papillon cafe

i've blogged about my love for diddy riese - westwood's incredible ice cream sandwich shop - so i was really excited when irena's daily rundown of things to do in pasadena mentioned that there was a new ice cream sandwich shop moving in to town with the same prices and system that diddy reise employs.

papillon is located across the street from pasadena city college.  their facebook page shows different open hours than the yelp page, so i called over to find out that the shop is open an hour later than either of those earlier sources suggested.

i loved what i got - double chocolate cookies with mint chip ice cream - but i gotta say, the portion was quite a bit smaller than what you find in westwood.  this is a decent alternative (especially when you consider knocking off the drive to ucla).

cool haus ice cream truck

this is old news - especially if you are facebook friends with me.  last week the cool haus ice cream truck was in pasadena and i attempted the skyscraper challenge.

i'm happy to say that i accomplished my goal, and really enjoyed myself.  five scoops of ice cream and six cookies filled me up pretty nicely, and i'm happy to say that i was able to enjoy the rest of my evening without too much pain.

super spread

while i'll admit, this year was a pretty entertaining football game, the thing i usually look the most forward to at a super bowl party is the food.  this year our spread included chris' chicken wings (just like last year), assorted veggies, this amazing antipasto squares from the noble pig, a giant bowl of guacamole, an amazing salad, artichoke dip, and homemade cookies for dessert.

mmmm.

out of treats?

look closely at that sign in the window.  on halloween night, stores in old town pasadena offer treats to youngsters dressed up for the occasion.  when they are out of treats, they place this disappointing sign in the window.

but - take a closer look at the image.  that store is FILLED with treats.  okay, so maybe they ran out of bite sized snickers, but so what?  they should have started handing out the other incredible chocolaty treats they have on hand!

in all fairness, temptations wasn't the only store who ran dry well before the 9pm trick-or-treat end time (poor kids), but their store front just seemed too ironic to not snap off a photo to share.

the l.a. county fair

i grew up knowing that when fall rolled around it meant two things - my birthday, and fall fair season.  we lived close to a few, but the markham fair was the pinnacle for me.  so it was with great anticipation that i ventured with some friends to the l.a. county fair.

i'm not sure what i was expecting, but what i found was different than any fair i've ever been to.   most fairs i've been to involve three elements - judging competitions (for food (where i was able to find blogger stan's (of stans obligatory blog) award winning cookies), arts, and farm animals), carnival midway (with rides and food), and entertainment events (concerts, demolition derby, tractor pull, etc).  this fair had them all, but they were kind of different.  what i began to notice is that the rural farm influence just isn't as strong at the l.a. fair.  where the fairs i grew up going to would have building after building of show-quality animals, there was just one area that included a few cows, some pigs, and a few other random things.  all of the food and crafts were in one building, and i certainly did not see any signs of a tractor pull on the schedule.

what we did find were several massive buildings containing novelty items and "as seen on tv" stuff for sale.  there was a massive toyota showcase, and a few strange additions like a pirate play area and a large tent where hot tubs and jacuzzis were for sale.

the food was pricey, but it did meet my carnival expectations, and in some cases the size of the portions were bordering on ridiculous (as you can see from the footlong sub claiming to be a sausage sandwich, and the ridiculous krispy kreme chicken sandwich featured on the gastronomer's blog).

never-the-less, we did have a great time.  an experience that differs from your expectations is not always a bad thing!  if you want to see some more photos, jt over at daily photo l.a. has been posting all week.

have you been to diddy riese?

tucked away in ucla's westwood neighborhood, diddy riese is a sweet tooth's best friend. choose your favorite freshly baked cookie, your flavor of ice cream, and for $1.50 they will build a custom made ice cream sandwich. we feel that this is an essential stop when we show visiting friends and family around la county. i recommend the double chocolate walnut cookies with peanut butter ice cream. mmm....