Crumbl Deliveries

Another wonderful surprise.  A delivery man showed up at my front door and I was curious.

Curious because I didn't order anything, turns out that Crumbl does deliveries too.

This is the Peanut Butter cookie, pretty rich I'll say.

Chocolate Lava Cookie - if you bake it before enjoying it, it does feel like the chocolate is oozing out.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie - again warm it up first.  It warms your belly.

Here's the new flavor: Andes Mint Chcocolate.  

This one is to eat chilled, and I agreed.  The mint serves as a coolant, it is very refreshing for a stuffy humidity day.  

Sadly, they just changed their menu again.  But keep your eyes peeled for the return.  Right now I see Cinnamon Apple and Pumpkin in rotation.  So, next round!

Crumbl Cookies

5103 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77401

281-937-2100

https://crumblcookies.com/bellaire

 

Craft Boss Lemon Tea

I'm having all sorts of technical difficulties... so this is another I tried it so you don't have to (unless you want to) category.

Found this one at Japanese Grocery store.  They are pretty funny, have logo that looks tough and manly as though that will dictate whether you'll spend the money or not.  I got it out of curiosity, since I like Lemon Tea.

First of all, the entire flavor palette is super light.  It's like tea brewed for the second time light.  Then it comes with a hint of lemon.  Definitely not tart or sweet.  No wonder it's suitable for men, it's not sweet.  Which is a very strong stereotype in Japan, that men likes savory and women likes sweet stuff.  While it's not untrue, but that is definitely how they're marketing it.  Bottomline, I see why it's a manly tea now.

 

Bao Shi Yi - Drinks

As Summer ends, I crave mango more than when it was truly summer.

 

I'm on a mango mission!

Sadly, they did away with the cute bottles.  But according to the lady at the drive thru, they will bring it back hopefully by the end of the year.

This is the first time my mom tried this.  She thought she was going to get chunks of mango, but instead she gets some sago (tapioca-like) and grapefruit.  Overall, still a very good drink/dessert.  It is on the expensive side, but don't have it enough to be a pain point - pretty luxurious, right?  I know. LOL!

Bao Shi Yi

3819 Kirby Dr

Houston, TX

346-867-3941

https://baoshiyibunhouse.com  

Hong Kong's Cafe

Went back to Hong Kong's Cafe for another take-out.

In the name of supporting local mom and pop shops, I will sacrifice my waist line.

First up: egg tarts.   I like theirs besides ECK's.  But since this is outside of my diet, I'm grateful to even get to have one.

This is the char siu and chicken over rice.  The oily chicken goes with the ever-so-addicting ginger sauce.  It is one in the same as the one came with Nainanese rice from last time.  LOVE IT!

I asked for Chinese Sausage Fried Rice.  It has eggs, peas (forgot to ask the to hold those), carrots, eggs, rice and Chinese sausage.  I love those growing up.  It pack a lot of flavor for small little bite.  The difference between Chinese sausage and other cultured is that it's pretty much the same process with the addition of them drying it out in the sun before it is ready.  So, the fat and meat - cured already - in the casing and it get shriveled up in that casing and the flavor comes out when you cook it.

Great news, the cafe now accepts Zelle's.  There's a rumor that they take PayPal as well, but I did not see a sign for that.  I did see a sign for accepting Zelle.  Of course, they still do cash, just not credit card.

Hong Kong's Cafe

9108A Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

713-772-9633

 

Thai Cottage

Time to expand our take-out.  This time we got lunch from Thai Cottage.

We got lunch specials.  This is their Yellow Curry.  It is lunch portion but it hit the spot just right.  Yellow Curry from what I understand is the least spicy of the colored curries.  You can choose chicken, beef, tofu, or shrimp.  I picked chicken, and as you can see, there's carrot, potato, chicken.  

The lunch special comes with 2 sides, I had the veggie egg roll and a small soup or salad.  For $9 it's pretty good deal.

I cannot skip the Mango Sticky Rice dessert.  Summer is over and mango will be harder to come by, well good ones anyway.  I just love the coconut milk with the sticky rice.  Do eat it while the rice is warm and the mango is cold, it is best that way.  Highly recommend.

If you order online ahead of time for pick up, they throw in 1 free drink.  Worth doing.

