Kat's 9 Lives

Ever since my first trip to Paris eons ago, I've been going to Cafe Angelina for their famous African hot chocolate served with Chantilly cream.  They offer a wide variety of French pastries and typical cafe items. On my first trip I bought their famous African chocolate shavings to bring back and make my own hot chocolate.  Sadly it wasn't nearly as good because I'm sure they slow churn the chocolate at the cafe to give that velvety thick texture. When you make it at home it is so watery.  Now they actually sell the chocolate drink in a bottle.  I've bought some but haven't had a chance to drink them yet.  The consistency looks more like what's served at the cafe.  

Ms. Lin Guide needed to find a place with wi-fi nearby and Royal Tea for the bill.  The staff seemed friendly.  They offer a happy hour after 6 pm but we were too early.  I wanted to utilize the deal as they offer my favorite salted cheese.  Ms. Lin Guide did get a drink and it was just so-so.  Even though we were there long enough to reach happy hour, I did not buy a drink.

Looking for some tea with real fruits?  Elephant Tea offers a variety of teas to choose from.  Their signature Elephant fruit tea is a passion fruit tea filled with fresh fruits.  When I say 'filled', I really mean filled! Lol if you take out just one slice of the watermelon, the amount of tea goes down by 20% and they have two slices in there.  The funniest part was that they even put a baby tomato inside.  Ms. Lin Guide and I were a little befuddled but had a good laugh.

As I mentioned before, I'm very into drinks that come in cool bottles! Even though I was on crutches, I still made my way to Icy Cream Roll because of their fun drinks.  They were very busy at night so I went again in the day time and it was a much shorter wait.

On our most recent short trip to Vegas, I wanted to take the time to check out the M&M and Coca Cola store.  It's been so long since I've visited the M&M store and I had find memories of the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta.  Both stores were designed purely for fun and shopping. So if you like the respective brands and products then you will love it.

Roasting Water has been one of my favorite new go to milk tea places because of their awesomely cute/beautiful bottles! It's become one of my hobbies to get my drinks with the special glass and many places have started this trend.  The best thing about Roasting Water is that all their drinks come in their bottles.  There's no extra charge and the prices are very reasonable.

This is my first time back to Taiwan since I was 5 years old and I was super excited at all the possibilities! Needless to say I brought empty suitcases and filled them up to the brim before coming back! lol One of the places that I was most excited to visit was 7 Eleven as I heard it was completely different from what the US offered. There is literally one of these or another chain that is 24/7 every block or half block in Taipei, Taiwan.
I was happy to find out that there was one DIRECTLY across from my hotel and needless to say I was there every day at least once or more. The one thing that I was looking forward to the most was getting my fill on Yakult! I HATE that the US charges a ridiculous CRV on those tiny @$$ bottles, which cannot be recycled! I would be okay with the charge if you could actually recycle it. In Taiwan, there is no such thing as CRV and the drink is so cheap. It's only 8 NT and it was worth it! I probably drank over 30 of those suckers in the short week I was there lol.
The 7 Eleven also offers a variety of prepared foods and what I loved was the onigiris! Cheap and tasty. They are offered as combo meals too, but I didn't quite like the drinks so I just started buying them individually. The onigiris run about 25 NT, which is less than $1! Oh how I already miss Taiwan! lol My favorite flavor was the wasabi salmon.
Each store may offer a slightly different choice. Some offered tea eggs or odens, which was nice. You can purchase a wide variety of snacks and drinks. There are some great instant noodles that you can buy and immediately add hot water to and eat on the spot.
The fun part is you are 'rewarded' for shopping there. They have monthly programs of special items that you can purchase at a discount price once you collect enough stickers. Somehow in the short time we were there, we collected enough stickers and ended up trading it in 4 times to collect the item. Of course all the desirable items like the cute blanket and footwarmer were sold out everywhere, but we still chose something fun. Be sure to check out the 7 Elevens if you've never been to Taiwan. I already miss them! =9
7 Eleven
Lane 107, Linsen N Rd, Zhongshan District 
Taipei City, Taiwan 104

Many people have been anticipating the Hello Kitty Cafe opening at Irvine Spectrum.  It's literally just a container with a few tables and some sweet treats plus drinks.  Beware : They tend to run out of items quite quickly and the lines can be long.  I even went about 1 hr after they opened and a bunch of items were already out.  My pal really wanted the Birthday Cake and it was sold out.  I wanted the Macarons and of course they were gone too.

The photos for Zero Degrees really caught my eyes.  Since Ms. Lin Guide and I was in Rowland Heights for a meal, I had to stop by.  The craze now is to have glass bottles to take home and to reuse if you like.  Recently I bought my own cold press/slow juicer, these bottles really come in handy at home when I am juicing watermelons.  The only gimmick is that the glass bottles hold less liquid compared to their plastic cups, which I thought was a jip for the price you pay...
Hence I bought one bottle and one plastic cup O=D.  One souvenir bottle for each was enough.  They offer a very small menu to choose from with some interesting concoctions.  I decided to try the Matchata (Matcha + Horchata) and Strawberry Mojito.  Don't worry there's no alcohol and for those who wish they served alcohol, sorry!
The Matchata was interesting in taste as you can taste the matcha powder with a strong sweet horchata flavor fighting to be the strongest flavor.  If you like sweet milky drinks, then this is the drink for you.
I had high hopes for the Strawberry Mojito ever since TP's wedding.  The one at Zero Degrees was a little too sour and underflavored for my taste.  I want the strawberry flavor to really pop with the mint.  Their versions was really soda watery and sour... pass!

