Sandoitchi

Ok kids, this is the last week for Sandoitchi's pop up in H-town.  Here's what I got:

(L) Yuzu Arnold Palmer & Strawberry Matcha Latte (it was ok so-so)

Of course, lots and lots of food... duh!

First up: Egg Sando - you never had egg salad until you have these....

For appetizer, I got the Crispy Satsuma-Imo - which is fancy way to say crispy sweet potato, topped with Furikake seasoning, dipped in chili oil and yuzu creme fraiche.  It's not overpowering by the chili oil and the creme fraiche, as a matter of fact it's a true umami type flavor.  The potato was a tad hard, they made it too crunchy though.  But the thought was good. 

Of course, if you put Lobster Roll on there, I would not turn away.  As a matter of fact, for a premium sandwich, they put it in a special box.  So fancy!

Got a Classic Chicken Katsu Sando for good measure.  That has fried chicken in the center, cabbage, Tonkatsu sauce, which totally makes the flavor and Japan's famous kewpie mayo.  So good. 

For dessert, got me a fruit sando - so pretty.  Almost didn't want to eat it.  I will say, what makes me fall in love with Sandoitchi is that the bread is milky but the cream used here is never sugary.  It lets the fruit brings the flavor out and it's yummy.

Sandoitchi pop up is happening now thru last day on Jan 25th at Norigami location this time.  They are at first come first serve basis, meaning there's no ordering ahead.  You arrive, place your order at the hostess stand.  Grab a seat and watch them make your sandwich, which is nice when it's made to order.  And you can either enjoy it there or take it to go.  

Sandoitchi

https://www.sandoitchi.com/pages/events-page

 

Rice Village Farmers Market

Every 1st & 3rd Sunday, there's a Farmers Market at Rice Village.

I was enticed by the Farmers Market's IG and came over to Don Jorge's Chamoy.  Truthfully, they are really selling the Chamoy sauce, which is a popular Mexican cuisine uses.  They have homemade chips fried with olive oil and use it to dip in Chamoy.  It's a bit spicy, a bit sour, a bit salty, go well with chips, nuts, or use it to marinate.  

This empanada and the paella are both from Avila.  The empanada is really better warm.  My only complaint is that the outer layer on the empanada was too thick, made it hard to bite or cut through.  The fillings inside was great, I loved anything with chimichurri sauce.

They also were selling paella, and if there's a chance, I usually gravitate towards it.  Mainly because I wouldn't make it myself.  And at restaurants they usually have a minimum of 2 people for that order, so it's not easy to get.  This one however, I got the seafood paella, and look at what big pieces of seafood they topped it off with!  There were no less than 3 large shrimps, couple mussels, and calamari.  That's not a big bowl, so to have so much it's pretty impressive.

Farmers Market has a lot of different stalls, from imperfect vegetables to small farm's fresh vegetables.  Sauces for pasta, chips, keto, Asian dishes all there.  There are stuff for coffee, hot coffee, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  So it's always fun to come and visit.

Rice Village Famers Market

https://rice-village.com/event/farmers-market/

 

Chef Christine Au

I've been following Christina Au on IG forever.  Always drooling but not able to make it to Blacksmith where she's the resident pastry chef there. 

She's pretty active on the pop up market scenes.  The one that is so popular that the line was wrapped around the place.  So I nearly gave up when... a kind friend picked those pop-tarts up for me. 

This is the Pandan + Coconut

Look at that.  The pastry is nice and soft, got the little crisp on the edges.  The inside is not too overwhelming, very Summer Asian flavor.

Another Asian Flavor, Mango & Passionfruit.

Somehow the flavor combo reminds me of guava.  The whole bite reminded me of a guava empanada from Cafe Bustelo.  The key to eating these by the way, and they didn't say to do this but I find it yummy; and that is, to heat it up for 10-15 seconds, and enjoy with a cup of coffee is the way to go.

You can catch more Chef Christina Au's goodies at Blacksmith coffee or follow her on IG to see where she's doing a collab or pop up.

Chef Christina Au

https://www.instagram.com/christinaau/

 

Butter Baby Bakery

Been trying to catch Butter Baby for a while, finally made it to their popup.

Yum!  Look at all the goodies.

This is their Baby Stacks, basically cake in a jar.  Portable cake?  I'm not complaining. 

This is the Thai Tea cake - OMG, this is like Lays Potato Chips, you can't have one bite.  I was going to only eat a few bite, ended up having half the jar.  This is really testing one's self control.

This is the Halo Halo Baby Stack, which is one of their signature cakes.  Mung bean ube cake, layer with jackfruit and jellies, then cream on top.  It goes down easy and it's tasty.  Definitely coming back for this.

Here's their Cake Flight - if you have the chance, you must get!  Since it was a lot of dessert, I frozen it and brought it back out.  Looking back, it was best immediately enjoy them.  LOL.

First two are Strawberry shortcake & Cookie Butter Espresso

The Cookie Butter Espresso is so damn good, even after thawed, it tasted excellent.  It is a Cookie Butter vanilla cake with cookie butter ganache and espresso buttercream.  It's a MUST GET! 

Strawberry Shortcake did not with stand the freeze very well.  I think I would've enjoyed the cream with the strawberries.  It was with a strawberry infused white ganache.

Then we have Halo Halo & Oreo Confetti cake slices.

