Starting 2022 Off Like a Celebrity ... In My Head

 

January 1, 2022, my dream came true. My years of studying pizza, my loss in the Lit Pick My POM contest, all of it was redeemed. My Jalapeno Popper Pizza was named the January pizza of the month!

It's no secret to my family and friends that if I could find a job that allowed me to eat pizza all day, I would quit my current one without a thought. My boss is also very aware of this and smugly seems to think he has nothing to worry about. He's probably right, but my dream still lives on. 

When I saw Lit's post on Instagram with this breaking news as I was travelling back home from Kentucky, I knew I had to get one ASAP. But the next day, I was tired after heading in to work on almost no sleep because my flight didn't get until 11pm the night before (not counting me waiting for my luggage and driving home) and then Monday I felt miserable and ended up testing positive for Covid. 

It seemed the universe was destined to keep me from obnoxiously basking in my 15 minutes of fame. So instead, I would just pull up the website and pretend like I was going to order ... just to see this: 

I also told all of my friends and family and only the loyal ones seemed to be excited for me. I may have also begged them all to go order this pizza to make it the most successful POM to date, because my ego needs some stroking from that third place finish. 

The day I was released from my Covid isolation, I grabbed my mask and went straight to the Lit Burbank location, as it is the closest one to me. I was excited and nervous. My smell and taste were still a little messed up, but I HAVE to get my pizza at least once a week because nobody hypes me up like me. People thought it was weird that I was taking a picture of the sign, but seeing this on the door made me giddy...like actually giddy. 

Isn't it a beauty? It took all I had to not to say "I'd like to order the pizza of the month ... THAT I CREATED" but humility is a virtue, I think. But I know people don't like when people flaunt their success, so I just humbly ordered this and added fresh mozzarella. 

I wish I could say it was just as good as I remembered it, but with my taste being not quite back, all I could taste was the heat on the jalapenos. That was a welcome taste to the nothingness I had been tasting when I would eat food! 

I plan to go at least 2 more times before the month is over because now that I can taste again, I want to fully enjoy my 15 minutes of fame before they expire and some other person has the joy of saying they created the POM ... even if it's an employee of Lit. Those people are awesome. 

You've got a week left, so what are you waiting for? Go get my POM and help make it the best selling one they've ever had! Or at least make me feel like it isn't a total flop. 

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Saturday Market Finds

 

One of my favorite things to do for self care is to go to markets (farmers markets, maker markets, art markets, etc) by myself. One time I went with my dad and kiddo and it was a race to look for the few items we "needed" and then there wasn't really wiggle room for looking around. Papa Hungry doesn't mess around, get what you came for and leave! This is why I prefer to go by myself. Yes, I will more than likely spend too much money when I do go, but I will have a lot of fun doing it. 😂

Here's some of the venders and the fun things I sampled today as I bought my way through the Market at the Oasis: 

Heart of Bohemia: The owner was born in the Czech Republic and brings a variety of items to the market from his store. (Check out some of the awesome stuff they have here!)The thing I was most excited about were his kolaches. They also serve hot dogs on a Czech bread, which may have to be sampled next time. This time I did a savory breakfast kolache and a sweet cream cheese kolache. 

I ate the breakfast kolache while I shopped. It was an amazing dough (I seriously would love the recipe) topped with eggs, bacon and a drizzle of honey. I brought the cream cheese home for my mom (but I did sample it at the market!) and it had a sweeter dough, was loaded with cream cheese and topped with something delicious and crunchy. 

He has a wide variety of flavors for kolaches, so I have plenty more to sample my way through. 

Mimi's Sweet Creations: Her instagram is @mimilovelemons so you know I had to find her! I kept it light because I knew there were a few other food spots I wanted to look into, so I just got a lemon bar and the cinnamon roll cake. 

The lemon bar is SO GOOD! I haven't been able to eat it all yet because it is VERY lemon-y. I think the amount of powdered sugar on this bar is fine, but of course Momma Hungry thinks there should be more. (I promise, that woman could eat a bowl of powdered sugar straight, so I'm not sure if any amount is really enough for her.) 

Papa Hungry had no complaints on the cinnamon roll cake, and I will admit it looked much better before I dropped it. 😔

King Tremaine Premium Candies: This was a big reason for the visit today. Momma Hungry loves pralines and I've seen these popping up at different places and saw they would be at the Oasis and knew I had to snag her some. 

Y'all, how cute is this praline?! I didn't realize they were in the shape of hearts! While I stuck with the traditional flavored praline, King Tremaine also has a variety of flavors to choose from, including coconut and mocha. Check them out here and snag you some of your own. 

Casian Cuisine: Casian Cuisine was started by a pair of Filipina sisters who started cooking traditional Filipino food, but found it difficult to get the seasonings normally used in Filipino cooking. So they put their own twist on it and began using cajun seasonings to pair with traditional Filipino food. 

I decided to try the lumpia. It was delicious! Very similar to an egg roll with chicken. The sweet chili sauce they served with it was the perfect compliment. When I was talking to my best friend about my market finds, I mentioned this to her and couldn't remember the name, but since she is Filipina she knew right away what I was talking about and told me that lumpia in any form is delicious, so I made the best choice. 

Casian Cuisine is based out of Opelousas, and they do the market circuit. Be sure to follow them on Facebook so you can head out to where they are to sample some of their amazing flavors. 

