matcha | Yummy Ventures

Royce’ Chocolate

Posted on April 20, 2017April 20, 2017 by yummyventuresco

Overall taste: 9/10 | 2017 | 251 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116

We’re going to start off by saying Royce’ Chocolate is our favourite chocolate store. We were stoked when we found out they opened a branch in Boston.

They are on the pricey side, but after trying them, you’ll think twice before buying chocolate from anywhere else. If you have to pick one to try, we highly recommend their “nama chocolate” ($18 a box) – similar to truffles but waaaay better.

afterfocus_1492197605087 — **Nama chocolate “maccha”** – white chocolate with herbal aroma and bittersweet finish of real green tea leaves ($18) *[The best green tea white chocolate ever! They melt in your mouth and have a really addicting green tea flavour.]*

afterfocus_1492193120164 — **Prafeuille chocolat maccha** – fragrant green tea sandwiched between delicate green tea-infused chocolate ($18) *[These chocolate are paper-thin and when you apply a little biting pressure, the refreshing green tea syrup gushes out. We’re so in love with this.]*

IMG_20170415_154033_385 — **Amande chocolat “milk”** – roasted almonds in smooth milk chocolate ($15) *[We’ve nothing much to add, except that we’ve never tasted a better chocolate almond than this.]*

IMG_20170415_133651_965 — **Nama chocolate “champagne”** – nama chocolate with fragrance of pierre mignon champagne ($18) [Most of their nama chocolates contain alcohol, but it’s extremely subtle. This is our favourite out of all the chocolate in this review. It is rich, creamy, and not overly sweet. We do recommend eating it within 3 days as the taste and texture change pretty quickly after opening.]

Tsukiji Fish Market

Posted on February 18, 2017February 20, 2017 by yummyventuresco

Overall taste: 8/10 | 2016 | 5 Chome-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

If you visit Tokyo, you must go to Tsukiji Fish Market. We only went to the outside market of Tsukiji; it was really crowded even on a weekday. There were lots of small restaurants and stalls selling mouth-watering food (sushi, ramen, snacks, desserts). Definitely come on an empty stomach!

Note: This Tsukiji location will close and be moved to Toyosu sometime in 2017/2018.

For some of the food we got, we attached a picture of the stall next to it since we can’t read Japanese.

Tuna, ikura and uni don (900 yen) [The portion was smaller than we expected. We really loved the sushi rice and the freshness of their ingredients]

Sushi shaped candy [We didn’t try this but we thought they were incredibly cute!]

Giant tamago

Lineup for this stall!

Tamago (100 yen) [Look at the size of that tamago! This was on the sweet side but we liked that it was incredibly fluffy.]

**Matcha soft-serve** (300 to 400 yen) *[It was summer when we visited and this was perfect for a hot day! Good matcha flavour and not too sweet]*

img_20170218_132610_022 — **Grilled scallops topped with crab and uni, then torched** *[We don’t remember the price of this. This was pretty good, all the ingredients were fresh but the uni tasted a little fishy]*

20160521_103030 — **Grilled unagi** (600 yen) *[This tasted quite similar to regular frozen unagi]*

Dig Inn

Posted on February 12, 2017February 13, 2017 by yummyventuresco

Overall taste: 7/10 | 2017 | 557 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116

+++ = highly recommend | – – – = do not recommend

Dig Inn takes pride in buying food from local farms/suppliers, which may explain why their food is pricey. The taste of their food is above average, but we found that they’re very heavy-handed on butter, oil, and cream. Also, it would be so helpful if they had labels indicating what each dish was.

If you’re looking to support local suppliers, or looking for a place that is vegan or vegetarian friendly, this would be a place for you. However, we don’t find Dig Inn to be a healthy restaurant choice.

2017-02-09-21-18-36 — **Iced matcha latte** ($4.67) *[This was unsweetened and we requested to have it with almond milk. It’s pretty good, especially if you add a little syrup found at the counter]*

2017-02-09-21-18-50 — **– – – Organic dark hot chocolate** ($4.67) *[We both hated their hot chocolate. There were spices mixed into the chocolate. We wished they told us ahead of time or indicate it in the menu.]*

2017-02-09-21-18-18 — Marketbowl. **Protein – short ribs**. Base – toasted farro w/ butternut squash & celery. Sides – upstate mac & cheese, brussel sprouts w/ maple & sriracha. Sauce – garlic tofu aioli (Total: $15.5) [Lynn really liked the short ribs. The meat was on the fatty side and was pretty greasy (which may be good or bad depending on your preference). The mac & cheese was one of the creamiest we’ve had. The 1st few bites were good, but it got sickening after a while. The brussel sprouts were charred and was pretty dry. As for the sauce, pretty sure they put lemon in it; not a fan of the sourness.]

2017-02-09-21-18-03 — Marketbowl. **Protein – herb grilled steak.** Base – classic brown rice. Sides – broccoli w/ meyer lemon, avocado (+$1.5), eggplant. Sauce – pesto (Total price: $13.88) *[The steak was chewy and a little dry. The broccoli was too burned for us; it was bitter and sour. The eggplant was good, but extremely oily. Again, their pesto sauce was too sour for us.]*

Aldea

Posted on January 14, 2017February 12, 2017 by yummyventuresco

Overall taste: 9/10 | 2016 | 31 W 17th St, New York, NY 10011

This remains to be one of my favourite restaurants. Although it is only rated 1 michelin star, it is better than some of the 3 michelin starred restaurants in my opinion.

+++ = highly recommend | – – – = do not recommend

Pictured above: +++ Hokkaido urchin toast – cauliflower puree, mustard seed & shiso {$16) [This is so good! plus I get to try Hokkaido sea urchin (uni) without travelling to Japan!]

Chef’s tasting menu ($135 pp)

Petiscos