contribute to charity... eat! :P

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Berrynaked | Richardson Grand Opening Block Party

Saturday, June 17, 12pm – 2pm

326 W. Campbell Road | Canyon Creek Shopping Center

#Berrynakednation

Dallas-based Berrynaked is bringing it's organic popsicles and purees northward with the opening of a flagship location in Richardson! Stop by for family fun at the grand opening block party, benefiting the American Heart Association. Enjoy music, face painting, balloon art, and a variety of activities and giveaways from neighbor businesses like Pure Barre Richardson, Sun Lee Taekwondo, Smoothie King and more! Berrynaked will donate 20 percent of Richardson grand opening day sales to the American Heart Association, which will also be on site, along with 20 percent of Vitality Pops Series sales at both stores (Inwood Village and Richardson) for the entire month of June.

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Here's a peek at some of the menu items!

Soulful:
- The Runner: Pitaya (dragon fruit) base, pineapple, banana, coconut water, organic coconut butter, organic blue agave. This seemed to have been the crowd favorite of the night. I think it was the vibrant color of the dragon fruit!

- The Yogi: Acai base, strawberries, banana, coconut water, organic coconut butter, organic blue agave. My personal favorite. I've had several acai bowls in Dallas now and I thought this was by far the best. From the flavor to texture of the puree... it's on point!

- The Swimmer: Mango base, strawberries, coconut water, organic blue agave. I'm allergic to mango so I didn't try this. But it was my friend's favorite.

Sinful:
- Da Beach Bum: Strawberry base, cream, sour cream, condensed milk. It's served in a waffle bowl, topped with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, crushed chocolate cookies, and 2 chocolate pirouette rolled wafers. This was freaking amazing. It's like fresh strawberry ice cream, with actual chunks of strawberries in the cream, and all that chocolately goodness.

We also had some Poptails!! Cuz it's not a party without some champagne! And how cute are the mini pops in each glass. All sorts of different fruity flavors... Great idea for your next party?? :)

Definitely go check them out, and bring your friends. I'm certainly going back soon!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

PARIS 2012: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

We were walking down Champs-Élysées (a famous street in Paris with cinemas, luxury shops and restaurants) and came across a famous name I recognized. Joel Robuchon! I've heard his name many times in all the cooking shows and competitions. He is regarded as the "Chef of the Century". He has 28 Michelin stars among all his restaurants, the most out of any chef in the world. Wow... We decided to just take a peek at the menu they posted outside.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Etoile
133 Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris, France
01 47 23 75 75
http://www.joel-robuchon.net/

The menu was in French but the prices didn't seem too bad! I guess this is one of his more affordable restaurants. We decided to go in and see if they take walk-ins.

The restaurant was modern with black tiles and walls accented by bold red. We were seated immediately in a bar style seating area. I was a bit in awe just from the fame of the chef... it was a bit surreal.

We were given the menu... and we both realized that the menu we saw out front must've been the lunch menu. haha... Fail. :( I was a bit shell shocked by the prices given that we just walked in off the street in our jeans and tennis shoes. haha. But my bf just said to enjoy ourselves since we are here. And of course the menu was all in French. It was really hard to tell what to order other than looking at the prices.

I managed to narrow it down to several options and flagged the waiter down and asked him to explain what the dishes are. Fortunately most of the waiters there spoke English. Our main waiter was able to give us some insight to what choices we're making. I was still quite conservative on what I ordered. I kept trying not to think that these are in Euros! Yikes.

After ordering we were served an Amuse Bouche. Foie Gras Mousse, with a port sauce and some sort of foam on top.

One cool thing about fancy restaurants is that you always get a bunch of free bites in between your meal and sometimes they tend to be the best surprises. Neither one of us are really fans of foie gras since we find it very rich. But this was delicious.

(I know.. the picture doesn't look that appetizing. The port kinda looks like blood. :/ But trust me, it's gooood!) I think the sweetness and alcohol from the port help cut the fattiness of the foie. And it was a nice small portion. Just enough. Yum!

My bf took the waiter's recommendation and went with La Caille (caramelisee au foie gras avec une pomme puree) 51€ It is caramelized quail stuffed with foie gras with side of potato puree.

The plate was very delicate and clean. But soooo small... The quail was tender and the foie gras added some fattiness. It was yummy, but was it worth the price? I didn't think so.

We were also each served a side of potato puree.

Surprisingly this was the best part of the meal! It was amazing! So smooth, creamy, buttery and luxurious. I can stick my face in a tub of this and die happy! By far the best potato puree I've ever had.

I ordered an appetizer as my meal actually. La Volaille Fermiere (les ailerons et les sot-l'y-laisse, sur un risotto a l'oseille fraiche) 34€ It's chicken oysters on top of risotto.

Chicken oysters are the two small, round pieces of dark meat on the back of the thigh. It's supposed to be the most tender part. I've seen them being used on Top Chef so I was intrigued. The description the waiter gave made it sound really good. And I've been wanting to have risotto in Paris. He also said that for an app, the portion is pretty big. I guess he was right since it was about the same size as the quail entree. haha. The chicken oysters were delicious! So freaking tender and so much flavor. The risotto was tasty but I felt it was a bit undercooked. I'm a fan of al dente rice but I think these were a tad shy of al dente. I was a little disappointed that the risotto wasn't perfection... But the dish was very rich and filling. It was actually a good amount. Left me enough room to get dessert!