Thai Cottage

5206 Bissonnet

Bellaire, TX 77401

713-838-0707

https://www.thai-cottage.com/location/bellaire-thai-cottage/

 

Drinks in Asian Grocery store

Saw these at the grocery store and was curious...

This is a Kumquat and Lemon fruit tea.  It is actually very tea with a nice mix of fruit.  It is not bad at all.  May actually go back and check out other flavors. 

This is a Tiger Latte.  So, the whole 'Tiger' trend, started with the various boba teas.  What it is actually is caramelized brown sugar dripping on the side of the cup, which after it filled with milk tea looks like tiger prints, hence the name.

 But this is not real on the Tiger because it's printed the cup.  It does have the brown sugar flavor, and quite heavy too.  So, it is weird, the cup is small, and it packed with more sugar than tea, so it seems like super sweet.  I did see that they have a milk tea too.  

All these you can find in Asian Grocery stores.

 

Hong Kong's Cafe

I literally have not step foot in Hong Kong's Cafe since March.

Even though the mayor allows for dine-in, they remain for take out only.

Of course I have to get my lemon tea.  Oh, how I missed this.  With truly brewed tea and plus syrup and lemon slices...

I got the Hainanese Chicken.  I really love their ginger sauce.  The rice has a hint of coconut.  It comes with peanuts and pickled veggies.  So good.

Then we have the Pan-Fried Beef with Rice Noodle.  This is another go-to comfort food.  This time because the kiddo will eat this on our journal of picky eater.  So, we'll go with that.  Quality is still top notch.  Though seeing the business dwindle for here is make me sad and concern.  Hope offices are calling in for group orders to sustain the business. 

Highly recommend you to call ahead and place the order.  Run errands or take your time to get there.  It'll be ready by the time you get there.

Hong Kong's Cafe

9108A Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

713-772-9633

 

River Oaks Donuts

Took me a while to get back to River Oaks Donuts. 

Ever since they closed the counter service and make everyone do drive-thru, it always has a long line.

First thing first, get me a cup of iced coffee.  I had asked for a medium, but this looks large to me.

Then, got me a sausage and cheese kolache.  I really like their bread to sausage ratio.  Some places has way too much bread for little bit of sausage.  This is just right.  Of course, having the yummy Prasek Sausage helps too.

So, they now re-opened the counter service.  Of course, mask is required and they only let 2 parties in at a time.  So, yes the drive-thru line will continue to be long.  I think the trick is if you get there before 8a, the line is usually 6 car-deep.  If you need a point of reference, if you're at the Tres Market's parking entrance, just add 6 cars, is about how deep it is.  Yes, we were in the car line and was bored. 

River Oaks Donuts

3601 Westheimer Rd

Houston TX 770027

713-961-9458

https://www.riveroaksdonuts.com

 

Kuen Noodle House

Another thing that I haven't had a while was the Kuen Noodle House.

Ordered their Scallion Pancake, one of the better ones I've had in terms of texture and flavor.

This is supposedly the Beef Stewed Noodles.  Sadly because of the poor job the driver had done from Chowbus, the noodles have stuck together and even when we nuke it a little.  It didn't open back up. 

I will say, the flavor is there, but the restaurant seems to have gave us a bunch of fatty meat chunk.  So even if the flavor was there; sadly, it just wasn't very satisfying for me.

I see that they have Postmate & Grubhub, next time if I wanted to get take-out from there, will try other services instead of Chowbus.

Kuen Noodle House

9140A Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

281-888-9236

 

Tasty Point - Snack

So went back to using the app Chowbus.  This time took advantage of their multi-stop feature.

From Tasty Point, got their Champagne Boba Milk Tea.  I realized that the tea is more dark and flavor is richer than normal milk tea.  I enjoyed it though.

Then, got the Curry Fish Ball.  Sadly, the juice all came out so there weren't too much for the little snack to bathe in.  They do have online order for pickup or delivery on their site, maybe I'll do that instead next time.

I will say, this was a very disappointing using the app.  I had ordered way before peak dinner time and took them 2 hours to get to my house.  Not only that, since the app is so good at reporting status that it tells you when the food is being prepared or finished.  It was already been sitting there.  