The best reason to go is to take the beautiful photos! I really loved the wings painted on the wall but it was really hard to take photos because there isn't much space between tables and the wall.  The place was packed and I didn't want to invade other people's space to take my photos.  Hopefully, you, can still enjoy the ones I took.  =D Cheers!

Zero Degrees
17575 Colima Rd
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 810-1714

Currently my favorite drink is their Orange Passionfruit Green Tea where they use real fresh squeezed orange juice that adds a nice refreshing flavor to the drink.  The Watermelon Slush is made with fresh watermelon and is very refreshing after hot pot or on a hot day.  I tried some of their other concoctions that were a little off for my taste, but interesting combos.  They have a Grapefruit Rose Green Tea and Lala Land Slush, which consists of guava and strawberry slush.  Each drink contains some fresh fruits.  The flavor combos were a little off for me but definitely points for creation! So if you like good tea drinks and are willing to pay the price, I'd definitely come here.  They also offer free wi-fi and have very friendly service.

Tea Bar Metro
18174 Pioneer Blvd 
Artesia, CA 90701 
(562) 865-0888

Inside the Mitsuwa in Torrance they have a few stands to check out before or after you shop or if you are stopping by for a quick snack.  They have a huge seating area for customers.  Yamamotoyama is a popular place that people like to stop by and grab a drink.
The prices are very reasonable.  If you buy the normal green tea it is only $1.50, which is a pretty good steal as most tea places have quite an up-charge.  There is a price difference if you want the drink sweeter, which is also reflected in the teas that you can buy to make at home.  Ms. Lin Guide decided to get their normal iced green tea, which was light and refreshing.  Of course I wanted the extra sweet iced green tea, which was slight more expensive but a little too sweet for even my taste.  The normal iced green tea is sweet enough, so word to the wise.  =)
I wished the Mitsuwa in Costa Mesa or in Irvine had this stand as the prices are very reasonable and a great drink to pick up for on the go or to enjoy with your meal.  So if you are in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by! There's lots of good food in the area, especially if you like izakayas.

Yamamotoyama
Mitsuwa
21515 Western Avenue
Torrance, CA 90501

What else could one need but a beautifully designed cup of cappuccino?  Gourmet Pigs mentioned that Ogawa Cafe was a great place to try in Boston and I saw some cute photos online.  Not quite as cute as Love To Go in Los Angeles.  Although I do enjoy the cute coincidence that they are on Milk Street, which seemed very fitting.

This is my first time in Massachusetts and we took a trip to the Berkshires.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast inn for the night.  On our way back to Boston, Gourmet Pigs wanted to visit a local distillery and they recommended Rubi's Coffee & Sandwiches. Be sure to keep an eye out for this location as it is tucked away behind their market.  It can easily be missed, so if you can find their market then they can direct you to the right place.
The Grilled Cheese with comte grilled on pullman was nicely grilled on the outside but lacked a little oomph for me.  I like stronger cheeses and taste.  The comte they used was very light and subtle that is almost drowned out by the bread.  This was definitely too bland for me.  They should consider adding another stronger cheese to add flavor or a more aged comte.
We decided to share two sandwiches.  I wish I looked closely at the other board that had a grilled cheese with beef.  For the other sandwich we chose the Alpine with alpine cheese, cornichons, and dijon mustard on pullman.  This grilled cheese sandwich was much more flavorful and very tangy.  The cornichons added a nice crunch and made me shiver a little from the sourness.  I thought this sandwich was much better but I am not sure if it was really worth the price difference.  The regular sandwich was $5.50 and this one was $9.50.  It's definitely not that much better to be double the price.  Honestly, I would just buy all the ingredients from their adjacent market and make it myself as it would be much cheesier and tastier.
They offer a wide variety of baked goods that looked very tempting.  The cookies were nice and plump for about $2.50 each.  I thought the cookies were not bad but I like the inside to be a bit more soft and chewy on the outside.  This could also be that we ate it the next day since we were filling up on goodies all the way back to Boston.  I think I was also spoiled by the cookie I had at Ame's Street Deli in Boston.
I got the corn muffin as well because I was craving corn bread.  To be honest... I haven't even eaten it yet because I bought so many goodies from Boston! lol  It looked tasty.
As a picker upper, we both tried their fresh brewed coffee.  I decided to have the macchiato for that extra punch.  The coffee was strong but be warned about adding too much sugar.  I overestimated how many spoons and made my drink super sweet.  Luckily Gourmet Pigs had coffee and we ended up trying to blend the two drinks to even out the sweetness.  =D
All in all it was a cute place and I am glad we got to try it.  As for price point, I guess it isn't surprising for a tourist area.  Personally I like their store much better and would definitely shop there!

Rubi's Coffee & Sandwiches
256 Main St,
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(413) 528-0488

 I decided to stop by Taza for a drink.  They specialize using stone ground chocolates.  We later actually went to the factory for a tour, which will be a later post ^_-.