Oreo Confetti cake really reminds me the ones from a box mix.  It is vanilla cake based with confetti, of course.  Then it has Oreo white ganache with Oreo buttercream and crunch.  I will say, I can't taste the buttercream on this very well.  

The Halo Halo was richer than the Baby Stack.  It's ube cake with mung bean ganache, jackfruit, palm fruit jelly, ube buttercream.  The flavor is there, but somehow this feels richer than the Baby Stack.  

I will say out of the 4 flights, the Cookie Butter Espresso & Halo Halo are my favs.  You can see more of their cakes and pies, and specialty cakes they made.  But you can catch them at Pop Ups around town too. 

Butter Baby Bakery

https://butterbabybakery.com

 

Mama Express Indonesian Street Food

This is my first time trying Mama Express.

They were quite popular and definitely a mom and pop outfit.

That was the day's menu. 

And Mama systematically grill each of the satay (aka skewer) of chicken.

I'm not going to lie, I saw the cute basket, I went and line up.  They do give you very generous portions.  They give you 5 skewers of chicken meat, rice, and fresh veggies, but what I love most is their peanut sauce, it literally was the smell that brings childhood memory, though I was lucky enough to eat Indonesian food once a month growing up.  Can't complain, for what they charge, the portion is good enough to fill you up.  So bring a friend to share.  

Mama Express

https://mama-express.square.site

 

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery part 2

The other Brian's Pop-Up was for Lunar New Year.

I missed the pre-order so had to line up early.

 I got the lovely Thai-Tea-ramisu - one of my favs.  The texture and flavor is awesome, love, love, love. 

This is the Vietnamese Coffee, it's a good flavor but my favorite is still the Thai Tea.

This is a Pandarizpan - it's a mix of Pandan and Marzipan.  I'm not usually a fan of marzipan, but this combo with the Pandan works.  It has good thicc cookie texture, moist and a hint of almond paste.  Typically bakers mix pandan and coconut, so a mix with almond is a new one for me.

This is Toasted Black Sesame Miso Caramel.  First bite you know what this reminds me of?  A dim sum dessert.  When you warm it up for 15 seconds in the microwave, it really does taste like the sesame and sweet mix.

This one is Thai Tea - not as good as the tiramisu, have I told you how much I liked their Tea-ramisu?

This is the Red Bean - I warmed it up but it got too mushy, so it's not as good as I'd hope it'd be.

This is the Citrus Five Spice - you really can taste the citrus. The spices aren't too strong, but it does bring all the flavors together nicely.  I'd get this one again.

Make sure you follow him on Instagram, that's where he announce his next pop up or new flavors.

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery

https://www.instagram.com/briansbitchinbakeryofficial/?hl=en

 

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery - part 1

So this is a late post, but that's because the another post is backing up, so have to backtrack some.

Been following Brian's Bitchin' Bakery on IG for some time.  Just couldn't make it to the market where he's at or the timing is not right for me.  I did pre-order once but never caught him at a pop-up.

That's Brian, over there.  He's a vet tech by day and baker by night.

The left one is Vietnamese Coffee Tiramisu, the right one is Thai Tea-ramisu.  I love both because I love Vietnamese coffee & Thai Tea, but the texture of cream and lady finger ratio is right, it's not dry.  Totally my jam.

This is the Matcha White Chocolate tiramisu - by the way, the portion is very generous.

Let's get to the cookies.  This is Matcha Macademia.  I'm a huge fan of macadamia nut cookies to begin with, having a bit of matcha.

This is the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookie.  It has a scorched marshmallow on top.  Delivering the ooey gooey needed.  Take the hint they tell you, heat it up for 10-15 seconds in the microwave, you won't be sorry.

Brown Sugar Boba - out of all of them I have the most hope and yet did not deliver.  It was totally needed to be heated up - since the cookies are thicc you'll have to heat it about 15-20 seconds.  You need to, because boba hardens as it dries. 

I will say, one thing Brian does great is the flavors that he comes up with.  It challenges what other flavors that people like in other dessert and texture and put it in either cookie or tiramisu.  What is hard too is that they have a good consistency for the tiramisu that some fancy restaurant didn't care to master, Brian did.  I'll come back for his cookies and tiramisu any day.

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery

https://www.instagram.com/briansbitchinbakeryofficial  

 

Sugar Bubs

Walking by a market and saw Sugar Bubs.

According to the guy (aka boyfriend of the owner), Sugar because it's dessert, and Bubs is the name of her dog. 

Look at that pretty packaging.  All done by a guy, and he was instructed to package it in a very specific manner.  I got a box of 4 minis and picked the following flavors.

Green tea flavor.  I like that it's not too rich like a regular cheese cake and the flavor came thru nicely.

I got the Hot Cocoa one - definitely very chocolatey.

This is Earl Grey Lavender, nice and light, and really makes me want to have a cup of tea to go with this.  Which I will say, typically, I'd like to have coffee to go with cheesecake in general.

And last but not least, the original.  Nice and clean flavors and delicious.  I'm definitely going to follow them and see what other flavors they have.  I have not yet tried the Biscoff Caramel but that sounded good. 

I think as is, you can order from their website.  If not, I've been seeing them in different farmers or maker markets on the weekend and worth a follow.

Sugar Bubs - Basque Cheesecake

https://www.sugarbubshtx.com