Once I started diving into my delightful market finds, I realized I needed something to wash them down with. Since I had not had coffee prior to this visit, I swung by the CC's close by to pick up a MochaChip Mochasippi. I have not had one of this in well over 10 years, and it was just as much an espresso milkshake as I remembered...which with how hot it was today, was exactly what I needed.

Have you been to the Market at the Oasis? If so, who are some of your favorite vendors? What other local markets do I need to begin checking out?

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Time to Partea

 

So for Pokemon Go Fest, kiddo I went adventuring around town and landed at a place that has been on our list to try for a while, Boba Partea. 

 

It's taken us so long to try this place because I do not like tea of any sort. However, after seeing some of their pastries on Instagram, I figured I could at least get a one of the strawberry shortcakes that look delicious. 

First impression was that this was one of the cutest places I've been to. They have an outside patio area that has wooden furniture and a cute little photo booth. Honestly, I felt like I was maybe dining at a fairy's house...don't judge me. Inside there was tons of art and it was a little overwhelming because I kept noticing cute little boba art that I missed looking at certain spots earlier. 

     

As far as the menu goes, instead of getting a cake, I got something better. The strawberry sweetheart smoothie, which tastes like a strawberry shortcake in liquid form. Kiddo got peach tea with cherry boba. We didn't get a strawberry shortcake, so obviously we have to go back 😉

Kiddo has already requested to go back, and since we didn't get any pastries, I think it's definitely something we need to do! Maybe we'll go this weekend when we're out and about for Pokemon Go Community Day! Or maybe our travels will lead us to discover another fun new to us gem. But before we left on this visit... of course we had to make sure we got in a little photo shoot!

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Baton Rouge Donut Trail - Part 4

 

The final two stops on the Donut Trail took us on a bit of a drive to Gonzales. It was a commitment as that was a significant round trip drive there and back to my house, so I had to try all donuts in the car before leaving. 

Daily Donut: This was the last stop for me on the tour. What I didn't realize going into this trip was that Daily Donut was a drive thru only. This put me at a disadvantage because I knew order panic was going to hit since I didn't have time to look around and make my selections. Also, you don't see a menu until you get up to the window to order, so I panicked as there was a line behind me. 

 

As I mentioned before, I reward myself for making the effort to bring back donuts for the family with donut holes to eat on the drive back. The first thing I noticed was that they had glazed donut holes, chocolate covered donut holes, and chocolate covered with sprinkles so obviously I went with the latter. I panicked and just did a half dozen glazed and a half dozen chocolate covered. 

While I was waiting for my order to be ready, I did get a chance to look at the menu. It was small, but had all of the standards that you come to expect from a donut place (cake donuts, jelly filled, cinnamon rolls, eclairs, kolaches, etc). 

For me, the donuts were a little more dense than I like. I'm also not a big fan of donuts that are glazed and then covered in chocolate. Did I like the donuts? Yes. Would I drive to Gonzales again just to get them? Probably not. 

Amazing Glaze: The reason that I've saved Amazing Glaze for last is because this was, by far, my favorite place on the list. (With Mikey's being a close second) We were overwhelmed by all of our options, and noticed some items that were unique compared to the other places on the list. 

Our assortment was pretty varied. We went with a regular donut with fun icing, a cinnamon roll that was huge, a berry Chantilly (that has some surprise berries inside!), a kolache who's name I can't remember but it had sausage, cream cheese and jalapenos, and a strawberry cream cheese filled donut. 

This one was our favorite mainly because of the large variety of donuts they had. Taste wise, they were on the lighter side which is my personal preference for donuts. 

While some stops on this list I would 100% go to again, and others that I won't necessarily make a trip just to eat at, I can't say that I had a bad donut at any of them. Some were just not my preference. I would eat any of these donuts if the ended up in my office or my house though. Have you tried any of these places? Are there other donut shops that you think should have made the list? Drop them in the comments!

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Baton Rouge Donut Trail - Part 3

 

We're starting the second half of our Louisiana Donut Trail and today we will discuss the last two stops are that are officially in Baton Rouge. (Our final two stops take us to Gonzales, and we'll check those out next post) 

 

District Donuts: I didn't get a picture of the sign for this one, so pictures of what we got will have to do. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of their donuts. I did try one of their smores donuts and it was good, but as far as just their plain glaze donuts, I'm not really a fan. 

   

While I may not be a huge fan of their donuts, the cinnamon roll and this biscuit, totally here for! The cinnamon roll is crème bruled and the biscuit sandwich with the miso praline bacon and sunny side up egg 😍 I'll have to go back and try them for not breakfast too. 

Thee Heavenly Donut: I've had king cakes from here about 10+ years ago, but had never been for a donut. Kiddo immediately knew what she wanted (a strawberry glazed with sprinkles) and I settled on the banana creme donut, which was essentially banana pudding inside with some crushed vanilla waffers on top. 

  

However, it wasn't until we were already paying that we saw the sign for made to order beignets. 😍 My banana creme and my mom's chocolate covered immediately were relegated to dessert after lunch so we could enjoy an order of these gorgeous beignets. 

Are you a fan of District Donuts? Am I just crazy in thinking their donuts are just ok? Would you drop everything for an order of fresh made beignets? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you next time for the last two stops on this trail, as we venture to Gonzales!

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