Golden Buddha

For our last night in Arizona we tried to go to a famous pizza place called Pizza Bianco, we arrived 30 minutes before they opened and asked the parking attendant how long the wait would be ( no take out) " Three and a half hours!" We said " thanks !" and went to a nice place that served Asian food called Golden Buddha.

First we had pork dumplings that were very nice and were not greasy at all! They were in a sauce that was like plum sauce but with scallions. Then we each had a bowl of soup, mom and I had soup with tofu and spinach. The soup was salty because of the spinach but the tofu made it sweet and soft. My dad had Sharks fin soup ( which he always orders whenever he sees it).

I would NEVER even try that! We all shared Peking Duck and made little tacos like this... first we take a fluffy burrito shell and put duck in it then add veggies, then add sauce and eat. We also had twice-cooked pork, that was really spicy but clean and great. For our next course we had really yummy Yang Chow fried rice ( my favorite) and Flounder. The Flounder was delicious and I liked it for two reasons, it was not fishy at all and it tasted like it had been prepared on the bbq. All in all a great meal ( and we didn't have to wait 3+ hours!).

We then drove to the Scottsdale Plaza, where Santa Claus was granting little chidrens wishes. We passed a Coldstone and since I had never been I tried it. I mixed Oreos with mint ice cream. It was mint-chocolate chip in the extreme! It was very cool to see them being mixed together on a board. I was a good night!

North of California

For winter break my family went to Arizona and Santa Fe. While we were in Arizona our friends who own an art gallery joined us for dinner at NoCa. NoCa stands for North of California and there were many choices on the menu that sounded good.

The chef gave us a special appetizer that was pomegranate seeds with fennel and orange. I personally did not like it because I don't like orange with other things. The Fennel tasted like licorice and it was squishy. The others at the table seemed to really enjoy it. For an appetizer both my mom and Peter ordered a Watermelon Radish Salad! It was very funny to see the radishes on the plate. I didn't try it but my mom rolled her eyes "in a good way" when she did. The rest of us ( me, my dad and Lisa) had Butternut Squash soup that was wonderful and tasted very sweet and creamy. I tasted even better with some Creme Fresh.

For my main course I had pasta that was shaped like flowers with a butter sauce. It was very rich and creamy, I couldn't finish all of the pasta because I felt quite full.

My mother had Veal Scallopini that I really loved because it was sweet and tangy at the same time and the Veal had a very strong taste of mushroom. My dad, Lisa and Peter all had scallops, that sadly, I did not try because I do not like the shape, color or texture of them. Sometimes scallops seem to move in front of me!

I may have been full, but not to full for dessert. We ordered a lemon tart with meringue, that was yummy with a capital Y. The meringue, was hard but when you put it in your mouth it turned soft. Also for dessert, every table automatically gets a big plate full of homemade cotton candy. " You can't brag about fluffy until you try this cotton candy!"

that's all for today!

check out the gallery at www.lisasettegallery.com

Last week my parents took me to a new sushi restaurant called Shu. It was really good and I would like to go there again. I am only going to tell you about the dessert I had. I looked at the dessert menu and saw something that said ‘Banana Spring Rolls’. It sounded more exciting than ice cream. I ordered it and when It came I knew I had made a good choice. Arriving on a plate covered in crisscross chocolate sauce lines, with a perfect scoop of Green Tea ice cream in the center. The ice cream had berries on top and chocolate sauce too. Around the base of the ice cream were four Banana Spring Rolls. A layer of thin crispy pastry was filled with gooey banana on the inside and a layer of powdered sugar on the outside. This of course, was drizzled with chocolate sauce. The Green Tea ice cream was very mellow and not too flavorful, which was sweet and also really cold. The spring rolls themselves were the best “spring rolls” I have ever had. The whole plate was sweet. The banana was a very good banana and not too ripe. The dessert was the best Japanese dessert I have had yet!

Sayonara!