Between entree and dessert we were served a Palate Cleanser: Passion Fruit and Banana Mousse, Rum Granita, Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream.

This was also a nice surprise. The flavors all worked perfectly together. It was light and refreshing. I would've been happy to have this as a full dessert!

For dessert we got Le Souffle (chaud aux grains de cassis, sorbet a la muroise) 18€ Cassis Souffle with Muroise Sorbet.

Muroise is a cross between a wild bramble and raspberry. Not sure what a bramble is but it tasted like a wild berry mix of flavors. Can't leave France without having souffle! It wasn't hard to pick this as the dessert. I get my risotto and souffle in one night! Yay! The souffle did not disappoint. Probably the lightest souffle I've ever had. I feel like if I used more force with the spoon I would just collapse the whole thing.

It was definitely like eating air. The sorbet however, was a little too sweet and tart and overpowered the dish as a whole. So I tried to eat them separately.

We were surprisingly stuffed after the meal. I think it's all those little freebies in between that sneaks up on you. But wait! There's more! We were given Complimentary Madeleines.

Fresh from the oven. They were still hot. So fluffy and buttery. Definitely the best Madeleines I've ever had!!

My bf treated me to this meal. :) It was a very nice experience to have tried Joel Robuchon's restaurant. I was disappointed in certain areas but with my uber high expectations, I was bound to be disappointed somehow. haha. Everything tasted great and was handled with finess. However, I still cannot justify the cost. I've had better meals for less. But as a foodie, I would recommend checking it out. It is still on the more "affordable" side for his restaurants and I would still regard it as a culinary adventure. :)

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Special Lunch @ Private Social

This past Saturday we went to a very special lunch event at Private Social. It is the new restaurant in Uptown with Executive Chef Tiffany Derry from Top Chef Season 7 and Top Chef All-Stars. I loved her on the show and couldn't wait to go try her new restaurant. I'm so glad I came across this new event!!

"Chef Tiffany Derry is expanding her offerings at Private|Social by hosting uniquely themed lunches on the third Saturday of every month."

"The bar, featuring specialty cocktails by beverage director Rocco Milano, will be open for diners who wish to turn their lunch into a boozy one. Rocco will be creating a special batch of Philadelphia House Punch (rum, congnac, lemon, sugar, English breakfast tea, champagne) for the occasion."
This cocktail was pretty damn amazing in my opinion. If it wasn't lunch time I would've drank more. haha.

Private Social
3232 McKinney Avenue
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 754-4744
http://privatesocial.com/
Price (for lunch): $$-$$$

I went with a large group of 12 people and we got a great table right in front of the kitchen viewing area. We could see her running around, super busy, doing every thing. :)

The lunch on Saturday offered:

Family-Style Pig Roast. It was so cool. We could see her carving a whole pig in the kitchen at one point. It was amazing to watch her at work.

The pork was nice and tender. I liked the seasoning on the skin.

But for our big group they only brought out 3 small plates of it (for our party of 12). It didn't seem like it was enough. We wondered if smaller tables got the same portion size... And the main dish wasn't refillable. :/

Served with bottomless sides (all farm-fresh):
- Kale Salad. Super fresh. I love the texture of the kale and it was slightly acidic from the dressing and also had buttery crouton bits and parmesan on it.

- Roasted Baby Fennel. This was my favorite side of the meal. The preparation was more like a gratin. The fennel was cooked perfectly with a slight char on top along with the breadcrumbs. I can eat just that! Good thing we can order as much as we want! haha.

- Braised Turnips with Tops. This was like braised collard greens with pork. It had a slight bitterness to it which I liked but overall pretty standard.

- Celeriac Purée. So none of us knew what Celeriac was. It's commonly misunderstood as celery root but it's actually also called turnip-rooted celery or knob celery. Everyone loved this. I loved it as well. I liked it better than normal celery root because it had less celery flavor. It was silky and smooth. And it actually paired really well with the kale salad because of the contrasting flavors and textures.

With choice of water, iced tea or soda for $20 a person. This was an amazing deal. We were there until things started running out. haha.

Since we didn't get that much pork, we kept asking for more sides. At one point the waitress said they were out of the fennel but were preparing Brussels Sprouts instead. Ooohhhh! Love Brussels Sprouts. It's currently my new favorite veggie.

- Roasted Brussels Sprouts. YUM!!!! They need to put more Brussels sprouts in the dish though. haha.

 

Several people came to check on us throughout the meal. At one point, one of my friends brought up the small portion size of the pork for our large group. So they went back to the kitchen and brought us another large plate of it. Wow... by then we were all pretty full but the pork was still delicious.

The place was completely full at one point. But we were one of the last groups to leave. It's not every day we get to all meet up and have a nice long lunch....with spectacular food, I might add. Also, we got to meet the Chef!!!!! They took a group of us into the kitchen to meet her. Chef Tiffany was soooo nice. Totally down to earth. She greeted us and immediately started chatting. She worked every station in the kitchen and even washed dishes at one point. I'm thoroughly impressed. The food was fantastic and so was her personality and work ethic. I will definitely be back at Private Social in the near future.

And another check on my list of Top Chefs to visit and meet!! Woot!! :D

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~