italy part 5: food fotos

So part of going to Italy is eating great food. Another part of going to Italy is walking around a lot and seeing really good food in shop windows. So here is a pictorial review of some of the food I ate and/or saw looking yummy in a window.

Shockingly (because I am not a big sweets person), most of these are desserts. And sorry, but I just realized I didn't take one single pizza pic. Oh well...

Pasta Toscana from La Divina Osteria in Florence

Desserts in the Caffe Alinari window in Florence

A cannoli close-up

A candy store in Florence.

Strawberry gelato - Black Bar, Florence

Mint chip gelato - Black Bar, Florence

The lunch that caused a bazillion traffic tickets.
Proscuitto, artichokes & oil - La Bottegaia, Pistoia 

Italian Creme Brulee' (minus the brulee') - Hotel Malibran, Venice

Pure sugar art! A Venice cafe window.

"Cioccolata calda con panna" and a cookie - Venice

A cafe latte with pretty chocolate design -  Hotel Malibran, Venice

Lemon torte - Hotel Malibran, Venice 

cotton candy + cupcake = mmm

I love cupcakes. I shouldn't (they're not exactly health food), but I do. A few friends of mine and I even started a club (called "Club Cupcake"... duh!) and always celebrate our birthdays and Christmas with cupcakes. We take our favorite flavors from our fave cupcake meccas to restaurants for dessert and then make the wait staff bring us plates to display them on before we dig in. (Yes, we're "those people" ;)

Anyhoo, long ago, I decided to start a list of my favorite cupcake places in LA on Yelp, via the reviews I'd write. I got as far as writing a review for my #1 fave place, Martino's in Burbank. The reason I haven't gotten any farther is because I'm having a hard time deciding on my #2 fave cupcake in LA. You'd probably be surprised to know Sprinkles is not even in the running. I hate those. The cake is dry and the frosting is too sweet. Nope, my #2 and #3 is a toss-up between Big Sugar Bakeshop in Studio City, and Crumbs Bake Shop in Larchmont. 

I haven't had Crumbs in a while, so Saturday night after going to Village Pizzeria, we headed into Crumbs. I bought a blueberry muffin for my Sunday pre-LA Kings game #4 breakfast, and then sat there trying to decide on which cupcake I wanted. 

They had vanilla with chocolate and sprinkles, which is my classic, go-to cupcake. 

They also had something that looked like mint chocolate chip ice cream frozen in time on top of a cupcake. (The website calls it the "Grasshopper.")

But in the end, I went with the Cotton Candy cupcake cuz it looked so pretty :)

I was a little scared when one of my friends asked what was in it after mine was already wrapped up and the Crumbs dude said cream cheese frosting (I HATE cream cheese). But luckily, all the sugar and pink food coloring masked those potentially ill tasting chalky cream cheese effects. I have to say this is one of the most yummy cupcakes I've ever had... great moist cake, sweet (but not too sweet), soft frosting and sprinkles! And the thing about Crumbs that might give it the edge over Big Sugar is their cupcakes are super-sized, which doesn't help in the diet department, but does make it worth the $3-$4 they cost.  

PS: The blueberry muffin was also delish. Super moist with juicy blueberries :)