Then, the driver, which again, the app was too good at showing you tracking.  Had to make multiple stops and by the time the food got to me, the warm food was was already cold, the cold drinks are already room temperature, and as you can see, sauces left the container.  I had calculated, had I placed the order myself, drove down to Chinatown and return, it would not have been a hour round trip, yet took them 2 hours to get to me.  Of course, I made a complaint, and as a constellation price, they gave me $5 credit towards the next order.  Sadly, as much as I want to support the small businesses during this time.  I'm not confident that the app is going to do the trick.

Tasty Point

9110A Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

281-888-6651

https://tastypointus.com

 

Crumbl Cookies

I've heard of Crumbl from a friend of mine the they opened a shop in Bellaire.

I was curious what made them so popular.

Each of these cookies are huge

I mean, this is a long box, and we literally had to cut the cookies in parts.

This is the Cookies & Cream Milkshake.  I think the icing is more 'icing' than 'milkshake'.  There's no doubt that this is for sure cookies & cream.  The cookie texture on this one was more like a tea cake than a cookie.

This is the Raspberry Cream cookie.  The icing is what they called cheesecake icing.  So you have a bit of tart, a bit of sour, but is sweetened by the raspberry jam on top.  The cookie is like a Snickerdoodle which is more cinnamon-ey than a sugar cookie.

This is the Molten Lava - talk about chocolatey goodness.  This is IT!  The middle is nice and soft, the cookie is moist it in texture.

Then this is the classic flavor of Chocolate Chip cookies.  I will say, when it's nice and warm is very nice.  It's not gooey but definitely chewy.  This is my 2nd favorite out of the bunch.  It's good texture and maybe because it was warm, it does give you the warm and fuzzy.

They do delivery, curbside or ship.  So, share the love and support small businesses

Crumbl

5103 Bellaire Blvd

Ste 140

Bellaire, TX

281-937-2100

https://crumblcookies.com

 

North Italia

I did not know that North Italia actually deliver to you.

That was an a welcomed idea.

There are Meatballs with cheese- YUM!

White Truffle Garlic Bread, which has mozzarella, ricotta, and herbs.  It was so good, how come I didn't know about this?!  So good.

My favorite: Zucca Chips - thinly sliced zucchini and fried.  So so so good.

My entree order: Bolognese.  I know they have other dishes that are well worth having.  This dish was just calling my name.  I was just dying to have it.  Talk about a much needed comfort food.  It was good till the last bite.  The noodle was nicely done, the Ragu was nice and flavorful.  It's just a good combo all around.

They do both delivery and take-away.  Do go to their site to check for specials, it might have what you want and get a good discount on that.

North Italia

1700 Post Oak Blvd

Ste 190

Houston, TX 77056

281-605-4030

https://www.northitalia.com/locations/houston-tx-blvd-place/

 

Milk and Cookies

Fall has arrived at Milk & Cookies. 

It does make waiting in line interesting... take a selfie while you wait.

This round I got breakfast.

I love their Ham and Cheese croissant.  It has cheese on the top, baked, ham inside and cheese in there.  When you get it, ask them to warm it up for you.  It's definitely worth it.  

Grab a cup of coffee and sit at the park down the street socially distanced.  That's the life, I tell ya.

Milk & Cookies

3636 Rice Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

713-352-3086

https://www.tinyboxwoods.com/location/west-university/

 

Mooncake

It was Mid Autumn Festival last week.

Got this cute little box.  Since there's only 2 of us eating it, got a small one.

So this is from Hong Kong's Mx's double yoke lotus filling.

In reality, this is huge.  When you cut it in quarters, it is still quite big.  This is very traditional in terms of mooncake.  The lotus paste is rich, so a little bit goes a long way in terms of consuming.  That means, no body will be having an eating contest on mooncake.  The yoke symbolize the moon.  Because it's so rich, I have to pace myself when it comes to consuming.

In the olden days, they used to slip a piece of paper in the middle of the cake to pass on important messages away from any public eye.  Luckily, we don't have paper in these.

You can find a lot about Mooncake here.

 

International Snack - Tomato Harvest crackers

Happen to see them on the shelf as I was walking by.

As usual, curiosity kills the cat.  I was curious... 

So they came up to be pretty small, maybe a wee bit bigger than a quarter.  So there are a lot of these in a bag.  I tasted butter more than I tasted any tomatoes, even though that's what the flavor is supposed to be.  Overall it's not a bad snack for on-the-go, especially when you want something salty.  This is not too salty, but definitely help cure the snack craving after that.  Good to have in the kiddos backpack or in purses for kids snack.