Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I tried this recipe, mostly to use up some leftover cream cheese. Alas, I wasn't impressed.

Weekend trip to Tainan, Taiwan

Over the long National Day holiday weekend, we traveled to Tainan to attend a wedding. Given the holiday weekend, we were thankful to have found a hotel room at a good price the week before through Hotels.com.

We stayed at the Young Soarlan Boutique Hotel, which was perfectly adequate for one night. There was a refrigerator (handy for refrigerating the snacks we had brought down in a cooler), four bottles of water, an electric tea kettle, plenty of space for our carry-on luggage, flat-screen television, and desk. The bedding and towels, and the bathroom, seemed to be bleach-white clean. The air conditioning was much appreciated, as the wedding had been held outdoors bando-style in unusually warm weather.

At breakfast the next day, there was a small buffet of mostly Taiwanese-style breakfast offerings: rice porridge with sweet potato and typical porridge toppings, steamed rice, stir-fried noodles, various tofu and vegetable dishes, chicken nuggets, and steamed egg. There was also toast and steamed buns available. The only beverages on offer were coffee and tea.

My only two quibbles about the hotel were minor: the bed was firmer than I'd like (though this is generally true of Taiwan, and even the Shangri-la in Taipei is not immune to this problem), and that when we arrived to breakfast, there was a shortage of plates. I constantly had to ask the server for dishware, which he promptly refilled. To be fair, we had arrived towards the end of breakfast service.

As a side note, I must mention how much I like Hotels.com, for several reasons:

• Finding rooms in relation to a specific part of town, such a certain district or landmark, is easy;
• The booking process is quick and streamlined, and customer service has been great when we've had to use them;
• Their Rewards program is awesome, with basically a 10% return, as they have a 1 night free for every 10 completed nights booked through them;
• You can stack their Rewards program savings by going through a shopping portal, such TopCashback, which is currently running a 5% return on completed stays. I've used TopCashback for a few years now, and have been pleased with how well it works;
• You can stack further savings on top of that by using a credit card that rewards travel spending;
• Since it's an hotel room aggregator, you're not tied to a specific chain. While room upgrades and lounge access at a preferred hotel chain are nice, it's also nice getting a return on travel spending when that isn't an option.

Later, we caught up with friends at the 新化體育公園, which was a lovely park with lots of trees shading the playground area. Our friends told us that the park is rarely crowded. There's a public pool at the park, and while we did not swim, we took a peek. The pool is much more appealing than pictured, as in person it seems very spacious with a lot of natural light.

Lunch was nearby at Pa Pa Yummy, a delightful pizzeria with a comfortable, light-filled setting. The salad was ok, more Taiwanese-style, but we enjoyed the pizzas which seemed to utilize fresh, not canned, ingredients, such as the thinly-sliced pineapple on the Hawai'ian pizza.

The kids enjoyed the presentation of the freshly baked pita bread.

My favorite pizza was the most unusual one on offer, featuring honey, ricotta, and apples.

When we left, we bought a whole-wheat boule loaf with longan, which was a good reminder of the trip. Just across the street from Pa Pa Yummy and a few storefronts down is 筱庭杏仁豆腐冰, which is a wonderful shaved ice and almond tofu place. I highly recommend the almond tofu, which has the silkiest texture I've ever had for almond tofu, which can be served atop shaved ice. Delightful.

Overall, we had a great trip, even though the traffic on our drive back to Taipei was awful. 

Young Soarlan Boutique Hotel, 揚悅精緻大飯店- 台南館
No.487 Section 2, Jiankang Road, South District, Tainan, Taiwan
70249台南市南區健康路二段487號
+886-6-264-0999

Pa Pa Yummy 柴燒美食基地
台南市新化區武安里中正路301之3號
+886-6-590-3595

筱庭杏仁豆腐冰
台南市新化區中正路328號
+886-6-580-0972

Blueberry-Peach Crisp

We had picked a lot of blueberries on trip to Michigan that were unfortunately not that sweet for eating out of hand, so I combined them with home-grown peaches to make a crumble-crisp.

The recipe I followed was a mashup of this for the fruit and this for the topping. Blueberries and diced peaches were tossed with about 3 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch for roughly 4 cups of blueberries and 1 cup of diced peaches. I also squeezed half a lemon and added about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest. The topping was comprised of rolled oats, almond flour, coconut oil, honey, 2 dashes of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. When I ran out of almond flour, I substituted wheat germ. Overall, family members liked the crumble, as it wasn't too sweet.

Shop Review: Lunada Bay Market

Lunada Bay is a beautiful neighborhood in Palos Verdes Estates, California. There are a limited number of commercial centers on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and probably one of the most charming ones is the Lunada Bay Plaza, which has a little coffeeshop, a few restaurants, and small businesses. In the summer, the Lunada Bay Homeowners' Association sponsors a summer concert series - I went to one concert last year and it was a lot of fun, with a beautiful green lawn, children dancing to music, and a few booths set up featuring some community organizations. 

Recently opened, the Lunada Bay Market is a small market with a selection of natural, organic, and high-end grocery items, beautiful produce, seafood, and meats, wine, and a deli counter offering a few salads, a handful of sandwiches, and smoothies. I ordered their tuna beet sandwich, which was comprised of tuna salad mix, diced beets, greens, radish, tomatoes, and cucumber on an oat french roll. The sandwich was tasty, and I like the idea of adding beets to tuna salad. Maybe Miss Nomad Foodie will be more inclined to try some foods if they are (naturally) colored pink?

tuna beet sandwich from Lunada Bay Market

In any case, it's a charming grocery store - bright and clean, and catering to the affluence of the surrounding area - and certainly a good option if you want something less corporate and with a more neighborly feel than the Trader Joe's up the street at the Golden Cove Plaza. All of the staff members I met were uniformly friendly and attentive.

2201 Palos Verdes Drive West, Palos Verdes Estates - 310-377-2025

Places I'd like to see in Columbus, Ohio

We just finished a short stay in Columbus, Ohio. On a future visit, I'd like to see:

• the Scioto Mile
• the Topiary Park, especially since Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is my favorite piece at the Art Institute
• actually seeing the roses at the Columbus Park of Roses (we didn't get beyond the playground before it started raining)

I'd also like to return to the Columbus Zoo, which was really well done - definitely up there among the zoos that I've visited. I want to spend more time in the Heart of Africa section.

Trader Joe's Avocado Citrus Greek Whole Milk Yogurt

I found this a little intimidating, since I associate avocado with savory guacamole, but this was quite good - a very creamy, tart yogurt with a citrus aroma. I'd get it again!

Coconut Quinoa Banana Muffins

I tried this recipe from Coffee & Quinoa as I've been looking for ways to use up quinoa in baked goods, and I had some overripe bananas. While the flavor was good, unfortunately the muffins (I baked muffins instead of a loaf to save time) were very dense. I think this is so because the recipe calls for baking soda, and I don't see an acid amongst the ingredients to activate the baking soda. I think I'll work on modifying Smitten Kitchen's Crackly Banana Bread instead, which I've baked before and is quite good.